We're Back At It

Today Baptist, Cathi and myself went out to the Kyongera village. We continued inspecting the work on the homes that we had already visited. Our trek today was just as encouraging as last time. Most of the homes had made the necessary repairs. Next week we hope to be purchasing mosquito nets! Today, we had planned to journey back out by way of motorcycles, but for some unknown reason it appears that all the Boda-Boda’s (motorcycle taxi drivers) had taken the day off. So, we drove in the van as far as we could go and then had to huff it the rest of the way. After hours of walking in the hot sun we arrived at our last house for the day. Upon arrival they welcomed us with boiling hot fresh milk and fried eggs! Cathi couldn’t stomach the hot milk on a hot day (I wasn’t looking forward to it either.) So, when the family left the room I downed her glass and mine. What can I say, I’m a wonderful son-in-law! I don’t have the sturdiest stomach, and let’s just say hot fresh milk and eggs on a hot day has not sat well with me. But, none the less, it was a wonderful gesture of courtesy and generosity from this family. The families are so grateful for our help. I have to say, I love my job!

Sorry for the lack of photos. I have some and will share them soon. Our computer crashed, and we are using a friend’s computer. When we get ours up and running and can shrink photos we will post them.

Be blessed, Chris

Life in Kaihura has begun!

It has been a busy first week here with the family, but we are settling in nicely. We spent the first couple of days in Kampala, the capital city, getting supplies that we can’t get in our area. We headed out to the village on Thursday. We received a warm welcome at our home with dinner and tea. On Friday we headed out to Ft. Portal, which is a city about 45 minutes away. While we were there we did our first grocery shopping experience, which was interesting to say the least.

Life at the house is going well. The village is supposed to have electricity by the end of the month. I don’t really think it will be ready, but feel free to put that on your prayer list. Life will be that much easier with electricity. I am currently next door at Home Again using their solar power to charge my laptop as I type. Outside of the lack of electricity, things are going pretty smooth. The boys are having a great time playing in the yard. Kolby has been playing a lot of baseball. He is very good at hitting. If anyone knows a scout for the Braves farm team ask them if they are willing to travel to Africa! Logan is his adventurous self on any continent. He is constantly trying to have me put on our Nacho Libre wrestling mask and wrestle in the floor with him. Nothing has changed for him. The boys are getting to know some of the kids next door. They are still a little confused when all the kids are around, being the only white kids and the only ones speaking English for the most part. But, they are doing a wonderful job overall. Kolby is also excited about learning Rutooro. This will help with his adjusting.

We have had two ladies from Australia here for the last week. They are a part of a nonprofit org. called Australia Bringing Hope. They wanted to see more of the surrounding villages, as well as what some of the other nonprofits were accomplishing here. So, I took them out to the Kyongera district on Saturday to see some of the families that we are working with in the mosquito net project. I was encouraged to see that out of the six homes we visited five of them had made the necessary repairs to their homes and were ready to receive their mosquito nets. This excited me in that I could see the desire and hope that these families have to live a better life. By the way, we took a van this time since there were six of us. We drove as far as we could and had to walk the rest of the way. Next week I will be back on the motor bike.

Cathi, Katie’s mom, was informed that she will be hosting a muzungu (white person) cooking lesson tomorrow. So, we will be heading out for a few ingredients later today. The locals are quite interested to see how we live and eat.

Faith came to Katie with a laundry list of ideas that she can do while she is here. Katie will have to prioritize and decide her plan of action. More than likely she will be focusing a lot of her time assisting Home Again, but I will let her write about that when we come up with a solid plan.

Thank you for all your prayers, love and support. All of you have made this day possible.

Be blessed,

Chris
International Coordinator

Picture of us in our new backyard in Uganda.

My mother-in-law in our new kitchen. Notice the kerosene lantern
on the counter, our source of light until we get electricity!