Lisa's first Easter in Africa

I can't stress enough how amazing and generous Ugandans are.

Friday I moved into my new house permanently. Yay! When I arrived there were about six men, including my landlord, working on my bathroom. I was expecting to just use the pit latrines and bathing area out back like I was doing at my homestay. I was mistaken. The bathroom is GORGEOUS. Nicer than most bathrooms I've had in the past.I was only expecting a private area for bathing, but now, I have a full western bathroom. Yes, that includes a toilet, shower, sink, and a soap holder. What?! Totally unexpected. It's going to be weird retraining myself to use a toilet and shower and wash my hands in the sink. But I'll take it :)

So around 10pm the men were done for the day. I was pretty tired so I'm thankful for that. It's customary to give food and drinks to guests, but since I am so new, all I had to offer were ndiizi. Ndiizi are mini sweet bananas. Mini-mini! So we were all sitting in my living room and they each took one and insisted I eat one as well. So, if you can picture this (because it is quite possibly my favorite Uganda-moment yet), little ol' me sitting in my living room with six Ugandan men, eating cute baby bananas. Ugh, priceless.

They returned the next day and worked pretty much the whole day. It was great having company while I cleaned and organized. Plus, Ugandans have a great sense of humor and we got a kick out of each other. They're great. That night while cooking some Indian food (of course) my neighbor Ronnie brought over 3 avocado that he picked from a nearby tree. See--Ugandans are amazing! I can't wait for them to fully ripen. Guacamole anyone???

Sunday...Easter Sunday. I woke up and was determined to paint my room. I spent all morning locked up in my house painting. It's currently a beautiful chocolate brown. I will get beige/gold-ish curtains soon to complete my master-suite. Later that day while I was preparing some veggie filled scrambled eggs, my other neighbor Bwaita called me out to have some fene (jackfruit) with him and Ronnie and his wife Rachel. It was soooo good. He had just climbed the tree and picked it. Epitome of fresh. Rachel shared some food with me as well. Dodo (kind of like spinach) with little fish in it. Kind of like anchovies but dried in the sun--not the jarred ones we have in the states. Very very good. I definitely won't starve here--my neighbors (who I consider my family here) are constantly feeding me. SO that was my Easter. It was nice spending the afternoon with my new Ugandan family. I'll be talking about Ronnie, Rachel, their son Ryanne, and Bwaita a lot.

So today I wanted to continue with Easter festivities. I felt so incomplete yesterday with not having Easter eggs! Probably the strangest religious holiday tradition in the eyes of outsiders. BUT I wanted to share it with my family anyway. So, I cooked up some hard-boiled eggs. Decorated them with colored pencils. And presented them to my family this evening. They were shocked when they saw them. To be quite honest, I think they were trying to be nice but were actually scared of the colored eggs. They think they are soo beautiful, so beautiful in fact that they chose not to eat them right then and there. They want to enjoy their beauty for longer and said they will enjoy them tomorrow. I'll be curious to see if they do. Either way, I got to explain a bit of the culture where I come from and they couldn't stop telling me how great it was and how much they appreciated my offer. Like I said, Ugandans are ridiculously generous, appreciative, and super fabulous people.

So ladies and gentlemen...there you have it. Lisa's first Easter in Africa.