Another First

Yesterday we killed a pig - another first for me! I've been around right after they were killed - I've seen then shot when hunting - but don't think I've ever had the experience of participating in the death march!

This was a huge pig! It was about 115KG which tranlates to about 253 lbs!! Did I already say, this was a huge pig?!?! Richard had raised it and wanted to sell it before Christmas. However, the market for pigs has been way down and there was very little interest. Mike and I decided that since we are both from the south (he and Susan are from Mississippi) we just couldn't let good pork pass us by, so we pooled our money and bought ourselves a pig. Fortunately, we did think it through first. John (our New Zealand teammate) was a butcher back home. So he offered to come and slaughter it for us.

So, right after milking, John arrived with tools in hand. He rigged up a snout noose and after several humorous attempts (remember, this pig watched the last one be slaughtered), finally got it snagged around the snout. With a lot of squealing and "pig hollerin" we got him tied up to a post and with a quick stab he bled out and died within a few minutes. Now, before you give me any credit at all, John did all the "dirty" work. I was a simple bystander who had to hold the ropes, help drag the pig and divide up the meat. But it is amazing how much credit you seem to get when you are standing by with guts on your hands and blood on your boots.

I won't go into all the details of the process, but Jill and I do have a couple of great tenderloins and more pork roast then we know what to do with. Mike walked away with some tenderloins and some huge racks of ribs! Fotunately, I live just down the hill and will be able to smell them cooking so I'll know when to stop by for a quick visit! The rest we either sold to other missionaries or gave away to the different folks who helped us with the slaughter.

Oh.....almost forgot one of the reasons I was posting this....Dade, the ever brave son that he is, had quite the experience. Dara has been handling the deaths of animals around this farm quite well. She just stays inside. But Dade likes to be in the middle of everything and is quite fascinated with watching. I told him that he didn't have to be out there, but he wanted to.....until the pig got to hollerin' and it started bleeding out. Jill said he came in the house, holding back tears, but being brave. He stayed inside until it was hung and was being cut up. Never cried, just bit his lower lip and stood strong. My brave little guy!

How Many More?!?!?!?!?!

Will have Jill post pics some other time, but today we celebrated a dedication service for some dear friends (what many back home would call a christening service and what many here would call a baptism, but the intent is the same as our baby dedication services). Jill has been working hard the last few days to bake enough cakes to serve 100 people and so we delivered them on our way to the church. We thought we were simply dropping the cakes and heading to the church until several kids wanted to ride with us. "Not a big deal," I thought.....until two older ladies also climbed in.....and then another aunt. At this point we had 11 in our Toyota Surf - remember this is the size of a Toyota Forerunner for those of you in the states. As we were pulling away, the aunt said there was one more coming!!!!! Fortunately, Mike and Susan pulled up about that time and loaded her in with them. We made it fine - a bit crowded, but no problems!!!

Then......we are loading up at the church to head back to the home for lunch, cake and many speeches and we have several new folks wanting a ride back. This time we ended up with 13 piled in. I don't think I've ever had people more excited to get a ride and more excited to get out of the car at the same time. Just another regular occurence of life in Africa.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas felt quite different this year. I think it made it easier to be away from home because it didn't "feel" like Christmas. We played Christmas in the house and we made snowflakes for the windows. We went to a couple of Christmas parties so we know it is that time of year, but it still didn't "feel" like Christmas. It's quite difficult to explain. So...I'll just tell you what we did...

Christmas eve we spent a bit of time shucking corn (maize). We were excited to be having corn-on-the-cob with our Christmas lunch so everyone helped.

Except Daddy who was fixing up the grass fort (yes, my flower beds are still missing their mulch). I think he knew something we didn't know (like how fresh maize somehow doesn't taste like corn-on-the-cob. I'm sure I did something wrong, but it was so, so, so hard - tasted a lot like hominy. Yuck!)

After we finished shucking our corn, Dade reminded Joel that he had told Dade he would help him fly his kite. So...despite the fact that there was little to no breeze at all - off they went. We bought some cheap kites in Kampala and this was our first time to use them.


I tried to do the pictures differently so maybe you can click on it and see Dara's tongue sticking out while she is running. (sorry it doesn't work - Joel just has a magic touch). I'm glad she didn't fall. She was just working so hard!
I think the cows enjoyed the show.

