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!