Thanksgiving- only a bit late! :)

View of "Paradise"- that's the name of the restaurant!

this was a headline! pretty funny!

My Thanksgiving

            Ah, what a wonderful Thanksgiving I had!  Cait’s Mom got her a room at the Sheraton for two nights, which she graciously shared with us!  It was a little slice of America, with wireless, hot showers and water pressure, a huge bed and elevators!  We didn’t even have a mosquito net because the damned mosquitoes couldn’t reach us on the 7^th floor!!  Wednesday night, Cait and I just reveled in the wonderfulness of the room and wireless.  Thursday, we had a lazy morning and it was fantastic!  Then Crevi, Gayle and Mia showed up and we had a wonderful day together!  Then, Cait, Gayle and I went back to Lotus Mexicana Cantina for Happy Hour!  Yep, my Thanksgiving was anything but traditional as I spent it at a Mexican restaurant in the middle of Kampala.  We had margaritas and mojitos with bean burritos!!  Then we haggled with boda-men until we found one that would take us for 500 shilings each, but we had three and most of the time you only do two passengers per boda.  Well…we decided to just go for it and the three of us climbed onto this one boda!  Oh boy, part of me wished it were light outside so people could really appreciate how RIDICULOUS we looked!  It was hilarious and we didn’t stop laughing for the five-minute ride back to the Sheraton!!  HILARIOUS!!  Then when we went through security, the man asked to look into my little wallet/pouch thingy.  When he noticed it only held money and a phone, he motioned with his hands around his stomach and asked me, “What do you have there?”  HAHAHAHAHA, I could only laugh and say MATOKE and CHIPATI!  Yep, Ugandans like their women fat, but when it comes time to muzungu with love handles going into the Sheraton, security thinks it’s a bomb or something!  Too funny!

            There was something amazing about being in a nice hotel after living here for three months.  That shower was hot and had water pressure….heck, it was a SHOWER instead of a bucket bath!  But we all kept on thinking to ourselves, “what if this was the only part of Kampala you experienced?  Worse, what if this was the only part of Uganda you experienced?”  For that, I will forever be thankful for my home stay experience!!!  I am a part of a family in Uganda and have been such for three whole months!  They have welcomed me with open arms and given me a taste of their daily lives.  When people ask me where I stay, I can say “Ntinda” instead of “The Sheraton,” sending my street-cred sky high!  But I can also say that I have traveled through the country.  I’ve been to a refugee settlement, toured a Millennium Village, talked to small farmers in Kapchorwa, visited a landfill in Kampala, seen Murchison Falls, danced with a bar full of men in Gulu, and lived with a family in Busia.  The Sheraton cleaned me up, but what it ended up showing me was a lesson I’ve learned many times this semester: that I was lucky to have come to Uganda with SIT and a program that showed me so many parts of this country.  That I was lucky to come here as a student, with open eyes and ears (and even nose)—open to soaking EVERYTHING up!  That I was lucky to live with an incredible family and to learn so many things from them!  And most of all, that I was lucky to be able to come for four months of non-stop learning!

            I am truly thankful!

So on that note, thank you Mama O’Donnell…it was truly a WONDERFUL stay and the view was amazing!  And I hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving, full of family, friends, turkey, pie and (real) football!  I’ll be home for next year’s!

<3cm