Turkey Day

We have had a lot of “firsts” while living here, but I don’t think many of them will be as memorable as our first Thanksgiving here.

I know that from talking to other married women and to my friends, that the first time a girl hosts Thanksgiving and the first time that she cooks a turkey, she is usually pretty nervous. She wants it to be the perfect turkey, meal, and setting that her Mom or Grandmother was able to pull off year after year. I thought when I got married, that it’d be a few years before I had to host a large holiday event. The house we lived in while we were in Charleston just can’t handle the size of our family gatherings, so I knew I was off the hook until we lived in a larger place. Then all of a sudden it seemed like, we were living in Africa in the only mzungu home that could host a large gathering. I am happy that this is the case, because we love to host get-togethers, but this also meant that if a Thanksgiving dinner was going to happen in Masindi, it was going to happen at our house.

We found out a few weeks ago that all of the other Americans living here (all 3 of them) were not going to be around on Thanksgiving Day, so we thought we were off the hook in a way. We thought we would just go to dinner somewhere here or in Kampala and celebrate with just the two of us. We both love Thanksgiving, so we knew we would be missing family and home, so we thought that if we went and ate sushi or something, we wouldn’t realize we were even missing a favorite holiday. So, that was our plan until about a week ago…

Our neighbor, and one of the few Americans around, is a missionary working with the Anglican Church here. She has been here almost 5 years now, and other than her skin color, she has fully adapted to living like a Ugandan. She has a large garden and many farm animals including chickens, ducks, 2 cows, goats, sheep, pigs, dogs, and oddly enough…turkeys. Turkeys are not common around here, but she has domesticated a few of them and has been trying to breed them. For those of you who have met Janine, or even better, been to her house, you can really appreciate this more. For those of you who haven’t met her, she is one of a kind. She has been extremely helpful in helping us get settled here in offering advice, suggestions, cultural tips, and best of all, her cooking! She is a great cook and can make things that you can’t find around here but that you miss from home like pastries, certain vegetables, and other treats. So that’s some background on Janine.

So to continue the Thanksgiving story, Janine comes to our house the other day and tells us that she knows we weren’t planning on having Thanksgiving dinner anymore because no one was here to celebrate. She thought that we were sad about it I guess, so she wanted to offer us a Thanksgiving “gift” as she called it. She said that she wanted us to pick out one of her male turkeys to have for Thanksgiving dinner. Oh boy, I thought. I’ve never even cooked a whole turkey before much less slaughtered one and prepared it. I have shot doves and have no problem helping my dad clean and cook those because they are so small, but a turkey is a whole other bird. Newman claims to have killed some chickens on a friends’ land as a child, but he has yet to kill and clean a turkey either (despite his strong desire to call in a turkey and kill it one day). So, we accepted her offer as a gift like that around here is a very generous one. As you know, a turkey provides a lot of meat which is a treat around here.

So we thought ok, I guess if we are going to cook a turkey, then we need to have some of the traditional sides to go along with it. We were either going to be all in or all out when it came to this. I started making a list in my head of what I could make here, without a trip to Kampala to buy ingredients. We also thought about how the two of us were going to eat all of this food ourselves. Also, the week of Thanksgiving was turning out to be a really busy one, and we couldn’t see how we were going to be able to take Thursday off to prepare everything. We decided that we should wait until the weekend so that we could properly enjoy ourselves, and it turned out that everyone who was going to be out of town would return in time to celebrate on Saturday. Also, it turned out that there would be a few extra Americans around that day for different reasons, so we had a decent group now to justify the work of cooking everything.

So I made a menu of what I was going to make and others chipped in as well. We were going to have the turkey, corn pudding, green bean casserole with homemade fried onions, potato salad, and stuffing. Emily, our Peace Corps volunteer, was going to bring dessert, and Janine would bring something from her garden. So with that decided, we made plans to deal with the turkey. Newman had a small window of free time late Friday afternoon between meetings and we decided that we needed to use that time to kill and clean the turkey.

