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!