Italian Night at My House

While the Shorts moved back to the US earlier this year, Lewis is still involved in the work here.  He'll be working on the fundraising side of things in the US (if you or your church would like to support the work of the school here, get in touch!) as well as making periodic trips back here to help out with the school management.  He had intended to return earlier in the year, but due to the school being closed for covid and flights not coming into Tanzania until July, he wasn't able to come until August 6th.  He will stay until just after graduation, on September 12th.  

While he was here, we decided to have a get-together of us North Americans.  I volunteered to host, so Beth and her family and the Williams from Monduli Juu came over.  We had an Italian food night: I made lasagne, spaghetti with cream sauce with chicken and peppers, and pasta al pesto.  Beth brought garlic bread and a cake and the Williams brought a big salad, so we ate well.  

Beth brought a cake for dessert because her husband, Tizo, had his 40th birthday that week.  He didn't want a big to-do, but this seemed a good opportunity to at least have a cake and sing happy birthday.  The kids entertained themselves after dinner with some of the playing cards I had, and the adults got involved.  Twyla and Jackson had quite a spirited game of War.  Lewis and Emmy didn't seem to have such an organized game; it seemed to mostly be making a mess (I found cards under the couch cushions months later).  

It was also a good opportunity to go through the very last of the things the Shorts had left behind and send most of it home with Ralph and Twyla to give out to people from the church up on the mountain or to be repurposed in some way (old mosquito nets can be used as netting to keep the birds off of something or other they're growing). 

 

Enchilada Night!

As I have mentioned several times before in this blog, I moved into a new apartment in the middle of March.  I gave myself a few weeks to settle in and decorate before celebrating by hosting the crowd of Americans/Canadians here in Monduli for dinner and a time of singing.  We had a pretty good crowd--the Shorts, including Lewis's parents who are visiting, Beth and her family, Fielden and Janet Allison (who work at the school with us), and Ralph and Twyla Williams who live up in Monduli Juu.

Both Lewis and Tammy and Tizo and Beth came with extra folding chairs and folding tables since I don't have any dining room chairs yet, but I do have plenty of couch space.  I made chicken enchiladas as well as had the ingredients out for chicken tacos if anyone preferred.  Chicken enchiladas are one of my favorite things to make for a party, especially outside the US where we don't get Mexican food as much as we'd like.  Everything went pretty well; the only major mishap was when a glass casserole dish broke in the oven and we lost a couple of enchiladas just in case they had glass in them.  Fortunately, I also have a metal pan and had borrowed a second from Michela, so I was still able to have plenty of enchiladas ready when everyone arrived.  

It was nice to spend some time together over a meal, and I also enjoyed singing together after.  I enjoy hosting dinner parties; I hope I get the chance again sometime soon. 

Of course, the youngest and cutest are always at the center of attention. :)

Thanksgiving in Wuhan

Since a few people had to work on Thursday, we had our big feast today (Saturday). I got up early this morning (well, relatively, at eight...but I didn't go to bed until two, so it felt really early...) to get started cooking. Micah came over mid-morning to bake his pumpkin pie; he doesn't have an oven.  Meanwhile, I got the carrots going and mashed my sweet potatoes.  We were about twenty minutes later leaving than we meant to be, and then had trouble getting a taxi, but we still ended up being some of the first ones there.

The Myers and the Lus hosted--they live across the hall from each other, so we could use both of their kitchens and living rooms.  We split the cost of the turkey--they are quite expensive here; chinese people don't eat turkey, so it's a specialty item at Metro (a bit like Sam's club; caters to foreigners).  The side dishes we brought potluck; I took glazed carrots with bacon and sweet potato casserole.  They both turned out even better than I expected; you never know because sometimes ingredients are a bit different here.  I have a few carrots left, but the sweet potatoes were cleared out fast.  I should get some more pecans while they have them and freeze them so that I can make more later, maybe for Christmas.

There was so much good food...two or three kinds of dressing, green bean casserole, bread, turkey, ham, tacos, deviled eggs (which I'd never eaten much of before, but am starting to like), sweet potatos, and plenty of other stuff. I had a piece of Micah's pumpkin pie for dessert--I love pumpkin pie. :)  Later, I snacked on a bit of Eric's no-bake cookies.

There were probably thirty to forty people there; of course the best part of Thanksgiving is spending time with family and friends.  While I am far away from family, I did get to talk to my grandparents and to my mother over skype, and having such a big party today with friends made it truly seem like a holiday.  I got to spend quite a while catching up with Ron, who I worked with in Jingzhou, who is visiting in China this month.  I also spent time with several of the workers who live at nearby campuses; we really need to get together more often to shop or play games.

