Happy Birthday Mom!! (And Happy Halloween)
My father complained that we’ve been slacking on updating the blog lately, so we’ll try to update it at least twice a week, opposed to our once a week trend. Today is All Hallow’s Eve, and, more importantly, it is my wonderful mother’s birthday! So, Happy Birthday to the most amazing mother in the world. I would not be where I am today without your love, guidance and patience, especially during those long nights in elementary school helping me on bristol board presentations. I definitely always had the best looking bristol boards all throughout grade school. So, I love you mom and thank you.
Well, back to Halloween. Uganda does not celebrate it, so trying to explain Halloween to Ugandans was a challenging but hilarious endeavour. “You can dress in a costume, whatever you want! You can be a monster, or a witch, or a cat. Then children go to each house and ask for candy.” If you think about it, Halloween in North America has very bizarre traditions. I don’t think I was ever completely successful in explaining it. Most reactions I got were just blank stares. Then they would just continue on with their work, as if the conversation never happened. I was definitely crazy in their eyes. I thought about carving a pumpkin or papaya but I’d probably be yelled at for wasting good food. Besides, the pumpkins here are green and resemble squash more than anything.
I really miss Halloween. Casey, Ellie, Cooper and I went to a Halloween party on Saturday night hosted by Invisible Children, an American NGO stationed in Gulu. It was 95% mzungu and 5% Ugandan. It wasn’t anything like being home, but it felt liberating, drinking waragi, listening to non-Ugandan music and dancing under the beautiful stars in Uganda with a bunch of other people from all over the globe. Casey felt proud of himself for stealing two beers from the fridge, but he was later informed that the three crates of beer in the kitchen were for everyone, bought by Invisible Children. There were also a lot of 18 and 19 year olds in Gulu making beads to sell in America…strange.
All four of us borrowed lab coats, syringes and TB maks from TASO. We went as the NGO Doctors without Borders with a twist, Doctors without Moral Borders. We found the most crude shirts ever made in Gulu, made name tags with questionable content (ex: Hello, my name is Go F*ck Yourself and Hello, my name is Sarah and I have a yeast infection) and Casey wore no pants. He also had a shot from a syringe. In the end, the night was fun and definitely a one time thing.
The thing I am missing the most is definitely Fall. I was skyping with my family yesterday and they pointed the camera to our backyard. The sun was just rising above the trees and the frost was just beginning to melt. The maple tree was a brilliant orange and there were specks of red, purple, green and yellow in the surrounding yards. I actually got the beginnings of tears in my eyes. It’s so damn hot here ALL THE TIME and just getting hotter. I have an impressive tan at least and Casey has turned a different ethnicity.
Anyway, I had better go. We’re making sangria at a friend’s house. Besides sleeping, working, washing and cooking there isn’t much more to do other than drink.
-Sarah