Christmas morning came and the kids were excited to know Santa still found them. It's a bit hard to keep the illusion going when Santa brought them the exact thing they wanted in Kampala. Oh well...they know the truth anyway...it was still fun.
We were so blessed to have Zillah, a single girl on our team, spend the night and share our Christmas morning. Her family did a great job of sending her gifts (this is not a jab at our families who also did a great job - it's just the camels that bring the packages have been a bit slow lately)

We gave the kids "Clue" as a gift to share - the instructions are in Arabic so I hope I remember the rules correctly. I will admit that even though the box said it was for ages 5+, it's a bit difficult for 6 year olds (as I learned today).

These are Dade's new pajamas. He has an affinity for soft pajamas so when I found them, I just had to get them. I hope they stay soft.

We were having this slow relaxing morning and I knew that soon I would need to start cooking. We were all still in our pajamas when William knocked on the door and presented me with a chicken. It happened to be one of the roosters they had bought for our Christmas lunch. I hadn't expected to cook one, and I wasn't quite sure what to do with it. I didn't know if I was supposed to boil it or bake it or fry it. I just kept laughing at it. I finally figured out from William that I was supposed to cook it however I wanted to. I was so grateful because I sure didn't want to mess up someone else's Christmas chicken - so much pressure!

I went to cut it up so it would fit in my pan and Joel and I just kept laughing. He asked how he could help, and I just asked for a camera. It was like a rubber chicken - even the color was yellow! It even felt rubbery!
In the end it became a good casserole and we had plenty of food. Donna (William's mom) made chicken, beef, cabbage, and rice. I had fish, chicken, hard-corn (which is how the Ugandan's like it - so that worked out well), and millet bread (which is difficult to describe and make, but it was fun to present as it's Richard's favorite food). The picture doesn't do it justice. So, you'll have to take my word for it that it was a great time.

We ended up having 13 people for lunch and Richard was so comfortable that he fell asleep on the couch afterwards. What a true compliment! This is Medard (May-dad) who is the young man who worked with Joel to start the college Bible study.
In the evening we went to the Wards for an evening get together. We ate so much food and had such nice fellowship with our friends here....what a wonderful celebration of our Lord's birthday.

Just Different

Did you know that "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" the movie is actually pretty long and boring when you haven't grown up with it? We watched it tonight with some Ugandan friends and I think they almost fell asleep. Joel did. Maybe it's hard because they have never seen snow. Or maybe it's because Christmas here doesn't revolve around Santa Claus. They didn't even know he had flying reindeers who pulled his sleigh. All in all, I feel silly even showing it to them when we could have had more fun playing a game or something. This is just one of the many things that doesn't cross cultural barriers well. We live and learn.

Play Time

On Friday we had a man come and weed-eat (they call it "slash" here) our grass. The last time he came, we paid Dara and the anyone else who helped to rake up all the clippings and put them in the flower beds. This time around, James and Robert wanted the money and got to work. I was gone at the time and Joel just told them to make a big pile until I was home to tell them where I wanted all the grass to go.

This is what the pile looked like when I arrived home. It was a giant nest and the kids pretended to be baby birds and baby dinosaurs. I teased Dade that if there was a bird to whom this nest belonged - he better watch out because that bird could carry him away.

I sat with Dade for awhile and we visited about life. It was fun and reminded me of making forts with hay bales when I was young. Such sweet memories.

After awhile, Joel got involved in making them a "fort". Gone was the simple, and easy to repair, nest. It was replaced by a fort/hut type of structure - equally fun but much more difficult to repair when accidentally bumped.

I told them they could keep my grass clippings until Monday (today) but I have invited two friends over for a play date this afternoon, so maybe they can keep it until Tuesday - we'll see.

James and Robert will be gone for Christmas (William will be here) so we decided to give the boys their Christmas gift early (I think they leave on Tuesday). They had a good time.

The answer to the flower question was "okra" Way to go Daddy and Robin! I think we're going to fry up some for dinner. I can't wait! Thank you for playing my game :)

Odds and Ends

This past week has probably been one of the most relaxing weeks we've had in a long time (even when on vacation). It was a time to catch up on some much needed rest.

The weather has been cooler in the mornings (like low 60s kind of cool). Dara keeps asking if God is "doing this on purpose". She had to explain it to me, but she was wondering if He is making it cooler to help it feel like Christmas. It sounds good to me. It has been cloudy in the evenings and I've been trying to catch a sunset but rarely have the time to wait for it. So here is a pre-sunset picture. Still beautiful!

This picture isn't quite as stunning but impressive none the less. We (Ruth, the kids, and I) were so taken by the legs this carrot had grown, we thought it deserved to be documented. We called him Charlie.

