Presents, of a sort.

It’s that time of year when that man in red, Father Christmas (or Babu Christmassy), begins his world tour, and this week it was time for him to come to Tanzania. This was a bit of a shock to the old fella as he is used to the temperature at his home at the North Pole. 

Irene came across him when she attended a local craft fair. He certainly attracted a lot of attention with the children, especially when he handed out sweets and presents.

But the older children didn’t want to miss out either – there is no limit when it comes to Santa.

And when the African drums started there was no holding him back.

However, even Babu C is not as groovy as one of our shop staff, Athman. Although he has stunted growth he is a big character that always has a presence enjoying dancing to all kinds of music, even with someone hanging from his back.

At Neema Crafts Athman, as well as all staff, are represented by colleagues on the Democratic Workers Committee. This meets once a month with management (aka Malcolm for the next 4 months) to discuss areas of concern to staff. One of the treats at these meetings are plates of pop-corn.

Near to us is the ‘Gentle Hills Hotel’. Its name creates thoughts of green hills and clear flowing water. For some reason, however, the owner decided to decorate the entrance with a model of a leopard carrying home a dead deer, perhaps as a present to its family.

There was another sort of present this week. Earlier one of our guard dogs, Bella, decided to fine a safe place to give birth in the shelter of some rocks. This week she gave birth to 5 puppies.

A Bunch of Terrorists?

Who are ISIS? Are they:

1.       An Islamic terrorist organisation, or

2.       A charitable foundation funding Kiwoko Hospital’s Maternity and HIV clinics for the past 10 years?

Because the answer is both,  ISIS (the 2^nd one) have recently been getting funny looks. For example, when they got their car insured in Uganda, they were asked ‘Do you want terrorism cover included?”

They could have taken legal action against ISIS (the 1^st one) about breach of copyright, but decided this may not be a healthy thing to do. So,  this week ISIS (the 2^nd one) changed their name to Adara. 

As part of the communication of this Malcolm came across some staff making a video.

You can see the full video explaining the name change, and the work of Adara on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=V0lLcpEGuqQ

Not to be out-done, Malcolm is also making a video of the work of the HIV clinic. This involves attending a range of clinics and visiting some of the community work to take video of some of the 2,000 patients.

Malcolm himself almost felt hijacked this week. Not known for his sporting prowess (another of his (very) hidden talents) he finds it a bit unnerving living with those who regularly go jogging and other energetic activities. This week, early morning, he innocently walked onto the verandah of his house to discover a full scale ’30 minute workout with Davina”. Terrified, he had to go back and lie down again.

To round things off, Santa has also been hijacked. Two weeks ago we mentioned Father Christmas had visited Kiwoko Hospital. We are sorry to report that he must have become a victim of the white slave trade. This week an imposter was discovered by the hospital laboratory waiting for his test results.

 

(Editor’s note for our younger readers (i.e. younger than Malcolm, which is all of you): Both  these characters are imposters – the ‘real’ Father Christmas is meant to come on Christmas Eve – he is currently busy at work in Greenland, not Uganda.  It’s just as well Santa is not known in Uganda, as his outfit can be borrowed by children here  like a coat to keep them warm, without attracting any attention).

  

This week’s African Proverb from the BBC’s website is from South Sudan: “A cowardly hyena lives longer but it suffers the most”. 

Party, Party Time

‘Tis the season to ……celebrate Christmas

 In Uganda Christmas creeps up quietly. Without TV we are not bombarded with adverts and there is little else to remind us that Christmas is approaching. Yesterday there were some builders at the hospital with a machine repeatedly playing the electronic version of ‘Jingle Bells’ and a mechanical Santa was spotted in a Kampala Shopping Mall.

But it is time to celebrate.

 The first was the Children’s Christmas Party last weekend. This had all the normal ingredients including a nativity play (with sheep), dancing and lots of food.

 

 

Unusually (for us) it was held in the open air in the hot sunshine.

 

 

Yesterday it was time for the party for Staff and Students.

 

The main entertainment was provided by groups of staff and students. Our contribution was a dance set to the 2010 Football World Cup theme song (Waka Waka). This provided great entertainment to the African audience as most of the dancers were the white staff, with some local senior managers to enhance the rhythmic ‘style’.

 

Santa did make an appearance, in a sketch put on by the Children’s Ministry Team – but he wasn’t taken too seriously.

 

 

This week another bug dropped in. It is difficult to know which is the front, and which the back.

 

 

This week’s African proverb from the BBC Africa web-site is from Sierra Leone“What a sober man has in his brain a drunkard has on his tongue”