Halloween Havoc in Kampala!

Halloween really isn’t a thing in Uganda, but there was no way that we weren’t going to celebrate it and luckily we have a ton of friends that wanted to celebrate too!  We decided to host a Wine and Cheese event for Halloween, which is an Embassy-sponsored event that all of the American Embassy staff are invited to.  We started to decorate the house and I am really not sure what the guards were thinking as I set up a skeleton BBQ’ing human body parts, walked bloody footprints to our front door, and set a carved pumpkin on fire at the gate.

Your cook for the evening.

Spooooooky!

I think my favorite decoration was a wooden coffin that I turned into an ice cooler for drinks.  I got the coffin from the husband of the person that runs Kids Club Kampala (a group that Katie has volunteered with).  He was talking about how he is teaching carpentry at the villages, and I jokingly asked if they could make a coffin.  Surprisingly he didn’t push off my request but was all for it as the people he is teaching really want to make coffins.  I guess that they just understand that death is a part of life, so they are more than eager to join in the Kampala coffin business.  A little while later I had a really heavy black painted coffin filled with beer sitting in the yard.

Stone cold refreshments.

Katie and I went as Kevin and Russel from Up, while for a few brief moments we had Rascal dressed as Snow White and Munch as a dinosaur roaming the yard.  Our guard's favorite costume was our two friends that came dressed as Ugandan traffic constables.  They would stand in our driveway with the guards and direct cars coming in while looking down at their phones.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone’s guards laugh as hard as ours did that night.  There were lots of other costumes as well and I think everyone was happy to have a little taste of home in Kampala.

Russel, Kevin, and Snow White.

Munchosaurus Rex.

Some of the girls.

Duffmen, ooooohhhhhh yeaaaa!