I did wish I had my camera yesterday when Joel was sitting out on the curb cutting his hair. The guys gathered around and we all visited. It was a fun time. If you ever remember watching your dad shave his face, it's kind of mesmerizing. That's how it was. We talked about Christmas lunch and people's favorite foods and watched Joel slowly cut off his hair and shave his head. Then I wondered to myself, "Are they watching so intently to see if he's still white under all that brown hair?" It made me chuckle to myself, but of course they've seen him bald. So I'm sure it was just something to do. I told you our week has been relaxing.

In our defense, we haven't been slacking (as it may appear). This is our last week of school before our Christmas break. Dade's reading is finally taking off, and Dara has learned that I do not know my state capitals! Joel has been working on a budget for a local businessman and a business curriculum that he'll be teaching on a weekly basis starting early February. I just didn't want you to think you sent us here to draw faces on carrots. Maybe it shows a desperation for entertainment...I don't know...but I do know the pace of life here can be wonderful.

This last picture is not just a photo of a random flower. This flower represents something growing in our garden that we Texans are eagerly anticipating. Any guesses? I'll post later with the answer...good night!

Daily Update - 91216

Sorry for the lack of posts the last few days. It has been a time for catch up and a few projects that Jill has been asking about. Our college students have wrapped up exams and are heading to their homes for the holidays. We are getting in the Christmas spirit - we were able to get Kathy's tree set up and some presents wrapped. The kids have been making snowflakes for the windows with Jill and the stockings are hung up. We are busy trying to plan a Christmas lunch with Richard and William (who are the only two from our compound that will be home for Christmas day) and some other Ugandans who are by themselves for the holidays. We hope to spend Christmas night visiting with some teammates, but all of our milkers will be gone and milking duties will fall on me and John for three or four days, so we'll see. Regardless, we'll have our traditional "alone" time Christmas morning and enjoy a nice lunch with friends.

Not much else going on right now....but a funny story....we were coming back from town today and Dade (out of the blue) said, "Mommy, if you were to go home and you poured chocolate syrup on me and it dried, I would be African." From the mouths of babes.......

Muriisa Follow Up

Yesterday, John and I went out to Muriisa to follow up on the cows we delivered before Thanksgiving. We were impressed with the way these ladies had been caring for their new "babies." John and I commented to each other several times that this was the best we had seen these cows look. Each of them appeared to have put on weight and their pens were well constructed and clean. I have put some pics below to show you each of the ladies along with their pens - not to mention the cow each one received. We will follow up again in February and continue to monitor the progress.

Interesting fact: they actually baptize and name their cows. Only one of them had not done this yet, but assured us that she was thinking very hard about the name and it would happen within the next few days. Not exactly sure why they need to be baptized, but it was interesting to see the importance of that to them.

This is Lovence - she is the one who has not yet named her cow. She received the little heifer that I absolutely loved. She should have a calf sometime around April. Her pen had an unusually high roof, but that made it very cool for the warm season.





The second lady we visited was Jolly and her cow Jassy (they pronounced it Jesse, but insisted it was spelled Jassy). She used thatch on her roof instead of iron, which saved her some money. They are already getting milk from their cow. This is the one that had a still birth the day before we delivered.





Next stop was Loy's house and her cow Joy. Another thatch roof, which I have begun to like a lot more than the iron. This is probably my second favorite pen. Very clean and airy.





Our second to last stop was at Rosette's house - the chairperson for the Mother's Union group that we are working with. This is the original pen we went to construct. I have to say, that after seeing the other pens we should have used poles instead of quarter rounds for the sides - the poles seem to open it up a lot more. This was my favorite cow; we called her Ginger and they renamed her Rose. I guess the hard work paid off in trying to calm her while she was at our place - she was letting people pet her and sticking her head through the feeding area to have her head scratched.





The final stop was at Juliet's house. She had not named it, but very quickly told us her name was Julie and they would baptize this weekend. This was by far, my favorite pen. It was extremely clean and the thatch roof will probably hold up better than iron. They actually make the thatch out of payrus reeds. If you remember some of our early posts from Uganda, this is the same stuff that Moses' mother made his basket out of and the same stuff that some of the earliest manuscripts of the Bible were written on.





I wish I had taken pics of some of the "roads" we drove on. Honestly they were small footpaths that a car barely fit down. One side was cut out into the hillabove us and the other side was a steep drop. It is times like that, you are very grateful for a vehicle with 4WD and high clearance.

Thanks again to those of you that contributed to the purchase of these cows. Rosette's son told John, "thank you for doing what you said you would do." What he was saying is that so many have come out here and promised many things to the people of Uganda with absolutely no follow through. It's because of generous folks back home that we are able to follow through with these promises. Thanks for being a part of this blessing!

