10 March 2007

Let me catch you up on the weeks happenings... Monday our house help came for the first time today. Her name is Debora. She is about 30 years old and not married. (That is really normal in Uganda – can you believe it?
She looks older than me.) Debora is a very fast, hard worker. She has worked for other white people before and she knows what she is doing. But she is strong and I need to be firm with her about what I want done. We are paying her a bit more because she lives further away so hopefully it will all work out.

Guess what, I DROVE to town today with Angie. We have an automatic but it is all on the other side. (the right side) How nice it is to have some freedom to go out. I am liking our town more and more. It is small, mostly clean, and has just enough to keep us supplied.

Tuesday night Tim and Josh went to our neighborhoods for local food. Angie and I stayed home cause the girls were in bed sleeping. I look forward to having some of their peanut stew though. This neighborhood is named Joseph (one of about 5 Josephs in our neighborhood) and has 15 kids living in this home. He has a wife and kids, this brother died so he cares for his wife and kids, and another widow and her kids I think.

Wednesday I was getting the clothes off the line (which by the way Debora does a great job on. They come back ironed and even soft) when I was hit by a rock in my shoulder. Talk about pain! The rock was about the size of a golf ball. Josh gave a stern talk to the boys outside our wall who threw it. I am so thankful one of the kids didn't get hit.

At night Josh and I went on a date. Just one of the perks of having family as neighbors. We swapped kids for a night out. Tim and Angie then went on Thursday. We went in town and did a few arrends and then ate at the Landmark. It was nice to be able to sit down and talk with one another.

It has been really hot this week. It is about 90degrees inside by afternoon. We haven't had rain for about a week. This feel more like normal dry season. The sun is really hot. At least the nights still cool off to about 75.

Our power continues to be on and off. It is so unpredictable. I wish it was set times then we wouldn't have to worry about when it will be on or off. Sometimes it is on 12 hours sometimes 2 hours. Sometimes it is off 8 hours then a half an hour. It is a challenge to function in the evenings with no light. We are thankful for flashlights and candles but it does doesn't light up the house. And our fridge really suffers. Thankfully we can get fresh things in town but I am not sure what we will do about keeping meat.

Lydia doesn't really like the bugs here. One time she was bothered by a fly and just started to cry, “I want to go back to Michigan!” She had a cockroach crawl on her foot. I wasn't there but Josh said she panicked. I would too! We had several big cockroaches come out of the drain in our bathroom so we sprayed really well and haven't seen any since. (Thank you
God.) Grace on the other hand is intrigued by bugs. She goes around getting the ants.

We finally met our landlord. He and his wife came by Thursday. He is the head of Soroti district but very down to earth and nice. He was very easy to work with and that is an answer to prayer.

Friday we went to Dewires house for lunch. They are Baptist missionaries here and have been very helpful and nice to us. Lydia was excited all day and kept saying we are going to see white people, really white people. The Dewires, Dan and Amy, have two blond hair girls ages 3 and 1. Their house is very nice and we had hamburgers on the grill. The girls had a great time. They are really nice and kept offering to help us in any way. Angie and I look forward to getting together with Amy and the kids again. I'm so glad that Lydia has a new friend to play with.

We have been back and forth to the furniture place a lot. We check on the work and order other things. My bed was suppose to be done today but it was lower and simpler than the picture I gave them. She could tell I wasn't happy so she said they would make another one and would sell this one to someone else. She said we have bought enough so it was okay. I was so impressed and thankful. It is hard for me to make this big, expensive decisions so I really want to like the end result. Hopefully we will have a bed, dresser, and table when we return from Kampala next week.

Josh said he feel like a hamster on a wheel. We go round and round and don't get anything done. I guess that is life in a foreign culture. Tim is still going round and round with the phone people and our inter net connection. Someday we will be connected.

And today. In the afternoon Angie, the girls, and I headed to town to get supper ingredient but turn around about a mile into our trip because a storm was on it way. The wind was blowing and dust was flying! I thought that kind of storm only happened in Mahula. Poor Angie had to get out to open the gate and was sand blasted. We ran to the house just before the down pour.

About an hour later we headed for town again. Lydia doesn't know how to walk in the mud and managed to get it all over us. I bought meat for the first time in the market. He just laughed at me when I asked for no bone or fat. We got a few other things but couldn't get any cheese for our pizza tonight. Angie and I decided that means we go out. Besides, the power is out too.

We went to the Soroti Hotel. It is a nice place and we had really good food too. The girls did good seeing how it takes a half an hour to get the food. They were ready for their flashlight bath and bed when we got home.