Independence Day

First of all, I do apologize for not blogging more frequently. The week flew by and electricity was quite intermittent. We are doing well - so no need to worry.

Friday was Uganda's Independence Day. Joel spent the morning buying cows and we chose to celebrate Uganda's Independence Day in American fashion! We piled in the car, adding three more people on the way (for a grand total of 12 - the most so far - but I do feel required to confess that 5 of the 12 were Dade's size or smaller), to go and see the "marching". It was described like a parade and since it's not always in Mbarara, we were excited to have the chance. Well, we arrived an hour after the official start time of 9 a.m. and waited for almost 1 1/2 hours before any official marching began.

In the meantime, we sat around the car with the tail gate down (not quite what I would call "tail-gating" but close). Dade took shelter from the sun under the tail gate.

It was hot and all you could do was watch other people. One school arrived with a truck full of kids and they marched very excited and eager. One of my friends said, "You can tell they are happy because of how they are marching."

I ended up taking the kids and walking about 1/2 mile to get some water bottles for now and a watermelon for later. We came back just in time to see the marching. I think all of our friends were happy they went.

Once home, we didn't let the spirit die. We made Ugandan flags from construction paper - sorry I don't have pictures of the end results.

We had popcorn balls...

roasted marshmallows...

and watermelon. Joel made it home before the snacks were all eaten and enjoyed playing with Dade one of those games a mother cannot appreciate. I'll explain...Joel would take a ponga (a long knife) and make it stick in a tree branch.

Dade would follow behind him and try to knock the ponga down with a stick. After the second time Dade successfully knocked it down (successful because he hit it with his stick and because he didn't lose a toe in the process), I had to say something. We still had fun throwing balls around and stuff. It was a good day.

Later that same day, Joel took a friend and 2 goats to a nearby village to deliver the goats to our friends home. I'm not sure they were impressed with being allowed to be the first animals in our new car (I have a funny feeling they won't be the last)...