Love the Pharmacy

When we came over here we brought a suitcase of medication to distribute at hospitals and other clinics. This week I went to the Pharmacy for the first time because Liza had an earache. Tim had bought an ear scope when we were in graduate school to be able to look in the ears of our children to see if they had ear aches. He brought that here and looked in LIza's ear and saw that it was red. He looked on the internet and saw what medicine was needed and sent me down to the pharmacy. The lady asked what do you need and I tole her and she handed me that many pills. I love it. I did not spend a minute in a doctors office or pay for a consultation when I could figure out what I needed by myself. I think that we will take some of medicine home with us.
Cariel went and spent a day at the hospital in Kampala with the nursing students from the university here.She said it was an amazing experience. I love the pharmacy but do not think that I would like to be in the hospital.

Mom isn't that your skirt she is wearing on her head

I did not bring many clothes and the people here dress very nice. When you see them you think that they are very wealthy but then if you see their homes it takes your breath away.
there is a sweet lady who lives in our ward and knows how to sew. I had given her a skirt that I needed mending and asked her to fix it. Then on Sunday we walked into church one of the children said isn't that your dress she is wearing on her head. I looked twice and sure enough she was wearing my skirt and then had taken a piece out of it to make a head band. She looked so sweet and happy as she smiled at me and I smiled back. She must have thought that I had given it to her instead of asking her to fix it. The language here has been sometimes hard because they say they understand when really they do not. Oh well I will get another skirt sometimes.

Tuna Sandwhiches and no electricity

We have only a small time left. I told a sister at church that we are leaving in a month and she responded and you are not coming back I responded not that I know of and then she started to cry. I felt so bad and know that when the time comes to go I will be crying too. Yesterday I visited some of the sisters in the ward. It was great one of the sisters has a little girl about 3 and when we first got here she was so frightened by me because I was white but yesterday she was happy to see me and laughed and with me. It amazes me that in just a short time that her perceptions of me can change so drastically.The electricity has been off for four days and boy am I a whimp. We can not seem to deal with it very well. I have been writing the primary program that we will present in 2 weeks and then Tim and I are doing a marriage seminar on Saturday. I have loved the children home. we do our work in the morning and then plan something in the afternoon. i had brought little pouches of tuna fish from the states and yesterday I made Tuna sandwiches for the children and they were in heaven. At home they did not like tuna sandwiches but they loved them here. I make bread every other day. It makes me remember my sweet grandmother who would make bread to feed her family long ago. The selection of food is very limited and we have the same thing over and over. Anything with tomatoes. onions, carrots, peppers is about what they have to eat.They drink soda here alot and they are all in glass bottles just the other day we were in the market and Hannah saw her first can of soda in months and was so surprised to see it.

Zoo

We went to the zoo with some dear friends Beth and David. They were leaving last night to go home we were sad to see them go but had a great time at the zoo.

Our dear friends

A while back a sweet young man from Mali had moved in with our neighbors Gary and Jane Bryner his name was Omar. Our family had played soccer and had him over a couple of times. After a short time later he drowned in a swimming accident. Our family was devastated and wanted to do something. Gary and Jane wanted to help build a school in Mali to remember him. The children went door to door selling cookies and raised money to remember Omar. They went and presented it to the Bryners. Soon after that time Gary was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Gary had always been incredible giving man to everyone and we respected his great love for the people in need. He and Jane were the first ones that we asked for advise in taking our children to Africa. Gary encouraged us whole heartedly to have this experience with our family. He passed away before we left but we have thought of him often as we have been here.
We are grateful for his advise, for we have loved this time here in Africa.

Happy Times

The girls got their hair braided and it looks great. We went to a very small place called mamma penny's and each of the girl's hair took about 2-3 hours to do. They sat on an old cushion from a couch on the floor for that long and at the end their backs were hurting. The thing I loved it that Penny had a little girl about 5 years old and she had a doll that looked worse than a DI doll with only the body and a few strands of hair and she set and braided the dolls hair as her mother braided my daughters hair. It was so sweet. We can never forget the power of a parents example. Since school is out the girls have read stories at the library her on campus and we also attended a farewell party for Tim that was so Ugandian. They gave each of the children a gift and a tie for Tim and a scarf for me. We each had to speak and everyone else spoke too. It was nice but long. Th other day we went into a nice hotel here with carpet with carpet. Hannah all the sudden was on the floor feeling the carpet. I quess it has been along time since she has felt carpet.I love seeing things from a child's eyes.

Last day of School

"Oh it is wonderful"

The other day I had a sweet lady from our ward come and help wash clothes and do some other things. I asked her to peel some potatoes and as I showed her how to peel the potatoes with a peeler. Her eyes got big and she said "Oh it is wonderful" She had never seen a peeler before and had only seen potatoes peeled with a knife. I will never look at a peeler the same again. We have so many things that they have no idea about and we can not live without.She is a sweet girl that had a baby out of wedlock and her family disowned her so she lives with her uncle who is a member. She was baptized 6 months ago. She walks 1 hour to church carrying her baby one way to church.
She is such an example to all.
Yesterday on the way home from school. Hannah said that on Friday they are having a party because of the last day. She said that each child signed up to bring a treat to share. I asked her what did treat did she sign up to bring She said I signed up to bring MANGOS. We laughed. I asked what the other children had signed up to bring she said cookies, muffins, cake. We love the fruit here and would say too "Oh it is wonderful"

