Long nights

So on Wednesday night we were sitting peacefully at the table when Curly started screaming from the bathroom that there was a bat. Assuming that she was exaggerating, no one jumped up to rescue her. When the screaming continued, I went into the bathroom, only to be dive-bombed by a..... can you guess, BAT.

I grab Curly, with her pants still around her ankles and shove her into the bed room, only to discover a second bat in there. We ushered all the girls to the opposite side of the house and then began the bat hunt. One, we found in the trash can, the other was on the window screen above the Baby Girl's bed. Kent was quite the sight with his broom, work gloves (with holes) and a bucket or two, trying to catch them and put them out side.

After both bats were successfully out side, Kent commented on how that wasn't how he had expected to spend his evening. Little did we know what Thursday night would hold.....

Thursday night, about the same time I was once again headed into the bathroom, when I heard

the unwelcome sound of flapping wings. Assuming there was another bat I scanned the room as I quickly headed to the door. What I discovered was NOT bats, but BUGS. White ants to be exact.

Really there is no way to accurately describe the MILLIONS upon MILLIONS of winged incests that were flying about. Some how they were finding their way into the house via the girls windows. They were attracted to that end of the house because of the security light. Once we realized that the only way to keep them out was to keep the lights off, we sat in the dark catching the ones that had made it in. This is significant on two different levels:

1. We normally don't have power.... Ok maybe not normally, but half the time we are cooking by lantern light, or bathing by flashlight, and for us to HAVE to turn the lights off, to do it our selves... that was sad.

2. We were collecting the bugs to give them as a gift to our neighbor, since Lady had scared her that afternoon. Yes, you read that correctly, we were giving bugs as a gift. Now don't act too shocked, I have already told you that they eat them, that they grind them into a paste. Only I told you a small fib. Kent thought that white ants and termites were the same thing, well they are not. THESE, these bugs that were swarming my house are white ants.

Anyway, back to that evening. There we were collecting bugs for our neighbor, when Lady started going crazy, Kent when to check on things and discovered people out collecting too! They were lighting little fires on the road to attract the bugs and were snatching them up and throwing them in to buckets and pots.
Kent wanted to be neighborly and so he invited them up to the gate so they could catch the bugs that were swarming our light. He even jumped in and helped. I wish I new more about these little creatures, apparently they they only come out once every so often, but when they come, they come in mass. They fly around, then they shed their wings, burrow in the ground and lay their eggs. Well I think they lay eggs, I know that they shed their wings. See:

That is all wings... and just a small portion of what was left in our yard. Kent eventually invited the neighbors into our compound as well. He even served them sodas. They were excited to have access to so many bugs. After HOURS of bug collecting, Kent finally decided to call it a night. We kept the house lights off and the gate light on and told them they could come back in the morning.

And they did. Baby Girl even helped collect a few bugs too. Hopefully we were able to begin a few new friendships through this random appearance of bugs.

Last night we kept the all the house lights off, just in case, but it was for not, because the ant rush was over.

Exploration : day 5

Ok quick recap - - - - - - -

Monday : drive to Kampala and sleep at the Grand Imperial

Tuesday : Drive to Lake Nabugabo and sleep in van

Wednesday : Drive to Lake Bunyonyi and sleep in van

Thursday : Drive to Mgahinga NP and sleep in banda

Friday : Drive to Lake Mburro and sleep in the van as well as see lots of cool animals.

Saturday : Head back to Kampala, stay two nights in a hotel, while we wait for the immigration office to open on Monday
What equatorial vacation would be complete with out a picture taken on the equator???

Too much fun!! Thank you Jesus for wonderful country to explore, and beautiful things to look at on the way and an amazing family to do all with!

Exploration : day 4

Like the proverbial "pot of gold" at the end of a rainbow.... Lake Mburo National park was an awesome experience! Not as affordable as Lake Nabugabo, but defiantly worth it!

Once again we were camping with the monkeys. Only this time they weren't as aggressive as the Nabugabo family. These little fellows were all around the camping area, looking for yummy bugs to eat. And they brought friends....

