"Welcome home, eat some grasshoppers..."

My poor, neglected blog! I will try to faithfully update it more often....!

It's definitely not easy to be away from family during the holiday season. Pennsylvania -----> Africa is slightly far! My family was at the forefront of my mind all day, but I refused to feel sorry for myself. Even though I miss them, I'm thankful that I have a family to miss. Skype is a fantastic invention, and I took full advantage of it yesterday...it almost felt like I was in Pennsylvania with my 15 family members (extended fam too). Thanks to a relative's webcam, I saw my family for the first time in nearly half a year!

My Thanksgiving menu this year was....unique. Wednesday night, I returned home to Kampala after a 10-day trip to Kenya (absolutely fantastic; many photos will be posted soon). My Ugandan neighbor greeted me Thanksgiving morning and said, "Welcome home, we missed you! I made you something special...." and before I knew it, she was handing me a plate containing grasshoppers. Don't believe me? See the photo for yourself....!

I took a deep breathe and told her, "I'll be honest--I need a minute to mentally prepare myself for this, but I'm gonna do it!" and before I knew it, I had eaten about 15 grasshoppers...there was no way I could finish the entire plate, though. Surprisingly, they taste somewhat sweet, and if you can get past the fact that the eyeballs are staring at you, then it's fine. Although maybe next time I'll dip them in Nutella!

Here in Uganda, I was blessed to celebrate Thanksgiving with two American friends, plus a few of their Ugandan friends + German friends. We cooked Thanksgiving dinner without power (we lose power quite often here)--as the sun was setting, I was outside the flat (taking advantage of the remaining natural light) mashing potatoes with a glass jar. Everything came together well, and we had a blast.

Today, I had the opportunity to see a familiar face from my hometown in PA! My friend, Andy, is Ugandan (but currently lives in the U.S.) so he's here working on a neat photo project. It was great to catch up with him over lunch. You may be interested to see Andy's brilliant photography (Ugandans expressing their voices, re: the upcoming election)! http://www.voicesofuganda.com/

You may or may not know this about me, but I absolutely love live theater/dance performances/etc. Tonight, my roommate and I went to a Modern Dance festival in the city. It featured dancers from Rwanda, the Congo, and of course, Uganda. The dancers were quite talented, and I can't help but wish God gave me a bit of dancing talent so I could move like them! ;)

Enjoy your weekend, everyone!