We walked down to Janine’s house to pick one out. I thought these turkeys were going to be around 12 pounds or so and easy to manage but we were shocked to see two HUGE male turkeys to choose from. We looked them over and tried to pick the one that looked maybe a pound or two smaller, but really they were about the same (around 20lbs).  Newman and Wilson picked one up and Newman walked him home. We picked a place in the back of the yard by the compost pit and Newman quickly and as humanely as possible killed the turkey. We are all hunters, so this doesn’t bother us, but a turkey was a first for all of us, including Wilson. It took about 45 minutes to pluck it and thankfully, Newman took the job of cleaning it out. (yuck!) I told him he was my hero because it looked very unpleasant from my view across the kitchen. So once he did all of the nasty bits, I told him to leave for his meeting and I’d finish it up. It really wasn’t bad at that point. Janine told us that we should brine it over night before we cooked it, so we decided to do that only I didn’t have a pot big enough. The turkey ended up diving head first into a trashcan filled with saltwater over night in the fridge. Don’t judge us, it worked.

So, they next day we got up early and I cooked all of the sides before noon when the turkey was to go in the oven. We covered it in spices and stuffed it with citrus fruit and it really was not as scary of a process as I thought it was going to be. We were however afraid that it wouldn’t fit in our oven, but we managed to shove it in there.

By about 5pm we had a crowd of 6 Americans and 2 Ugandans and we ate our very first turkey. It was delicious and fully cooked which was my main concern.

It was an adventurous undertaking, but it all turned out really well and we had a great time. Everyone really seemed to appreciate the effort and we all felt like for a little while that we were back home. I missed my pumpkin pie, cranberries, and sweet potatoes, but I think I can convince someone to make those over Christmas while we are home J

I told Newman that I can’t believe our first time hosting Thanksgiving and cooking a turkey was in Africa and we had to do everything from scratch. He laughed and said, “yeah but just think, it’s all downhill from here!” This is true. The next holidays will seem like a piece of cake from now on.

So here are some pictures documenting the experience. I took some videos too, but they take all day to upload so I will just post the pictures. Enjoy and thanks for keeping up with us! We are so thankful for SO many things in our lives and being able to share these experiences and document them for ourselves is one of them. Even though it’s a little early, Merry Christmas to you all and hope to see you in the U.S. in a few weeks!

Love,

Trish

 

Walking up to Janine's house

Browsing in the turkey isle

Newman teaching Wilson about turkey spurs and beards

Goofballs

Taking Tom home

Happy customer

Bye Bye Tom

*WARNING: BLOOD*

 

Janine came to help pluck

 

Newman elbow deep in turkey

 

 

 

Turkey in a trash can and box wine = resourceful, cheap, and classy

 

Newman giving Tom a massage

 

Before...

 

After

 

Carving time

 

Mustafa took over

 

The Spread

 

Emily our Peace Corps Volunteer and a fello PCV from Hoima, Kristina

 

 

 

Jeepers Creepers

 

