The Tea Trolley

It's about time for another tea post!  The next chapter in my "tea life" took place in Uganda just after she came out of civil war. I moved there with my family was I was nearly 12 and we moved back to the States about 2 1/2 years later. It was an incredibly life-changing and eye-opening experience and it tore my heart to leave that beautiful place.

Uganda is where tea drinking became an everyday ritual. Everyone drank tea. The market was filled with piles of shiny aluminum kettles and stacks of large, plastic mugs that kept the tea so hot you could never actually drink it. The tea was grown in Uganda and we always marveled at the beautiful tea plantations that we passed on the way from Jinja to the capital city, Kampala.

It was "Garden Tea" that we drank -- a rich, bold tea -- "Indian" in flavor and with a color that nearly matched the soil it was grown in. If you were Ugandan, you would take your tea with sugar in it -- a lot of sugar in it (I always estimated it was about 1/4 cup for the 12 oz mug).

Here we are in the kitchen where every day water was boiled for ten minutes and passed through a filter so we would have water to drink and water for tea. Every morning tea was made for our helpers at a specified time and accompanied with a piece of bread and butter.

Not a day went by that we didn't have someone with us for one or more meals. After dinner the peach colored mugs came out and the steaming pots came in and everyone sat around the table drinking tea. Life was much slower in Uganda and there was time for company, talking, tea.

At one point we even had a tea hut in the front yard! Here it is in the making. It provided lovely shade and a pretty place to sit and receive visitors and drink tea.

Being in a different culture didn't mean we gave up all our old ways. Here we are playing dress up for Christina's 9th birthday. I don't know how we even had gloves like that over there!

As of yet, I've never been back to Uganda, as much as I long to go. Maybe someday. But the tea drinking stuck with us!

And now back to the present......

Drinking coffee or tea in the park is always fun! Here we are joined by some extra company.

Rachel wanted to exercise her creative bone one evening and stayed up late to make these for her friends at school.

I love having one hour a week to count on for tea with my neighbor. It gives us a chance to catch up on the neighborhood, how our kids are playing together, and share our mutual love for British tea-drinking.

The birth of Princess Charlotte called for a pot of tea!!!! It was so exciting to see all the news updates and learn her beautiful name.

I tried my hand at a few sketches this past month -- tea being one of my favorite subjects.

I never tire of viewing this silver teaset at the Oldfields House here in town.

Lunch at Wildwood Market -- their sandwiches are the best! And they even have gluten-free bread!

Another tea sketch from early in the month.

Mother's Day! We had strawberry-rhubarb cobbler and tea.

I just love when I can get up early in the morning and have tea by myself while doing my devotions. I wish I could get up early every day. Often I am just too tired.

For the last day of school we enjoyed a World War II British meal -- turnip top salad and Woolton Pie (essentially vegetables in a sauce with a pastry top). It was good -- the pie a bit bland, but the crust helped.

We also visited the Candles Holocaust Museum in Terre Haute and I was struck by this table cloth and explanation -- this Jewish mother took her fancy tablecloths to the Ghetto and each night pulled them out to cover a crate for the family to eat on. In this way she fought against evil and death with beauty and routine. I loved that!!! She ended up losing her life to the Nazis but her young son survived.

I love this teapot. I still haven't told you about it and it's sister pot. It's on my list to finish my Scotland posts this summer!

Tea with a friend -- it was Tea Forte decaf English Breakfast. Yum!

I attempted macarons for the first time this week. I got one perfect one out of the entire batch. However, they all tasted amazing despite their looks -- SO much better than any store-bought one I've had.

My friend from NYC, Christy, was in town this last week and that gave us a chance to have a baby shower for her!

Jungle theme meant these favors were just perfect! They were different types of animal crackers mixed up together with a few chocolates.

 It was a lovely evening!

My mom invited my sisters and me to her place for tea one Sunday afternoon in April.

And another day I had a few friends over for a tea lunch: buckwheat scones and gluten free scones with fruit and salad. Perfect!

Here are the lovely ladies!

And my ever-ready tea party partner!

 And that catches us up to the present! We've had three "last days" of school for various members of the family, today being Rachel's last day. Summer is on the way!!!

Twenty Years

The month of March marks 20 years since our family returned home from Uganda, East Africa. The 2 1/2 years we spent in that country are very special to me and it breaks my heart that it has never been possible to return for a visit.

The years I spent in Uganda were formative ones. I grew from a child of 11 to a young adult of 14. My eyes and ears were sharp, always observing the adults around me. I learned much about relationships and missions, and living in a foreign culture. I loved the excitement of a great adventure and Uganda, during the years of 1989-1992 was a great adventure in more ways than one.

We left Uganda quickly, within a few weeks of receiving news of my grandmother's grim cancer diagnosis (thankfully, her few month prognosis turned into 15 years of extended life). It was hard to be torn away so quickly and finally from a place we had grown to love. It would have been hard to bear at that point the knowledge that we would never return (at least not in the 20 years following).

Sometimes I feel sad that living overseas in such a place as Uganda never "happened" to me again. But I am reminded that the whole point of the Christian life is serving Christ and not myself. And, I'm am so happy that I have friends living in Uganda and I can continue to "keep in touch" with this country that touched my life so long ago.

African Open House

I'm still catching up on everything I wanted to blog about. Remember the May wedding I posted about? Well, a few weeks later we hosted an open house for Jenny and Jim and themed it with Ugandan food.

I had so much fun working on the theme because it gave me a chance to reminisce about my own years in Uganda. Nearly 70 people showed up and the evening was so full of fellowship and joy -- I couldn't have been happier! Thank you to all of you who came!

Going backwards around the food table: Alaina made these delicious banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. You can find the recipe here on The Cooks Next Door.

My neighbor made me a Cassava Cake since cassava is such a staple in Uganda. We also served Ugandan tea both hot and iced and the chai mix from Costco was used to make chai. We even had Ugandan coffee!!

We had tropical fruit salad with pineapple, mango, banana, papaya and lime zest. I love that combination!

I found banana leaves at the local international market and they looked so pretty lining the serving dishes.

Then we had greens. It seems that many of the typical Ugandan dishes start out with onions and tomatoes and then you either add greens, beans, or meat!

And after the greens come the beans:

Samosas are a Ugandan street food, an influence of the Indian population. Everyone loved these! I bought them frozen at the international store and one of my friends came and fried them all for me!

I love chapatis! They are a flatbread popular as another street food. They were easy to make from scratch. I rolled and rolled and rolled and Rachel spent a long time cooking them all for me.

Not a great picture, but just to document the ground nut sauce (peanuts) which was meant for dipping the grilled chicken into. Once again, it also included onions and tomatoes!

And lastly (but really firstly) there was grilled chicken on a stick. Another friend spent two hours grilling all the chicken for us!!

Many hands make light work and it's true with a party like this. So many people helped out, including Christina who came over for the last minute chaos!

No more parties on the horizon at the moment! It's a cool, rainy day here today -- kind of a treat!