My Thoughts on Dean McEvoy's Visit

Dean McEvoy Visit

As you learned from the previous post we had a visit from Dean McEvoy. Dean McEvoy visited us from December 4th to December 9th. For us it was four days of luxury. First we got to go pick him up in Kampala which meant we got to eat mzungu food and to take showers. He even brought a bottle of South African wine, yum. I think that Dean McEvoy really liked it here. He handled everything we made him do, from fetching forty-five pounds of water to eating massive amounts of strange foods to riding in very dangerous vehicles such as boda bodas, really well.

We had a very full four days planned, but the best thing that Dean McEvoy got to do we didn’t plan. The day after he arrived John told us that one of his clan members (in Uganda everyone is part of a clan. John is part of the Engeye clan, hence the name of the clinic) had invited him and his American guests to an Id Day celebration.

Id is the Muslim holiday celebrating Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac. From what our host told us it is equivalent to Christmas or Chanukah. So everyone in the family from all over Uganda came to celebrate. True to tradition they sacrificed a goat and cow. I got to see them clean the skin of the cow and grill the goat meat on sticks. They also showed us tradition Muslim and Ugandan male attire which we had never seen before.

In accordance with Ugandan custom they way over feed their guests. For appetizers they brought out what any self respecting Italian would consider a large meal and made us eat almost the entire cow’s liver, an entire cabbage, and rice. Then about an hour later, the head female of the house brought out the largest package of matooke I had ever seen. Matooke is cooked by wrapping a bunch of banana leaves around pealed plantains and then putting the package of leaves/bananas into a big pot where it is boiled. Depending on the number of people you are feeding the package is bigger or smaller. They cooked a package of matooke about the size of a pillow (no joke, it took two people to carry it into the house). In addition they cooked the entire cow and the entire goat not to mention side dishes. I ate so much that afternoon that I could barely breath.

What really impressed me the most about Dean McEvoy was how well he adapted to the community culture of Uganda. He was a natural at sitting on the floor in a circle while talking and eating directly from a huge pile of yellow mashed stuff pilled six inches high on steamed banana leaves directly in the center of the circle.

On a side note I fixed the picture link on the side of my blog. Have a nice day.