Ugandan family Christmas

Christmas in Uganda is widely celebrated but is much more privately observed than in the US. People from Kampala return to their villages en masse just before Christmas so the transportation- buses and roads- is packed leaving the city. Once in the villages, church and family feasts are the main events. Presents, lights, decorations, performances, parties, and trees are occasional parts only. So Max, Holly, and I had a family holiday a la Uganda (without presents, stockings, or tree) in a beautiful lake resort. Lake Bunyonyi is a deep lake (the sign at the resort says more than a mile though my guide book says 45 meters!) that was thought to have formed about 8000 years ago when a lava flow blocked off a river to flood a valley. It is surrounded by high hills with terraced farmland and is the only lake in Uganda that is thought to be reliably free from a parasite disease called schistosomiasis. I did bring my swimsuit (despite my travel clinic doctor telling me NO swimming in fresh water) though the weather was just too cold to consider a dip. We stayed in furnished tents on platforms with electric lights, comfortable beds with cozy blankets and quilts, and beautiful views from our deck. So on Christmas we walked, talked, read, and played games. Throughout the days and evenings we were there we heard almost continuous drumming coming from the many churches around the lake. My Christmas dinner was crayfish curry (crayfish have been stocked in the lake and there has intermittently been a large Indian population in Uganda). The photos are of the lake once the morning mist cleared and before the rain clouds moved in, Max and Holly, and Akampene or ‘Punishment Island’- the story is that in past times unmarried girls who got pregnant were taken to the island and left there; a man without enough cows to pay a bride price could rescue the woman and marry her but failing that she would succumb to starvation; yet another reason for personal gratitude.