Merry Christmas

Well, our day is over, though it's mid-stream for many of you still.
I'm tired and sore, my tummy is full from lunch feast left-overs, the kids are soundly sleeping after an exciting day.

We've all been gearing up, preparing, reminding ourselves and our children the two ways we celebrate (Santa Clause traditions around us and the birth of our Savior), and about the first gifts brought to Jesus. Decorating to various degrees, wrapping packages, baking Christmas cookies and delightfully decorating them...

All these preparations for the BIG DAY.

Yesterday was busy at the Shelton home, preparing to host about 35 people--outside of course as the weather is beautiful (if not too hot). The yard had to be just right, tables and chairs outside, a tent put up to shade from the sun...
And to marinate and fit in the fridge: 4 chickens, 3 pork roasts, 4 beef fillets (here, a fillet at the butcher is the long strip all the way down the cow which is cut into small slices in the States--and cheaper than chicken breasts here) and a bunch of sausages.

Near the end of the sunlight, we discovered an 'issue'. But before telling you about that, I have to explain our water system here. We have a 'main' water pipe that brings water from the city. It is not on all the time. So every house has a plastic big water tank that sits atop a stilted platform above the roof line...the higher the better for water pressure in the house. We actually have even a reserve tank that is also filled by the 'main' when that is flowing. So if the top tank empties, we have to go out and turn on the pump to pump from the tank sitting on the ground up into the top one.
Upon peeking into the bottom tank, as we do out of curiosity from time to time, we discovered that the kids had apparently been 'playing'...if you could call it that. It was full of palm tree nuts (hundreds) and leaves and grim and grit...and as it turned out a couple of long earth worms, a couple of slugs, and likely other things we're glad we couldn't see. It was brown, and clearly not what we wanted feeding into our home. So, to make a long story short, we undertook the not-so-easy job of cleaning it out--racing the sun going down.

Oddly enough, part of our decision was because there was no water coming in from the main. That's not so unusual for brief times...usually. After the girls' bath and Anthony's shower, I found out that the top water tank was empty. And of course now there was no reserve in the bottom tank--it was wiped clean and bone dry. And this is late evening before we are hosting Christmas lunch the next day!

It was a bit of a stressful morning, but friends 2 houses away let us fill up large jugs of water at their home and another friend brought over more. (these large jugs are what thousands of Ugandans walk with from their homes to the water tap somewhere and then walk to carry back to their homes--it's usually the children's chore.)

It's amazing what one can do here.
I used to abhor cleaning out the gunk in the sink drain after washing dishes (along with a dear friend--I think of you Jessica every time I do it here and say a prayer for your family!) And now I just reach in and scoop it out. Having no dish washer forces me to not waste time worrying about that gunk.
Another example: No cooking gas for my gas stove and oven for 2 weeks (and over Thanksgiving). I laughed as I sent a message to my parents: "Me Jane. Me cook outside over fire. Anthony Tarzan. Anthony gather food." I just used a little 'sigiri' which is a car wheel rim, turned on it's side with legs wielded on and small feet that precariously hold pots over the fire--fill it with local charcoal and voila.
And today, for Christmas, no running water.

I know many, many people throw up their hands and say or at least think: "COME HOME!"

But, today we hosted families from Holland, Britain, Canada, the U.S. & a family from the Philippines came last minute as they had no where to celebrate. All but us and one other family have adopted Ugandan/African children. All of us are far from our native homes and blood families. But all of us called here to join God in what He is doing here. And it's all part of life. We all pitched in together, nobody flinched to see a big jug of water next to the toilet. None of the women minded boiling tea kettles of water to help wash silverware for dessert, and then helping wash up after everyone was full to bursting.

How far removed I feel from the modern conveniences I once never knew were out of the ordinary for millions of people around the world.

So, after a fabulous meal put together by each family bringing a contribution, we gathered back and crowded all in our living room for Anthony to read the story of the birth of Christ. We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus, and the kids blew out the candle.

Mmmmm, a new favorite: pecan pie cake. It was the favorite of everyone at our house today!

What a wonderful, wondrous fellowship we had today. Phone calls from family which started yesterday and will continue through tomorrow are sweet times to feel connected with our families in Texas and Arkansas.
Yet God has provided us with many families here--widely varried ourselves, but sharing a common strand nonetheless.
We are third culture.
We are no longer exclusively 'yellow' from our home country.
We are not 'blue' from our current host country's culture.
We are 'green'.

Forever a shade of green.