Cultural Clashes

As you are slowly heading towards the shortest day of the year, I am still enjoying my daily 12 hours of sunshine – 7am to 7pm. Why? Because I am practically on the Equator. The other weekend I even crossed it twice – that Friday and Monday I spent time in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. How aboot that eh? But although I am enjoying the sunshine, I do have to admit that I miss the cold, Christmas just won’t be the same without it. But despite that I am still trying to keep my traditions. Like St. Nicolas Day, for example. In Germany children put their shoes in front of their doors on the evening of December 5th and, if they were good that year, St. Nicolas leaves them a gift as he passes in the night. St. Nicolas came to Entebbe this year too. On the evening of the 5th I told Maureen and Jared (watchman & wife) to leave their shoes outside and I did not explain why. At night, St. Nicolas (aka. me) came and left some presents in their shoes (soda, sugar, milk, tea, sweets, ground nuts, roasted corn).

The next morning I left in a hurry to go to the zoo near my house (where I learned that the very large boa constrictor, that can swallow humans whole, had escaped the week before and eaten a monkey). When I came back, an explanation was begged of me about the shoe/present phenomenon. The presents were still untouched in the outdoor bathroom. “Maria-Luiza. In the morning I went to bathroom. I saw presents in shoes and I feared. I called husband…” So I explained that St. Nicolas came and left them… But as I was trying to convince them that it wasn’t me, I suddenly realized that this was not a good strategy for them accepting the presents. Belief in superstition is rampant in Uganda, especially in the villages (where they are from) and I was telling them that an unfamiliar spirit had left gifts and accepting the gifts could have negative repercussions for them. Maureen even asked, “A spirit brought them?” (although I could see in her eyes she knew they were from me). In the end, I had to collect the presents from outside and personally present them to Maureen and Jared (shoes and all). Problem solved and everyone was happy.