Do They Know It’s Christmas?

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except for Rascal who will not stay out of the Christmas tree no matter how much we yell at her!  Christmas in Kampala is a bit different than back home since there was not a single snowflake in the 75-degree weather, and we were wearing shorts and t-shirts.  It was even too warm to enjoy a cup of hot chocolate.

Merry Christmas from Greg, Katie, & Rascal!

Though the weather wasn’t the norm for us, we kept the Christmas Day atmosphere by relaxing together in front of a wood fire crackling on the TV, while the lights on the tree twinkled and classic Christmas songs played in the background.  Even Rascal got into the Christmas spirit after she opened her stocking and started playing with her new toys.  We were ready to spend a relaxing Christmas Day at home, but instead decided to go to an Embassy friend’s house and enjoy good company and food at their pig roast!  Not your regular way to enjoy the holiday ham, but it was definitely tasty and fun.  We may just have to take this tradition home with us the next time we are back for Christmas!

Rascal was very excited for her stocking!

Christmas morning.

So, do they know it’s Christmas here in Uganda?  Yes, they do, especially in the stores.  Like back home, the big stores put a ton of toys and decorations (trees, lights, etc.) right in the front and the usual Christmas music plays over the loudspeakers.  The Marines here had a toy drive at the Embassy and delivered the gifts to a local orphanage and played with the kids there.  And as for the reason for the season, tons of locals head to Christmas Day mass dressed up in their Sunday best.

Some parts of Kampala Christmas are the same as home, but nothing can beat a snowy Christmas morning with that cup of hot chocolate and a real wood fireplace.

The Annual Chizziz and Beer Fest!

Saying goodbye to people at Post is always hard, but is a way of life in the Foreign Services.  Everyone has something different that they want to do as a part of their going away party, but one of the Marines planned what is now going to be an annual event.  For his going away party, he planned a chili and beer fest.  Anyone who came could bring chili, and he enlisted the homebrewers to make a batch of whatever we wanted to be judged.  All of the brewers were more than happy to provide a drink, and we all worked together to make sure that each brewer had what they needed and were ready to represent.

While I was the Dustman representation for the homebrew competition, both Katie and I were representing for the chili portion.  Katie made a beef chili and I made a lamb chili with bourbon and beer named Hammered Lamb.  For a little while, I was in a kick of cooking with bourbon and this seemed like a fun recipe to try.  Katie’s chili was delicious and mine was tasty, though a bit sweet which is somewhat the opposite of what you expect from chili.

We definitely had a competition to win the best chili, as a ton of people brought their own concoctions.  Spicy or not, beans or no beans, vegetarian, cornbread, rice, or pasta accompanied, any type of chili you could want you could get.  To wash it down, there were seven brewers handing out their homebrewed beer.  I made a Maple Bacon Stout, called Sticky Pig, made with real bacon and also maple bacon vodka.  You could really taste the maple and it finished with a bacon flavor.  The maple taste took over as the beer got older, but I was pretty happy with that brew.  It could have gone really bad and been too sweet, but instead tasted good and I got a lot of compliments.

Being a competition, there had to be winners for both the beer and chili.  For the beer, an IPA and a Pale Ale took the top two spots.  The chili is where the real surprise came.  2^nd place chili was a beef chili with quinoa and cilantro which tasted really good.  The overall winner though was a vegan chili!  I have no idea how a vegan chili won the competition, but after a few laughs, the two winners were given their trophies.  The awards were hand carved from a local woodcarver and were definitely works of art.  Mostly because of how chili was spelled on them.  The carver spelled chili as chizziz!  The Marine that ordered the carvings still has no idea how the woodcarver got that spelling, but the misspelling made the awards that much better.

From now on the competition is going to be renamed to the Chizziz and Beer Fest, and while I don’t know what I am going to brew yet, I can’t wait for the next one!

Keeping Up with the Marines

Most Embassies, including Kampala, have a Marine detachment, and Greg and I have become very friendly with all the guys/girls at our Post.  Since they are far from their homes, friends, and families, like us, we always make sure to include them in dinners, events, and outings.  Sometimes we feel like their older siblings since, for the most part, they're younger than us (and we're one of the youngest couples at Post).  Plus, it’s always good to be friends with the people that are in charge of protecting you!

The Marines are always involved in the special and formal Embassy events, but the main event for the Marines that brings out almost everyone from the Embassy and the host country is the United States Marine Corps Birthday Ball.  The official day is November 10^th (a Tuesday this year), but the ball was held on the Saturday after so that everyone could party hardy!  We were not sure what to expect since this was our first U.S. Embassy Ball, but we survived the Irish Ball earlier in the year, so we're ready and excited for another reason to get fancy.  For the Irish Ball, we had a friend’s driver take all of us, but this time around we hired a private matatu driver to arrive in style!  That is if you count being dressed very fancy and emerging from a beat-up minibus as arriving in style.  We’d show a picture of our chariot, but unfortunately, when we asked the driver to take a picture of all of us at the end of the night, he had his finger on the zoom and only got a picture of one of our heads :(

We expected the Marine Ball to be like the Irish Ball and have a speaker, some entertainment, and then on to the music, but we had no idea that the Marines had so many traditions!  Since neither of us comes from military families and this is our first Post, it was very interesting to watch the Marines perform the ceremonies for the evening.  Stern and formal looking, our easy-going Marines now marched into the ballroom as a strong force to present the U.S. flag and go through their motions as a unit.  Readings and speeches were then done, and one speaker asked us to look to the back of the room and reflect on the somber tradition of a single lone table draped in black with one chair to remind us all of our fallen Marines who are no longer with us.  While the mood was very dignified and respectful, there were also more lighthearted traditions like the cutting of the Marine birthday cake.  The first slice of cake is given to the oldest Marine present, who in turn passes it off to the youngest Marine present, symbolizing the old and experienced Marines passing their knowledge to the new generation.  The oldest Marine was announced first and was a gentleman in his 80’s.  A respectful clap for his service happened and then the age of the youngest Marine was announced.  A painful “I’m so old groan” came from the crowd as it was announced that the youngest Marine was a female who was only 20 years old!  Everyone had a good laugh, but she and the rest of the Marines along with all the other military branches present were then given a respectful round of applause.

Greg & Katie at the 2015 Marine Ball.

The girls!

Out on the dance floor.

They clean up nicely.

After the ceremony traditions concluded, we were served dinner and then it was time to party.  We had a great evening with all our friends, I’m excited to see how next year's Marine Ball will go!

Two weeks later we started to get ready for Turkey Day, and instead of having just a dinner for Greg and myself, we decided to put together a Friendsgiving feast.  The list of people for the meal kept getting bigger and bigger, so the Gunnery Sergeant and his wife offered to host at the Marine house.  The day of, I think we had close to 40 people, 4 turkeys, 2 hams, and mass amounts of sides, desserts, and drinks.  Everyone looked very happy to have all the tastes of home, along with some great company to enjoy Thanksgiving in Kampala.

As many of you know, Thanksgiving is my all-time favorite holiday.  With this being our first Thanksgiving away from our families and on the other side of the world, I wasn’t sure how it was going to be.  However, we were surrounded by more friends than I thought possible and we had a Friendsgiving that I will never forget.