We haven’t gone as far as to name the geckos yet but we do recognize certain ones based on their coloring and which room of the house they live in.  There is no point trying to get rid of them, like we did the mice, because they will just come right back in through the open vents on each window.  You can always tell where they have been due to their trademarked fecal matter (gecko poop is about the size of mouse poop but it can somehow attach to walls and has a white spot at one end of it, I think that is the glue). Truth is, we like them, they are our friends, but most importantly, they eat the bugs.  Not all bugs have made it inside but a lot of them have.  There are the spiders in the windowsills, the moths at night, the different types of beetles, the flies, the wasps, the mosquitoes, and the ants.  The spiders for the most part haven’t been an issue.  There are some pretty big, hairy, ones that I have seen outside but the inside ones are more the opportunistic type.  They know the flying bugs are going to crash into the windows over and over again so they just set up camp near there and wait for an easy meal.  I am ok with this mainly because it helps to keep the flying bugs under control.  The moths are what you would expect from a moth, nothing fancy and normal behavior, no African vs. European differences like you may see in a swallow.  They wait for night and then they fly towards any light they can and hang out.  Heres the catch, we have paper lampshades on our ceiling lights.  Seems odd I am sure but basically there is a paper ball twice the size of a basketball that clips to the light bulb hanging from the ceiling.  This makes a lot of noise when a moth gets stuck inside and can’t seem to find a way out.  It also makes moths an easy target for Trish and the electric bug swatter.  Her tennis game is also improving.  The beetles make there way in throughout the day.  I never seem to notice them until they quit flying and are just sitting targets on the floor.  I generally feel bad about killing these guys so I just slide them back under the door and out into nature.  They do seem to have taken an interest in our garden though and I would like to think that they are helping our cucumbers grow bigger.  The flies come in a couple varieties.  There is you average housefly, the kind the old lady swallowed, then you have mango flies, tse tse flies and the neon green looking ones that hang out around waste.  I stay away from that type.  The houseflies are mainly just loud and stupid.  They seem to be the ones that end up hanging out with the spiders the most often, they also get stuck in our screens a lot, literally stuck in the screen.  The mango flies are not ones I have had much experience with but they tend to lay eggs in your clothes while you have them outside drying (washer and dryer = bucket and sun).  The egg then somehow burrows into your skin and can cause serious infection.  To remove it you have to cover it with Vaseline and wait for it to dig its way out.  If you try to squeeze it out too early it will also cause infection.  The tse tse is almost horsefly like and its bite is also similar.  Luckily we don’t have them in Masindi but there are areas we drive through that contain them and they will get into your car and bite you.  They can cause African sleeping sickness, the disease where you take a nap and end up in a coma, not exactly Rip Van Winkle style.  The wasps, bees, stinging insects are all over as well.  I try to keep distance between these guys and myself.  They occasionally make there way into the house through an open door but they mostly just hang out in the eaves.  If they start taking up too much real estate then I get bold and spray them with something.  My biggest question about these guys though is, how do you tell the difference between an African killer bee and just an African bee?  We have a tree full of bees in the neighbors yard and I really don’t want to make them mad.  Mosquitoes are one of the more common bugs we deal with.  They are the ones that can give you malaria but more importantly they are the ones that can keep you from sleeping because they buzz in your ear all night.  Now one would think that the mosquito net we sleep under would keep these guys away at night.  Reality is it can also trap them inside giving them a 6’3” blood filled feast.  Trish regularly puts on bug spray now before going to bed to help battle this issue.  Now I have heard that it is only the female mosquito of a certain type that carries malaria and I have also heard that this particular type only comes out between 12am and 2 am but I have yet to see a mosquito wearing a watch.  I may have to buy some stock in Off or Cutter at some point in the next few years.  

We also have termites around here or white ants.  Any of you that have been to Africa have no doubt seem the huge dirt mounds that look like giant any hills.  These are the termite mounds, or white ant mound.  These guys can be a nuisance but luckily are not a daily occurrence.  They are also pretty tasty according to some of our local friends.  Every so often they come out in numbers and fly towards whatever light there is.  This could be an outside security light or it could be the little LED power light blinking on my computer.  Once they have flown into something enough times theirs wings fall off.  This is when they are easy to catch if you do want to make a meal out of them.  When they come out in numbers, I have made it a habit to keep the bedroom door closed at night, kill the dozen or so that make it into the bedroom and then get up early the next morning to sweep the other hundred or so out of the house before Trish gets up.   

