(our first Thanksgiving in Uganda)
We have SO much to be thankful for!
Our first thanksgiving in Uganda was spent out and about. We had a prayer walk with the team and staff at the nursery/primary school and Home of Love orphanage. Ana was thrilled because that meant that she spent the day with Fortunate, Brian, Moses, Innocent, and her other friends. She was off with her friends most of the day, even sitting in Fortunate's class and crying when it was time to leave.
Back to the rest of us.
Since this prayer day involved people coming from various locations and since it was raining (Acoli DO NOT like the rain!), the start was delayed until Gracie was much too hungry and tired to participate. So I sat and fed her porridge (maize porridge is served mid-morning for "breakfast" at the school) during the first part of the prayer walk. Now, the porridge is stored in a thermos to stay hot as it is walked from the cooking shelter to the office and while people get around to serving themselves. The thermos is VERY effective, so, as our co-laborer Angie put it, it comes out as molten lava. Those of you who have ever fed Gracie know that Gracie does not tolerate molten lava, nor steamy, nor hot, nor warm... no, she only likes lukewarm food. It takes a long time, lots of stirring, pouring, blowing, to get molten lava down to lukewarm.
Needless to say, I failed.
Her whining and arching turned into full blown wailing just a few yards from the open-windowed classrooms. Poor screeching Noah was very ready to get down from my back but there was no way that I could keep up with VERY active Noah loose on his own two feet while getting my big girl out of her wheelchair and getting her to stop wailing with her big girl lungs.
My daily crises! :)
The prayer walk continued without us (the kids and I eventually joined). The group of local pastors, mamas from the orphanage, and missionaries went into each classroom and prayed for the children. Each of the 530+ students were prayed over by someone as the group wandered through the classrooms touching each student's bowed head, praying. Some classes started their prayer time with precious songs to the Lord.
We eventually made our way to Home of Love (near where we live anyway), stopped for samosas at the bakery to prevent another melt down (Gracie is a every-two-hour-eater), stopped at the market to pick up some sweet potatoes for dinner, and took a long time going over the dirt roads that are in pretty bad condition now at the end of a long rainy season. (If you splash someone, you have to give them equivalent of around $1 so they can go buy laundry soap. Pedestrians glared and scowl at puddles as you pass by in a car, as if watching to see if the puddle is going to leave it's boundaries and splash them.)
We ate posho (stiff maize porridge) and beans (Home of Love cooks make the best beans!). Ana ran wild with her friends, wasting lots of bore-hold water, running around barefooted, and using the pit-latrine on her own (where did this fearless child come from?!). Gracie screamed and giggled with her adoring young fans, never alone in the eating shelter. Noah, well Noah is the one who keeps me hopping. But some older boys were home so they watched him so I could participate in the praying at Home of Love. We touched each bed in both the boys' and girls' dorms and prayed for each child, the mamas, the cooks, the administrators.
We finally wrestled Ana into the car and got home to start cooking. Josh went into town for the second day in a row to try to get his motorbike. Today he was told that the bike is here. Yes, the bike is here, but still in an unbelievably tiny box. Tomorrow it will be built. Come back tomorrow. Fine.
Josh came home to rescue me from crying Grace (hmm, lots of crying today - poor kid!), not-napping-Noah, needy messy Ana (too much wild time with friends!), and lack of electricity for too long which meant that I had to cook any and all meat that I had in the fridge. (We just have a large dorm sized fridge for this very reason and we don't have meat very often. But Josh had found "mince meat" (ground beef) so he had bought a fairly large quantity for me.)
So, long story short, for Thanksgiving we had meatloaf (a treat for sure!), stuffing, and sweet potatoes. I sat down at the table incredulous that I only had 3 dishes prepared - I was sure that with all that work I had prepared more dishes! Everything is so labor intensive! It was delicious nonetheless!
The kids and I made turkey candleholders and a "Thank you God" container which we could have filled to overflowing! God has been SO gracious to us and given us SUCH an easy transition into this new life. We are so grateful to BE in Uganda after so long of preparing and so grateful to be part of the ministry of the Gospel here.
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