Hodge Podge

Here are some random pictures that I took the time to take, so I'm sharing them. This first one is of papyrus plants. Once you see them, it's easy to see how Moses mother could have made his little boat and hide him among the reeds.

This picture is of some art work we saw when we stopped at the equator. I couldn't help but ask Charlotte if she thinks it would match the lovely, abstract paintings that are sitting in her garage? ;)

It's not every day you meet someone named "Obadiah" so when I had a Joel, Amos, and Obadiah in the same room - I just had to take a picture! So here they are in correct order.

We completed our homestay today and checked into a local hotel. There is a pool and a trampoline so the kids are happy. It'll probably take Dade a couple of hours in the pool before his feet turn completely pink again. I learned some very exciting news the other night...I can get a good pedicure here for about $5-10.

The pictures have been added, now a day later. The pool is quite cool, enough that Joel didn't even ask me to get in. He is such a good man! The kids played for quite sometime despite the temperature and Dade's feet are now a lovely shade of pink! The water is quite deep. Dara can't even reach in the shallow end so thankfully there were two inner tubes available.

Mukasas

Our host family is amazing. The couple is Amos and Perry Mukasa. They have 6 boys and 1 girl. They have embraced and welcomed us better than I could have possibly dreamed. Tonight Boris (that's not his given name but his nickname and I cannot say his given name very well), helped me - or better - allowed me to help him chapatis. It's a round bread that they very much enjoy. I made them once with my pastor's wife, but that was a couple of years ago and I was clueless enough to not confess ever having been taught before.

This is a picture of Boris and me with the various stages...Boris is holding the finished project and I have a ball of dough and a rolled, uncooked chapati. Boris is 20 years old and wants to be an engineer. He is hoping to find out if he is accepted into a university this coming Monday. I told that maybe we should start a restaurant and specialize in chapatis!

It soon became a family affair (and this was all happening after 8pm. I think we finished by 8:45 or so.) Joel was watching it cook over this wee (that's how all of our British and Scottish friends say "little" and I kind of like it - it's fun to use. You should give it a try, anyway...). There is a wee charcoal stove that is very effective, more economical and apparently makes chapatis better. These were the best tasting chapatis I've ever had, albeit things do taste better when you've worked and made them yourself.

Dade was enthralled by the cooking process - specifically the fire. When Dara got into the game, she just really wanted to use the last little bit as play-do. (Something, I have a recipe for and will need to make pretty soon.) I think Boris thought Dara was crazy because she kept trying to draw faces in the dough. He was, however, quite disappointed that she refused to try the chapati. Dade, thankfully, made up for her with his enthusiastic appreciation.

The kids have had a blast playing with the kids but today spent the day with our team leaders kids so we could focus easier. The children here leave for school at 6:30 am and return at 6 pm. And our kids would be terribly lonely without them.

I don't know if every Christian, Ugandan family is similar, but the Mukasas have this great tradition of singing 1-2 hymns together with a time of prayer before bed. I think we'll definitely be incorporating that into our lives. It's great.

This last picture is of us standing with one leg in each hemispehere (unfortunately you can't tell which is which - you'll have to take our word for it) We crossed over on our way to Mbara.

Kampala pictures

Here are some of the pictures from Kampala. I don't know if you can see all of the white small vans, "taxis", from this angle, but there were hundreds! We road them into town. They are packed with at least 10 people and cost about 40 cents/per seat to get into town. The kids were free because they sat on our laps. This is the taxi park where we would go to find one to take us back to the inn.

I'm not sure we've walked so much since we arrived. Definitely not with so many people around. I didn't take many pictures because I had a hold of Dade's hand the entire time. It was quite overwhelming. (The praise is that today we went and had a walking tour of Mbarara and it is quite delightful - I'll post about that another time - first things first.)

We stayed out of town a bit at Matoke Inn (matoke is the green banana that is found everywhere here). This is a guest house run by AIM and there are 3 dogs - which made it a great place...especially for Dara. This is Gizmo, whom Dara claimed as her favorite.This beautiful German Shepherd is Maddox, whom Dade enjoyed very much. Except when Dade threw his stick and Maddox went and retrieved it and broke it when he bit down. Dade was given strict instructions not to tease Maddox as he is trained as a guard dog. Thankfully all of Dade's skin is still intact and they have friends they will look forward to meeting again at Matoke Inn. The third dog is Shuny and she is quite old and therefore not all that playful.

