Superbowl Party

That's right.  Good ol' American Football.  Now all of you watched the Superbowl in January.  I couldn't - obviously.  I mean, maybe I could have.  There may have been a bar somewhere in Kampala that had the big expensive US Sports package on satellite.  But that was the month we arrived and frankly, my mind was elsewhere.  Instead, when I realized I would miss the Superbowl, I asked a few friends of mine to try taping it for me.  Okay, not "tape" - I don't have a VCR - but somehow get a copy to me on a DVD.  Well, someone managed it.  Through a long and convoluted process I was finally sent a DVD of the Superbowl! 

A Candlelit Superbowl SpreadWhen I received the package at the Lutheran Media Ministry Uganda office, I immediately recognized what it was and exclaimed with joy, "The Superbowl!"  Three Ugandan men standing within earshot demanded that I throw a Superbowl party because they wanted to watch this American football game.  Tonight we had our Superbowl party.  Unfortunately, we couldn't feature Superbowl food, since that's mostly stuff delivered or prepared by restaurants - pizza, hot wings, sub sandwiches - or stuff too fragile to be imported to Uganda - chips, pretzels, etc.  So, since Krista gave me a gas grill for our anniversary three days ago, we decided on American summer picnic type food: hamburgers with all the fixin's, hot dogs, potato salad, deviled eggs, pop, beer, chocolate chip cookies, brownies, and a vegi tray featuring cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, and bell peppers with Ranch dressing.  Some items were rather expensive (cherry tomatoes, hot dogs, and the hamburger and hot dog buns), and some items we had recently received in care packages (Ranch mix, chocolate chips). 

The Superbowl party was looking promising - my fellow missionary Rev. Jacob Gillard has an older video projector donated by a supporter so we planned on projecting the game onto a white wall in our living room.  I had the living room all set up - chairs carefully arranged, coffee tables to hold vegi trays and beers, sound system ready to fill the room with smashing helmets.  When the group was about five minutes away, the power went out.  Now the power has been pretty bad this week.  I think it's gone out just about every day for at least an hour and sometimes for up to eight hours.  Krista had all the food ready, and the burgers and dogs were going onto the gas grill, so we would still be able to eat.  Waiting for Electricity...But without power we couldn't watch the game!  Jake's house has a functioning battery backup with a beefy inverter, so there was the possibility of watching the game at his place on the projector and everything, but his girls had just been put down to bed, so we knew we wouldn't be able to turn up the sound much at all if we had to watch it at his house across the street.  (My house has the same battery backup and beefy inverter, but it hasn't worked since the first month we were here - everyone else has security lights and interior lights still when the power goes out but we have candles.) 

So, with the power out and guests arriving, we settled in to a great dinner (by my standards) and enjoyed some good American food while waiting out the power situation.  Finally, dinner was done, the burgers were gone, and we needed to start the game or we'd be up way too late.  With the power still out, we decided we would take everything across the street to Jake's house and watch the game quietly over there.  Projector, DVD, cookies, brownies, vegi tray, Ranch dip, and all the guests made their way over to Jake's.  And three minutes later, the power came back on.  Yup.  I should've known.  I should have known that as soon as we gave up waiting and went over to Jake's the power would return.  A Real Superbowl Party!So, we waited 30 seconds or so to make sure it really was back on and then packed everything back up and came back across the street to our place.

The power stayed on, the beer and pop flowed, the cookies and brownies and vegi platters were eaten, and the Superbowl was much appreciated.  A few brief questions helped clarify the rules - although a 100 yard interception return doesn't need too much explanation.  I'm not sure if you remember, but it was quite a game!  There were interceptions, safeties, overturned calls, all kinds of great stuff.  It was a wonderful time.  Yay for the Superbowl!  -Shauen