Happenings

Photos from some recent fun things....

CHAI retreat.... we had a really good (and fun) overnight retreat in the Mabira rainforest a few weeks ago

Thanksgiving
I hosted a mini-Thanksgiving for 14 on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  Menu: rustic zucchini and onion stuffing, green beans with goat cheese feta, mashed potatoes, pumpkin puree, cornbread, and apple crisp.  No turkey (and no cranberries as they don't grow them here), but very tasty.

One detail I forgot to mention (probably because it is sadly so normal here) is that the power went out at 6pm.... thankfully I had baked most things before then and we had plenty of gas, so we made do and had a nice candlelit dinner.

Going away Party
With an office full of expats, you get used to people coming and going fairly frequently.  We hosted a going away barbecue for 2 co-workers and a friend the weekend before last in my yard.

One of the girls leaving used to work for a refugee rights organization in which a band of refugees from an assortment of African countries had assembled -- they came and played for the party.

It has been really fun to have enough space to host people - I'm starting to build a repertoire of party foods.  Chief among these might be green bean salad, which is just blanched green beans, butter, white vinegar, and goat cheese feta.  It's very simple, but the goat cheese feta (made by Zach at the market I go to on Saturday mornings) is delicious, so it works really well.
One slightly bizarre, but really nice thing about hosting people here is that if it seems like too much to clean up after the party, we can hire someone to come do all the dishes and clean everything up for $5-10.  

Beautiful Eastern Uganda

I was in Eastern Uganda this week for more Pima trainings and had the pleasant surprise of seeing some amazing scenery (and really adorable twins).  The pictures are horrendous because they were taken from a moving car with an iPhone camera, but hopefully they capture some of it.

 Tororo Rock - I recognized this rock from the Tororo Cement advertisements that are all over the country

 Awful photo of gorgeous Mount Elgon

We visited a town half a kilometer from the Kenyan border called Busia that was possibly the busiest town I have ever been in.  The streets were bustling with people and full of bicyclists wearing pink uniforms, which made for kind of a neat visual.  I asked why there were so many bicycles and was told they were easier to sneak across the border than motorcycles!  The amount of life on display in the town made me think about the American idea of a busy city (I like this article about the role of public spaces in the creation of community in NY) and the relatively huge amount of American life that happens in isolated spaces (homes, cars) as compared to the way life spills into the streets and plazas here.

 And finally, really adorable twins....