Well, I am off to continue my language lesson with our hostess, Perry. She is so patient and kind as I ask her to spell each word for me. Please pray for my ears to hear and understand, especially because it seems that Ugandans speak very softly...or, I'm losing my hearing. Hopefully it's not the latter.

I can't wait to catch up on my blogging to share with you what God is doing here. But I feel you'll understand things better if I go in order...so, you'll just have to keep reading. :) Know that God is alive and taking care of us here. He is so faithful. If you are reading this and can't say an "Amen" then please find someone to help you understand. :)

We're still here!

I just wanted to let you know we've arrived. We spent two days in Kampala, the capital city. I have pictures but they're still in my camera. It was a very busy two days. Uganda is a beatiful country. While in Kamala, we walked a lot of the down town area. I don't know that I've ever been around so many people. I'll definitely try to put some pictures when I get the chance - it was a bit overwhelming. We were able to find "chips" (french fries) and pringles and it helped the kids a lot.

We arrived in Mbarara on Saturday and celebrated by meeting the team of people we'll be working with. There is such a neat team and I am so grateful that we're able to be a part of it. There's a girl from Canada who is 8 (Judah) and her brother is 6(Samuel)! There is a single girl from the United Kingdom (Zhilla) and many more.

On a side note, did you know that the rest of the world says the letter 'z' as 'zed'? So if I were spelling Zhilla's name, I'd say "z-h-i-l-l-a". Everyone else says "zed-h-i-l-l-a". It's very interesting. And if anyone gets some time and would like to make a list of conversions from english to metric (ex. miles to kilometers andfarenheit to celsius), I'd really appreciate an email. I could look it up on line, but it takes so long.

Well, I need to go...we are all adjusting. Please pray for the kids eating. I'm confident that one day it'll get better, but the sooner the better in my opinion. Thank you all for your prayers - please don't stop.

Airport Lessons

Well, we are behind security and waiting for our flight to Entebbe, Uganda. Our good friend from Mayfield, George, got to take us to the airport. It is truly amazing how God binds our hearts to those we meet.

We have been trying to figure out over the last two days in Nairobi, exactly how much we were going to have to pay for our extra baggage. Based on what others had found out, we knew we would be over, but had no idea how much that would cost. The home office in Pearl River told us we were each allowed 30kilos (approx 60lbs) per person and that we would pay $3.50 per kilo for anything over that. However, in recent days we had heard that it might be as high as $7 per kilo. With all of our luggage that would have cost us about $1000.00!!!!!!!

Guess how much we paid....................$297.00!!!!!! Not sure what that comes out to per kilo, but needless to say, we were pleasantly surprised. They even let us use 30 kilos as our maximum weight instead of the 20 kilos it should have been due to the regional flight (Entebbe is only a 1 hour flight from Nairboi). I tipped the guy helping us get our bags to the counter 500 shillings - that's about $6.50 in US dollars. After we got through the line, we had to fill out our exit forms. As we were trying to figure out what to fill out, one of the other fellows that helped with our bags approached us wanting to know if we had tipped the other guy and if so, how much. I think I might have started a fight! Great......my last day in Kenya for over a year and I start a fight in the airport. You live and learn!!!!

The hard part was still saying goodbye to all those still at Mayfield when we left. The first group left at 4:30am and needless to say, I did not get up to see them off - blessings on you Wilsons, Eisbrenners, Margaux, and of course Hannah (the kids still miss you and Jenny!!!!). The Mazzas and Kathryn left this morning around 6:30 and we were still waking up. We will miss you guys! And then finally to the last of our ABO group - Jennifer, Mark, Ana, Cintia, Elizabeth, Joel, Little Isaiah, Rob, Char, and Little Micah.....don't think I left anyone else from ABO out. It was hard to say goodbye, but we are already planning times to see many of these dear friends.

Next update will be from Uganda - miss all of you back home and look forward to meeting all of you in our new home!