Mine Action Thanksgiving
Well there was no turkey but I had a pretty good thanksgiving dinner last night. I know it was Friday and Thanksgiving is on Monday but Jane had a dinner party last night for Archie who is the regional head of mine action for the UNDP (he's incharge of all of Africa) who was visiting for a week, so Jess and I decided that we would call that our Thanksgiving dinner. Very interesting evening, dinner party with people from the government, the UNDP and one other NGO. Evelyn and Gizaw were both invited with me but Eve is sick and Gizaw got off a plane at 4pm from Canada and the dinner was at 7pm, so out of the intern, the program director and the country/regional director she only got the intern but that was ok - at least there was one of us and the others let her know ahead of time a bunch of people didn't show up so there were a number of empty seats but that's ok - more food for me.
So Jane is pretty much an amazing cook - made beef tenderloin (I didn't know tenderloin came in beef), a chicken dish, fish, salads, then there was the traditional food so everyone was happy - us expats could eat our weird food and everyone else could eat matooke, goat stew and rice. There was a lot of chatting and discussing various issues so that I kinda felt like a grownup until Jess and I began to discus our plans for hitting the pool today and which brother on Prison Break is better looking....
When dinner was ready I somehow ended up as the only woman at the table with Archie, Hartmut (technical advisor for mine action - hilarous German who apparently has 7 grandchildren), Alkie (head of UNDP country office - soon to be moving to Sudan to run the program there), Woboya the head of the Mine Action Centre and Wakinynja the UPDF commander who is incharge of the deminers here.....I think I was a little out of place!!!! But I managed to hold my own, participate in the conversation, and hide how I felt like the little kid who goes to work with their parent for a day.
Left after midnight completely stuffed and super sleepy - too much food plus a little wine means Jess fell asleep in the car and I almost did. I blame Jane for my over eating - the piece of chocolate cake she cut for me pretty much covered the whole plate. I thought it was a joke but it wasn't - took me over an hour to eat the whole thing - later she said I thought I'd give you some to take home, you didn't need to eat it all but here's another piece to take home.....
Had a good day today too - went to the bank to get spending money for only the second time since I got here, except for rent and gorilla permits I've lived off $700 USD since I arrived that includes buying mostly western food etc - crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then met Jess and her roommate Christie in Kabalagala where they enjoyed my local grocery store which is actually really well stocked with stuff you can't find here very easily before Jess and I headed to the Blue Mango which is a hostel/hotel with a pool for some lounging in the sun and swimming. Will definitely be doing that often now. Already have plans for monday if it's nice out which is Independence Day! Yep I get a long weekend too!
Ok time to go start on that piece of cake Jane sent me home with.
So Jane is pretty much an amazing cook - made beef tenderloin (I didn't know tenderloin came in beef), a chicken dish, fish, salads, then there was the traditional food so everyone was happy - us expats could eat our weird food and everyone else could eat matooke, goat stew and rice. There was a lot of chatting and discussing various issues so that I kinda felt like a grownup until Jess and I began to discus our plans for hitting the pool today and which brother on Prison Break is better looking....
When dinner was ready I somehow ended up as the only woman at the table with Archie, Hartmut (technical advisor for mine action - hilarous German who apparently has 7 grandchildren), Alkie (head of UNDP country office - soon to be moving to Sudan to run the program there), Woboya the head of the Mine Action Centre and Wakinynja the UPDF commander who is incharge of the deminers here.....I think I was a little out of place!!!! But I managed to hold my own, participate in the conversation, and hide how I felt like the little kid who goes to work with their parent for a day.
Left after midnight completely stuffed and super sleepy - too much food plus a little wine means Jess fell asleep in the car and I almost did. I blame Jane for my over eating - the piece of chocolate cake she cut for me pretty much covered the whole plate. I thought it was a joke but it wasn't - took me over an hour to eat the whole thing - later she said I thought I'd give you some to take home, you didn't need to eat it all but here's another piece to take home.....
Had a good day today too - went to the bank to get spending money for only the second time since I got here, except for rent and gorilla permits I've lived off $700 USD since I arrived that includes buying mostly western food etc - crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then met Jess and her roommate Christie in Kabalagala where they enjoyed my local grocery store which is actually really well stocked with stuff you can't find here very easily before Jess and I headed to the Blue Mango which is a hostel/hotel with a pool for some lounging in the sun and swimming. Will definitely be doing that often now. Already have plans for monday if it's nice out which is Independence Day! Yep I get a long weekend too!
Ok time to go start on that piece of cake Jane sent me home with.
posted by Erin at 7:33 PM
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