Merry Christmas from Uganda!

I can officially announce that rainy season is over. We’ve been back from Rwanda for 4 days now and there hasn’t been a drop of rain. But even more importantly, it’s about 30 degrees! The air temperature has lost its tinge of cool and we’re sleeping with the fan that we just bought blowing on us. It’s going to stay hot now until March when the next rainy season will begin.

This heat makes it a little hard to feel like it’s Christmas, even though the calendar tells us that it is. But Christmas it is and this is what it’s like in Uganda…

We did manage to attend two craft sales. I belong to the Kampala Stitch and Bitch on Facebook (I’ve never actually been to a meeting though) and they have posted all the craft sales on the page. The first one was at Kampala International School and it was huge. There was even an East Indian Santa! We thought it would be an hour event but we were there close to 4 hours with lunch in the middle from a Thai buffet in the food court. Didn’t buy much but it was fun to wander around. I did get a poinsettia, a staple in my Christmas decorations. For the kids who were bored, the school pool was open…

The second craft sale was just on the grounds of a shop that makes great glasses but the vendors were the same as the first one, there were hundreds of mzungu stuffed into a small place, and the prices were high. Just like a craft sale at home! We walked in, bought our glasses that we had forgotten to pick up at the previous sale, and left. I think Apollo was quite relieved!

The stores started adding Christmas stock to their shelves at the end of November but it has really been in the last couple of weeks that more Christmas wares have been available. Even the street vendors who come to the car window to sell toilet paper and electric fly zappers are now carrying Christmas trees of assorted colours.

I asked Bree to bring a couple green tinsel garlands for me to make a tree on our window bars but I needn’t have worried as Corey found a pack at Embassy Supermarket the last week in November that we bought to decorate the school. We have used the green garland and Bree’s to create our tree. The decorations are from Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda and I even got a bit of Rwanda snow that fell off the tree at Iris Hotel and have added that for a much more authentic winter feel.

The stockings are from home and the knit garland around the curtain rod is one we had with us in China as well. Mum sent us a Christmas table runner and place-mats that she made when we were in China so they came too. We have our standard travelling Christmas pack!

My first Christmas card came from the Reception class at school. “Merry Christmas. Miss Erika thank you for giving us books.” I received two other cards from students and the mail has brought others from around the world. It’s been lovely receiving them. Thank you!

Of course, I have my Christmas clothes. Luckily for me, it was a ‘cooler’ day when the school had its end-of-term party so I was able to wear my Christmas shirt. For some strange reason, I also travelled with two pairs of Christmas socks. They are part of our decorations too.

In Canada, Corey and I avoid the mall after November 11th unless we know exactly what we need and it's a run-in-run-out event. The Saturday before Christmas is completely off limits. So why we thought going into town for some last minute items on Saturday the 21st, at 1pm, would be a good idea, is beyond me. Traffic was insane and the mall was packed. We had to park in the delivery bay on the top floor of the parkade! Silly mzungu!

We even went to Shopright on Sunday but that wasn't so bad. Everyone is in church so when we arrived at 10, it was really quiet. We were trying to get our internet fixed and after 1.25 hours, we were no further ahead with wifi but we did have a faster modem stick. We can Skype if you want! There was a brass band playing carols outside the MTN office that was lovely.

The afternoon of the 24^th, my friend Robert who used to be that Art teacher at Kawanda came over to drop off a Christmas cake he had made for us.

It was nice to see Robert because we have been abandoned by Apollo (left) and Edigar, our amazing driver and incredible groundsman. They have both headed to their villages for the week to spend Christmas with their families. The neighbourhood actually seems quieter because many people have moved into their villages. They send money to their relatives to buy chickens and matooke for their family Christmas meals and then they pile into the buses (virus death traps) and travel home.

As an aside... there was frequent playing of very loud Christmas carols from trucks and bicycles. It was like those singing birthday cards, playing the same song over and over.  There was also someone who must have been performing the recorder/pan flute at church who has felt the need to practice every night starting at 10:30. Hopefully the performance went well and his days of recorder playing are now over!




In Canada, we always have a liffy-laffy dinner on Christmas Eve with cold meats, cheese, salmon, salad, bread and crackers. We managed to buy several imported cheeses at exorbitant prices as well as cold meats and tinned asparagus, baby corn and artichoke hearts. We can’t eat raw veggies so the salad was all canned. I tried to find a cucumber to peel but there were none available. Nice bread is really hard to find as well so it was just a cracker meal. Doesn’t matter, the food was excellent.


 In order to try to add a bit of winter to our evening, we also had a snow storm video playing. We thought about getting the fan and trying to make it feel like we were in the cold wind but then decided that it wouldn't make much of a difference.

We found out on the 23^rd that our friends Muhamad, Hanifah and Kuluthum were coming to join us. We had invited mid-November but had been told that they would be in the village. As we were watching a movie, Hanifah texted me to say they were coming and what time should they arrive? It was a multi-cultural event!

Lots and lots of loud church services of course. We would have been surprised if there hadn’t been! Hearing the carols and hymns was quite beautiful but Celine Dion at 6:30 this morning was not so wonderful... The Congolese bar had a party last night too with a live band. Nothing to do with Christmas. There will be lots more parties over the next two nights.

This morning began with gifts, including our traditional chocolate letters that we would normally get on the 24^th but as we had unexpected guests and we didn’t have letters for them, we saved ours for Christmas morning.Santa knows me well and bought me a popcorn maker! Yahoo!

We then changed into our bathing suits, lathered ourselves with sunscreen and went to Cassia Lodge for a Christmas swim.

 

After our swim, we treated ourselves to Christmas lunch at Cassia: cheddar soup, turkey with morels and rice, spice cake and custard (they called it figgy pudding with brandy butter). Not like home but not a bad substitution!

Things I miss: family is number one of course, candy canes, nanaimo bars, snow...
Things Corey misses apart from people: taitai, nuts and bolts, snow...

Now, as you wake up and start to tear open your gifts, we sit back, relax and reflect on the Christmas we have just finished celebrating. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas filled with food, family and fun. And maybe some snow too!

Love,

Erika and Corey (and Bree too!)

PS – Serena Resort had a great Christmas greeting:

Whatever is beautiful

Whatever is meaningful

Whatever brings you happiness

May it fill your home

This holiday season

And throughout the coming year.

Merry Christmas from Simba, the Christmas Dog, too!