Putting up our little Christmas Tree

Brick Making in the Village

So this is the hut that I spent the night in at Pastor John Francis Osire's mothers compound.  I really wanted to connect in a personal way with Pastor Francis.  Being relational is the best way.  For me, a white person, to get down and dirty working like this expresses a lot.  It was amazing how many people dropped by to see with their own eyes this muzungu making bricks.  I even had one old man ask if I was married.  He must of had a daughter he wanted to marry off.  It was an awesome time to have great discussions together about life and ministry while working on building their new home.

This is when you can say that I just started to get "my feet wet" or in this case, dirty.

Its important to push the mud in all the corners so that you make a good brick.

This is the brick making station. Very very slippery in the mud.

In the background you can see the balls of mud being rolled together for the bricks.  I'm washing my brick mold well so that the mud will not stick to the sides.

You can see my first two bricks didn't turn out very well.  I told them that they can use those for the latrine. =)  It will take more than a thousand bricks per hut.  Each brick costs about 50 shillings, which is about two cents to make.  I saved them about 8000 shillings which was a huge blessing to them.  That is about $3 US dollars.

This is the grass being brought in for covering the bricks till they dry and to be used on the roof.

There is a technique in making the bricks fall out of the mold.

The first step in the process of making mud bricks is to get the mud to have just the right amount of moisture.  This was a huge termite mound which makes the strongest bricks.

Break time!  I was given a chair to sit on in the new hut and was served eggs, cassava chips, chapati and a soda.

This is the best mode of transportation to the villages.  I also had Pastor Francis's son Paul ride with me on back wearing my backpack.

When constructing a home they will often start with the structure of the roof and then thatch it before they start stacking bricks for the walls.

This is the part of the process where you smooth the mud after packing it.

This was my bed in the hut for the night.  They had a mat and mattress for me.  I only had to bring a net to sleep under.

Here I am carrying the mold to where we stage the bricks to be covered to dry.

This is a flying squirrel that Amos and Paul caught at their place.  This one broke their homemade trap.

Yes, we roasted it over a fire for a tasty treat before the ride home.

Amos left and Paul right enjoyed this source of protein with me which did actually taste like chicken.

These are all mud bricks covered with grass to dry before being used.  I made almost 150 bricks in about 31/2 hours that day.  Boy, did my body pay for it the next week.  My age is showing.  They are hoping to make three sleeping huts and one cooking hut when all is done.

This is a photo of the top of the hut as grass is being put on.  I think it looks pretty cool.  Everything is tied with grass instead of string.

Our Puppy Daisy

We now have a puppy, Daisy.  She is a Weiner Dog/Jack Russel mix. She is so cute and even though there is no picture of Drew with the dog, he really plays with it a lot!  

Sometimes, I think, how can we have so many pets here, but you know really it is one of the only things to do here. Take care of animals! It is also easy, because we live within a wall and everything is contained. 

Troy really did fall asleep with the dog like this! It was so cute. 

Kate thinks the dog is great! Something is smaller than here!

Ashley loves her new baby!

Snyders and Van Dykes Visit

On our way to pick up the Snyders and the Van Dykes from the airport, Steve and I had some exciting happenings. Our car started to give us problems! We thought it was just overheating, but soon realized it was more than that! We tried to go on, but it finally just gave out! We were stranded in the middle of no where. And in Africa, that really means the middle of no where!! We were along the side of the road with a bunch of people who spoke different languages. We did not have the kids with us, thankfully!! We called the mechanic that we use in Soroti and he tried to help us, but we ultimately connected with the mechanic we use in Kampala. He sent a tow truck to pick us up. While we were waiting for the tow truck, we had some adventures. We were stopped in the middle of no where, like I said, and we needed a place to go. We were going to get a tow by some local tow truck, but God sent an angel in disguise.  A nice young Ugandan family drove out of no where in a nice vehicle and asked if we needed help.  We said that, "Yes, we need a tow." They agreed to give us a tow to the next village center. So they towed us to the next center, which was not a very good place. We started to walk around looking for something to do during our three hour wait for our tow truck. Thankfully this wonderful couple came back because they didn't feel comfortable leaving us in this center. They had gone several miles to the next center and realized it was a much better center and there was a police station there. We then were towed to that next center and stayed at the police station for the remainder of the time. We waited four hours for the tow truck, they finally arrived at 11pm. We then started our journey to Kampala again. On the way, there was an accident and we were delayed another hour. Some of the pictures below show us on the side of the road as we waited. God kept us safe and we finally arrived at our guesthouse at 4:30 in the morning!! The next day we were so excited about our friends arriving that we forgot about how tired we were!! We are so thankful for God's faithful protection of us. 

This shows how dark it was in the middle of the night! I climbed in our van on the tow truck and tried to go to sleep! I don't think I would have been allowed to do that in the U.S.

So excited!!!

I think my face shows my excitement!! Even now as I write this, I am tearing up. It was so wonderful to have these wonderful visitors!!

Beautiful! Life-changing!

Good Friends!

Gorgeous, inside and out!!

My favorite dentist and his son. (Sorry Scott!! I love you too!!)

This is where you would always find Kate in the morning!! In Aaron's arms!!  

Good times, eating and cooking!!

Basket Weaving

This is my friend Janet. She came over one day to teach us basket weaving! She was wonderful at it and we were really bad at it!! She has now completed a basket for me and I have not gotten any further on it!

Grandpa and Solomon

Grandpa loved playing with Solomon!! 

Sisters

I know it looks like she didn't enjoy this, but she was having a great time!!

Ashley decided to put Kate into a bucket of water with her clothes on! Kate loved it!

So fun playing in the rain water tap!

Grandpa and Grandma seeing village life!

We spent some time in a village. This is the kitchen hut! Joy was showing where they cook and how it is different in the village.

Eating G-nuts (peanuts) 

Joy showing us how they beat the beans to release them from the pod 

Drew giving it a try!! What boy wouldn't love to live here! It is fun to beat things with a stick!

I don't know if you can see how dirty Troy is, but he is very dirty and he has a catapult(slingshot) on his head!

My little Teso baby!!