Books!!

We have slowly been moving books from the Team Beyond Resource Centre to the Beyond Pamba Resource Centre. We had potential team members come on a confirmation trip and they helped us with transferring the books, even though they were incredibly sick!! We were so thankful for their help. To hear more about the Zapata's you can check out their blog here: http://thezapatafamilystory.blogspot.com

Moving the book shelves!

The boys road in the truck to hold the shelves in place! This is Drew and Emma with Troy in the background!

Bringing them into Beyond Pamba.

Children of the Light Gospel Choir helping unload the books!

They were more excited to hold Amara Sliedrecht!!

They are incredible heavy shelves!!

Already excited to be reading the books!

The Zapatas and the Tiesenga Kids!! 

Luz and I really would have liked to just sit down and read!

Rick Zapata with Steve and Troy loading books!

Looking through books and organizing!

Matthew Zapata starting reading to the little neighbor kids and this little one fell asleep! They love the special attention that Matthew was giving them. 

This place really is one of my favorite places to be! I love books!!

Beyond Pamba Resource Centre

I just wanted to put pictures on our blog of the work done on Beyond Pamba. Steve has been updating via Facebook, but I know some do not have Facebook. We are so excited that we are close to completion. Our planned open date is September 1st.  We just have some last little details to complete. 

Breaking the wall to connect the rooms!

Steve is so excited for the progress being done!

The openings for the two new rooms!

Joel is a friend that is deaf. He visits Steve everyday when he is home on school holiday. He always helps in some way. This day he was cleaning away cob webs. 

The neighbors were very excited for the broken bricks from the walls!

Almost done!

Mixing cement outside the front of Beyond Pamba.

Robert! 

Part of preparing Beyond Pamba, is killing the rodents and blocking their holes!

Pool Day

So... this is the pool we have been using once in awhile. The other day, we took some friends with us and they were so frightened when we first arrived and then they eventually got used to it and moved around. It is so much fun to have some refreshment once in awhile. The unfortunate thing about pools here is that you can never depend on being able to use them.  Like this pool, it is owned by a Ugandan and he doesn't spend much time in Soroti, so he has allowed us to us it, but now the chemicals are finished and who knows when they will be replaced.  We have to enjoy the fun while we have it.

We are thankful for these short times of cooling off!

The boys with Karen and Kate!

Everlyn, Catherine and Asher, they are not so sure about this pool business! 

Asher loved the water once he got used to the cold!

Swing, Swing!

Sharks and Minnows

Watch out for Troy!!

Dibble Dabble! Here the boys are all a bit cold!! 

Emma is not so comfortable in the water, so he is relaxing in the boat!

Karen loved the pool from the moment she got in!! So cute!!!

Some Village Visits

Village visits are so much fun!  I love to see the faces light up when they see someone different. This week Catherine and I finally made it out to Oscar's village. We took them to the village a while ago and have been wanting to visit, but needed to wait til school holiday or on a Saturday when we are not busy with other things. Finally we had a Saturday and it was school holiday. We showed up in the morning and at first they were all a little shy and mom was in the garden. They quickly went to get Christine(mom) from the garden.  She came and she was so happy and the kids also warmed up soon! It is not so easy to get smearing oil or sugar in the village so we brought them a gift of some of these hard things to get. They loved when I brought the camera out! They love to see themselves.  They all wanted to change their clothes get ready to have their picture taken.  One by one they came out with different clothes. So cute!! 

Collins and Charles

Oscar

Justine, we could not get her to look at the camera at the right time!! She thought this picture was soo funny!

Finally a good smile!

Selfies!

Justine's change of clothes!  They showed me their school reports and Justine does very good in Math!! 

Christine loves staying in the village because she has much more land to work!  She is such a strong lady!! I also love that she has  godly family member around her. 

I also had the opportunity to visit Catherine's village. While we were there, we took the time to visit with the Tata (grandmother). She was so excited to see us! They think she is anywhere between 90 and 100. She is now confined to her bed and has people waiting on her. We sat in her room and were overwhelmed by two things: the smell of urine and her wonderful mind! She had Catherine get a bag that carried many dresses and she kept having her remove them and we were unaware of what she wanted with them. Finally after the last dress was removed she found the necklace that I had given her when I visited one time before.  I was shocked that she remembered me and that she knew where the necklace was.  She loves the necklace and has only taken it off because it is hard to wear when you are in bed all day. She is a beautiful woman and everyone in the village loves her.  It was such a privilege to spend time with her.

She was so shocked to see herself!