Nick and Julie

Last weekend we visited a few of the 31 Bit’s ladies at their homes. What we thought would be a casual visit soon turned into a progressive dinner, African style. The day started out at Oneka Hellen’s house. We ate a nice traditional Ugandan dish called Bo and eggs. She proudly showed us her land were she owns four huts and grows maize, beans, and cassava through out the year. Hellen is in the graduating class at 31 Bits and she is planning on raising pigs once she graduates. She already has bought two puppies to help guard the future piggery. The puppies names our Nick and Julie, two more namesakes for us!

Hellen then escorted us to Anena Rose’s home were we were welcomed by all of her children. Rose is usually a quiet and reserved woman at work but at her own home she surprised us with her excitement and laughing. Rose served us soda and mendozi, an African style donut. We were not expecting food at Rose’s house but we graciously accepted her hospitality.
After eating and feeling rather full with soda and food, Hellen led the way to Okwera Margret’s home. We enjoyed the nice walk from house to house since we were digesting two meals already.
It is once again rainy season and Gulu has transformed back into the beautiful green place it was when we first moved here. The walk was really refreshing, it is so easy to forget how beautiful Gulu can be. Margret had been expecting us for a while and when we finally arrived she was so relieved. We had our third meal of the afternoon with Margret and her family. African hospitality will not let you go away hungry. As the sun was setting we walked back with Hellen to her house and said our goodbyes just as the rain started to fall. After a great afternoon of spending time with the ladies at their homes, we hopped on our motorcycle and headed home.

We celebrated Easter while in Malindi, Kenya, a small beach town on the Indian ocean. We were very glad to get out of Uganda and see other parts of East Africa. Kenya is a beautiful country with friendly people. Malindi has a large Italian community along with a rich Muslim culture. The town was exotic and quirky and we fully enjoyed its luxuries of gelato ice cream, pizza, new fruits and vegetables, and cheeses. Our house came fully equipped with a cleaning staff and private chef named Sammy. Sammy kept us well fed with fresh seafood and other delicious meals. We got away from work to relax, read, and swim. 

We celebrated Nick’s 23rd Birthday on March 30th. Finding fun ways to celebrate can be challenging here in Gulu but he had a great day just the same. We started the day by eating peach pancakes in bed. The peaches were from a can but they were still delicious. Unfortunately we had to work, but our managers celebrated by cooking Nick a chicken for lunch. Ugandan women singing happy birthday is always a good time. After work we had a nice dinner and watched a movie while eating homemade fudge. Nick’s real birthday present is a vacation to the Kenyan coast next week. He is looking forward to celebrating his 24th next year with you all!

I love you Nick

Watson loves you too.

- Julie

One of the joys of living and working in a different country is the sharing of one another’s cultures. Nick and I have had many opportunities to eat the local food. Last friday we decided to teach our managers at 31 Bits how to make a very traditional American food, the pancake. They all had a lot of fun learning how to make and eat pancakes. We even served them with syrup, bananas and peanut butter. Gladies and Tina even wrote down the recipe and made them at home for their families.

Eunice and her son Emmanuel learning how to flip a pancake with a makeshift spatula. 

This is Polyn.

We had the most amazing vacation of our lives when Mikey and Jim came out a few weeks ago. We stayed in a nice bed and breakfast in Stonetown and then spent Christmas at a resort on the beach. We missed our families in America a lot during the holidays, but this vacation was a nice distraction. 

My dad and brother are coming out to Africa next week. We are going to spend Christmas in Zanzibar and the new year in Gulu. We couldn’t be more excited.