Shortly after the last blog entry, we left for Musana Camps where we spent a very restful week. We returned home via Christmas shopping in Kampala and arrived home to enjoy Christmas Eve and Christmas day complete with a church service and community meal. Today is the last day of 2014 and we are excited for ALL that 2015 has for us. Enjoy a few pictures from the past two or so weeks. Take a photo journey with us to Musana Camps, Christmas activities, a birthday party, the annual deroaching fest, and our New Year's Eve Family breakfast this morning. What a treat!
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| First we have a photo from the final few days before we left for Musana Camps. Geoff was heavily involved with the EYO Youth Camp and is seen here complying with photo scavenger hunt requests from Nabukeera & Toby's group. |
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| One of our favorite sites along the road to Musana--the "veranda truck" as we call it. How it got there or why is the great mystery! |
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| A hike to the waterfall was early on in the week. Toby is happy, happy, happy! |
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| Kevin |
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| Sam |
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| Acacia |
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| The best camp dog EVER, Bambino, takes a much needed rest on the beach after following us EVERYWHERE, ALL THE TIME! |
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| Getting set for one of many canoe rides: Kara Peterson, John (with the Peterson's), Kevin, Sam. The Peterson family, Tim, Kim, Kara, Micah, John and Mwinnie were at the camp the same time we were. |
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| Toby and Acacia |
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| Kara and Acacia's sand castle creation |
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| Some loves for Bambino |
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| Sam, the sand man |
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| Sam in total relaxation mode |
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| Jumping around at the beach |
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| Beautiful Musana sunrise! |
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| Watching the sunrise (Sam slept til after 10 on that day!!!) |
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| This rather long snake came out of the water and jumped completely off the ground before Tim Peterson managed to kill it with one of the canoe oars! |
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| Next up on the agenda was the grand quest for grasshoppers! We all enjoy ensenene as they are called in Luganda, but the kids definitely make it a passion! They spent a couple of hours hunting and then brought back their catch. |
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| The de-legging, de-winging party prior to cooking our yummy snacks! |
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| Acacia displays one of the many she caught. And Sam certainly had a great time getting the grasshoppers ready for frying!!!!! |
When they first go in the pan they squirm a little bit! But then they "settle down" and then we EAT THEM! Yum! Yum! Later that evening I prepared goat in the same pan and I'm SURE the Indian sauce tasted better because it had grasshopper parts included! |
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| Toby and Acacia began the shopping for Christmas at "Shoprite", a South African grocery chain, while I hunted for stocking stuffers next door at "Game" a store chain recently acquired by Walmart. |
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| And the "totally different than any other year" Christmas shopping experience continued at the absolute nicest and newest mall in Kampala. We never used to "Christmas shop" because it meant traffic jams to a shop that probably didn't have anything you wanted to buy anyway. This year it was actually enjoyable! There was even an attempt by mall owners to add to the shopping fun for the little ones. A few characters milled about while the shoppers cooled down in the air conditioning and this duck character provided us with a laugh! He had no idea he'd put his costume on backwards!!!!! |
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| The day before Christmas Eve is "Pork Day" in which, way too many to count, pigs are slaughtered and pieced out in Kiwoko. We took part as Geoff and the kids BBQ'd muchomo (roasted meat) on our outdoor BBQ. Bubbly got the bones and fat and had a difficult time containing her excitement when the delivery was made. |
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| On Christmas eve Crystal the cat and Henrietta the chicken sized each other up. Henrietta survived Crystal, but became the main event at the Christmas meal of Nabukeera and Jajja! |
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| Kevin impatiently watches the "pumpkin luwombo" which Geoff cooked outside for about eight hours on Christmas Eve on our "sagiri" (small charcoal stove). |
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| One of our girls from David Family helped him wrap the luwombo (whole pumpkin in banana leaves) after he had gutted it and stuffed it with tomatoes, irish potatoes, onions and spices. It was the first time we'd eaten such and we will certainly try it again! |
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| Acacia received this gift for her birthday a few weeks ago, but it doesn't seem to be working! A couple of days ago I woke up from a short nap to find no less than 5 different visitors in my living room! And more came after that! |
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| This and the following are more surprise visitors of a different kind! All of these pictures were taken on the SAME DAY on or near our veranda! |
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| Toby, Kevin and Medi, our compound worker, killed this snake that had made a home in our bag of charcoal. |
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| Caterpillars are not cute and cuddly here in Uganda! They sting and burn! |
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| Mating bugs of some sort. These little insects invade for about a month's period and you find them everywhere--always two by two! |
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| Another not so cuddly caterpillar! |
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| Making something a bit more yummy than insects . . . snicker doodles! |
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| And Christmas eve around here isn't complete without a birthday party at either the Muwanguzi or Okoth households! Abraham has a birthday a few days before Christmas and Emma's is on Christmas day. This year the party was at the Okoth's from 4-5 p.m. on Christmas Eve and included Abraham and many other friends! |
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| Christmas morning excitement |
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| Hunting for and handing out the presents |
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| Too much Christmas makes this little kitty a bit tired. Brandy slept like this for about two hours! |
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| Nabukeera and I had too much fun the Saturday after Christmas as we took on the nasty roaches in the kitchen. |
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| We started at 8 a.m. and finished at 6 p.m. and we are SO GLAD it is over for another few months!!!!! |
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| This morning, New Year's Eve morning, we had a special breakfast of Dutch pancakes! Our toppings included Nutella, Peanut Butter, apples, powdered sugar, lemons and whipped cream! The whipped cream was a splurge, but so worth it! |
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| Toby's finished product, stuffed with apples, nutella, lemons and cinnamon, and topped with whipped cream! |
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| You can't have whipped cream ONLY on food! It HAS to be squirted DIRECTLY into the mouth, as lovingly taught to us by Leslie Patterson a few years ago in Texas!!! |
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| Kevin's turn |
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Acacia's turn
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Sam is currently spending a couple of weeks with Nabukeera and Jajja out in Wakayamba. He left the day after Christmas! We miss him and he misses us, so we visited yesterday and found that all is well. Last night was the first time we spent alone as our five member family since leaving America in October 2013! (Other visitors have been with us since Sam left, and tonight and tomorrow more are set to arrive!) Life just never stops spinning here in Kasana at New Hope!
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