Christmas Angel...

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

Our new home :)

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

As I looked out the door this evening, past the lumber on the front lawn and through the itch of the horde of mosquitoes having an early dinner, I realized how beautiful it is here in Kibaale. Of course, feelings of sentiment come rather easily when you are still massaging down the gut-lump from a Christmas dinner with all those closest to you, and the billionth iteration of 'Joy to the World' is crackling out of tinny laptop speakers from the window to your side.

Jamie and I are quite happy in our new place and have spent the weekend finishing the move-in. Hopefully you can get an idea of what a little paint and a lot of elbow-grease can do here.

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

Jamie peeling some of the old wallpaper off the top of the kitchen walls

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

The view from outside into the kitchen. The house was quite dark in its previous form...

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

This pic is taken with Jamie behind me, looking to the right down the hall into the bedroom. Some new paint has started to go onto the wall

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

The bathroom. Note the sink in the shower

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

The old bedroom. The wall to the left here has since been taken out to open the main room up

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

This is the room immediately behind the last picture; what was the main room

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

Main room, opposite side, taken from the front door. Far side through the hole is the kitchen

So, definitely liveable. The previous tenant had it just fine in here, but the two of us wanted to update it a bit and give it a thorough clean. The house was the original 'Muzungu residence' that was built so it definitely needed an update and some repairs. Here's how it stands now.

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

The kitchen, repainted and with the window opened up a bit more to let more light through

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

From the kitchen looking down the hall into the bedrooom

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

Bathroom again... yeah, the sink is still in the shower :)

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

And this is from the far corner of what used to be the bedroom. Much better

Hope you enjoyed the tour :)

Merry Christmas Cheer

Just checking in

Well, we're still alive. Our new house is complete - we've had a wall knocked out, an opening opened, new paint everywhere (which kinda came off a bit in some places, so time for coat # 3), and they've just finished installing TILE throughout! Tile in Africa! It's great. Over the weekend we moved all of our stuff in from the guest house where we were previously staying and it is now all here. It currently looks a lot like you would think a house looks like when it is first moved in to. We're a bit pressed for space right now, but we'll be having some storage made up at the vocational school (woodshop) for us which should help out.

We're just thankful to have our own place and so thankful for everyone back home who has helped make our trip here and the work we're able to do possible. What a privilege!

We'll get some photos up pronto once we can get them off of the camera. And we hope to be doing more frequent updates here as well now that we have internet access right in the house. Previously we were forced to go and sit outside which was sometimes not possible with rain, or mosquitoes, or mango-throwing monkeys around. Should be better now!

Thanks for sticking with us. Only 1 week till christmas!