The Davii return to the hill...

See you later Kibaale

2010-10-01T04:00:00.000-07:00

Two years have come to an end and we must say goodbye to Kibaale. We are so grateful to have worked here, made such wonderful friends, and worked with such a great organization! We’ve had the eye-opening, humbling privilege to have those affected by our stay approach us day after day and tell us of the impact we’ve had in their lives, from teachers to children to the old guy with no teeth in the hut down the road. It’s been great to hear, and has been so encouraging to us on the way out… sometimes you can forget everything that happens from day to day, and hearing that those small things you did actually made a difference and made enough impact for someone to approach you and say ‘thank you’ has really helped us ease out of this place and begin to prepare for North America. It has been so good spending time with friends, finishing up with work and reflecting on our time here… we’re going to miss everyone so much.

If you’re wondering what we’ve been doing the past few weeks we can sum it up pretty easily – Matooke. Eating, and eating and eating matooke and these huge glamorous meals of local food. We have been constantly full, waking up moaning for literally weeks now! It’s hard to express our appreciation for that, watching the sacrifices made to send us off full and knowing we are loved.

Thanks to everyone back home for the constant support in prayer, with finances, with letters and phone calls and packages in the mail, for keeping in touch and letting us know we were missed, for understanding when we said we would not be coming home for a leave even when it was possible. We’ve made the most of our time here and have no regrets, but it couldn’t have been possible without those behind us. Thanks.

So what next? Well, we’ve written this in advance, so, as you’re reading this, we are hurtling through the air on our way to Egypt. For headspace sake (and, let’s be honest, what better opportunity will we ever have?) we will be backpacking our way up from Uganda to England over the course of 27 days. No computer, so this will be our last blog post. Maybe we’ll post some pictures of our travels when we get back into Canada on October 28^th, but if not, consider this the final post as we begin our new life back in Canada.

Thanks again to everyone, for everything.

(We’ve attached some photos from the various goodbyes with people who mean a great deal to us)

Sleeping in the village of Kamuli

2010-09-29T21:48:00.000-07:00

We're really winding down in Kibaale now, putting the final touches on everything before we go and saying our goodbyes to good friends. It gets sad when you start planning out where you will be and with whom for the few weeks remaining! We had been trying to get to Kamuli town, about 45 minutes from Kibaale through the dirt roads, for weeks. This is the home of Samalie and Joseph, and they kindly invited us over to attend their church, see the project they are beginning (there are no lower level schools in Kamuli, and illiteracy is incredibly high, so they are going to start one) and spend a night sleeping at their place.

We've been here awhile now and slept in some interesting places, but we really enjoyed staying in Samalie and Joseph's house. They moved themselves into a neighbour's place and gave us the bed, and we went to sleep with the sounds of the village all around us. Quite different from Kibaale. Waking up was great and we were able to be part of a Ugandan morning watching goats be slaughtered for Sunday lunch, helping to cook cassava, taking care of the infinite number of small children running around the village, all while watching an amazing sunrise and idly chatting the minutes away until church. It was a great time.

Kyalulangira and back. . . the long way round

2010-09-28T21:37:00.000-07:00

Riding motorbikes is the perfect way to take in Uganda's true beauty and a
great way to spend a Saturday morning. We took off early in the morning,
filled up with fuel and took off on a road we've never travelled. Three
hours later we returned having ventured off the maram road and discovering
some of the most amazing scenery that's been just a few kilometers from
where we've been living this entire time! If only we had ventured that
direction sooner. A couple failed photo ops later and we rolled back into
Kibaale. Sean spent the rest of the day giving riding lessons to people of
various ages, and then riding down (and up) stairs with some small kids for
laughs. A good day.

Jamie will come back to Canada a dirt bike veteran, so watch out everyone :)

Junk in ma Trunk

2010-09-27T09:02:00.000-07:00

And by junk I mean goats. This is one way to transport a big goat delivery-
in the trunk of the car. We untied them all and all the kids came to collect
their "kid" gifts. **no goats were injured during the photo session**

Heidi's sponsor kid

2010-09-26T21:19:00.000-07:00

Last week I went to visit my cousin Heidi's sponsor kid. So we drove for
about 30 minutes and then walked up a huge hill for another 15 minutes - and
he lived right on the top of the hill. As we were all catching our breathe,
we had the warmest welcome from his family! David is the oldest of 8
children! His mother cares for all of them and his father recently took off
from the family- nowhere to be seen. David is 11 years old and this is his
first year at our school. He is deaf and schools in his area never provided
the opportunity to learn sign language. So, now he is learning how to sign
and communicate with his teacher, family and friends!
- Jamie

Heather's Girl!

2010-09-16T09:19:00.002-07:00

This is Nampijja Joan and my cousin Heather is sponsoring her! We are only
here for two more short weeks, so I wanted to make sure I met her family and
saw where she lived before taking off! Joan's smile brightens up my day and
I love her so much! Her family is so lovely! She's the oldest, and then she
has two brothers (Marvin & Baby Andrew) and her sister Flavia. I sat on a
woven matt on the house floor, baby chicks ran around me chirping away and
neighborhood children were peering in the door. These are some of the things
that I'm going to miss- I'm not really going to get that in a Canadian
household!
- Jamie

Hamburger soup anyone?

2010-09-14T07:25:00.000-07:00

One of our cows, blind, stumbled into our fish pond and spent the better part of a weekend trapped inside, hopelessly churning circles trying to find a way out. So how do you get a cow out of a four foot deep pond? Like everything else in Uganda… labour! And a bare minimum of external equipment.

A piece of rope was quickly sourced, and our cook (Biira – who is a monster of a man) and the newly hired farm hand dove in with 1,000 tilapia and a very distressed bovine. It wasn’t pretty, but with some ear tugging, rump slapping, and Samson-feats of strength on part of all the workers we were eventually able to haul the thing out. And mend the fence a bit better.

30 seconds of rest on the ground for the cow, and then up and charging around blindly for the first shoot of grass it could find. Didn’t even thank us. But at least the fish were happy.

Forfeiture of Pallor... a Fire Fought

2010-09-12T04:11:00.000-07:00

Dry season in Uganda is long. No rain, the earth scorched and brittle, our front yard blackened by the sun and the surrounding fields and hills awaiting the pyre of inevitability. So part of life becomes a battle against the blaze, a clash with conflagration, the march of brazened soldiers delving deep into the shimmering ashes of the grassland with little more than sandal, shovel, and moth-like determination to reach the light. Fate then determines which is extinguished first.

Poetic. Anyway, two of us headed out into a larger-than-normal fire yesterday and spent the better part of an hour beating the earth with our shovels and dashing frantically between the taller grasses in an effort to contain what could be dealt with. In the end we arose the victors, but not without forfeiting the pallor of our pieds.

Timothy Center

2010-09-10T03:39:00.000-07:00

The organization we work with in Kibaale has a project associated with it an
hour away. It's a girl's "A Level" school starting up in 2011. From the time
we got here, the land has been purchased and it's been so exciting seeing
the changes come along- from roads being designed, plans being drawn, and
buildings coming up. Here are some photos of the dining hall, school rooms,
boarding room accommodations, and of course lots and lots of bricks.

Baby Kisakye

2010-09-08T13:45:00.000-07:00

We were so excited to meet Mugabi and Margaret's baby girl today! She is the
cutest baby and she has the best parents ever. Margaret is always smiling
and has the most contagious laugh and Mugabi has the biggest and kindest
heart ever! She is a very lucky little girl and I was so excited to see her!
In fact, Sean banned me from taking pictures because I was shaking with
excitement and the pictures were too blurry.