The last bug I want to talk about is the ant.  I loved the movie about these guys, they are hard workers, they work together better than most people, but man can they get annoying.  We have the standard small sugar ants sometimes.  They make there way inside, get what they want, and they leave.  These guys seem harmless.  You also see lone wandering ants.  These guys somehow got kicked out of the hill or lost, I am not exactly sure.  They aren’t the ones I dislike either.  The safari ants on the other hand will kill you though if given the chance.  These guys are on a mission and won’t let anything get in their way.  So, there are two sizes of these guys, the small ones are the workers, they are about the size of what we might consider a large ant in the US.  When they are on the move they go very fast and by the billions.  Their path sometimes is worn an inch deep.  Then you have the guard ants.  These guys are big, really big, for an ant.  They stand over the little guys making sure they stay on the path.  If one of the little guys ventures off course the guard ant picks him up and puts him back on path.  These are also the ones that don’t like me.  I literally had to pull one off my foot the other day because his pinchers got stuck in my skin, looked like a miniature snakebite and was bleeding.  These guys attack at once too.  You may not realize there are even any on you and next thing you know one is biting your foot while another is on your arm, neck, back, etc.  They are fast and they hurt.  Luckily these guys stay outside for the most part although we have had a neighbor that was invaded and that made for a pretty awful night.  So, before long the geckos will probably have names and we may start setting a place at the table for them.  In the meantime they are helping with population control of the not so welcomed visitors to our home.  
-Newman

October in a nutshell

Hey Everyone!

I have so much to catch up on in the blog and I don’t know where to start. We have been all over the place these past few weeks and it has been wonderful. Newman’s parents, Bob and Lynn, arrived here in Uganda on October 14th and Newman and I drove down to Entebbe to get them. It was so fun and strange at the same time at first because I couldn’t believe there were actually here. They got in late so we stayed the night in a hotel in Entebbe and then made the trip back up to Masindi on Monday after Newman ran some errands for work. Bob and Lynn didn’t mind us getting some work done, and it also was a chance for them to see what our lives are like when we are in Kampala running around from place to place in the crazy traffic. Newman warned his Mom that she will want to scream out at times as he drove but he asked that she try to restrain herself (he tells me this too) and she did an awesome job. I know when we first started driving around here I couldn’t help freaking out a little from time to time. We made it back to Masindi in time to sip a G &T on the back patio and for them to get their first glimpse of the monkeys in our back yard. We spent the next few days in Masindi together. Newman worked a good bit, but also spent time with us when he could which was great. I showed Bob and Lynn around Masindi, took them to the market, bought groceries, and showed them how we do life here. They adapted quickly and were already hand washing their clothes and bathing in the dark when the power was out, which was most of that week. We also had city water go out, but luckily we have a reserve tank that got us through.

The main event for that week was the Grand Opening of the Labor and Delivery Ward and Surgical Theaters on the 17^th. That date was also Safe Motherhood Day in Uganda, so there was a small event for that as well at the clinic following the Grand Opening. We had a great turnout of invited guests and locals who came to show their support. Newman’s Dad did the opening prayer, the Resident District Commissioner was the guest of honor, and the Arch Bishop Elect as well as a few others gave speeches. There was a ribbon cutting and a tour of the new facility. It was a proud day for MKMC and PMI and we were so happy to share that with Bob and Lynn. We went to Masindi Hotel that night for dinner so that they could see where the teams come and stay and so that they could try the delicious food. The rest of the week was pretty low key and we prepared for our trip to Burundi.

Grand Opening Pictures:

Lynn with a baby from Blessed Day Care at the Grand Opening

Newman and Joseph the clinic Administrator

 

Opening Prayer

 

 

Archbishop Elect Stanley Ntagali

 

Patient testimony

 

RDC and Patrick

 

 

 Newman and Wilson

 

