Catching up

5/29/11
Today we ran some errands in town and started to get in touch with our old friends. We went to 1000 cups and had coffee. Joan was there, and started screaming when she saw us. She is one of my favorite people here, and I think about her often while I’m in the States. I was really happy to see her, and it was the first time that I really felt emotional about being back again. We browsed the craft market so that Nicole could get a look at the different items. I had my eye on a couple of things as well. I hoping for a leather bag, and maybe some bark cloth.

That night we had Moses and Richard over for dinner. It was great to catch up with them as well. We were able to discuss the political situation with them in the country and get a feel for the situation. I wanted to discuss it with them in particular because as we were walking to the coffee shop and got stopped briefly by the police. They didn’t want us to be taking pictures in a certain area, and it wasn’t a problem, but it was a tad unsettling, especially for Nicole I think since she was the one taking the pictures.

Dinner went over well, and we gave them some gifts from Sonja and from Meagan. She had been looking for baseball t-shirts to give them from the states because they couldn’t find them here in Uganda. Even Richard was smiling when he tried it on. That is a rare occasion. I’m glad we got a picture of it.

5/28/11 Continued….

The wedding reception was a blast, and I am so glad that we saw our friend Rose by chance. We scrambled around to get a gift and settled on a pitcher with some glasses for juice, and some preserves that I brought from home. We had several different kinds but decided on peach. It would be hard not to like peaches right? I was also going to say in our note that peaches were a traditional fruit for us to eat in the summer time, but did you know that they are indigenous to China? We wanted to look it up before we said that they were native to America. Apparently, the Chinese have been infiltrating American culture for hundreds of years. Too bad people are only just getting upset about it now.

Anyway, I think the gift went over well. Meagan ended up being the one to give it to them. She had to walk right up to them front and center. She was really embarrassed. I’m glad I wasn’t the one who had to do it. Anyway, I’m telling the storey out of order. We took a matatu into town, which was Nicole’s first ride in one. It went pretty smoothly, and I find that I’m not having very much trouble stepping by into Uganda culture, using the few Luganda words and gestures that I know. Seems like last year I had to mentally prepare myself before resuming normal activities. Also I have Meagan sharing the responsibilities with me which is wonderful and takes loads of pressure off. Again, a tangent.

So we found the place relatively easy (good feeling) and we arrived long before the wedding party. The invitation said 6:00, someone called and said 7:00, we arrived at 7:30, and the wedding party didn’t arrive until 8:30. =) I wasn’t really surprised, I figured we would be there early, but I didn’t realize that we would be about an hour early. The reception hall was elaborately decorated with all kinds of things the color of Tennessee orange. When the wedding party arrived, it was interesting to see the melding of traditional and contemporary cultures. The bride was in a Western white wedding gown, but a lot of the female guests were wearing traditional Eritrean attire. I is a long white dress with a patterned trim and then a white scarf that goes over the head. There is also a traditional way of wear the hair braided back like corn rows, but the braid them over a piece of material so the rows are long and sort of conically shaped. You’ll have to look at the pictures. The gold jewelry is also impressive.

Dinner was served in the traditional manner with njaara (the spongy bread) with lots of saucy meats, and you eat it with your hands. Someone sitting by us insisted that we eat a dish because it was “white people food”, and I realized that it was a version of lasagna. It was actually pretty good. We did our best to eat everything on our plates, but it was difficult to say the least. I wish that we could get away with sharing a plate without getting raised eyebrows. Meagan got what she thought was a potato and it turned out to be a whole egg. The incidences of whole eggs has become a running joke for us, if you can recall the story of the eggroll from last year where we thought we were getting a Chinese egg roll, but we ended up with a whole egg rolled in mashed potatoes and fried.

We had cake and dancing even though there wasn’t supposed to be any dancing. It was a Pentecostal wedding. There was lots of fireworks and confetti. At one point something caught on fire up on stage. Meagan gave our gift to the bride and groom. I was giggling because she had to walk right up to the front and give the gift directly to the bride and groom. She was so embarrassed.