Update On Life

Theo, Rihanna and Rett enjoyed the spaghetti we made
for Sunday night dinner

       Well friends, we apologize for our little hiatus from blogging.  The last two and half weeks our team has been fighting off flues, stomach bugs and strep throat.  As such we have spent most of our spare time napping, drinking cup of soup from home and doing as little as possible.  Healing seems to take longer here; perhaps it is the food, lack of proper medication or just our desire to be home in our own beds.  Either way, we are all on the mend and back to work.


We were helping to fix a broken pipe...
my hoeing skills need some work (lol)



       Much of our engineering work has shifted from construction to design as we await the approval of the CIDA funding to continue building.  Due to this lack of money, we have actually had to lay off 50% of our Ugandan work force, which has left camp quiet and less joyful.  Please join us in praying that the contracts and politics with CIDA  will be finished and that ACTS can continue the great work they are doing here.  The good part about designing is that we have the opportunity to explore the Ugandan country side, looking for needy communities who require a tap.  Just yesterday we took a 4 hour trek up a mountainside in Kigarama to explore possible extensions to an existing system.

 

Andrew on a hike with Dean in
the mountains above our camp

       In other news, Andrew has begun working part time with our data survey team, while Theo stays in camp with his nanny Winnie.  This team is working with the Mutual Benefits Society to interview prospective needy widows in Kigarama that could be lent 2 plots of land for 2 years.  With this land they are able to farm and create a steady form of income, in which they must save to purchase their own plot of land at the end of the 2 year period.  These widows range in age from 21 to 77 and most of their husbands have died from “malaria” (almost every sickness here the doctors call malaria) or liver problems.  God put one specific woman named Mellon on Andrew’s heart this week. When they arrived at her home she was doubled over in pain and could barely speak.  The team took her immediately to a doctor and later found out that she had severe ulcers and typhoid.  But by the grace of God, they were called to her home that day and she was able to receive the healing she so desperately needed.  Please pray for her continual healing.

We gave Theo a haircut...it took many
distractions to keep him still

       Well, aside from the earthquake we had yesterday (not too big), the grasshoppers they ate this weekend, & the hack job of a haircut we gave Theo, there really isn’t much else to tell.  We have all settled into life here and have no regrets in our decision to move to Uganda.  Some days we are sick of the same food over and over and over and over, but we are grateful for food as well.  We are building some lifelong friendships with the other Canadians and many of the Ugandans.  There are now a total of 11 children living in camp and Theo is having fun with them all.  Andrew has become great friends with a 12 year old boy named Dean, who was brought here to take care of his little 2 year old brother Dyson.  Together Andrew and Dean make a dynamite team, playing soccer, running, hiking mountains and scheming ways to take down the annoying birds’ nest.  All in all we are feeling quite at home here.

Our Ugandan team peeling the grasshoppers legs
and wings off...dead grasshoppers smell nasty!

The Church of Uganda we attend on Sundays. We also live on their land, right
behind the church. They only use a drum for worship, but they make more
joyful noises then most North American churches I've been to...we  could
learn a lot about God from these wonderful people.