Uncle Pumba and ..... Big Brother Baboon. Big Brother is sitting at the remains of our campfire from the night before. Gotta love living in Africa... instead of squirrels and Humming birds you have monkeys and warthogs.

Here is a shot of them walking around like they own the place .... oh wait... they do. Note the car in the corner of the picture... lest you think that we are over exaggerating the nearness of these beasts.

The Bald Eagle's cousin, the fisher Eagle.

Saturday morning we took a boat ride out on the lake and were able to get really close to some of the wild life there in the lake. FYI: Lake Bunyonyi is one of the deepest lakes.... 6500 ft deep! Lakd Mburo...... only about 3 meters or 9 feet.

On the way in (as well as out) your see all sorts of amazing animals. We had quite the adventure while we were trying to exit the park. There were many times that the road we had to take to get out were next to impossible to get through. But God in his goodness kept us from getting stuck or stranded.

We were able to see zebras and impalas, neither of which are found in Murchison park, so that was a fun bonus.

Ahhhhh yes, what road trip in Africa is complete with out a herd of cattle in your way???

Exploration : day 3

This was our Goal.... Mgahinga Gorilla National Forest. This is the "home" of several extinct volcano's as well as a few active ones. Very beautiful chain of mountains. We had driven and driven for several days to get here. And we were ready to leave the moment we arrived! Crazy huh! More of the mountain side farming..... We have decided that the people that live around Mgahinga national park, don't get many visitors. This is were we stayed while at Mgahinga. This little camp/banda was literally at the end of the road. Meaning the road stopped, the only way you could travel further in Uganda was on foot. Which is one reason why we didn't stay any longer then necessary. There were several factors that contributed to our desire to high tail it out of the area!

#1 - To see the gorillas in the park... you had to pay $500 an HOUR! CRAZY, and so not in our budget!

#2 - The only way to get to see the park at all, gorillas or not, was to walk, and we didn't think that either of the two little ones would walk long enough to make the expense worth it.

#3 - The people! I know that sounds awful, but they were overwhelming. Almost EVERY person, (adult and child both) that we passed asked for money... no they demanded money. "You give me money!" "You give me money!" that was all we heard. Kent and two of the girls tried to walk around, and were mobbed by a group of children. They would stand on the other side of the short fence and stare at us... watching every move, holding their hands out, begging. If we could have communicated with them, it might have been easier. We could have at least shared Jesus with them, but we couldn't even do that! I think that so much of their mentality was due to the fact that they can't/don't leave the mountain much. They are just now working on a paved road (which was extremely nice in the places it was finished), and there is a limited amount of transportation that goes that direction.One of the reasons that I haven't posted more pictures of our Home city, is because I don't want to make the people that I live with feel like this woman. When she realized that I was going to take a picture, she hid.

These Crested Crane are the national bird of Uganda. This would be like seeing a bald eagle in your back yard, cool huh!

Boys, these were probably some of the few boys that didn't demand that we give them something.

OK this is is a funny story.... While we were driving over the mountains we get a text on our phone that says.... "Welcome to Rwanda", later we receive another text telling us how to call information while in Rwanda. We start frantically looking at a map, trying to figure out how, when and WHERE we crossed the border. Then we approached this guarded area. Keep in mind that NOBODY speaks English, so we have no idea where we are, or if we are about to cross into another country. So we turn around and drive back to the little community. We decide to call a hotel, and see if they can help us, they suggest following a Boda Boda (motorcycle taxi) to their location. So we find a driver that can kind of understand what we need, we turn BACK around and we start following.

He drives right on through the guarded area, and it is not until we are passed it that we realize we were driving on the runway, for the airport. We weren't where we thought we were, but we weren't in Rwanda either.

This is a nice shot of the road that we had to take to get over the mountains. Note the two semi's going in opposite directions.... then notice the herd of cows that are on the road, right where the white truck will soon be driving.

Exploration : day 2

After Lake Nabugabo we continued south/southwest and drove to Lake Bunyonyi. The drive was really nice, we watched the landscape change from plains, to banana farms and then into the foot hills of the mountains.We passed a Ugandan Mill.... Here they are making 2x4's BY HAND!!! unbelievable.

