I'm sitting here in a too-quiet house and I never thought I'd be saying that. But it's the calm after the storm and a fun storm it was. Had a houseful for Thanksgiving and it was just the best - five extra people draped on an assortment of beds, air mattresses and the new couch. Said couch was properly Christened by the watching of a movie complete with home made popcorn, managed without burning the house down.
I spoke too soon - Church and Mosque sounds have ratcheted up.. but that's certainly more normal. Wednesday, best friends Bill and Holly came in from the boonies (Pader - you almost can't get there from here) and we immediately went to get the mattress for the newly purchased bed. (They hopefully will spend a LOT of time here.) So a bunch of Muni (plural white people) went in search of a mattress, which we found, rolled up and carried over head through the driving rain to get back to the house. Nothing is as straight forward as it would seem here. We shopped on foot, it had to be retrieved from a warehouse - all the while, the storm brewing and dust blowing. They were much more interested in getting the other mattresses in than finding ours... Drenched, we arrived home and spent the remainder of the night telling tales from our sites and drinking somewhat drinkable wine by candle light. It is the third day without electricity, but who's counting...
Thanksgiving dawned to the call to Prayer and the realization we needed to conjure a way to cook something to take to the feast. Thanks to Evie, I had a Jello no-bake pumpkin pie complete with crust to make. Went to buy a whisk to beat the filing and there were none in all of Gulu, though at least twenty had been on the shelves the week before. We are told "they are finished" or "they are not here," which is fairly obvious. So I made one out of three forks pronged together. I'll make a note to ask Santa for that.
We footed it two miles to the restaurant that graciously opened its doors to us to cook Thanksgiving dinner and awaited the arrival of the Turkey - not in are supply here. Rumored to be coming at about 2:00, it met its demise in the wee hours and was cooked in a makeshift oven of a big pot, standing on its rump with a can of beer shoved up its a__, then covered with foil, and surrounded by hot coals. May explain why it didn't trot in until 4: 00). Pretty damn good turkey as it tuned out - and more food than one would have deemed possibly cooked in a variety of ways that would make survivalists proud. Sixty motley PCVs in one place making guacamole salad, deviled eggs, bread, apple crisp, stuffing balls, salads, smashed potatoes, green beans, squash casserole, baked beans and an assortment of pies and cakes is quite the site. It was great fun to see folks we'd not seen in over a month and to be in a "big brother" free zone.
Some of us are beginning to realize we might be able to do this for ten family-absent holidays over the next two years -n especially if we can get out to see "the wild things" the next day.
We got home before dark and planned for the next day of getting up at 4:30 Am to go into the wild to see if we could find some of the wild animals (other than a bunch of crazed PCVs) we came here to see. We have collected a few more people along the way and now have a sea of humanity still licking our fingers from the feast - again by candle light. No electricity for the fourth day. Now I'm counting.
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