This is the Final Countdown

So let me take some time to wrap up the month of November as well as a little bit of what has been going on in this month of December. Ok, so here we go.

Thanksgiving!!- we celebrated Thanksgiving American style with American football, turkey, and pumpkin pie! Unfortunately during the American football game I was hit in the head and got a concussion. Consequently, I can only vaguely remember what happened the rest of the night. Everyone was super great about helping me out…I think. I guess I was pretty out of it and loopy, which some found to be quite entertaining. Kurty would be one of them :P She has a post up about the continuation of this story from a coherent perspective so if you want the rest go to kurtyjoy.blogspot.com and you can get the rest of the story (it should bet put up some time this week).

Pudding- Steph and I made our family an American meal. Macaroni and cheese with tomatoes, pudding, and orange-tangerine-something kool-aid. The pudding turned out a little chunky, but they tried it and most of them liked it all right. Now they ask us over and over when we will be making them another American meal for them. They ask for tacos and then laugh hysterically because it means butt in Luganda. You got to love word translation.

Moving- so within my father’s church the provost was promoted to bishop, the vicar was promoted to provost, and consequently my father was given the vicar’s old house to live in. It’s about a half a mile from our original house and so when we returned from our rural home stays he informed us we’d be moving in December. Well, when December came he said that we’d be shifting from Sunday to Tuesday. Slowly by slowly as the saying goes. Sunday came and I asked with him and he confirmed with me that Steph and I would probably be moving our stuff on Tuesday and just helping some the other two days. Two hours later my father comes rushing into the home and says he has called his friend with a truck and we should hurry pack because we are moving in an hour at 9pm…what then followed was one of the craziest, most hectic, stressful, unbelievable, funny, and most whirlwind times I’ve spent here so far. We moved everything from house to house in 3 hours and the trunk turned out to be a massive dumptruck. Only in Africa do you just spontaneously decide to move everything when you haven’t even begun to pack.
To help with the stress and our unbelief of the whole event, Steph and I had a dance party while we packed and had a lot of good laughs. We also took turns hiding amongst all the piles of things and taking pictures. We didn’t end up eating until midnight and I didn’t get to sleep until 3am because they had put all the beds and junk up so they could sleep. What an event!

Host Brothers- one day on the way home from school I ran into Elisha heading out to the market to get some milk so I joined him and walked into town. At night the crowds are a little sketchier and much more forward than during the day and there were many groups of men who were shouting at Elisha and I and just plain being stupid. They’re the worst in groups. It was starting to get a little frustrating and then all of a sudden Elisha turned around and started laying into them in Luganda while moving me in front of him so he could protect me. When I asked him what he said he wouldn’t tell me all of it, but he did say that he told them I wasn’t their sister and to leave me alone. I wanted to give Elisha a huge hug and it made me miss my brother because that would be something he would do.
My other host brother, little two year old Enoch, has been trying to learn my name all semester and we’d gotten him to say something like “shoochin,” for my name. However, apparently because I would call him “big boy” when I would see him he has turned it around and now thinks that’s my name. So when I get home every day he greets me by saying “Big Boy, jangu!” Jangu means come here. I’m not sure what to do about it since there is only a week left, but I’m glad that he is calling me something now even if it does refer to someone of the opposite gender.

Camping- for our final weekend we took a trip with 11 people from our group to camp on Ssese Island in Lake Victoria. We took a 3 hour ferry ride out to the island and then took a small wooden boat to the resort site. It had white sandy beaches, a volleyball net, and we were the only people at the resort! We played football, beach volleyball, Frisbee, cards, had a campfire, made s’mores, swam, and did every other relaxing thing you’d do when you camp on a beach. It was a fantastic weekend and was super relaxing before this week of finals and papers.

This next week will be relaxing and stressful all at the same time because we don’t have classes, which gives us time, but at the same time a lot of our grades depend on these final papers and tests, but this is the last hurrah as far as this trip goes so were making as many memories as possible all the while dieing to be able to tell them to you all in person!

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. James 1:2-3