A nice shot of the lake from the top of the hill, looking down. Lake Bunyonyi, and the mountains that surround it, is known as the "Switzerland of Africa".

We were BLOWN away by how the people farm the land..... they use every available square inch of dirt for farming! Even if it means farming sideways on the side of a mountain.

I wish there was more I could say about lake Bunyonyi.... We got there at dusk, set up and cooked dinner in the dark, climbed in the van, and went to sleep! The next morning, we at breakfast at the resort were we were camping, so that we could spend our time packing up, instead of cooking.

Here is our "campsite". It was actually the edge of the parking lot, but the grassy area was GREAT for the girls to run around in. Imagine, the tarp over the van, a few trunks sitting around, a NICE RED COOLER, and a lantern or two and you have our camp.

Exploration : day 1

We took our first Ugandan Camping trip last week and had an awesome time! But before I tell you all about it, let me clarify a few things first:
#1 : Our Trip to Murchinson Falls National Park was a two day, one night trip. Quick, fast and close by. A short two hour drive from our house!
#2 Our trip to Aru Falls was a day trip. Drive there, eat lunch, hike, and go home. That was it.
NOW on the other hand this was a BIG trip. AMI is big on the "push-pull" work method, and we are about to have a HUGE push with the summer coming and several short term teams making a trip to Uganda! So we thought that a little time as a family was in order, to help prepare ourselves for the next push.

OK that being said...... Here are the awesome details of our trip.

We started by staying the night in Kampala. We splurged a little for Kent's birthday and rented a room at the Grand Imperial, I wish I had taken pictures.... but alas... I didn't.


Our First stop was Lake Nabugabo, a short drive from Kampala. It was VERY nice, peaceful. I wish we would have stayed there the whole week!!

The biggest down fall of the lake was the Monkeys. They were great fun to look at when they were walking from the water to the trees... but after this mama got brave and stole a tomato from our camp.... it was all down hill from there!

We had all sorts of monkeys wanting in on the yummy food! It was crazy! There were several times that we had to chase a monkey out of the back of the van! I though one monkey was going to chase me! I was glad that Kent was ready and willing to take on anything that might try and attack. What a man, what a man!

The view was amazing. The "Holiday Center" were we stayed has NICE bathrooms, and there were bandas or huts that you could rent, if you didn't have a tent to sleep in. After a yummy breakfast, we were packed up and on the road by 11:00 on Wed morning.

Aru Falls

Lady has quickly become part of the family, she shares her bed with Snuggle Bug...And this weekend she went with us on our first day trip. We were told about a waterfall that is about an hour and 15 min drive from our city and is a beautiful place to go for an afternoon excursion. We are planning to go camping in a week, and we thought it would be a great practice run before we left.The directions that went something like this: "Take Kitgume road till you reach the big bridge, shortly after the bridge you will turn right, just before the the trade center. Follow the small road for about 20 min. Then you will turn right again, you will know it is the correct turn because the road dips down." We only had to call once to confirm the location of the turn for the small road. They said we would be straddling the grass ... .and we were! This place is really out in the African bush! in the middle of nowhere. It is rough, and untourist-ized. It was beautiful!The last time we went camping, it rained and we discovered that the van leaked! IT was not a pleasant night.... and before I was going to sleep in the van for a week .... during rainy season... we had to get it fixed!! I thought of putting a tarp over the top of the van. That would help keep the water out, maybe even allow us to keep the windows open if it rains (it gets stuffy with the windows closed.) And this is what Kent came up with.... it worked really well. Daddy, you would be proud!Here is our camping stove.... we heated up leftover soup for lunch and added yummy pineapple to finish off our meal. I actually had to cook several meals on this stove, when our cooker (stove) ran out of propane and the gas station was out as well.