Margaret gave birth to Kisakye (meaning by God's Grace)
very very early Friday morning by c-section and she is recovery mode until
the end of the week. Margaret says she's feeling a lot better and she will
be coming home at the end of this week. We live a few doors down from each
other, so there will probably be more photos to come!
- Jamie

Moses and I

2010-09-07T21:17:00.000-07:00

This is Moses (my parent's sponsor kid) and his sister! He just got a gift
basket and a soccer ball and he was so excited! Well, he's a little on the
shy side, but his cute little smile and polite quiet "thank you's" gave away
his excitement! This is inside my office and my desk is at the back of the
photo.

2 Legged and 4 Legged Kids

2010-09-05T21:38:00.000-07:00

Lizabee's sisters and friend came down to Kibaale for a day and we had a
goat give away day. We all piled in the truck with the goats in the back and
took off to a number of different homes. I guess I didn't get too many
photos of goats- but lots of pictures of the kids! The girl with her teeth
missing- she's available for sponsorship! Namatovu Margaret!

Community Kids Work Day

2010-09-02T21:09:00.000-07:00

We have 8 community families that are sponsored and a lot of these children
live in child-led homes. Once a term, these kids come to the center and do
community work. Last week they came to rake up leaves and clean the
compound. It's lots of work, but it's also a lot of fun!

Say Cheese Mpigi

2010-08-20T08:33:00.000-07:00

Jamie and I headed off to Mpigi for a day, arriving early yesterday, staying the night, and then leaving early this morning. We just wanted a chance to hang out with the kids, sit around with the housemoms, and have some time with everyone. It’s been awhile and we’ve missed them. We also are starting to realize, through the hundreds of questions we get each day about our departure, that that is coming soon as well. So one of the things we did was quickly whip out the camera and do a blitz photography session of everyone just after breakfast.

Here’s a couple of our favourites. For more of the kids, you can check out the full batch by clicking here.

Football Tie

2010-08-16T08:57:00.000-07:00

Jamie has been laboring to get a women's football team going for awhile and
it finally came together. A few practices, some trash talk, and some fresh
jerseys later and there was a match set. It would be the teachers versus the
senior girls. As an outsider, and someone who has watched a good portion of
Jamie's football career from the sidelines, it was awesome to watch a team
of women who have never, or very rarely played the sport become something
over the course of a few short weeks. Most of the practices consisted of
balls flying all over the place and women laying on the ground because they
were laughing too hard, but it started to come together and what errors
there were could eventually be blamed mostly on the undulating, rubble
strewn, heaving and hole-ridden field. And they were having a ton of fun.
When it came time for the game all the regulars were in attendance from
practice. Some bowed out from the pressure, content to watch from the
sidelines and point and laugh. Others came out of nowhere, none of us having
met them before, and came to show their talent. Both teams took to the
field, the ref bringing the whistle to his lips for the match kickoff. With
a shrill blast the game began, and three weeks of practice went down the
toilet as 22 women and girls bee-lined for the ball.
But despite those first few moments, the game was incredibly fun to watch
and the crowd grew as the minutes passed. Students were skrieking and
laughing at seeing their teacher play football. The senior girls were
getting more and more intense as time went by as they realized that their
garaunteed victory wasn't going to be as easy as they thought. A bad pass
sent a bouncing ball over the teachers' goaltender's head (not her fault as
she is 5'3") and as the game wore on it looked liked the students would win.
But a late shot towards the students' net was blocked by a handball which
meant a penalty kick. And this was the most awesome thing to see, because as
the whistle blew and everyone saw the handball, the entire crowd streaked
from the sidelines to stand around the penalty area and watch the kick. And
in that mad rush, you could hear one name repeating itself in the Luganda
chatter... "Jamie." Everyone was expecting Jamie to take the penalty shot,
and this in the last dying minute of the game. No way Jamie could get outta
this one.
She'd later say how terrified she was she would miss it. She couldn't even
listen to me gloat about how awesome it was hours after the match. But no
fear showed in the moment as she booted the ball past a Patrick Roy-clad
goaltender to tie the game at one, crushing the victory hopes of the
students, elating the teachers, becoming the hero of the day for the throngs
of crazy fans and students lining the penalty box in that moment. Overall, a
huge victory for women's football, and a moment I'm pretty confident will
live on in Kibaale infamy for a long time to come.
Or at least in our house.

Iron Removal

2010-08-08T21:53:00.000-07:00

We've been battling the water situation here ever since we came. Putting
money, resources, time and training into water source repair has been so
great, and now that we've gotten on top of the problem we can start to focus
on long-term solutions in areas that are working well. Kibaale is our first
starting point... the well was drilled in December 08, and the minerals in
the soil have polluted the once clean water so that it is now filled with
iron and manganese. If you pump a glass full of the water, within 60 minutes
the water will turn from clear to brilliant orange or red. The solution here
is an iron removal plant. We've finished construction on this one and the
local residents who are using it say that the water is so much better, and
useable for cooking and drinking again. This is fantastic. Testing shows
we're removing 95% of the iron content! It's such a battle... first to
ensure that people even have access to safe water, and are not just drawing
it from puddles or polluted stagnant streams, and then to ensure that the
sources that are available are healthy. When the choice is either e-coli or
minerals, you have to provide an alternative.

Our Girl

2010-08-04T21:04:00.000-07:00

Sean and I went to visit Syliva (one of the girls we sponsor) at boarding
school for Parent Visitation Day. It was so good to see her and the three
other lovely girls from the Kibaale area. Christine and Gerinah woke up at
5am to start preparing food for this special occasion and it was so
delicious! It's funny because Syliva never looks straight at the camera -
she is a little shy.

Yup, they survived.

2010-07-31T22:26:00.000-07:00

It was Sean's turn to take on the Nile River's white water rapids this
month! We headed up to Jinja with 28 others to have some fun and Sean, along
with 5 others went for a little boat ride (well, it was a little bit more
than that. . . )

Headers

2010-07-31T00:01:00.000-07:00

Jamie has been trying to get a women's football league started up. They had
their first practice last week, and I managed to catch a couple of action
shots of header balls. Jamie's outside playing with the Senior girls right
now! These pictures are of the teacher's first practice.

Obama & Karlmarx

2010-07-28T21:08:00.000-07:00

Barrack Obama (this is a nickname for himself- his name is Trevor) and his brother, Karlmarx, were
just two of the many staff kids that came for a special staff kid's day.

We had two families visiting in Kibaale- Brad & Laurie and Dave & Laura's
family and they entertained the kids, read stories, played with the
parachute, coloured, made crafts and had a fun day. The kids had so much
fun!

Omosota a la emeeza?

2010-07-27T21:51:00.000-07:00

The snake in our house had an unfortunate run in with death. Sean took our coffee table and smashed it over the snake and then proceeded to stand on the back of the table and squish it back and forth. It was a bloody mess. But, I do like this outcome better than the other way around. This was the first snake that found its way inside our place, and I hope it’s the last.

Students, Neighbours, Patients & Prisoners

2010-07-06T00:33:00.000-07:00

There's something about seeing the neediest of needy students giving back to
the community. Three times a year, classes go out and minister to
surrounding areas through work projects, song and dance, testimonies, and
giving of basic necessity items. Last week I jumped in the truck with the
nursery and kindergarten students and went to 2 nearby schools. Lots of
schools don't even have school supplies and these students received new
notebooks and pencils!

In March I joined the Grade 7 students slashing grass, trimming dead leaves
off of plants and digging a pit for a latrine for a mentally ill community
lady. The lady was bitten by a snake leaving her hand paralyzed and her only
son, who is in Kindergarten class, has taken up the responsibility for
maintaining the home and surrounding areas. The compound needed a lot of
work and it was so great to see the Grade 7 students step up and help out.