After we ate, several people started up a big game of the card game golf (ask my mom or Sue if you're curious--they're experts.  Well, you could ask Dad or Doug, too, but you're more likely to get a good explanation from the first two :) )  I didn't play this time, but I watched the game as I spent some time talking with others.

It was a wonderful day.  The only problem is that now I just want to curl up with a blanket and look at my Christmas tree--but I need to get busy writing exam questions for the final for my writing class.


Edit: Alright, sorry for the rather haphazard placement of pictures.  The internet is being cantankerous tonight, and if you only knew how long it's taken me to get them on here at all...

A Day with Friends

One of the great blessings of living in Wuhan is that I am not alone.  Now, living in China, with 1.3 billion and some odd people, "alone" is relative--but even though I surrounded by people and students on a regular basis, it's different to have people with the same background and the same language and the same goals to connect with.  I'm grateful for the family I meet with on Sundays, and I'm grateful for the larger family here that meets once a month or so.

This past Saturday, one of the American teachers, Susan, hosted a Halloween potluck get-together on her campus; although not everyone could come, I enjoyed catching up with several people that I had met before: Tammy, who I met in training; Brian, Alanna, and their daughter, Abby, who I met in Memphis last spring; and several of the Harding grads who I was stuck in the Beijing airport with in August. I wore a costume to the party, but there were only a few of us who did.  (My lazy, requires-little-
effort costume this year was as a fortune teller, except I didn't have a crystal ball, so mostly I just looked weird.) Laura made a great Chinese popstar--complete with Chinglish lyrics, Alanna had borrowed a dress that looked like a Roman goddess, and of course among the children we had Minnie Mouse and a princess.  Anyhow, we played cards, ate, sang, and talked.

After we left the official party, we drifted outside. One by one most people headed home until a group of eight of us were left.  I had my Settlers of Catan set in my bag, just in case we found someone to play with, and sure enough there were some like-minded people in this group.  We sat on the ground out in an open concrete area at the end of the soccer field near some people roller-blading.  We had eight people and a four-player game, so we played partners.  Finally, playing Settlers in China!  I feel like I'm really back. To make it even better, Tammy and I won.

By the time we'd played one game, the sun was getting low and the ground was getting hard, but nobody was ready to go home just yet.  So, we made plans to meet again in about an hour to eat and go bowling. That gave us just enough time to catch a taxi, rush home, change clothes, rush out again, catch another taxi, and meet up.  To tell you the truth, it almost wasn't worth trying to get home.

We met on Ming Zu Da Dao, a nearby street.  Da Dao means 'avenue', and I just learned how to pronounce it correctly.  We, surprisingly quickly for such a large group of people, decided to eat a quick supper at McDonald's so we could get on with bowling.  Only things are never quite so simple in China.  It wasn't finding a McDonald's--we chose it because it was within sight just down the street.  No, once we got in line, it came out that they were out of buns.  Completely.  A McDonalds. Without buns.  We held a quick conference outside about going elsewhere, but there wasn't anything else quick nearby.  So, chicken nugget night for everyone! (Except those few brave souls who ordered wraps and regretted it).

Next, we followed Eric, who's lived her awhile and knows his way around, up to the sixth floor of the Seven Days Inn building.  Through the open doors, we could see a skating rink in full swing, but when we got to the ticket window, we found that for some reason the bowling lanes were closed for the evening.  Eric, who speaks a lot more Chinese than the rest of us, could understand they were closed, but he didn't understand the explanation of why.  Oh, well.

At this point, Micah, who was fighting a head cold, gave up and went home. That left seven of us still looking for something to do.  Skating got voted down, so we split up and took two taxis and a bicycle to Guanggu, the big huge wonderful mall I've mentioned before.  Turns out, there's an arcade there.  So, we all got ten yuan (about $1.40) worth of tokens and played for a while.  There were car racing games, mortal kombat type games, those things with the claws that tempt you to try to get some rather ugly stuffed animals, dance dance revolution, etc.  Most of it looked like it was installed in about 1998.  Or maybe earlier.  And, being China, there were of couse a few bizarre games.  One that I remember particularly was a small round table attached to a hinge.  The video behind it showed a story going on; the scene was a wedding reception in a hotel ballroom.  At a certain point, you (playing the bride), must flip the table as hard as you can.  You earn points based on how much damage and disorder you cause--the cake goes flying, the waiters duck for cover, the table dominoes into the next two, dishes breaking everywhere.  At the end it turns out the reason for the bride's table-flipping tantrum was that the groom is discovered in a closet with a bridesmaid.  The entire game is just that one flip of the table, but it was worth watching just for the oddity of it.  Matt, one of our group, got a score in the top ten of all time.

Laura and I left around ten; the others were about out of tokens, so I figure they left soon after.  It took awhile to find a taxi, being a Saturday night, but I made it home eventually. It was a good day.