Cow Update

Like Joel said, yesterday we had two sick cows. One cow is improving with anitbiotics. She is back to producing milk we can use. The jersey cow, however, had something called "redwater fever" and she died this afternoon. This morning her temperature was 32 degrees celsius (89.6 farenheit) and her normal should have been 38.5 (101.3) degrees. It's never a good sign when the body temperature begins to match room temperature. That's something I learned from the ICU and it makes sense for cattle too. The vet had come over late this morning and gave her an IV infusion but it was too late.

She was the nicest cow we had and we will all miss her. The kids are doing okay with it all. Apparently her meat was still good and John was a butcher in New Zealand so...we put the word out and offered free meat. At least we were able to bless others with our loss. I'm just praying that the meat really is safe to eat (both the vet and the internet say it is). That kind of makes up the biggest part of our day. I'm off to bed now - you just never know what tomorrow brings and I meet it so much better if I've had my rest! Good night!

Daily Update - 91209

Dealing with sick cows.....woke up Tuesday morning to two of our project cows with fevers and possibly the onset of East Coast Fever....a very common disease among cattle in Uganda. One of the newer cows had also contracted mastitis and it was causing some pretty big problems. So glad John was back in town and available, because many of you know....I HATE NEEDLES, even when they aren't going into my skin! Hopefully, we are on the mend, but milk distribution had to stop for this week until the penicillin and other anitbiotics are finished. It's amazing how much you realize people rely on milk when they are no longer receiving any. Pray for me and John to have wisdom....some of these dieseases out here are brand new to us and we are fighting a pretty big learning curve on how to diagnose in Africa and what the appropriate treatments are.

Looks like I'll actually have a couple of planning days available this week and they are much needed. And I think on Saturday, John and I will head back out to the village (Murissa) to check on the cows we delivered. Off to bed now.

Zoo pics

Like Joel said the Entebbe zoo was a surprisingly enjoyable trip. The vervet monkeys were all around when we entered. They stayed mostly by the mango trees and the playground. The only animals I can ever remember being allowed to walk around a zoo are some of the birds in the Ft. Worth Zoo (like the peacock). We are definitely new to Africa as evidenced by our excitement at seeing the monkeys all around. Thankfully there weren't many people around so there was no need to be embarrassed.

Sometimes the monkeys would get a little too close for comfort.

Dara didn't care for them trying to climb the "monkey" bars with her.

Doesn't Dade look very similar to an African monkey?




Don't get me wrong, they also had birds walking around - they just weren't as exciting as the monkeys.


Here's a golden crested crane (the country bird).

I don't know what this bird is, but it was pretty.

Remember this from zoos? It's the place where you see if you can jump as far as a grasshopper or rabbit or gazelle. We have concluded that we are not a family of jumpers - and that's okay!

I love this picture as it reminds me that nothing is wasted. (If you can't tell what the man is doing, he is draining the rain water into the yellow jug (they call them jerry cans)).

It was feeding time for the chimpanzees. They were screeching and hollering and fighting over the food. They were quite loud. I wouldn't want to hear those sounds if I were alone in the rainforest.

This one kept chasing all the others.

Their habitat was beautiful and open. When the weather doesn't change, you don't have to keep them enclosed - nice.

I was so impressed with the lushness of the zoo and the pathways we walked. It may not be as pretty in the dry season, but it was beautiful that day.The zoo sits on the edge of Lake Victoria and we ate a nice lunch enjoying the beauty of it.

Daily Update - 91207

Okay....back in Mbarara and now back to regular updates.

Last night (Sunday) we were able to talk with our church, Lamar Baptist, "live" using the wonderful technology of Skype and the wonderful skills of the guys on the media team at the church to patch us through to the sound board. We actually got to watch most of the service and see the folks back home via the feeds we were getting on Skype. It was an emotional moment for me (since I'm the cryer of the family) to see people so dear to us. What a neat time to be able to share with them a little of what we are doing over here. It was a special moment.

We settled back in here and even pulled the Hollenbeck's Christmas tree out of storage. We had been warned that rats tend to find their way into the box and make nests during the off season. Jill had James and the other boys pull the box out in to the yard before they opened it. And just so you know Kathy.....no rats this year!!! We spent the better part of the afternoon, rearranging the living room to find a place for the tree and the nativity set Jill picked up in Kampala. It brought just a small sense of normalcy to our lives for a few hours.

