Thanksgiving: Ugandan Style

Although we already had a Christmas program at church a few weeks ago, I feel that the holiday season has now officially begun! Celebrating Thanksgiving here with my new friends that have quickly become my family was a wonderful experience. Memories were made and laughter was abundant!

We started the celebrations on Wednesday afternoon with Dara and Dade. Kelsea and I made sure to finish lessons early so that we would have plenty of time to talk with the kids about why we celebrate Thanksgiving and do some crafts together. We made turkey cards, bracelets with colored beads that help retell the story of the pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving, and turkey balls. I've been making turkey balls with my family on Thanksgiving ever since I can remember, and I was pleased to be able to continue the tradition even while in Uganda!

Because our team was celebrating Thanksgiving on Friday, Kelsea, Martha, and I decided to have our own family celebration at our house on Thursday. We kicked off the morning with homemade Pioneer Woman cinnamon rolls and, of course, coffee.

We had also made some pumpkin muffins, chapatti, and turkey thank you cards for some of our Ugandan friends in the community (including the lady who works at the post office and gives us our packages. She is a very important person in our lives!), and we made sure they knew just how thankful we are for them!



 

After a slow and relaxing start to the morning, we continued with our cooking and baking. Stephen, a teammate of ours who wasn't able to attend the big gathering on Friday, came over to cook and celebrate with us. Between the four of us, we were able to prepare 7 dishes in only a few hours. We thoroughly enjoyed the feast, conversations, and after-dinner games, and it really felt like a holiday. I was truly thankful!

But the celebrations weren't over yet! Friday morning we were all up early and in the kitchen again preparing another 4 pans of stuffing and green bean casserole for the potluck party at the Skinner's house. Over 80 people attended the Thanksgiving celebration, and 7 countries were represented: Uganda, America, Northern Ireland, England, India, Australia, and the Netherlands.

After the meal, there were sack races and a "snow ball fight" (stocking balls filled with flour) which provided lots of entertainment for those involved as well as for those on the sidelines!

To wrap up the long weekend, some of the guys on our team put together a rugby match against a local secondary, boys' school. Saturday afternoon, quite a crowd gathered around the field at the school to watch and cheer the teams on. The Ugandan team definitely had skill, youth, and athleticism on their side, but for only practicing for half an hour before the game started and not figuring out some of the rules until the second half of the game, I was very impressed with how well our team did! The final score was 6-3, but it appeared that fun was had by all, and there were no (major) injuries. Yet another thing to be thankful for!