HAPPY CHRISTMAS 2018!!

I have just spent my 14th Christmas in Africa! And I think this Christmas is the busiest Christmas season I have had in Africa so far...

Packed with events and festivities, Christmas in Kampala has been a special time of celebrating the birth of Jesus and the peace and joy His presence brings.

We started with a Christmas Concert and Carols at Kampala's Namirembe cathedral. I had the wonderful privelege of singing in the choir as part of The Kampala Singers:

Our choir sang on Saturday and Sunday evenings, performing Benjamin Britten's "A Cermemony of Carols" and singing verious pieces of Christmas themed music. The family all came to listen, as did several faithful friends from MAF.

This was the culmination of months of  choir practices on Tuesday evenings, where I have taken a boda (motorbike taxi) to the practices to avoid horrible city traffic (sometimes eating a snack as I ride!!)

:

The view from my seat on one of my Tuesday evening boda rides:

Beating the crazy traffic on my boda- horray!! If you look closely you can see cars going up AND down the same lane on this road, causing a complete standstill as they meet bumper to bumper! My driver simply rode his motorbike down the dirt at the side of the road to help me make choir practice on time!!

Between the two concerts, at 6am on Sunday morning, Esther and I got up to go and join the thousands of participants in the annual Kampala MTN marathon. Last year, I ran the 10km race, but this year felt too busy, so Esther and I opted to jog/ walk the 5km option, together with some other friends from MAF:

Fresh-faced before the race:

The crowds as we started off just after 7am:

Coming in to the finish, Esther runs ahead to try to beat her Mum!

I am not so fresh-faced at the end of the race, as we find some of our friends after it is all over!

AT SCHOOL

At school, Joel, Ben and Esther were in separate Christmas concerts, so I had triple fun in attending all 3 concerts for each stage of school (secondary, junior and "elementary"):

JOEL in his concert (singing and playing the drums):

BEN'S concert,  where he was playing the trumpet and singing with the group:

ESTHER in her evening concert, playing the flute in the "band":

AT CHURCH

There was also a lovely Christmas play at our Kampala church, where Esther acted as a shepherd and Joel as a sheep in the background!

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING

Of course, it wouldn't be Kampala without getting stuck in traffic when we went Christmas shopping! Six kids and two mums... in one car for a total of 2 and a half hours last week on a route that normally takes half an hour each way- but with so many kids to keep each other complany, it was (mostly) smiles and fun for almost all the way!

CHRISTMAS CANTATA at Watoto Church

On Sunday morning last week, we headed early to the "Watoto" church in the centre of town to watch their incredible Cjristmas performance.

Special light effects and amazing sound brought a powerful Christmas message of HOPE alive to thousands of us in the audience. The church has a huge capacity and this event is an annual, very popular Christmas tradition in Kampala.

 As a family, we loved every minute! What a lively and energetic Christmas performance, set firmly in modern-day Kampala and ancient Bethlehem, all brought to life on a simple stage by special computer effects and excellent singing and acting. Brilliant!

The message was clear too- only through Jesus and His birth do we find real light and hope in our lives.

CHRISTMAS DAY

This Christmas day, we had the joy of celebrating with friends at our house.

 Five other families joined ours as we did a bring-and-share bar-B-Q lunch. We are so very thankful for the people God has placed around us in our Kampala community and it was fun to get toghter with some of them yesterday. It was such a happy day celebrating the birthday of Jesus together.

Christmas Lunch in Kampala 2018:

The men (and mini-man Joel!)  around the BBQ, keeping an eye on the Christmas dinner meat!

Christmas day charades: Esther's team try to guess her clues:

What on earth is this clue??

It turns out it was "oxen lowing"!!! That's a tough one to act out in silence in charades!!

Ben is pensive while his team tries to guess the clues:

Whatever you have been busy with this Christmas season, we hope you have found peace and had some special moments to enjoy the gift of Christmas and all the life and hope it brings to us.

We would like to wish you all the very best for the rest of this Christmas season and for the new year as we approach 2019.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!

And finally....

I had to laugh when I walked past our Nativity scence in our lounge the oher day. One of our children had rearraged the figures so that the angel was flying in on the wings of an aeroplane!! Surely only a MAF kid would think of that??

                                                         
                                                      HAPPY CHRISTMAS from Kampala!!

SURVIVAL

Ben turned 11 this weekend.

To celebrate, he invited 5 friends, plus his brother, for a SURVIVAL party, with the intrepid Bear Grylls as inspiration!

The boys were given 7 challenges to test their skill, strength and resilience to survive in the African wilds!

1. The First Challenge:

This was an obstacle course set up in the garden, involving old aeroplane tyres (you can tell that Ben's dad is a MAF pilot!), clambering over a ladder suspended on chairs, splashing through a paddling pool (a "swamp" if you use your imagination!), carrying heavy rocks and balancing along a strap-line.

2. Challenge Number 2:

2. Challenge Number 3.

 The party participants found some old sticks and whittled them or tore them to create basic fork-like instruments- which they would be using on their next challenge...


4. Challenge Number 4

Would-be Survivors were presented with some natural- but maybe not so appetising- foods, to test their ability to survive on foods found in the African wild...

Grasshoppers (a very popular local delicacy), snails (ready-cooked), vine leaves and "maggots" (which were in reality tinned shrimps!).
To be fair, the survivors did well, with all them trying the tasty (??) morsels,even if that just meant a tiny nibble!

5. Challenge Number 5

 

6. Challenge Number 6

The target animals were drawn by a good friend (I am no artist!) and placed in the garden. This may be the only way of getting food in the wild, so target practise was part of the survival!

 7. Challenge Number 7

The boys were hungry and it was time to get that fire going and cook some dinner- once they had found it, as parts of it had been hidden all over the garden!

After the challenges were complete and the food was cooked, it was time for the worm-infested mud-cake, decorated by Esther:

As night fell, the boys moved into the "cave" to watch a couple of Bear Grylls survival episodes, before moving to their tent outdoors for sleeping!

The boys finally settled down to sleep by 11pm and all was quiet in the garden.... until the African rain POUNDED down from drk skies around 2am!

By 5am, a load of muddy, damp boys emerged from their tent and started collecting damp firewaood to rekindle their fire! 

By 7am, the fire was burning well and bacon, eggs, beans and sausages were cooked by enthusiastic and peckish survivors! This was their final activity before parents came to collect their filthy, tired, but happy boys-  who had proved their ability to manage in the African bush!

What a way to celebrate an 11th birthday- but oh-so-appropriate for our African-born Ben!!