Today it is back to the normal routine. Jill is starting school with the kiddos after a week and a half off. Things ran so smoothly on the farm without me around, and their is mixed emotions as I try to figure out where to spend my time. My prayer was that things would function well without me, so I could let some of the day to day stuff go and focus on preparing Bible studies and using this next couple of months to strategize on our remaining six months of ministry here in Mbarara.

Pray for this time. We had a wonderful end of term lunch with our college students. They want to really look at relationships next semester, so I think we will probably do an in depth study of Song of Solomon. This is a topic that Jill and I love to discuss and one that is not discussed nearly enough in this culture. I am also working on completing a business curriculum for a discipleship program that one of our teammates will be starting in early February. I have a feeling that our time will disappear rather quickly, so pray that we will have wisdom on where to spend it.

No other update is coming today, unless Jill gets some time to post new pics. I will try my best to maintain daily updates during this holiday season, but forgive me if I get distracted with other things. Love ya'll!

Trip Update

Just wanted everyone to know that we made it back from Kampala safe and sound. Went to the dentist on Monday and found out that the only option was a root canal. Reminded me of the last time I went to a dentist (at least 11 years ago) with the same result. They did some work on Monday and asked me to come back on Friday to finish up.

Tuesday we took the kids to the Entebbe Zoo. We had been warned by some that it was not much, but were pleasantly surprised. There were Vervet monkeys running all over - free to roam the zoo as they pleased. Dara and Dade got up close and personal as they played on the playground and had monkeys all around them. It was a very relaxing day for all of us.

On Wednesday, I took the car to the only mechanic we know in Kampala (from trusted sources) and had our vehicle checked out. Everything appeared okay, but we needed routine stuff done - new brake pads, discs machines, new sway bar, new shock bushings and a new sterring hub - all those wonderful things that African roads do to a vehicle. We finally got our "kill" switch installed and are now officially covered under our insurance policy.

Jill got to finally have her hair done here in Africa on Thursday. There was a recommended place not far from where we were staying. While she did that, I took the kids and ran a few errands.

Friday had me back at the dentists for the second phase of the root canal. It was only supposed to take 1 1/2 hours, but I think I finally left after 3 hours!!!!! Needless to say, my mouth was just a little sore on the drive home. Fortunately, the road between Kampala and Mbarara tends to take your mind off anything other than driving.

It feels good to be back home! We start school back next week and are trying to really pray through what God wants us doing during our remaining time here. We'll update with pics soon, so check back.

Happy (late) Thanksgiving

Like Joel said I was sick with something like the flu on Friday and missed out on the majority of the fun. I was up for the first few games. We started with a boiled egg relay. It wasnt't as structured and controlled as I would have done it, but everyone had fun.

Some of the adults even got in on it. I'd have to say the kids were more steady than the grown ups. Maybe because they weren't as serious about going slow and steady. :)The three legged race was next. Joel and Dara were behind until he picked Dara up. You can tell Ruth noticed.These two little kids were not getting the hang of it at all and we'd probably still be racing if we were waiting on them. I told Joel later that I thought they might have cried and he said he thought they were going to cry when he picked them up. They didn't.

These guys: Zillah (the blond) with Sammy (a girl from the Peace Corp) vs. Samson (in the white shirt) and Justus (blue shirt) were quite serious

At this point we were still missing a few people and had time until lunch so we continued with our piggy-back race. Dara and Samson would have won except Samson ran around the house instead of around the tire (and I think he still came in fourth or fifth)! Maybe you can see Dara's yellow shirt going the wrong direction. You might also be able to pick out Joel and Dade going the wrong way around the tire. :)

I had a hint of a fear that someone might fall and twist their ankle, but thankfully no one did. This is the closest we came to an injury (not counting limbo). This is Toni (the man in charge of the farming here) barely hanging onto his son.

Limbo was our back-up game...just in case we needed one...we did. We modified the rules to prolong the game - you just needed to get under the pole without touching your knees or hands to the ground and you couldn't touch the pole. This was a picture close to the beginning.

and this was our winner...Happy!After limbo, they all ate and I went to bed. Ruth took pictures of the snow ball fight for me and I could hear them running around the house laughing harder than I thought was imaginable. Even though I was laying in bed trying to not be sick, I was smiling to hear how happy everyone else was. I could have posted many pictures of the fight but the flour made them all kind of cloudy, so I just picked a couple.

Please notice the velocity you can see from the snow ball Samson threw. Great picture, Ruth!

This is almost everyone who participated in the snow ball fight.

Justus, Medard (pronounced May-dad) and Joel did all the dishes. Quite an impressive mound, yes?

What a great holiday! Food, fun, and family. We are so thankful for how you bless us, Lord!