We flew to Burundi on Friday and stayed for 6 days. It was my first trip to Burundi, Lynn’s second, and Newman and Bob’s third. Our good friend Freddy Tuyizere, who works for Youth for Christ, met us at the airport with his wife Mama Jo, and they took such good care of us the rest of the week. We stayed at a little guest house in Bujumbura for the first night. We then traveled to Gitega in the center of the country for the rest of the weekend. Freddy is amazing. God has given him some pretty amazing visions and Freddy has had the boldness to follow them. God has richly blessed him for that. We were blessed enough to see some of fruit of those visions. We stayed at the Homes of Hope orphanage that Freddy started and we were loved on by 37 of the adorable children who live there. I’ve never gotten so many hugs from a group of children in my life. We also toured the school that has been built there for those children and the community as well as their medical clinic. Freddy also started a premiere boarding school called Gitega International Academy which was started because of his vision of raising up a new generation to be the future leaders of Burundi. These were both amazing places which were made possible completely because Freddy and others helping him followed the vision and calling given to them by God without hesitation or fear. We hiked to the top of Mount Songa which is the highest peak in Burundi and it is in the dead center of the country. We prayed for the nation there and spent time with children who joined us on our hike. During this week we also toured a newer Homes of Hope in Cibitoke which is home to a few children and is still expanding. They are busy building the school and clinic for that site. The last day we spent a wonderful afternoon on the beach on Lake Tanganyika and had lunch at a really pretty beach side hotel. We also had the chance to have dinner with other friends, Simon Guillebaud and Onesphore Manirakiza, in their homes with their families which was really nice. Overall it was a great trip and I know we all cannot wait to go back again one day soon.

Burundi Pictures:

Bob and Lynn on top of Mount Songa

 

Me and Newman on top of Mount Songa

 

 Sunset in Gitega
 

 Homes of Hope Gitega Children
 

Beach day with Freddy

Freddy

 

Unfortunately while in Burundi, I was a little preoccupied at times thinking about my family because I received word that Pop, my mom’s father, was not doing well. He had been fighting bone cancer for some time and they had just moved him to a hospice facility. I knew when they moved him there that his days were numbered, but I thought for sure I would be able to see him over the holidays when we come home for a visit. I was told that I needed to call while we were in Burundi and say goodbye to him. I was shocked and in disbelief, but I am glad that I was able to borrow a phone and talk for a few minutes to him to say goodbye. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, but I was very glad to have Newman’s family here with us. When we landed back in Masindi, I called my Mom and found out that Pop had passed away the evening before around 5pm. My Mom said that he went peacefully and that everyone was doing pretty well and that my Granny was doing ok. We will all miss him dearly but I am so glad that I know exactly where he is and that we will all be together again one day. He is no longer suffering and his weak and diseased body has been replaced with a brand new one. I knew when we moved here that life would go on without us, and we might not be around for things like this, but we also know that God called us here and this is where we are supposed to be. People will continue to get married, have babies, and pass away whether we are there or not and that’s ok. 

So, we returned to Masindi with slightly heavy hearts, but also so filled up from the trip to Burundi. Life here is a roller coaster but I wouldn’t have it any other way. The rest of Bob and Lynn’s time here continued to be wonderful. We took a trip to Paraa lodge where we looked at Murchison falls, went on a game drive, went on a river safari, and swam in the pool. We all enjoyed ourselves of course because it is an amazing place and we all could truly relax. I took them to Masindi hospital so that they could have something to compare our clinic to, and I took them to Family Spirit orphanage in Masindi. Ask them about that if you want to hear their reaction. We prayed over our whole clinic room by room and walked the whole property which was really nice. We met with neighbors and shared a meal with friends. Finally we went back down to Kampala where we shared an amazing meal at one of our favorite restaurants and we took them to the craft market to do some shopping. They left on the 2^nd to go back to Charleston. We were sad to see them go, but we knew we would be with them again in just a few weeks.

Paraa:

Game drive

 

River safari sighting

 

Bob and Lynn in front of Murchison Falls

 

This was our entertainment while we waited for the ferry to cross the Nile on our way back home

 

 

Conspiring on how to score a snack from the big guy

 

 

 

I hope that anyone who wants to come visit us will. I was talking with Bob and Lynn and we all agree that even though they read our blog and hear our stories, without actually being here and seeing everything it’s hard to know how life really is here. It has its ups and it has its downs, but doing what God calls us to do is always far more exciting and fulfilling than any other plans we would have for ourselves.

Thanks for reading this marathon post, and there is so much more I could say, but I just wanted to hit on some of the highlights of the past few weeks. Thanks for everyone’s love and prayers!!

Love,

Trish