We’ve really enjoyed the company of Phil and Swanny (friends from St Mary's Medical School) over the past 3 weeks and 3 months respectively and are sad to see them both go this week. They have been an integral part of our adventures here and we will really miss them.
Amy’s birthday continued with an overnight camping trip to Lake Nabugabo, an idyllic setting about 2.5 hours West of Kampala. 9 of us, 2 tents and a BBQ squeezed into Jasper and we arrived to find we had the resort to ourselves, apart from the donkeys. We pitched camp right on the beach and spent 2 happy days lazing in and by the lake, playing games and dining on freshly caught fish. We topped off Amy's birthday with marshmallows toasted on our camp fire and BBQ'd chocolate bananas.
Amys 8th birthday party was themed along High School Musical lines, especially poignant as our friend Naltalie, who is currently living with us, bears an uncanny resemblance to the leading lady, Gabriella (as pictured with the girls here). To build up to the movie screening (projected from our laptop onto a wall) we had face painting, a nail bar, and jewellry making. And to work off the excesses of the party tea, we were subjected to the sing-along/dance-along version!
Alan went with Bella to introduce the Ugandan children at Naomi's nursery to the wonders of Playdoh, made from flour, water, salt and colouring. They played with it for hours and seemed to enjoy sticking it to their faces!
Last weekend we visited a village 2 hours outside Kampala with new VSO arrivals Diane and Sarah. Diane's sister was adopted from the village and she is now setting up a mother and toddler group there. We stayed for some delicious lunch and the women put on a traditional Ugandan dance for us. We were made to feel very welcome. The girs swapped versions of their favourite games with the gang of local children, which included variations on 'Oranges and Lemons', 'What's the Time Mr Wolf?' and a lethal game of Tug of War with no rope!
2009 drew to a close with horse-riding, a boat trip on Lake Victoria and even a round of golf amongst the sugar plantations. And the New Year was brought in on the Nile at Jinja.
We also managed to commission a fetching pink rabbit hutch to house the 2 Christmas bunnies that we had bought for the girls, although transporting it home on Christmas Eve proved a challenge! The bunnies have been the centre of attention ever since, although Alan’s herb garden is suffering somewhat. 
Much to the girls delight, Santa managed to find his way to our house in Kampala, although Grandpa Cowan and Alan were only too eager to be the back-up plan, in case he got lost. We were 20 strong for Christmas lunch around the pool at Speke Resort and in sympathy with the British weather, we had rain all day!
Staff were thin on the ground at the Red Chilli Rest Camp in Murchison Falls…
...obviously we don't mean these fine specimens (but we couldn't resist including them!)
Sorry for the recent radio silence due to lack of reliable internet access and now the flurry of backdated news, but here we go...
Christmas is approaching fast and it doesn't have the same commercial profile here as in the UK. However, we've managed to get a nice tacky Christmas tree including flashing lights and have made some of our own decorations. Bella came with Alan to a friend, Naomi's, nursery the other day and we made snowman masks. They had obviously never seen a snowman, but seemed to quickly get the idea and were soon up to their eyes in glue and cotton wool! There was even a panto on at the theatre in town, which we attended along with every other expat in Kampala. Just trying to find a carol service to attend and hope that santa gets his letters from the girls with the Ugandan post!
Following a very generous donation from the publisher Macmillan via the fantastic efforts of Ed in St Albans, Alan was able to visit the Railway School today with a number of oversize picture books. These books are perfect for the huge classes here as everyone can easily see the pictures and follow the story. The books consisted of the Gruffalo and several others in the same series and they were greeted with great enthusiasm and wonder by all the children - it was like an early Christmas present!Alan then treated' them to a reading of each book before they break up for 2 months holiday this week. The school holidays are not necessarily greeted with the same enthusiasm as they are in the UK, as not all of the children can guarantee a meal at home whereas they are assured of this each day at school. That said, several of them have even had to drop out of school before the end of year exams this term, as they don't have the £10/term to pay for meals and equipment. 
For one month only it's grasshopper season and you can buy them nicely sauteed on nearly every street corner in Uganda. Our Ugandan friend Innocent was kind enough to fry up a tub of the critters and bring them around as an (un)appetiser before dinner. Alan got quite a taste for them, the girls weren't have any of it and Alison and Natalie tried them after some gentle persuasion...
...here come the Cowan girls!
We bid farewell to Uncle Jonathan and Cousin Lucy at the weekend after they spent 10 days experiencing the delights of Uganda. Hopefully they would say these included more than rain and transport issues, but those did figure quite prominently during their stay! We went on the road to visit Lake Mburo National Park again and were diverted off into some fields after a lorry overturned on the road. Then on the way to Jinja, we were navigating a roundabout in Jasper when a wheel fell off- luckily we weren’t going too fast! These incidents aside we packed in a lot of fun, including a rafting trip down the Nile, a visit to the ancient kings’ tombs and some game drives. We also camped in Mabira Forest- our first ‘proper’ camping experience, which was made all the more real by some very raucous monkeys and hyraxes near our tent and a 3 hour downpour at dawn! That was when we realised our tent was not quite as watertight as advertised! Likewise our house, as when we returned home to Kampala, the rain had lashed in horizontally leaving all Jonathan and Lucy's belongings floating in their bedroom.
