How do we celebrate Christmas in Uganda?

It is Christmas morning in Kampala, Uganda and we bounded out of bed at 5:55 A.M. as we had planned to SKYPE as a family.  Ammon and Paige and their families were all together and Megan and Garrett were going to connect by internet...BUT... we had no internet connection in Africa.  That is a rather frequent occurrence so it was no surprise.  In fact we have a saying:  "T.A.B." and it means "That's Africa Baby."

 BUT...where else could you harvest fresh mangos off the tree outside your apartment on Christmas morning?

Some were able to be snagged standing on the ground, but others were reached off our deck by Ray and off the stairs by the missionaries. 

One of our guards (Justus) had rigged up a long tree branch with a wire loop on the end.  One person had to play center field and catch them before they hit the ground. It was a fun morning and each apartment now has a fresh mango to enjoy.

Our mango harvest for today

Two of our sister missionaries

We do not have a Christmas tree but we have a nativity set that is from Rwanda.  All the characters have African features and will be a great keepsake.  It is wooden and hand carved.


Yesterday was such a fun day.  We all met at the Mission Home at 11 A.M. for a Christmas Party.
There were 65 of us.  There was not enough room in the house for everyone and so the President had rented a large tent and chairs for outside. Sister Chatfield had ordered pizza for lunch and we got a picture of 1/2 of it arriving on the back of a boda boda (motorcycle). 

It was "buy one and get one free" day and so she order 1 pizza for each person.  The missionaries were in heaven... a whole pizza to themselves.  The Elders finished theirs, but the sisters and couples all had left over pizza to bring home and enjoy.

After lunch we played "Minute to Win It."  What a hoot!  Everyone had fun.  We could have prepared a lot more of the "Minute to Win It" games as they loved them and we had zones and districts compete against each other.  They even started working together as companionships and tried to beat other companionships.

Remember the one where you stack 36 plastic cups in triangle form and then have to take it down so all the cups are back in a stack?  Well...our mission record was 35 seconds!

There was also a soccer game going in the yard (our African Elders have all grown up playing soccer and they are pretty good.  Ugandans love soccer)There were also board games going inside the house and outside.

Our President was a banker but a cowboy at heart.  He did a lot of rodeo riding when he was younger and still trains horses to compete in calf roping.  He is always willing to teach the missionaries how to rope.

Ray succeeded in roping the chair! (That was the pretend cow)










We ended the day with a Christmas devotional and each zone presented a Christmas song.  They were darn good.  Africans love to sing and so do most of our American Elders and they sounded amazing.  They even had solo parts.







For dinner Sister Chatfield had ordered KFC as it just opened in Kampala.  There is not much meat on chickens here and so it was mostly bones and coating.  But, I have to say...it remind us of home.  I think the African missionaries wondered what we saw in KFC.  They probably would have preferred matooke (steamed green bananas) and posho (a spongy bread).  With the chicken we had funeral potatoes, peas and carrots, salad, and rolls. For dessert we had the missionary favorite...ice cream and chocolate chip cookies.  There is never a drop of food left with missionaries around.

It was a fun, fun day.  Today the missionaries are all anxious to call home and talk with family.
As for us, all the couples are going to enjoy turkey dinner at the Sheraton... not having to cook will be a MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Senior Couples Retreat to Northern Uganda

December 18-21 the Senior Missionary Couples in our Mission traveled to Northern Uganda for a retreat.  Our destination was the Paraa Safari Lodge in Murchison National Park.  It was an 8 hour drive from Kampala -- 50% of the time on bumpy dirt roads.  But the scenery was beautiful and we enjoyed getting to know different couples from the mission as we traveled.  The above picture shows us entering the park.  We traveled 50 more miles before reaching a ferry which transported our pickups and people across the Nile River to the lodge on the other side.

We quickly settled into our rooms and left one hour later on an afternoon safari game drive.  The following pictures are not necessarily in order, but we started with a sunrise and ended with a sunset. 

The savannah was picturesque at any time.  The weather was perfect -- not too hot nor too cold.  No jackets were needed.

