Thanksgiving Day 2014

Our first "Turkey Trot" in Kigali.
We walked down to Gaculiro Market for some last-minute items.
This was Keza's first time to go for a walk.
(She nearly flipped out when we tried to get her to step out of the gate, but it got better.)

On route to Thanksgiving festivities at the Amos's house,

with a few KICS teachers in tow.

Presley and Michal are sitting with Mimi, the Shelby's grandmother.

She's kind of everybody's mom or grand-mom here.

 What a view

We had cranberry sauce and dressing,
but no turkey.
The pork, chicken, and beef were great, though.

 

We spent the day with old friends from college, missionaries we stayed with in Togo 14 years ago, and many new friends.


We ate, worshiped, chilled and
enjoyed an assortment of games.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!


"Pig Chase"

Preparing the pig...

Meet Wilbur.
He's been "greased up" with hand soap,

he's got a red bow on his tail,
and he's ready to run.

 Preparing the kids



And...Go!

The chase is on.

Presley was a little overwhelmed by all the people today.
She didn't seem excited about anything...
until the pig chase began.

Send in the big kids!

And the bigger kids!

 

We have a winner.

 

"Feats of Strength"

 

Apparently, this is a game the pilgrims played.
How far can you throw a big stick??

Chad came close, but in the end, no McNatts won this competition.

"Crafts and Face Painting"

  

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and some wild turkeys.

"Outside Fun"

"Inside Fun"

 

We sure missed family today,

but we had a wonderful time celebrating God's goodness
in the Land of a Thousand Hills.

LOVE in boxes

  The postal system here can be very difficult to work with. 

We've  known for over a month that we had a box waiting to be picked up. 

The trouble? 

We're always at school when the post office is open. 

Once we finally worked out a plan for a friend to go for us, we had misplaced our claim slip.
The postal workers told our friend, "This box has been a lot of trouble for us." 

Whaaaat?

We eventually found the claim slip and sent our friend back to the post office. This time he was told, "You must bring a hand written letter and proof of i.d. Then, we promise, you can take it."

Are you kidding me??

By the time our friend made his next trip to town, we knew that we had at least 2 boxes waiting for us. We were finally able to bring home these beauties... 4 boxes and 1 card. Woohoo! And the tax we had to pay was much less than we expected. (Sorry the mailing from your end was so pricey.)

What an exciting day. Our house was filled with shrieks of delight. 

It was so awesome to receive little bits of HOME in each package.

"I could smell these forever"

  All kinds of goodies were sent our way. I didn't realize how emotional it would be.

Thanks to friends and family for your gifts!!

We didn't get a photo of everything, but we appreciate it all!

And thanks to our buddy, Fils.

He made multiple trips to the post office and became the solution to our post office dilemma.

 

Hopefully we understand the system enough to  receive things in a more timely manner.

AND

We'll try to get something headed back your way too.

Michal Grace - Birthday Girl

It's hard to believe our funny girl is 9. 

She is loving school this year and teaches everything to her younger siblings... 

from math and art to reading and writing.

                       

We invited a few girls from school to her party.

We played 

Telephone Pictionary.

 

We enjoyed Ritah's mendazi
(homemade donuts) 

and

shared a crate of soda.

The young birthday crew.

Cake time.

Michal had fun with her Kigali friends.
She also received yummy treats, cute hand-made jewelry, a watch
and this giraffe print headband.

We love you, Michal Grace!