Last November, I joined the Primary classes on their outreach to a hospital
and a Prison about an hour's drive away. The students prayed for the sick
patients, gave them gifts and had time to hold the newborn babies. At the
prison, the students did dramas, sang and danced, teachers shared their
testimonies and our Chaplin spoke to the prisoners. The prisoners were so
excited to receive a bowl, soap, toothbrush and toothpaste!

Kalema Tom will be missed

2010-07-05T01:05:00.000-07:00

Tom was the man for us in Kibaale. Owner of ‘Kalema Tom and Son’, supplier of sodas, informer of local news, general go-to guy for anything you needed, and always with a chuckle and a greeting. He passed suddenly this Saturday. His absence will be felt in Kibaale for a long time to come for sure, and we’ll all miss him. Pray for his family, particularly his son Richard who is a student at our school.

Sponsoring Kids isn't just for the first world

2010-06-30T21:30:00.000-07:00

I felt like I was at the circus this morning. A car rolled to a quick stop in front of my office door, spitting gravel and moaning, sagging under the load it was forced to bear. A single door opened, and like the circus clown car, a steady stream of people began to emerge and file into the office. A neverending stream really… how many people can you fit in a Corolla? Just as impossibly they all then sat onto a couch designed for three people, and waited expectantly.

These were the kids of a local village just a few kilometres from our centre. Musaazi Moses, pictured, is one of our Post S4 students who has finished a diploma in primary education and is a teacher at a nearby school. He, along with Kasibante Vicent (friend and co-worker in the community services office) are together sponsoring all of the kids you see here as best as they can. Not through a formal program,but out of their own pockets they work together to purchase food, clothes, books, pens and pencils, and other things as needed to help these kids out. I asked Vicent why he was compelled to do this, and he answered, “I was helped when I was younger, and I was in a better situation than these kids, so how could I not assist them as well?” Most of the kids you see here don’t even have a home, and are instead transient, shifting between relatives as their ability to care for the kids weans. Then off to the next bed.

Vicent is also a Post S4 graduate. I love seeing guys like him and Moses, hearing their attitudes towards life and seeing how much sponsorship has changed their lives, the very way they look at the world here. They have devoted themselves and the little they earn to helping others for what seems like every waking moment of every day. They were helped themselves, and now they are a success and are able to give back to others in need.

Really puts the commercials from back home into my head. “For only a dollar a day…” - “for just the price of a cup of coffee…” But how much more does “only one dollar a day” mean when you make four?

Happy Birthday Monica!

2010-06-09T08:17:00.000-07:00

Step 1: Go rafting. Finish. Complain that you cannot move. Be hungry.

Step 2: Accompany Sean & Jamie for what is, in our opinion, the best food available in Uganda.

Step 3: Discover the restaurant is full of people and have the kitchen closed before eating anything substantial. Remember you ate there the night before and be ok with that.

Step 4: Enjoy drinks and cupcakes and huge fire-hazard birthday candles.

Step 5: Eat Chapatis in lieu of dinner in the greenlight district of Bujugali.

Happy Birthday Monica! Hope it was fun!

Drowning a thousand deaths on the river Nile

2010-06-08T09:28:00.000-07:00

I learned my lesson in Dominican Republic by smashing various parts of myself on rocks and other blunt objects while rafting on our honeymoon, so I didn’t have too much of a desire to head out for 8 hours of rafting on the Nile. Luckily for Monica, Jamie is much cooler and braver than I, so she jumped at the chance. This, on Monica’s birthday, was the right choice, as they ended up getting the coolest guide, coolest boat, and having the best time possible. Monica was even treated to a front seat ride in light of the fact that it was her birthday. She sounded pretty nervous before heading out for the day but had no regrets when coming back. Pretty nice experience for a birthday... celebrate it in Uganda with a good friend and one of the best rivers in the world for rafting!

Happy 28^th Monica :)

Tired of trash on your streets? Enjoy the idea of people being imprisoned for tossing plastic bags? Rwanda is for you!

2010-06-07T08:17:00.000-07:00

We took Monica to Rwanda as a part of her trip. Really it was a great excuse to see the country as we had wanted to get in for awhile, so we were thankful Monica had made the plans to come and that she was so gung ho about seeing the place. So what can we say about Rwanda? Well the country is fantastic. Clean. Like… unbelievably clean. If you see Uganda and then see Rwanda back to back you just can’t believe your eyes. I swear there’s a clear demarcation from space, a great wall of trash piled up at the border where the sheer lack of it is enough to pop your eyes, and re-pop them on the way back across the border. The entire country apparently cleans up every morning and sweeps the streets. This is probably a pretty oppressive thing to live with daily, but it sure is nice for tourists.

We visited Kigali, the capital, which is in the centre of the country and were there from the border within 1.5 hours. Highlights for us included visiting the genocide memorial centre in Kigali, eating ice cream at the Bourbon Street Café, and visiting Hotel Rwanda. We only stayed one night, but it was enough and we had a good time. We were also able to meet up with a friend-of-a-friend living in Kigali who gave us a rundown of the city and helped us out. Thanks Linley :) Overall a great time, and if we get the chance we’ll someday head back to Rwanda and take in some of the rest of the country. Canadian citizens don’t have to pay for a VISA which is sweet!

Pics: Uganda in the morning mist, Kigali, Bourbon Street Café, The Memorial Centre torch (this place is unreal, and can’t be described… see it if you’re ever in East Africa), the most hilariously tiny and expensive room at Auberge le Caverne, Jamie and Sean in front of Hotel Rwanda

Jamie shows us how to build a mud house with a smile

2010-06-06T08:42:00.000-07:00

Watch, as Jamie shows us how to sling mud with a smile! In the end, a house stands built. This is the African way to build a house, and it was cool for us to be able to show Monica how construction works over here along with the team from the Timothy Centre and Shannon's family. Nice to be able to be a part of it ourselves too.

Hunting chimps

2010-06-05T08:17:00.000-07:00

Before we left QE park we stopped in at some gorge (forget the name) where you can see Chimpanzees on the cheap. Hire a guide, strap on your boots and hike down into the wilderness to mingle with the nasty stuff. Our guide was great and the experience was something else… as you descend into the valley, the air gets colder and the trees start thrashing and howling as the baboons go crazy (go ape….?) and warn the rest of the jungle of your arrival. Slop down to the cavern floor beside the river and there are fresh elephant tracks, your guide warns you to stop standing in the trail of red ants, and you begin moving through the forest tracking the chimps down. Hippos burp a warning and you can hear the jungle continually explode around you as you make your way further in. It’s pretty cool to be with an experienced guide as he points out where the chimps have been by spotting tracks in the mud, food on the ground, or piles of what’s left after the food (poop).

We hiked for 2.5 hours and saw everything in the jungle but chimps. On the way back out, hopes dashed, we waited for our guide to finish a cell phone conversation as we began rigging the raft for our journey back across the river when 10 chimps burst out of the bushes a few feet from where we were standing and started climbing the trees all around us. Jamie, Monica and I just froze. Our guide is off in the bushes somewhere talking on his cellphone and we’re face to face with a bunch of chimps who, as it turns out, are way freaking bigger than we thought. Nothing happened (… this blog is here right?) as they just ignored us and climbed the trees, but we were able to watch them do their thing for a good half hour.

Our guide then robbed us blind with a smile on his face, but it was still worth it.

Safari in Uganda, with a boatride on the side

2010-06-04T08:17:00.000-07:00

Next up for our trip with Monica was a safari in Uganda. We made the trip to Queen Elizabeth national park (which was something like 6 hours or so) and got ourselves set up in Bush Lodge where we had these sweet stilted canvas tents. The tents even had power, which was awesome, especially compared to places like Bushara island which have similar accommodations without the light.

