Christmas in the Ugandan kitchens.

After sorting through the menu of whats included for breakfast (basically everything but anything with meat or cheese, or the fruit because first they'd haveta go to town to buy it... So what's left?!) we began our Christmas journey down the road to the falls of bujagali. We hadn't made it the full ten minute walk before it started raining heavy drops and ever so suddenly a downpour. So we stood under a tree looking around, and the people from the shack below started waving us in, so I fled to the shack and the rest followed/slid down the already muddy hill closely behind. we piled into the building to find out it was actually a kitchen that cooked food for all the rafters. We cleared to the back and Kira took a seat next to this big ol lady stirring her Xmas chicken in a fryin pan over an open fire stove. What we hoped and thought might be a few seconds or even minutes turned into over an hour of the hardest/second hardest rainfall I have ever witnessed... That one in panama this summer was pretty rough! So we took pictures out the window, talked with the 'chefs' and discussed why I wouldn't have 17 children like the rest of Uganda, or why I haven't quote:'reproduced yet'. O the beautiful girl discount days are almostt back.. If only there were things to buy in the kitchen! Ha. What seems like a complete disaster and almsot waste of a late morning turned into an awesome and unique adventure... How many people get to hang out in a local kitchen waiting for a rainstorm to pass over the source of the Nile!? The rain eventually simmered enough for us to venture completely out to our original destination. The rapids looked decent in the rafting videos we saw over dinner the night before, but watching a crazy kayaker go down them in real life made me look like a completely sane person. The rapids were nearly huge and the little man in the little kayak was nearly tiny. So after our longer than expected morning adventure, we headed back to the Hotel and sorted items for the tournament that would take place the following 2 days. I helped make sure the colors and sizes of the donated jerseys worked out so that the same color teams wouldn't play each other except for possibly in the final game. I will explain the tournament and setup in the next post. So we organized and got dressed in our fundafield attire and headed down to the SOUL shack where this girl Brooke is working on helping the kids of the community. We had visited Brooke at the SOUL shack the night before breifly, meeting all the kids that were moreee than excited to see new muzungus in their little village. So as we headed out of bujugali, took a quick left down a dirt road, and walked maybe only 5 minutes and we were in a while new world. The shack is livable for American Brooke, with electricity from generators and an office and small tiny little third room that functions as a kitchen/storage room. Since we were such a big hit the night before, all the kids were back again to celebrate Christmas with the muzungus. Christmas is a big deal in Uganda, but of course is on a completely different level. From what we gathered from quizzing the kids on their holiday festivities, we figured Christmas means dressing in your best clothes and having a feast of rice and meat for lunch. Some of them said they take a christmas swim in the Nile, but it obviously is at a different spot than we were at all afternoon if it was true. (they lie about the weirdest things) There are no presents, no Santa, no wreaths or red and green and tacky decor. Just celebrating and an occasional branch posing as a Xmas tree, often decorated with lights and the holiday cards they receive. I think they appreciate hand typed cards vs. We appreciate hand written cards..

Anyways, what were we doing at the SOUL shack? We were cooking a spaghetti dinner for Muganda and his family.. The fundafield group had met thus boy and his family last year, and had wanted to cook them a meal. There are 17 children in this average family, with 3 wives. I'd say they are better off than most because Brooke has helped them as well. So we were really just cooking for the family, but it felt like the whole village! Cooking for them was a special experience in itself... Thank god we brought the pasta noodles and a few random ingredients from the supermarket stop in Kampala. We would've been rolling out dough in the dirt for the noodles otherwise. I think the whole pasta cooking process took somewhere around 2 hours for us inexperienced african cookers instead of the 9 minutes it takes at home on the stove. Step 1: go to the well and get some water. Two of the boys and I took some Jerry cans and jolly as our helper to lead the way. It was only about a half a mile to the well, but it took us 15 minutes each way (at least) to swerve through the jungle path, pick eggplants as our stoppers/lids of the Jerry cans and avoid slipping on the crazy wet path. Getting to the end of the path brought new little faces and calls of muzungu! Muzungu! Of course again. So the boys took turn pumping the water, having trouble pumping at a consistent speed so the water flowed out in the same spot. It probably took another 20 minutes for us to fill the 2 five liter bottles and the 2 one? Liter bottles. There is no actual sense of time out here.. Basically the sun fully set during thus whole fetching water process. Jolly taught us various ways to carry the water- on the head (ouch) with two arms, and like a sack of potatoes over the shoulder. I just had a one liter most of the way as I w as responsible for photographing and filming. By the time we got back, everyone was like what took you so long!? They were just standing around waiting for us because the kids told them it was a 5 minute walk.. And for them it very well may be. For us clumsy and incapable muzungus, it took close to an hour... Maybe even a full one. I dunno if we could survive fetching water 5-6 times a day. Luckily during our water journey, a small fire had been made by the remaining fundafield crew for the pasta sauce creation. There was no pre-made sauce at the grocery store. So they poked and pryed the cans open without a can opener to get the tomato paste out. We had local little onions and some pasta seasoning to add to the mix as well. So Riley stood there and stirred the pot of sauce.. This is officially the biggest pot I have ever seen. I got put on water watching duty in the unannexed kitchen room that Brooke helped build onto the house. Yes a fire was started in a closed and contained brick/ mud building with no vents except the door. Little sula was super shy but wanted to touch me (us muzungus are good luck you know) he hung around until he opened up and eventually sat on my lap as we waited for the new biggest pot of my life to boil. The water came to a slow boil at somepoint, the noodles went in and we finally had the dinner ready! Wahoo! So we lined up in a big assembly line, brushed off our 'clean' plates with the under sides of our shirts and had a feast. Luckily Brooke had enough utensils for all of us, since everyone else just used their hands. I've never in my life cared about using hand sanitizer, and let me tell you, I've almost gone through the whole bottle on the first week. The kids loveddd slurping up the noodles.. Most o them didn't know what spaghetti was til now. After dinner, we had a box of sour patch to pass around.. I think we enjoyed their facial expressions as much as they enjoyed the candy. Sour taste is also clearly a first for these kids. So we had a fun night with the kiddies and I went home with a head of dreads... My blonde hair is a hit along with my white skin.