July 23rd - Full steam ahead...

It feels like we have been back in Uganda for a month already. We have jumped right back into life here and are having a great time with the kids, the church and our many friends. Here are some highlights from this week:

• Repairing kids' clothes - 2 hours on Saturday afternoon
• Baking an extra day (Sunday afternoon this week) due to 3 new businesses. One wants 48 muffins and 20 slices of banana bread every Monday. Great to have new business! Now to adjust schedules so we can get everything baked every week.
• The chickens have stopped laying, so we have sold them off. We are pretty sure we will not continue raising chickens after 2 failed attempts. 
• No electricity for the first 3 days we were here, but now it has been almost constant since Tuesday evening. A great blessing! 
• Dealt with Ronald, who punched Isaac in the eye because Isaac wouldn't obey him. Isaac's eye is swollen, and I'm sure black (hard to tell since his skin is black ;). Had a poignant time with Ronald talking about exercising self-control - we've been teaching on the fruit of the Spirit with the kids on Wednesday nights.
• A neighbor's chicken jumped up on one of our windows and forced itself through the bars, then couldn't figure out how to get out. She was making LOTS of noise and flapping her wings, quite scared of her situation. Had to go and help her out. Pastor Rogers told me that 1) I should have had chicken for dinner, and 2) Ugandans would have run out of the house - apparently there is a belief that if a chicken flies in your window, it is bringing evil spirits. 
• Already had three new flashlights (called "torches" here) fail to work. How can that be??
• LOVING the new Kindle Touch - thanks, Tim and Cindy - reading at night is so much easier!
• Someone was throwing large rocks and bricks at the house one night after we were in bed. Sounded like they were being lobbed so as not to hit the house, but to scare us. I had the nightwatchman (Seth) come down and he looked around. As he was looking, the policeman who watches over a house down the way came by and asked if we needed help. It appears he was trying to scare us so we would again pay him for watching our house. He told Rogers we really need protection. Hmmmm....from whom? 
• One night, about 1:30am we went out to the latrine (Abby and I always go out together for protection), I went in and, as I was opening the door to go out, I noticed a snake up on the wall over my head. His head was close to mine, but apparently he was asleep. I hurried out and went in and called Rogers, who came with 3 others, all armed with large sticks. The snake got away from them, but within a half hour, Seth was able to track it down and kill it. He called to us and we went out to see that it was truly dead. It was some kind of poisonous snake (no one has or knows a name for it). Needless to say, I am quite wary to go into the latrine either during the day or the night! 
• We got to show the kids a Bible Adventure movie last night - David and Goliath. So fun to hear them cheering when Goliath was slain, and booing when David's brothers were mean to him. 
• I have included 2 pictures - one of a sunflower in our front yard, and one of our backyard with pumpkins, watermelons and eggplant growing. There are about 150 sunflower plants in the front and they have maybe 10 of the flowers set on. We will be using them to extract oil for our cooking. The produce from the backyard will be used in the children's food.

So, as you can read, life continues here unabated. Thanks to all of you who have been keeping in touch through e-mail, to you ladies from Hesperia who sent a card in the mail, to those of you who pray for us on a consistent basis, to those of you who continue to give so that this ministry stays on its feet and to those who pray for the emergencies that occur. You all help us continue in what we are called here to do. Thank you! I look forward to hearing what is happening in your lives too.

Laurie