Fun times were had, animals were seen, hippos marauded between our tents at night, and no one fell in the water on the boatride, which was excellent given the territorial hippo that gave chase when we got too close.

If you’re ever visiting Uganda, this is the park to go to. By far the best safari and overall experience we’ve had in the country. (We’ve also done Murchison Falls national park and Lake Mburu for safaris).

I think that Jamie and I can now officially call ourselves “safari’d out” which is a pretty cool thing.

And now… a bajillion pictures.

... more Uganda Motocross

2010-06-03T08:16:00.000-07:00

Backtracking a bit with this post here. Jamie and I originally went to the airport a day early, by accident, to get Monica. Woops. We made the best of it (sort of… not much went to plan that day) when we found out that there was the fourth race in the Uganda Motocross championship for 2010.

It’s definitely a better time attending an event like this with someone else. Jamie came along and had a great time and took all of these photos. She was my wingman, and I was thankful for it, especially given some awkward personal experiences from the last race I attended!

Assaf Natan won this race, thanks in part to his brand new CRF450R. This made for a convenient excuse for second place in the papers the next day, which gave me a good chuckle.

Check the pics though. Almost as entertaining to watch as the main heats were these tiny little kids no more than 6 years old just blasting around the track at full tilt, no fear! The crowd loved it.

Monica meets Merones

2010-05-19T09:30:00.000-07:00

We purchased a special gift (a gift basket) for Merones and her family, and then took Monica to go and meet them. No vehicles available so we took motorbikes, which is always a good time, especially riding back with 9 fresh eggs in your hoodie front pocket!

It’s been nice visiting Sanyu a couple of times now, but we really gotta get saving for a house for her :)

You too can sponsor a child or donate a special gift to a child who is needy

Monica Arrives!

2010-05-19T05:51:00.000-07:00

Monica, Jamie’s good friend from back home, recently made the awesomely spontaneous decision to fly out and visit us here in Uganda. So we’re pumped. This past weekend we drove out to pick her up. The day ended up being a funny one as we wanted to try and grab some entertainment at the same time so long as we were in the city, but nothing worked out. We tried to see a musical in the theatre (Sound of Music), but it was sold out. We tried to go out for a nice meal, but our order of nachos somehow came back in the form of leafy salad with potatoes, olives, and canned tuna lumped on top. We tried to go swimming after a long hot day in the car, only to have it promptly cloud over and turn freezing cold. So, an interesting day. Then we realized, after waiting at the airport for an hour for Monica, that we had accidentally driven up early and her flight wasn’t until the next day!

No matter, because she’s here now and it’s great to have friends here! We took her from the airport to Mpigi, the place Jamie and I stayed at our first time in Uganda back in 2007, and hung out with the kids. ‘Twas good. Now, back in Kibaale, waiting for tomorrow morning when we’ll leave for a safari in south-western Uganda. Here’s some pics so far.

2010-05-12T04:50:00.000-07:00

I didn’t trek my paints all the way over here, but I did bring some oil pastels! My sketch book has been nice to have around during the quiet nights in Kibaale and it’s a nice way to keep up the artworks.

Confirming Auntie and Uncle status... baby Chloe

2010-05-05T03:08:00.000-07:00

We get called Auntie and Uncle everyday here in Uganda. It’s a cultural thing, and it’s always felt a little bit weird. But no longer! On April 24^th 2010, weighing in at 6 pounds flat, and standing at 18.5 inches tall, Chloe Elizabeth was born to Lana (Jamie’s sister) and Ben Rempel. Congratulations guys, and happy birthday Chloe!

Water? Hydroperoxyl?

2010-05-03T23:47:00.000-07:00

FIA Rally in Uganda

2010-05-02T23:47:00.000-07:00

This is a cop sitting on the roof of my truck. He vaulted up there while I was still inside... the AK-47 told me not to complain

Jeff got word that the FIA East Africa Rally Championship was going to be coming to Uganda over the weekend, and I decided to check it out, so into the truck for four hours of driving with high hopes. It was pretty cool compared to other rallies I’ve attended… none of this “tow your car to the track” business. Nope – when I first arrived in the city there were Rally cars trying to drift around the first traffic circle to a throng of screaming boda drivers and cheering cops, engines pinning off the rev limiter with no mufflers. Later, driving down the main road in the city and pulling out to pass a slow fuel truck I had to quickly duck back in my lane, or else be hit head-on by some crazy guy in a Subaru at full throttle.

So, it was a fun time. I didn’t get the greatest spot to sit and watch, and rain came and ruined the end of the day, and it took two hours just to get out of the stadium where the first stage was being held (actually the King’s palace grounds), and I got ripped off buying a fake program, only to be ripped off again buying an official program that was no better (I should have clued in when they spelled “race” as “rece” on the front cover), and I had an interesting run-in with some drunk fans. But honestly, I didn’t expect any different. Here’s a few pics.

We love Sylvia!

2010-04-29T10:54:00.000-07:00

We can’t say much more than this: we love Sylvia.

Sylvia is another girl that we’re sponsoring. But Sylvia’s case is a bit different than Merones’, as Sylvia doesn’t go to Kibaale School. She’s a part of a very small sponsorship program called “Communities of Hope” with 8 families. Christine, our social worker, expanded the community services programs to include caring for specific families who were having a really rough time with life. Most of the families in this program are child-led families, meaning that there are no parents and the eldest child, sometimes as young as 13, is caring for the entire group of kids at home. Sylvia has both a mom and dad, but that doesn’t mean that her situation at home is easy. Her mother abandoned the family due to abuse from the father, and the father continues to be a huge jerk, not providing food for his own kids and spending most of his days drinking.

Sylvia is a fantastic kid. She’s in P1 right now and eight years old, and just a shining star.

Proud parents that we pretend to be – she ranked second out of 87 students in her class :) She wants to be first next term. Sweet.

Pictured – her at home with her father, brother and sister.

Oh yeah, and Katonda means God. Saw it etched into the walls of her mud house, and thought it was cool.

2010-04-20T08:56:00.000-07:00

Today I had lots of little visitors in the office drawing pictures for their sponsors and then I took off to visit a couple of the nursery students at their homes. One mother was so excited that her son got a sponsor that she let out a cry for joy, couldn't stop smiling and gave her son the biggest hug ever. It was so precious to see. She just loves her kid so much. Even though you may see all smiling faces here, I did happen to make 2 or 3 kids cry because of my freakishly white skin. It can be pretty scary.

The Beautiful Family

2010-04-16T06:18:00.000-07:00

So Jamie’s parents have just picked up a sponsored child. It’s awesome when people we know want to sponsor the kids here – Jamie gets to go out and speak with the kids and help whoever is wanting to sponsor to pick a child, maybe by asking questions or just by hanging out and sending a quick report back on who is available. We also get to visit the home and bring greetings or gifts to the family on behalf of the sponsor.

Kato was an easy pick given how polite he is and how good a little guy he is. Most every day he will head up to the office, walk in and slowly move from desk to desk saying ‘Good Morning Uncle’ or ‘Good Morning Auntie’ in his best English. He’s a pretty bright kid actually… nine years old and speaking great English.

Kato’s mom works hard to ensure all the kids are educated and housed and clothed. His father worked hard to save money and build themselves a nice home, but then fell sick. Some of the house is still unfinished, and there are no doors or windows anywhere, but overall the property is pretty impressive. This is thanks to the hard work of the family as well as a previous sponsor who had to drop out of sponsorship.

