The Mwesigwa family invited us to their village home in Ibanda for Christmas this year.

Rev. Sheldon Mwesigwa, Dean of Education at UCU, and his wife Alice (also a lecturer here) and their 4 chlidren welcomed us to Ibanda this Christmas.  Ibanda is a lovely, small community in the Southwest of Uganda - bordering both pastoralist and agricultural land.   We visited Rev. Sheldon's ancestral home and learned of his mother's struggles as she had to move away to find work, then relocated in the aftermath of the war against Idi Amin.  Now, in what is characteristic of land in Uganda, clans/families live relatively close together and work together to preserve what is theirs.

We were blessed to enjoy Christmas.  Unlike many of the Western traditions, Christmas in a Christian family in Uganda features a strong celebration of Jesus' birth and includes what is usually a long, formal Church service on Christmas day followed by a substantial lunch - in our case, with goat, beef, chicken and plenty of matooke, pilau rice, and veggies.  

We served up an American style cake as finale, and then, in global Christmas holiday fashion, promptly took long naps in the late afternoon.

Spontaneous visitors is common in Africa, particularly at Christmas and also when a family has been 'away' for some time.  The Mwesigwas were inundated with many well-wishers who stopped by to say hello; but we also did our part on the 26th, visiting a number of homes of wonderful and inspirational people.

It was a beautiful time and we saw much of the land around Ibanda.  On our way back, we drove (over very rough and interesting roads) up through the famous Kibale Forest that is the home of chimpanzees and many exotic flora and animals, to Fort Portal (town near the Congo border) and then back to Kampala.