Many "deer-like-animals" -- herds of them on the savannahs.

This was a Coke's hartebeest or Eland. 

 

The birds decided to decorate this tree for Christmas.  Never could find out the type of bird but they looked like large white doves.



Giraffes were plentiful but we never tired of seeing them.  This one was part of a group of eight we came upon.

They are so graceful and stood and watched us as we stood and watched them.  There is also a Cape Buffalo partially visible.

 

Thursday we took a boat ride up the Nile River to Murchison Falls.  This crocodile was sunning on the bank...

...and mouth open looking for lunch.

They open their mouths to cool themselves off.

Murchison Falls was gorgeous.  The Nile narrows down and tumbles over large boulders.  Water sprays high into the air.  It is the only un-navigable part of the Nile. 

Me celebrating having made it to the top of the falls which was about a 2-3 mile climb up from the river. 

This picture gives you a better idea of how high the water sprays as it falls.  The Nile is wide above the falls and wide below the falls but narrows down here to about 20 feet across.

Taken at the top of the falls.

This is a new part of the falls created after 1954 when they had a heavy flood season.  It joins the main part of the falls about 1/2 way down.

 

This is the main channel of the falls.

 

We came upon several groups of hippos in the river.

Baby hippo with its mother.

Wildebeest

 

Water buck

Hartebeest

 

 Steenbok

 

Eland

 

Warthog

 

Baboons outside our room at the lodge.

 

Not sure if this was an African wild dog or jackal.  

 

More hartebeest

 

Elephants and mother and baby hippo.

 

Cape Buffalo

 

Sunset on the savannah

 

Giraffe on hilltop at sunset

Acacia tree at sunset.

 

It was a fun 4 day adventure.  Besides the game drives and boat ride up the Nile, we spent time lounging by the pool at the lodge and participating in a training meeting.  Our final evening at the lodge we enjoyed a fun Christmas party and white elephant gift exchange.  All meals were buffet style and we enjoyed fish, beef, and pork...items we don't have very often.  We pretty much live on chicken and "minced beef" (hamburger) in Kampala.  Also, lots of fruits and vegetables which tasted wonderful.  Lunch and dinner always had a salad bar along with the main course, but salad bars in Uganda usually always contain cabbage instead of lettuce.  We are pretty use to that by now.

Our First African Safari in the Greater Kruger National Park in South Africa

We had an awesome opportunity this past week with the other 5 couples that serve as Public Affairs Missionaries in Southeast Africa.  Our Area Director, Sean Donnelly, took us to a Couples Seminar at the Baobab Ridge Lodge in the Klaserie Reserve.  This is 80,000 hectares of absolutely game-packed pristine savannah about 6 hours by car northeast of Johannesburg.  We flew into Johannesburg on Thursday, loaded up in vans Friday morning and spent 5 days in the bush at a self-catering lodge.  Our hosts were the owners, Jason and Nini, and our director and his wife, Dianne, catered the event.  We were the only guests at the lodge.   Every morning we did a sunrise drive for 2-3 hours and every evening we did a drive starting at 5. The evening drive always went into the night-time so that we could have the opportunity of seeing nocturnal animals.  We spent 2 and 1/2 days in training seminars and that helped us see all the possibilities in our role as public affairs missionaries.

This was an unforgettable experience and we thought we would share some of our photos.  We saw thousands of animals, some were too camera shy and others were too fast and elusive.  But, here is a pretty good sampling.   

 

 

 

This is a lioness feeding off a Cape Buffalo that the pride killed during the night.  There were 5 young Cape Buffalo killed by the 7 lions in the pride.
There stomachs were bulging...they were so full.  The cubs could hardly walk as they had eaten so much.
Hidden and out of a good camera shot were the jackals, vultures, and hyenas just waiting for the lions to leave the scene so they could move in and feast also.


 

This is the bungalow that we stayed in.  Each couple had their own bungalow.  Each had a living room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, and deck.  All four sides had big windows so you could look out and see animals in the bush around you.   
 