Jamie and I were grinning like fools when we arrived. Kato’s mom is pure energy and kindness and you can tell right away that this family is happy. Not to mention beautiful… each kid has a smile that can melt you. We tried to capture that. Enjoy the pictures.

Merones

2010-04-13T11:13:00.000-07:00

Jamie and I were sitting on three inches of near-useless couch cushioning the other evening chatting about the usual kind of stuff, like what the newest bug was on the wall, or names for our fighting geckos, or something equally inane. I started to complain about how sore my butt was, and how I hated our furniture. “I hate our furniture,” I said, “and my butt is sore.”

This was a typical night in Kibaale. Conversation would eventually drift onto the topic of food, but let’s just focus on my complaints of having a sore butt. Then let’s look at the photos below of our little sponsored girl, Sanyu Meroni.

Meroni, or “Merones” as we refer to her in our own house (with some extra bass and maybe a chest thump) is in nursery class here at Kibaale Community Primary School. We have been wanting to sponsor a child for a long time, and when given the opportunity to choose one for sponsorship the choice was pretty hard. Thankfully, Merones made it simple over the past few weeks by popping into Jamie’s office to steal a hug, flashing a huge toothless grin whenever she saw us, or streaking across the field and catching air with her big ears before bashing into Jamie’s legs.

Today we had the chance to visit her in her home. We stopped into town, bought a 25kilo sack of maize flour, and headed to her house. When we arrived, we discovered that Merones is one of the few kids who doesn’t really have a "house" house… she’s currently living in a grass hut with her seven brothers and sisters, and parents. We dropped the sack of flour near the house and were invited in, and as I tried to scramble inside, looking like some massive albino ogre trying to get a snack, I couldn’t help but remember how just a couple days ago I had been whining about the lack of cushioning on my couch. What an ass.

Here’s some pics from our trip.

Just turn on the tap

2010-03-25T05:26:00.000-07:00

Mosquito Net Drive

2010-03-19T07:45:00.001-07:00

Above: pictures from Wednesday’s clinic immunization, where babies were given shots and medication, and mosquito nets were handed out.

Our clinic has been breaking a lot of records recently. February saw 2,260 people come in for treatment, which is incredible given how we shut the clinic down for a few days, and that it was already a short month to begin with (to put that number in context, we averaged 1,126 patients per month for the entire of 2009.) So when trends like this start to pop up, we all ask ourselves, “why?” We don’t have to ponder that for more than a few seconds. The reason is Malaria. Malaria is devastating the area we live in… over 1,500 of the cases we attended to in February were for Malaria.

Another dispersal of nets was carried out this Wednesday during the weekly clinic immunization (we talked about immunizations a while ago), in the village of Kikakata. 50 nets were handed out to the needy families in the area. We’d love to do more.

We experience Malaria not only in the external community, but also with our own staff. For just a few dollars you can buy a treated mosquito net that will go a long way to keeping our staff, and their children, safe from the ravages of this disease. If you would like to contribute, check out the link below.

http://paoutreach.net/mosquito-nets

Sponsor a Child in Uganda! Yes you. . .

2010-03-09T10:38:00.001-08:00

These kids deal with tough things early in age. Being abandoned by parents, living in difficult conditions, experiencing the death of loved ones and going to bed with an empty stomach. It’s amazing that they come to school with a smile on their face. There are literally hundreds of students that apply to get into our school and we only accept 50 of the neediest Nursery students, some new Secondary (Grade 8) students, and Vocational students (Catering, Carpentry & Tailoring).

Here of just a couple of the Nursery kids that caught my attention and are needing a sponsor. . .

Namugulura Sylivia(NA)- Sylivia is a little tank (in looks), but she is so sweet and shy. This 4 year old girl is living with her mother, 2 brothers and 1 sister. Her father abandoned the family, married another wife and has 10 children in total from all his wives! The house that Sylivia was living in collapsed and her mother took her and her siblings to live with the grandparents. Her mother is struggling to support herself and her children.

Luboobi Herbert(NB)- Cute cute cute. Herbert is 5 years old and lives with his mother, 2 brothers and 1 sister. The family’s financial situation is not looking so good. The husband abandoned the family 6 months ago, sold some of his property and took off with the money. The mother has no source of income to support her children and she needs sponsorship assistance.

Ssanyu Meroni(NA)- Meroni has a little mischievous side to her and she is always smiling. She is 6 years old and lives with her mother, 4 brothers and six sisters (it’s a huge family!). Her father is an alcoholic (or as everyone says here- a drunkard), and he comes and goes from home. Three months ago he sold a lot of house items and ran away with the money. The mother is left to care for all these kids.

Do you see how cute these kids are? Well, I guess that’s not the only reason to sponsor a child. The benefits of it are endless and here are just a few. . .

· I’m here so I see you sponsor kid everyday- I can give them hugs, visit their families and give them a high five from you!

· The money goes towards school fees, uniforms, medical assistance, a healthy meal at school, a good education and the list goes on. . . It has a HUGE impact on the student and family members!

Check out the website if you want to sponsor. . . http://www.paoutreach.net/sponsor

Keeping perspective

2010-03-04T13:18:00.000-08:00

Every now and then I need to take a step back, look through some photos or just take a day to look at everything around us, and get a fresh perspective on Kibaale. In fact it’s sadly easy to adjust and let yourself become okay with the way life is for everyone here. We shouldn’t ever let ourselves become adapted to the difficulties of daily life, never let ourselves say ‘ no big deal’ to anything we see, or use the justification of someone’s relative comforts in comparison to another as a reason to not help. We shouldn’t become so familiar with people and being in a strange place that we stop smiling or greeting people we don’t know just because we’re tired. We shouldn’t let the thought cross our minds that a lack of education could make someone’s opinion less valid. We shouldn’t become so full of ourselves to ever say that we have a difficult life.

When it comes down to it, we have a choice, and those we’ve come to help do not. I’m so glad to be here, but I still have days where I get caught in the “woe is me, this is hard” mental game. It’s times like this that I take the step back I’m talking about, give myself a good smack (maybe two), and am hopefully able to quickly move on and get back in gear.

Here’s a random sample of everyday photos I’ve been staring at for the past thirty minutes… hopefully they can give whoever’s reading this a bit of perspective too.

LIVE Canada vs USA hockey game... via Twitter (yeah, sorry, its the best I can do)

2010-02-28T11:55:00.001-08:00

This is for me. No TV, internet that struggles and is capped. The solution? Rely on the nerds to supply me with information through Twitter, as it happens. Here's hoping for some actual game updates and not just "AMERICA SUX LOL".

(...go Canada...)

edit - and, somewhere in Uganda around 1:56am, March 1st 2010, a lone man screams and jumps from the couch as his country wins the gold on home turf :)

A sad day

2010-02-27T10:40:00.000-08:00

Richard, our second in charge for the Kibaale clinic, has just passed away from Pneumonia. Please remember everyone here at KCC in prayer, particularly the clinic staff, and especially his wife of less than a year, as everyone deals with this news. He will be greatly, greatly missed.

A note on the preceding 5 posts...

2010-02-24T07:48:00.000-08:00

Before you venture too far into the swamp of photographic history lying beneath this post, please know a few things.

1) This blog (as a whole) is posted chronologically from bottom to top.

2) The previous 5 posts are labeled in the order they were posted.

3) Getting the most from these posts will mean looking at the posts in order from 1 to 5.

4) Do not be overwhelmed, inundated, flooded, drowned, snowed under, overloaded, underwhelmed, submerged, engulfed, or deluged. There are 210 pictures, a scant 9% of the total actually taken, these being the “quality” ones. A mental quagmire can be forgiven. A sturdy computer will be necessary. And no one in Uganda should even think of trying to load all the photos.