Before we headed down to the falls we met Bosco, who came out of nowhere! He was a true God send!! There was NO WAY we could have made it down the mountain with out his help. The descent down was treacherous, there were times that my life flashed before my eyes as I thought Lady was going to pull me head first down into the rocks! There were several rivers that we had to ford (isn't that the fancy word for cross??) That would have been impossible with just us: 2 adults, 4 girls, 2 chairs, and umbrella and a puppy! But is was all worth it, wouldn't you say.... just look at the view! There he is.... the silent watcher, sent to help us maneuver down a mountain so we could enjoy one of God's MANY wonders!

Please observe that the chairs we hauled down the mountain, were NOT fold able, easy to carry camping chairs..... they were these, hard plastic lawn chairs. And the Umbrella, was NOT the small compact type that fit into your purse or backpack.

Here are the girls playing in the only shallow place we could find. They had so much fun, once they recovered from the journey down. For the trip back up we made a few changes. Kent carried, Curly Sue on his back, I passed Lady to Baby Girl and took Snuggle Bug on my back. Sweat Pea, wielded the umbrella and Bosco took the chairs! It wasn't as scary going back up, except for the time I fell in to the river... but I didn't drop Snuggle bug! Of course I was the only one who WASN'T dressed for a swim ... oh well!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!!

Easter Weekend Confessions

Easter "weekend" started for us on Thursday when Kent and I headed to the Capital..... ALONE! Can you believe it, God as given us FABULOUS babysitters here in Uganda! We ate burgers, bought cereal (even at $10 a box) ate pizza, bought butter and cheese, and even ate Mexican food! ... I LOVED IT!

We were home by Saturday. The kids had colored eggs with Miss Ashley, so Sunday was a low key, recover from supply run, kind of day. Sunday night I was making a HUGE pot of spaghetti sauce... home made.... from scratch, and as I was moving it from the counter, back to the burner...... I DROPPED IT!

I'm not sure what the actual trigger was, could be the fact that we live in a foreign country, could have been all the time wasted cooking, could have been the food that was lost, yummy, fresh good food, or it could have been the fact I was exhausted from staying up until 2:00am while we were in the capital. Who knows..... but I LOST IT!

I started crying like I had just lost my BFF. Kent thought I had received bad news via a text message or something. I couldn't explain it, I just cried, and cried.... and cried! It was really the first time that I have cried since we moved here. Kent was super husband and cleaned up my mess while I went into our room and sobbed. The kids were angles and all volunteered to eat noodles with butter and cheese. (Fortunately we had picked up some Parmesan cheese while we were in Kampala.) There was enough sauce left in the bottom of the pot for a few of us to enjoy the creation.

Easter Monday is a holiday here in Uganda, so Kent, one of our neighbors and Lawrence planned a huge BBQ or Roast. There was a ton of food that needed to be prepared. Fortunately I didn't have to cook it all, I just had to help. We cooked a gigantic amount of Matoki (green bananas), a huge pot of potatoes, lots of noodles, bunches and bunches of Bo, and EIGHT KILOS of RICE! All this was in addition to the three chickens, a side of beef and 7 pineapples.

In all honesty I didn't have a very good time. I found it extremely hard, after having a rough night the night before, to force myself to have a conversation with women, who didn't WANT to talk, or who COULDN'T talk (at least in my language). I really tried hard a first. We started preparing food at 9:00am. And I sat and helped, while listening to them chat in Acholi. Occasionally I would ask Susan (one of the ladies who spoke English) what they were saying, and she would tell me, but not with out some annoyance in her voice. After a while I gave up.... I was emotionally SPENT!

BUT God was good, when he gave me those Awesome babysitters, he planed it so that they would be my friends too! So at 5:30pm, my friends came and kidnapped me for a girls sleepover. We had dinner.... I didn't have to cook, and we talked.... with out being interrupted. Then we watched a grown up movie..... The Lord of the Rings, part one. (We flirted with the idea of watching all three movies, but we didn't think staying up that late was wise, and now we have a GREAT excuse to have another sleep over!).... I came home the next morning so refreshed!

THANK YOU JESUS for friends who will babysit and who understand life in a third world country. After keeping the girls for three days, they were amazed at how I manage, which is why they spoiled me on our girls night! I feel so loved and blessed!