What's Cooking in the School Kitchen 5.0

Mary, from the Bellevue Christian School team, at our last goat roast.

What's Cooking in the School Kitchen 4.0

Ali with chocolate soufles

Freshly slaughtered goat smoking over the fire

Maize roasted over the fire

“How are you Peckerwoods?” came a shout in the dark. David and Kade, two Americans who are here for the summer came into the light dressed in greasy T-shirts, thick glasses, dirty baseball caps and suspenders.

Wayne, the gentleman in charge of African Childrens Mission had gone into Kampala and they had decided to raid his closet. Later when we met up with some American visitors (Bellevue Christian School) David had to explain to them that this was not how he usually dressed.

Wayne, by the way, is fond of calling people Peckerwoods. I am commonly asked by Ugandans what it means and I’m not really sure how to respond…

--PHD

Pop Quiz

You’ve heard us talk about “The Internet Tree” – that small area at the Secondary School up the street where mysterious factors coincide to bring us MTN cell service for our modem. We’ve discovered that the signal now reaches past the giant tree and to the side porch of the school chapel, which works out really well during rain storms! However, any time we want the internet, we first have to think about what time it is, in order to avoid school breaks. If we hit it at tea (10:30-11am), lunch (1-2:30pm), or dinner (6pm), we’re likely to be mobbed by a crowd of teenagers, all with tons of questions. Even at other times there’s likely to be a few students wandering around. So for a while, we’d got into the habit of going together – one of us to do the actual internet work, and the other to entertain any visitors.

A week or two ago, I (Heather) was not paying attention to time, nor to the fact that I was alone; I only wanted some new recipes from the internet! I hopped on the bike, pedaled to the spot, and set up the computer – the connection was great! I’d just signed in to facebook, and had typed in my google recipe search, when they started coming. Shoot, it was tea time! Soon I was surrounded by 5 or 6 boys, all introducing themselves and trying to read over my shoulder. I quickly repositioned the computer and clicked out of facebook (EVERYONE wants to be your friend if the know you’re on), hoping I could at least get the recipes. Laughingly, I soon gave up. The questions were coming thick and fast.

What did I think about Obama?

How about Osama bin Laden?

Should women be pastors of churches?

What were my thoughts on Libya?No, really, I must have an opinion!

How was it that I’d been married almost three years and didn’t have at least a couple children?!

Was interracial marriage ok where I came from?

Did I know any American girls they could marry?

All Americans were beautiful, unlike their schoolmates [their words, not mine!].

Do Americans keep cattle?

Which is more developed, Uganda or America? [I laughed at this, until I realized the speaker was serious, and I told him America, definitely]

After about an hour, I finally gave up on the recipes, the computer died, and I escaped back to AHI.

--HD

What's Cooking in the School Kitchen 3.0

All the beans need to be sorted to get out rocks and bad beans

Sylvia serving pasta salad with mangos

Teaching the students to make pasta

Wild lemongrass

Diplomacy

Osama Bin Laden had just been killed and I was sitting in a taxi with Ben. A few of the Ugandans in the seat behind us were clearly Muslim by their dress, which inspired Ben to loudly ask me the question “Do you think it was a good thing to kill Bin Laden?” After some awkward silence (and quick thinking) I said simply “I support Obama, and if killing Osama helps Obama then I am all for it. Ben and several Ugandans nearby smiled with appreciation, for no one is more popular in Uganda then Obama.

--PHD

Taxis III

Yet another time I was in a parked taxi when an old lady rode up on the back of a boda (a motorcycle taxi). She paid the boda driver and hopped into the crowded taxi. The boda driver handed her change through the window of the taxi and we were about to be off. Then suddenly the boda driver started shouting at the old lady, something about the money he had received. She was denying his accusations and it started to become a heated argument. A crowd of people on the street began gathering around the taxi shouting about how this old lady had cheated the boda driver while everyone in the taxi was shouting back at them that she had not and to let the taxi go. The driver began making the “tsk” sound and the next thing we knew he drove off with the door wide open and the crowd of people shouting out behind us.

--PHD