5) Enjoy?

The Adrians visit Uganda, in pictures (5/5)

2010-02-24T07:40:00.000-08:00

The Adrians visit Uganda, in pictures (4/5)

2010-02-24T07:32:00.000-08:00

The Adrians visit Uganda, in pictures (3/5)

2010-02-24T07:25:00.000-08:00

The Adrians visit Uganda, in pictures (2/5)

2010-02-24T07:17:00.000-08:00

The Adrians visit Uganda, in pictures (1/5)

2010-02-24T07:09:00.000-08:00

Coup underway in Niger?

2010-02-18T10:32:00.000-08:00

While the purpose of this site isn’t for current events, I thought this worthy of a highlight apart from our own lives in Africa.

Coup Attempt Under Way in Niger, Official Says

“Witnesses said machine gun and heavy weapons fire erupted in the city at around 1200 GMT and that smoke was rising from the presidential palace. A Reuters witness later saw five injured soldiers at a hospital in Niamey.”

Keep an eye on this in the news (or that unmentionable site for as-it-happens. )

edit - looks like it might be over. Reuters, as of 2 minutes ago, reports the president has been arrested.

Montage du Davis

2010-02-15T20:17:00.001-08:00

The Adrian’s have come and gone. Some of you are waiting for a big update, but we’re still trying to sort through 2,680 pictures taken over the course of those three weeks. Probably 30% of them are of the same elephant. So instead, we provide some cheery sneers of Jamie and I. Those of you in need of hugging something (…. hi, mom), embrace the warm electric tickle of your computer monitor showing these photos.

Two

2010-02-10T13:18:00.000-08:00

And we're back

2010-02-09T15:31:00.000-08:00

Well we just returned from a week out and about with the Adrian parents. Nairobi, Maasai Mara safari, Kampala craft shopping, Jinja and cruising the river Nile, and Entebbe to finish it all off with some screwed up hotel reservations, dinner under a tree, and an airplane ride back to Canada. All in all a very busy and enjoyable time!

We have a few thousand pictures. Unfortunately all the photos are on a dead laptop so we can’t take advantage of the free internet, but we’ll get them up when we can. While you wait – this picture, which I thought was pretty cool.

Bodas, Chawch, and Football

2010-01-26T02:19:00.000-08:00

Saturday - The weekend rolled up on us pretty fast. It was in the plan for the four of us to spend Saturday cruising around the Kibaale area on dirtbikes, take in some sights and put some miles down. In typical Uganda fashion our 11am self-made appointment was bumped out to 5pm before we actually got going. Why? Mugabi Robert (his real name, yes) had to use one of the bikes to head off to Bakijulura a few kilometers down the road and negotiate a land deal for one of our students. That took pretty much all day, but he did come back around noon to let us know that the other bike had a flat tire. So while waiting for Mugabi, I rode into town to the local “mechanic”. Who, I had forgotten, doesn’t exactly have proper tools and used screwdrivers to change the tube. The polka-dot pattern of patches already on the tube were a testament to his skills (read: he was a hack). Ahh well, had to get it done anyway, so I played the management role to try and avoid another puncture.

Anyway, eventually we got rolling. We put 10,000 shillings of fuel into each bike, then blasted off in a blue fog of two-stroke exhaust that left Cliff and Deanna coated from head to toe as they followed our lead around the local hills. We dodged cows on the road, climbed to the top of a few hills for the views, drove to within viewing distance of Tanzania, and had a pretty good time. No crashes, no goring by cow horns.

Sunday – Church time. We went to Cephas’s church about a 10min drive away. His church has a tradition to treat visitors like gold, so it was no surprise to walk in and discover armchairs (well…. lawnchairs) set up on the front stage for us to sit in. A good service spoilt a bit by rain, as most people were not there, then off to Cephas’ place for lunch, and a football match. Lunch was a traditional Ugandan meal of matooke (boiled and mashed bananas), rice, beans, chicken, fried cabbage, and “soup” which is basically an oil/borehole-water broth. No supper for anyone that night.

We left for church in the morning at 10:30, and got back home just after 7pm. ‘Twas a good day.

Because Naked Babies Are Cute

2010-01-24T11:59:00.000-08:00

That’s what they keep telling me anyway.

Look for an update on the Adrians’ weekend sometime tomorrow. For now, this photo.

Arrival

2010-01-22T03:28:00.001-08:00

Jamie’s folks have arrived! Some big hugs were exchanged, bags were piled into the pickup, and then parents stuffed into the backseat of the truck – we had them out of the airport and sweating in the Uganda humidity by 11pm. Five minutes later we were unloading ourselves into the guesthouse where we’d stay the night. Of course we managed to put them up in the only room without a working fan for the night. Sorry guys.

The next morning we got up early, had some breakfast, and booted our way up to Mpigi. Jeff & Shannon are in Mpigi right now with the team from Peace Portal Alliance Church… the team are mainly doing construction projects which include a new chicken coop and rainwater harvesting system, installing water tanks and gutters to direct the water for storage for the kids later. It’s always a pleasure for Jamie and I to visit the kids in Mpigi, see the Mamas, and reminisce as we look back towards “the hill” where we were engaged (the cell-phone tower jutting out of the hill serves to mark the occasion for years to come). A quick tour, quick hello to the kids, and then back into the truck for the rest of the drive back to Kibaale. Driving here is always a chore. You eventually get used to being run off the road, dodging potholes, and swerving around the hundreds of ambling 3 year olds on the shoulders of the highway, but every now and then the trip just leaves you wasted. This was one of those times, and it was good to get back to Kibaale, unload bags and parents into our house, and do a lot of nothing for a few hours.

This morning we were set to build a kitchen for a family of one of our students, Emmanuel. Rain had other ideas of course, which made for a different experience than planned. Rather than slinging mud outside and helping to finish construction on the kitchen, it ended up with the four of us huddling into Emmanuel’s living room with his family. The rain continued for over an hour, and passersby would come sprinting off the road and into the house in an attempt to stay dry. Eventually, sitting in this 7’ x 9’ room, were 12 adults and 6 children, talking very little as the sound of the rain drowned out all conversation, each person contemplating the gradual loss of feeling in their legs as they squatted and huddled just out of the wind. Definitely something to make you think. Definitely a unique and very Ugandan way to spend a morning.

Above: Jamie’s parents with a few of the younger kids at Mpigi, posing with Mama Rose. Also, Emmanuel and his family, and Deanna wondering how on earth she’s going to sneak this little package home in her luggage without Cliff knowing.

Jamie's Parents in 1 hour...

2010-01-19T10:33:00.000-08:00

Well, we drove from Kibaale to Entebbe today, which takes about 5 hours. Special arrival at the aiport for us… a late Christmas gift so big it had to be sent on a plane. 2 gifts actually.

We’re sitting here at the Entebbe airport guesthouse just killing time now, and I get to watch Jamie check arrival times every 3 minutes with excitement. It’s going to be a good visit J

Above: Jamie, excited with a bunny back in Canada. Imagine how excited she’ll be with two parents in Uganda

New PAOS Website

2010-01-16T04:22:00.001-08:00

Check it!

http://www.paoutreach.net

Revenge of the Babysat

2010-01-16T04:16:00.001-08:00

The Dycks, along with Rachel, headed off to Egypt for Christmas. We got back from Mount Elgon shortly after they left and got to spend a few days with the younger kids. Jamie led the charge in a water balloon fight (shortly after that pic - Avin takes one in the chest), we hit the pool, and I got to throw them on the handlebars for a spirited ride to see the nearby lake where we had a bit of an audience. Good times.