At night we could hear the monkeys scampering across the roof of the bungalow.  Around the entire compound was a high electrical fence but nothing that would stop a Cape Buffalo, rhino, or elephant.

The main lodge that contained a beautiful stainless steel huge kitchen with all the modern conveniences.  The lodge also had a large dining room and a large conference room.  See the Land Rover with stadium seating that is parked on the left.  There were several of these to take us all on drives. 

 

 The swimming pool at the lodge... but we took the photo to show the water hole for the animals in the background.  Animals would come here often.  At night we could lay awake and listen to the roar of lions that were nearby.

Boma...built to keep cattle contained at night and safe from wild animals.  This was constructed by the owner to provide a safe place for campfires at night and a large grill for cooking.  We had BBQs here several evenings. Our director's wife was a chef when she was younger and she fixed wonderful meals for us...three times a day.

 Picture looking into the boma.

 

 

Close up of a large elephant.  We were shocked at how close our drivers would take us to the animals.  We had strict instructions to never stand up in the vehicle.  If we sat we blended in with the vehicle and the animals came close but did not bother us.  They told us if you stand you attract attention and they can see an individual and can become aggressive.
 

Herd of wildebeests.

 

A kudu
 

 

A zebra... they are fast and hard to get a picture of.  They have weak backs so have never been able to be ridden or used to pack anything.  The African zebras are not only black and white but also have a gray stripe.  You can see that on the hind quarter of this zebra.  In Africa they do not make the "e"a long sound...instead it is pronounced like the "e" in the word "bed" or "red." 

 

  Lion from another pride coming to "spend the weekend" with this lioness.  The safari drivers learn to know these animals and can tell who belongs to which pride.  He was very protective of her.

She would walk about 20 feet and lay down.  The male would lay or stand nearby and keep a watch on what was going on around them.

 

Giraffes are so amazing to come across.  But, they are very elusive and disappear quickly into the trees.

 

A vulture

A white lion.  These lions were in a nearby reserve that we visited.  They live in a fenced reserve because they are trying to keep them from breeding with normal lions so they do not become extinct.

 Close-up of a white lion.

Can you believe how close our driver took us!

 

Elephants on parade...in all sizes
 

...and shapes 

...some baggy, saggy... 

 

 We watched this elephant wrap his trunk around a young tree with an 8 inch diameter and rip it out of the ground.  There are a lot of dead and dying trees on the ground in Africa as the elephants pull them out and eat the tender young roots.  They also strip all the bark off the trunk of larger trees and eat a pinkish-red layer under the bark.  This causes the tree to die because the upper branches and leaves can no longer receive nutrients.

 

 

This hippopotamus would only show us the top of his head...
 

 and the top of his back.
 

Our grandson, Jackson, sent us Flat Stanley to travel around Africa with us.  We took him on our safari drives.  Here he is sitting in the seat on the front of the Land Rover where the spotter sits on the game drives. 

 We could not figure out how to get the camera to focus on Flat Stanley and the elephant in the background.

 

This was an unusual find...wild African dogs.  They were very frightening to look at.  We came across an entire pack of them.
 



This elephant became quite aggressive as our driver kept changing the position of our vehicle and trying to get us closer.  This was a little too close.

 

 



This was a young elephant

 



 and an older one.

 

 Always fun to watch the young ones keep up with the herd and the older ones position themselves to protect the younger ones.

 

 A male Cape Buffalo

 

 

 

These three males were resting together.  The females have horns but not the big head-dress across the head. 

 



Rhino... all by himself.

 He became quite aggressive and started running and prancing around our vehicle.  They can move fast for as large as they are.  

 

 

More rhino... 

 

 

 

 

Mother and baby Impala.  We saw thousands of these. 

 

Steenbok 

 

Dracker

 

Evening approaching on the savannah.  Notice the large termite mound on the left.  The bush came in many varieties.  Sometimes the vegetation was dense, other times more sparse. 

 

We have lots more photos but that gives you a good idea of what we saw during our 5 day stay.  We loved the game drives and learned so much about how nature balances out itself and that there is a purpose for every creation.