The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree lighting was last night. And for some reason, I started crying when I saw photos on the front of the NY Times webpage. I like Christmas trees and all, but was surprised to be sitting in my office actually crying over a tree. Maybe I've been watching too much 30 Rock (how did I miss that show when I was in the US?). Maybe it's because Kody's been working on the website. Maybe I was thinking about what a crazy year it's been. Or maybe I'm feeling really homesick these days.

Can't wait for Christmas...

CHOGM finally arrived. Up until the last day, the preparations were still underway. On Wednesday sidewalks were being laid, flags put up, and we got guardrails in strategic roadside locations. Thursday and Friday were declared public holidays (maybe so the motorcades wouldn't have to deal with regular Kampala traffic). So I headed out to Fort Portal with Sharon and Jonas.

I got a Thanksgiving holiday, but not the delicious dinner to go with it....over-boiled chicken, chapati and guacamole. I didn't bother opening the can of cranberry sauce I'd brought along, just in case.

Colobus monkeys sleeping off a big lunch near our bandas at Lake Nkuruba

View of Lake Nyamirima and Lake Nyinabulita (both crater lakes) from Top of the World. It was a little too cloudy to really see the Rwenzori mountains that day.

Collecting rainwater at a hillside compound

Girl bringing water back from the well



Rockin the old school boombox

Caught in a rain storm and sheltering in someone's house

And then caught in the mud

Pulled out with a little help from the village

View from our lakeside bandas at Lake Nyinabulita, home to the areas only hippo (be careful if you decide to go for a swim)

Scarecrow in the fields near the Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary

Walking through the Bigodi wetlands

Stag horn ferns growing on orange-flowered trees

Cacoa tree

Olive baboons

My first documented sighting of Uganda's national bird, the crested crane

View towards Bundibugyo, in the Rwenzori Mountain foothills

Butcher shop in town on the way home

On his way to the butcher shop?

Just learned that my camera has a widescreen view. Dang!

I'm finally online at home! That may not sound like a major accomplishment, but this is the end (I hope!) of a three month process to find and install a good internet connection at my house. So, I can skype - and hopefully video chat - keep the blog a little more up to date, and generally keep in touch with folks.

Now I just need to figure out how to get my bluetooth working...

Kampala's getting ready for Christmas. I've started my shopping...although I've bought myself more presents than for anyone else yet. Who doesn't need a post-robbery pick-me-up, though? Christmas tunes are on the radio and singing winter wonderland just isn't the same without Rebecca and wearing a sundress. Still trying to figure out how I'll decorate the house when I host a small party for my work mates. From the selection I saw at Uchumi (the big supermarket at the big mall), I don't think I'll be getting a tree this year.


Charlie Brown trees, every last one of em.

I've been watching this scaffolding go up, and wondering what monstrous billboard is going to be on the front of Garden City. I've been told that it's going to be a drive in! One of my favorite memories is of the drive in when I was a kid. We'd park backwards in our big 80s brown van, put the seats down into a bed, and eat pizza while we watched ghostbusters. Curious to see how this one - on the top of a parking garage - turns out.

Saturday started out pretty good. I worked a little more on getting internet at home (maybe this week! Yippee!) and met up with some friends for lunch. I started my Christmas shopping and read a little. In the evening, I headed out to meet friends for dinner and everything went down hill.

I took the shortest route – through the industrial area – to get to the new Chinese Restaurant/Motel in Kololo. You can’t miss it – its draped with hundreds of lights. I waited for the cars to pass to make my turn on the connecting road and was thinking about whether I actually knew which street the restaurant was on. All of a sudden, my door yanked open and a man was reaching into my car. It looked like he was trying to climb IN. I screamed at him to get the f*** out and tried to push him away. I drove off, and then realized that he’d taken my purse with him. Damn. I’d thought about just putting some cash and my driving permit in the purse, but felt lazy and took the whole wallet. So in addition to losing some cash, all of my credit cards, and having to close my bank accounts, I’d lost my favorite brown wallet. I’ve carried this wallet since I was 18. I bought in Gilroy, CA at the same place I bought my cherry penny loafers for my Overtones uniform. I loved that wallet. And it had a really cute picture of me, my parents, and big sis in it, too. Mom had her afro, and Papa still had a mustache.

Jonas took me down to the police station to file a report. No computers – just a big paper register. Here’s my ‘receipt’ and complaint number. The people who stamp the reports weren’t in, so I’ll have to go back for a copy of that. A fabulous souvenir of my time in Uganda.

After the police station, we met the rest of the group at the Korean restaurant and then I went home to cancel every single account I have. L But the Korean food was pretty good.

Anyone know how to fix the black screen of ipod death? I’m not ready to part with mine yet, but I don’t think it can be resuscitated.

:(

I headed out of town this weekend with some friends to go to Sipi Falls, about 5 hours east of Kampala. Shamefully, Jinja (about 90 minutes from Kampala) was as far east as I’d been until this trip. We got some coffee on the way, and I was ecstatic to have my first to-go cup in months. 5 hours later we arrived in Sipi after climbing the long and winding hillside. We hadn’t booked so, had to hunt around for a place to stay. A tent is definitely on my shopping list for the next US trip.

After breakfast, we headed out for a hike to the falls. We picked up an entourage of local children along the way, and we went right to the base of one of the falls.

Cutting wood on the edge of the valley's steep hillsides

Sunday morning, we all headed over the top of the falls to watch a few of our group abseil (aka repel down the cliff side next to the falls). Maybe next time I’ll get into the harness. For now, I was perfectly content to watch the others as they went over the cliff.

Thanks for sharing your photos, Larry, Jonas and Kasper!