We had breakfast on the balcony listening to the singing from a church drifting across the valley. Yesterday we took out Ugandan Shillings from the Christmas money given to us by the boys in the UK and went to the furniture market. This is amazing and consists of lots of small businesses making and selling mainly wood, cane and raffia furniture alongside the main road into Kampala. With a bit of bargaining we bought two raffia chairs with removable cushions and a small wood and woven raffia coffee table for the balcony. These were freshly varnished so today was the first time we could make use of them. It was so peaceful and lovely to sit on the shady balcony and chat over breakfast.
When we finally dragged ourselves back inside we got on with some washing, e mails and letters to complete the job of closing things down in the UK for 2 years. We had a UK classic for lunch, sausages, mash and gravy with some fresh pineapple and banana to follow. Then an afternoon of reading. At about 5 we thought about going out for a walk, but it was too much effort so we just went downstairs and had a drink and chat with our neighbours for an hour or more.
Our Christmas was also shared with fellow volunteers and friends. There were 5 of us in the flat for Christmas dinner with home-made crackers and everyone providing some of the meal.
We couldn't organise a Christmas Tree this year and anyway all of our carefully accumulated decorations are at home in York, but Glen did a great job with a set of Christmas lights. The little decorations are locally made and sold in craft shops. These will go home and add an African feel to our decorations in years to come.
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