Let's Catch Up, shall we?

As I told you in the last post, we have been doing a lot of wonderful things in the last several days so it is time to get you all caught up.
On Saturday, we went to hang out with an amazing group of kids. You have all heard about Joanna and her kids- that's who we got to hang out with. Only Brian (the oldest, who celebrated a birthday two weeks ago) knew that we were in Uganda. When we arrived at the place where the kids were having dance practice, there was much yelling and excitement! It is such a joy to see these kids, get their hugs and watch them dance!

Greg and his special little girl Vivian.
Usually when kids are comparing our hands with theirs, it is because they are comparing the colour of their skin vs ours. However, Vivian is very used to being around Mzungu, she was actually comparing her straight fingers with Greg's crooked ones!

Wherever Greg is, there is Vivian (sshh- don't tell Hayden)

After watching the kids practice dance, we went to Joanna's home and had a birthday celebration for some of the kids and for Greg too. Brian made a cake for all of us to enjoy and by the end, there was not one crumb left!
Then it was on to the show! Brian coaches a dance group of boys and they put on a show Saturday night to showcase their talents and also to raise money for uniforms. This was also Brian's birthday gift to Greg so we, along with Joanna and two other people, were seated at a table just off the stage. There were several singers, DJs and dance groups in addition to Brian's boys. At one point we had to get up and dance (it was supposed to be the parents of the dancers, but somehow we ended up being up there too) and Greg was asked to speak about Brian also. On our first missions trip we were told as missionaries, one always has to be ready to "preach, pray or die". After our first trip to Uganda, we added "sing" to the list and now we have also added "dance".
It was a late night full of all kinds of fun and we were exhausted when we arrived back to the guest house just before midnight.
Sunday was the day of Kampala Festival- it is utter chaos! There are four or five stages with entertainment scattered throughout the downtown area where various groups and individuals perform. In addition, the streets are filled with "all things carnival"- face painters, food vendors, booths to buy nearly anything. Saskatchewan has one million people spread out over a very large land mass. We saw more than a million people (not exaggerating here people) in the two hours we were at festival, and they were all packed into an area not much larger than a square kilometre! The only reason we went to the festival was to see Joanna's kids dance and we didn't even get to do that because we were at the wrong stage and they danced way later than they were scheduled to (no surprise there!) So we ended up walking several kilometres (up hill both ways) in the blazing Ugandan sun, getting sun burned, all for nothing!
Fortunately, our day got much better after a cool bath, a little rest and then our visitors arrived. Ed, Phina and six month old Jeremiah came to see us. This was our first time meeting this little man and Jajja made sure to get lots of cuddles. He is such a pleasant, content little man with an ever present smile on his gorgeous little face.

Jeremiah loves his bananas

Monday was Independence Day in Uganda and was a public holiday. Uganda has been an independent nation for 55 years. Both our homes had celebrations on that day- Thanksgiving in Canada and Independence Day in Uganda.
We had the privilege of spending the day with a couple of our team members. Ambrose and his lovely wife Moreen invited us to their home and Jonathan came along to be "the map" (insert the song from Dora the Explorer here). In Uganda, there are no addresses so when you go to someone's home for the first time, someone has to take you there (then we mark it on our GPS and we are good to go). We had a lovely time visiting with Ambrose, Moreen and Jonathan, getting to know them all a little better. We got to see Ambrose and Moreen's introduction and wedding pictures. There is so much to learn about the traditions here and everytime we look at photos from someone's introduction, we learn more. We enjoyed a wonderful meal (the best meal we have had since we arrived in Uganda) and then went to see the house Ambrose and Moreen are building. What a joy it was to see the home they will soon live in and to pray over this house where they will raise their family- oh, did I forget to mention that the baby is due in April!
That, in a nutshell, was our amazing weekend. As we have said from the beginning, it is all about the people and we had many people to love on, and be loved by, this past weekend!

Ambrose and Moreen in the doorway of their amazing new home- just a few more months and they will be moving in.