Holla From Kampala: Two Thanksgivings

Thanksgiving is my all time favorite holiday – it’s a day dedicated to eating! I am happy to report that I was still able to uphold the tradition of eating myself sick, even in Uganda. I actually had two Thanksgivings, which definitely made up for not being home. Caroline, Ryan and I spent Thanksgiving Day with Laurie, an American missionary who lives in Budaka and runs an orphanage in town. She has a really nice house with a refrigerator and oven, so she invited us over for food and games. She cooked up quite a feast for us: Chicken, gravy, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, homemade rolls, carrot cake, and pumpkin pie. We contributed green beans with garlic. I could not stop talking about how delicious her homemade rolls were; I ate about five of them! We ate ourselves sick, and played Scrabble (my favorite) and cards. We all kept saying, “Wow, it feels like we are back in America.” It was a great, relaxing Thanksgiving.

We headed to Elizabeth’s site on Friday for Thanksgiving Part II. There were over 20 of us at Elizabeth’s, and there was quite a bit of food. We slaughtered our own Turkey, which was 20 kilos. (By we, I mean Max). Thankfully, Elizabeth knows someone with an oven in her town, so we were able to easily cook the turkey. We had more or less the same menu as the night before. Maggie and I contributed green beans with caramelized onions. Maggie bought 4 kilos of green beans two days before, but did not take them out of the plastic bag. Hence, we had to sift through 4 kilos of green beans and take out all of the moldy ones. They smelled so bad, and it was a huge pain to cut off the ends of the ones that were not rotten. In the end, however, they turned out delicious! I felt so sick after eating dinner, I literally thought I was going to puke from eating so much.

A group of us headed to Kampala for the weekend to run the marathon on Sunday. Chelsea, Lisa, Bethany, Joe, and I ran the half and Erik ran the full marathon (what a champ!). I did not train at all for the half, but since other people were running, I figured I would give it a shot. The marathon cost 10,000 shillings, about $4.50, and the money went to clean water in Uganda. We also got an awesome swag bag of MTN paraphernalia, including this yellow jersey we had to wear when we ran. The marathon was a lot of fun, and I am glad that we all participated. I was surprised that they actually had a decent amount of water stations (yes, it was bottled water) and they passed out sponges to cool off as well. At around 18 km, I was passed by all of the elite runners that were running the full marathon. I seriously could not get over how fast these men were running; it was amazing! There was someone filming the race, so for about 2 seconds I felt super cool running behind the leader. Needless to say, a lot of the elite runners finished the full 42KM before I finished my 21KM. Now, this is Uganda, so of course this marathon wouldn’t be complete without some mishaps:

The latrines at the start of the race were FULL. I thought I was going to vomit, but when you got to go, you got to go. When I say full, I mean about to spill over.
The roads were somehow closed off for the runners, but only at the beginning. For the most part we were battling taxis and boda drivers for the road.
There were no bathrooms along the way and I really had to go. I didn’t feel like earning my brown badge, so I just went into a random restaurant along the way. Lisa, however, peed her pants and a Ugandan behind her laughed.
There were markers every 5KM, but they were completely wrong. There was also a marker for 40KM (the finish for the half and full were the same), so I thought I was coming close to the end. WRONG! 3KM later I reached another sign that said, “1KM to go!” We all seriously wanted to punch someone in the face. At least that one was right…
There were people directing the runners, but after the elite runners finish, they close up shop. Since I was running the half marathon, I didn’t have a problem. Erik, however, got lost near the end of the marathon and ran an extra few kilometers. Also, some of the water stations were closed.

Overall, I had a great time and I am thinking about running the half marathon in Jinja. I plan on actually training for that one though. Needless to say, I was super tired when I returned home yesterday. Sauya's daughters, Eva and Janet, met me in town when my taxi arrived. They were really excited to have me back and wanted to congratulate me on finishing the race. They carried my things home and filled all of my jerry cans for me. Afterward, they brought over some food for me and we hung out and read magazines. They are the best!

Dennis and Bryan - they love getting their photo taken.

Dennis playing with my camera

The rolls cooking in the oven

Caroline, Ryan, Laurie and me

I was walking back from the latrine and this turkey fell over in my backyard. I started laughing, and then realized it was dead. My neighbor spent the next hour trying to figure out who the turkey belonged too. No, we did not use this for Thanksgiving dinner.