Uganda continues to amaze us with its natural beauty. We’ll be trying to do some updates to share that a bit more regularly than in the past… I think that’s a worthy new year’s resolution, and not doomed to failure like, I dunno, trying not to drink coke or anything absurd like that. Also, avoiding malaria is on the list. It’s taken out the entire crew over at the Timothy Centre. Anyway, more frequent updates… well, we’re blogging through email now… it saves a ton of time (and a ton of precious internet), but it might look ugly. Hopefully not. If so, sorry.

New Years on Mount Elgon

2010-01-13T22:19:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of the second half of our vacation. Once we had had enough sun (... this is a bit of a lie, because we really weren't finished with the beaches and ocean of Zanzibar, but hey, we had a flight booked) we flew back into Uganda and immediately drove out to Jinja, then off to Mbale where Mount Elgon is located.

Check the photos below. We did the climb in 3 days instead of our planned 5, but still had a great time. We started climbing from Budadiri trading centre at 1,770 metres, hiked to 3,500 to camp the night which took about 8 hours. Camping was unbelievably cold... Jamie and I haven't felt temperatures below 10 degrees the entire time we've been here, and it got down to around 0 that night, with us in rented sleeping bags. Brr. Second day, from camp we hiked to the peak at 4,321m which took about 3 hours, then descended back to the first camp on the mountain at 2,900m to camp and warm ourselves up by the fire, and of course celebrate new years eve (by falling asleep at 9pm). As soon as we hit the peak the clouds rolled in and it started to rain, which made it quite enjoyable as our path down the mountain turned to form a small river that we tiptoed around all the way down. The last day we woke up early and were down to the bottom by 10am, drove back to Jinja, and enjoyed a shower and some good eating on the shore of the River Nile.

Here's a few pictures.
-Sean

From New Years on Mount Elgon

Christmas in Zanzibar

2010-01-09T22:09:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos from our Christmas holiday in Zanzibar. It was our second African Christmas and we are still not used to the hot weather while listening to songs like "Let is Snow." We travelled to three different places on the island and LOVED it!

From Christmas in Zanzibar

Stonetown buildings

From Christmas in Zanzibar

Flying away

Art gives Heart

2009-12-11T11:33:00.000-08:00

Art and Kids? Yup, it’s something of an interest to me. Last month we received 2 huge bags of Christmas wrapped packages that included a sketch books, crayons, pencils, an eraser and a sharpener. A grade 10 class in Vancouver took the time to wrap each and every one of these. The project is called PROJECT HEART and they send these packages around the world and encourages kids to be creative and express themselves. So, needless to say- I loved handing these out for Christmas!(www.projectheart.byethost11.com)

One of our Kindergarten students, Nabwami Ritah, loved the gift! I gave it to her on Monday and on Thursday she came back to the office to show me all of her drawings. (It takes her about 50 minutes to walk from her house to the school). She had drawn pictures on every single page and she was so proud of her creations.

-Jamie

From Blog

"I love this gift!" Ritah comes to visit me often- this time her mom and baby brother came too.

From Blog

that's her name and that's her book

From Blog

I asked her what her favorite drawing is and this is it.

From Blog

I like this one- lots and lots of cows with horns.

Speech Day

2009-11-30T11:19:00.000-08:00

School is done! This last week, kids were collecting their books, preparing for assemblies, and getting ready for the holidays! They will be back for a new school year in February 2010. On Tuesday, November 24th the Primary students had an assembly called Speech Day. It’s a day when all guardians come and watch the different classes perform songs, skits, watch the handing out of awards and listen to a lot of speeches (it really wouldn’t be “speech” day without these). I attended the primary day and everyone had a great time. . .

From Speech Day

The guardians are listening to the all school choir singing the national athem.

From Speech Day

This is our hired sound man from Kibaale town.

From Speech Day

The Scouts were in charge of keeping unwanted visitors out of the building and ushering people to their seats. They did a good job.

november

2009-11-27T10:32:00.000-08:00

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

sean. . .

- tried to kill a lizard in our toilet today, but the thing just swam right down the pipe. We have the stick ready for its next arrival.
- loves watching Dust to Glory- his inspirational dirt bike Baja 1000 movie. Maybe driving on the Ugandan roads will prepare him for this race someday (not in terms of speed- but vehicles driving towards you in your own lane and pedestrians walking in the middle of the road).
- has worn one pair of flip flops for over a year in Uganda. It’s time to get new ones.
- is working in the computer lab for all our staff- he’s available for anything from teaching- “I’ve never used a computer before” to complex excel formulas questions. He loves seeing how excited people get about learning and it’s a great way to get to know the staff.
- ‘s favourite food Ugandan food is fried goat and his favourite soda is Stoney.

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

Jamie (me)

- So I tried two new things in the last month. 1. I ate deep fried white ants 2. I ate deep fried grasshoppers. And you might think- how was it? Well, it’s really not that bad, but I don’t like the thought of having bug legs stuck in my teeth.
- On a better note, I love eating deep fried banana pancakes for breakfast. I’m a regular at the canteen by my workplace and I even get free candy with my purchases.

sean and his friend

2009-11-01T06:01:00.000-08:00

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

Beans & Babies

2009-10-21T10:20:00.000-07:00

Babies- This little guy just came back from surgery and his mom brought him into the office. He was born with both of his feet facing inward. (I know there is a medical term for this, but the word is not coming to me). I visited his mother in April when he was only 2 months old. Sean’s office (Community Services) was able to help with the surgery cost and his feet look great! It’s hard to believe that he is 8 months old- he’s so little!

From Beans & Babies

Beans- There’s a seed bank program and people are excited from the community- a lot of people came to sign up today for seed handouts. They will be required to give back some of the produce once the plants have matured- it’s a great way to help out needy people in the area. While these people were here- the community service office handed out beans due to the recent drought.

- Jamie

From Beans & Babies

Ceremonies of the Buttless

2009-09-20T05:42:00.000-07:00

Sean and I occasionally get invited to different celebrations. Within one week, we attended a wedding reception and a graduation. Both events involved hours and hours of sitting, 15 to be exact, speeches, Ugandan music blasting out of crackly speakers, and some good eating. We were pretty lucky to have a Celine Dion song dedicated to us. It was pretty fun. Here are some photos to show it!

From Ceremonies of the Buttless

First- the wedding photos. This is Sean.

From Ceremonies of the Buttless

Bearing Gift.

From Ceremonies of the Buttless

This is Simon and Prossy on their wedding day! (Simon builds all the doors and windows for the homes we construct). My office was a guest of honor and we got to eat with them at the local resturant!

From Ceremonies of the Buttless

I'm hanging out with co-worker Rose and co-worker Cephas' wife.

From Ceremonies of the Buttless

This is our good friend Paul on his graduation day!

From Ceremonies of the Buttless

We picked up Paul's parents on the way to the ceremony. This is his whole family.

From Ceremonies of the Buttless

These are the important people.

From Ceremonies of the Buttless

After the ceremony, we went back to Paul's parents place for a second celebration.

From Ceremonies of the Buttless

Paul's sister brought the cake from Kampala and it was so good!

From Ceremonies of the Buttless

All the neighbours came to eat some too.

From Ceremonies of the Buttless

Sean and Bruce were both guests of honors and had to make some speeches (I luckily got out of a speech!). Bruce is our friend working with the Peace Core- it was fun hanging out with him during the 11 hour graduation celebration day.

One Year Later....