Cooking on a fire

All the cooking is done on a fire with either wood or charcol and it takes so much time.I admire the African woman and the time and effort it takes just to make a simple meal and to think that they have no refrigeration and so they have to cook at least two different times a day. I thought cooking in the states was time consuming but nothing compared to it here. They have very little variation in their diet and eat the same thing each day. They are woman of just trying to survive and keep their children in school paying school fees. When we lived in Philadelphia we came in contact with a sweet African family with 4 children and 2 parents and a grandmother. Each week they would take all of their clothes to a laundry mat and do the laundry for the whole family. I had wanted to buy them washing machine and Tim told me that I could but I would have do with out some things and I was unwilling to to that. Twelve years later they visited us in Utah and I asked if they had a washing machine yet and they said no. They still weekly went to the laundry mat. My heart ached for I know that if I would have been willing to sacrifice for a moment my needs would have been met with time but they still had no washing machine. I have decided that I am not leaving Africa with out buying a stove for someone here. I never want to wonder if only I had helped.

A call from our missionary

Eric called on Tuesday Morning at 3 am our time. It was so nice to hear his voice. That is the thing that I miss the most not hearing his voice and his whistle. He sounded great and so excited to be going to Brazil. His MTC time in Provo was fabulous. I am so grateful that he will have both MTC experiences. Since he was a little boy and we have driven by the MTC he has wondered what it would be like to be there and now he knows. We talked for a while and then we woke the other children up and each got to talk to him and as he was talking to Mckay he said his flight was leaving so he had to go and hung up. I was a little saddened because I had wanted to have family pray. So we all went back to bed and then he called again and we all got up and we were able to say family prayers and say good bye. We feel the blessings of having a missionary out. and know that he is doing great things. The children then got up two hours later and went to school.

The joy of Africa

I have wanted to write and say some of the things that I love about Uganda.
1. Everything is very fresh. I have only opened 3 cans of food since I have been here and so there are no preservatives.
2. Not driving anywhere. The traffic is so crazy that I have not driven and I have decided that I really like having Tim do all the driving. It has been wonderful.
3.The people they are some of the best people in the world.
4 The unhurried pace of life. The Ugandans never run anywhere not even to cross the crazy street. If someone is running they think that they have stolen something.
5.The non paved roads. They are much easier on your body.
6. The visits of people that come whenever.
7. The flowers. They are so pretty and varied.
8. The climate is wonderful.
9. The monkeys in our back yard. Some nights there are 30 monkeys just swinging from trees. They are fascinating to watch.
10. The faith in Jesus Christ that abound in this country. Their problems of poverty, health bring them closer to God while many of our problems in a developed world take us away from God.
The things that will not miss in Africa
1. The traffic is crazy and they drive as if they were all teenagers with not much experience and no fear of death.
2. The nightly ant invasion in our kitchen.
3. Our toilet that will only flush every 5 minutes so we have to time our visits to the bathroom. This not very good when you have 18 visitors at once.
4. The electricity going off frequently.
5. Bee stings. I have had two stings this week the mosqiutos do not like me but bees do.
I am not sure if I want to leave this place but I am truly grateful to my Heavenly Father for this wonderful experience.

Sunday Fun

We had a wonderful day at church. Stephen's Wife Misindi received the holy Ghost. I have always loved the part when they say receive the Holy Ghost. That is a very powerful statement. Then he received the aronic priesthood and then the blessed their two children a little girl 6 months and a boy who is 4 years old. When the boy was to be brought up he started to cry so it was so wonderful to see all the preisthood gather around him and try to help him stop crying. Tim was giving him pens and his glasses and finally a sweetie was given and he stopped. The father held him and the blessing was given. I loved it. We then had the missionaries and a friend Moses then Martin and his family came with Camera and her mom. It was fun but the highlight was when Martins family sat on the couch and sand the Bugandian National Anthem. Here in Uganda families really do not do a lot of things together and to watch them sing a song like that in parts was so powerful. We are feel so blessed to be with these wonderful people here. I Love Uganda. We have been able to skype my parents often and that has been very fun on the last time my father said don't fall in love with africa too much you have aging parents here and they want to see their grandchildren. I think it is too late i have already fallen in love with it here.

The Source of the Nile

On Friday we went with some friends to Lake Victoria and then headed out on an old boat that was very odd looking for a tour of the lake and to the source of the Nile. It was very fun and I felt like we were in the jungle in the Swiss Family Robinson Movie. We saw birds and where Gandi's ashes were thrown over the river. It is amazing that the river can go for 4,000 miles north through alot of Africa. We then went swimming at King Fisher we than headed into Jinji and went shopping at the craft markets. That was fun. On our way home we saw a huge billboard of the missionaries and then on the other side was Jesus. I had never seen that before and so we had to take a picture. THen we stopped at one of the busy fruit markets on the way home. It is amazing big busy stop and lots of people run up to sell their things to them through the window. The people never leave the bus. I have been so amazed that African can sit for hours and never move. One bus was from Kenya and had a christian group that had come to Uganda for Martiars Day. It is held once a year close to us nd Africans from all over pilgramage here for the day. It is a day in 1800's 25 christians were killed by the king of Buganda because they would not denounce their faith. As we were leaving the fruit market Tim had given our some pictures of Christ within moments the car was surrounded with people saying "Give Me More Jesus" We had a wonderful day and the Lord blessed us with safety.