2009-09-18T04:45:00.000-07:00

Happy one-year everyone :)

Sean & Jamie

How are you

2009-09-13T08:21:00.000-07:00

*An excerpt from the annals of Sean, where punctuation and grammar have no master*

the other day was full of stuff. it began with a woman coming in looking for help from her crazy son. her son had gone insane, become violent to the point of needing to be tied up and thrown on the back of a bicycle in order to get him to the police station where he was locked up for the night. they then were going to release him that day, and from his previous actions the mother had good reason to be scared. i guess he threw a plate at her and cut her face open, and she was still swollen when she came into the office. we sent people out for investigations into the entire matter in order to help this woman and discovered that the boy had also raged on a brick house and knocked it down, beat up his mother and his younger siblings, and was a big hassle in the town, to the point that all the villagers were hiding anything that could be used as a weapon. we agreed to help to remove him, but had to do it the following day when there were drivers available.

then one of our slashers, a pastor from bakijulura actually, came in. we'd been helping him out as he was caring for a sick little girl for a family that had no money. he came back to ask for money to get her out of the hospital, or something - i can't quite remember the reason or how much he needed. it ended up with us really having no money for it, but we could at least help with transport to get him there to check up on her. i scraped together 5,000 shillings from my desk drawer (actually 3, and 2 from vicent) and gave that to him. then we waited for him to visit and give us the word on how much he needed for her medicine, or whatever it was.

in the meantime, mother went to her town to start the process of getting her crazy/insane/mad son out of jail, which meant the procurement of a big hefty guy to escort him back home. which would have gone fine, except that her boda-driver crashed into a dog on the way to the prison and she hit the ground face first. i can't imagine how that would have felt with an already busted up head... especially given that she was on the way to get the pain-causer out of jail for his actions. she went into our clinic and was treated there. no word on whether the insane son ever got out of jail... due to the lack of drivers, and the mother's accident, we had to wait an extra day, and by that time kampala had gone nuts, so there was no taking the boy into the city to a hospital.

a few hours later after work was finished, the pastor showed up at our house and informed us that he had been to the hospital and the girl had died. he needed help getting her body back home, so we jumped into a truck and drove out. we waited there for a few hours as they were trying to find the cashier, who had mysteriously vanished, in order to settle the final bill. once they found the cashier, we walked to the morgue and placed the girl into the bed of the blue double-cab. i've never driven so gingerly on these roads. this girl... she was tiny. couldn't have been more than 4 years old. so sad. i never did get final word on what was wrong with her, but from what i gathered it was some sort of infection in her lungs, and not tb. the hospital was at the top of a hill in kyotera, about 40 minutes from where we live. in kibaale we don't normally see the sun come or go due to us being in a sort of valley surrounded by hills. but i sat on the sidewalk and watched the sun go down that day while this tiny body was placed in the truck.

i didn't get home until well after 8 that night as her family was deep in the bush. it was a touching time though - usually, so far, arriving home with a passed love one is something that totally jars me out of reality just because of the cultural difference. some people here believe that you need to wail and scream in order for the spirit to be passed into the next life, and showing up to a dozen people doing that kinda sends me into this protective shell where i feel no emotion. this was different... as we showed up, only immediate family were there gathered around a fire. the only thing i could hear were the soft whimpers of the mother still trying to accept what was happening, and the kids murmuring around the fire. the father, who i was told was over 80, came up and thanked me for the help, then took her body from the truck and walked inside. this while one of his sons around 8 years old stood beside me and watched. i think the thing that got me was that kid's eyes as he looked on and turned to me to softly ask 'how are you?' . probably only those that have been here can imagine the significance... it probably didn't mean much to him - in fact it was probably one of the few english phrases he knew, but it still hurt to hear it while seeing his eyes and watching him watch his sister be brought into the house. tough night.

in other news, kampala lost its collective mind on thursday. riots, looting, 12 people dead, then it spread out to mpigi, masaka, kalisizo and kyotera. we holed up in kibaale and had our masaka coworkers join us for the evening. thankfully things got better sooner than expected and everything is back to normal. still, very odd to hear of violence creeping its way toward you like a bush fire. weirder still to contemplate options and what-ifs. no one here was externally concerned, but we probably all felt at least some anxiety on the inside. especially when the paint can exploded in the garbage fire. my heart stopped.

that's uganda for a couple days.

Written while listening to: some kids playing soccer

Immunizing Babies

2009-08-27T09:08:00.001-07:00

So this was an awesome day. All of our drivers were out and, being wednesday, the clinic we have on site was scheduled to be going out to a local village and doing immunizations for all the wee ones. I was asked by our clinical officer to fill in and help to drive some of our nurses down to the village of Mbirizi which is about 15 minutes drive away. Really, I love kids, but have no idea what to do, so I figured it would be best for everyone if I brought a camera along rather than trying to "help" in any other way. Going on 28 years of previous experience, this was the right move, and I'm sure lives were saved.

Some of the pictures turned out alright. Looking back at them now I'm more moved by how beautiful these women and their children are in the midst of some pretty iffy conditions. That and the unceasing amazement at the beauty of the country and the vibrant smiles of everyone living here. If you need a lift, just go hang out in a village for awhile and witness the capability for extremes our emotions give us. It's a ride.

Anyway... check out these pictures of babies :)
-S

PS - some of these photos have needles in them, for those who tend to faint at the sight of such things

From Immunizing Babies

One of our nurses, Naka, giving a shot

From Immunizing Babies

Another nurse, Deborah, managing the books and helping with shots

From Immunizing Babies

This is Godfrey, a volunteer community mobiliser who has been helping KCC with immunizations for years and years. This guy is a fireball and made people I never thought could smile bust out laughing. He's not paid for his work but lives in the village and just wants to help

From Immunizing Babies

This man was a drunk, but still showed up to have his son immunized. The comedy value was pretty high but someone had to walk him home and carry his son for him.

From Immunizing Babies

...

written while listening to Ocean Cloud by Marillion

Ivan

2009-08-14T05:45:00.000-07:00

Investing in the kids around here is pretty rewarding. This is Ivan:

From Ivan

Ivy

I probably spent 45 minutes with him the other day just messing around with the webcam so he could see himself. (Funny thing, you would have thought I could get a decent picture in that time, but I didn't...) I've been rewarded for that by his presence at my desk every day just to hang out. Ivan's only in P1 so his English is just starting to come along, but every day he'll slip in the door and give me a 'good morning', then give me a hug and start to communicate through hand signals. We've had enthralling conversations, such as "My name is Ivan" and "the drums are loud."

Anyway, I'm enjoying it and thought I'd post up. Otherwise things are good, though a bit slow. Jamie and I have had a great time over the past few weeks taking our office staff out for dinner at a local restaurant called Hajjat's. The restaurant has somehow perfected this fried beef thing. I couldn't even begin to describe it, but it's amazing. Amazing enough to balance out the fish-head soup.

Oh yeah! The Farm Borehole is finished.

From Ivan

Water all up in my farm

Remember that post? Things weren't going smoothly. Drilling company went, broke their rig, welded it and broke it again, finished, came back to install the pipes and all that came out was sludge. So they redrilled, installed, and dropped the pipes. Keep in mind - this borehole is 100 metres! Came back to get the pipes back out, and had to put so many other pipes back in to retrieve them that 15 of our builders couldn't lift them out - too heavy. Used a truck to lift them, broke the truck. Came back one final time with a huge crane and, after briefly breaking the crane, managed to lift them out and finish the install. End result is there is water on the Farm.

And not a moment too soon. Dry season continues, and though we've had a spattering there are just no words to describe the dust.

Cheers from Kibaale.

Pump clap my water

2009-08-03T07:21:00.000-07:00

Lame title. I know.

Dry season has been upon us for awhile. Today we were fortunate to have 20 minutes of drizzle and some chilly weather. It was a nice break from the hot heat and dry dryness of dry season.

We're choking on dust most days. It hasn't rained in eight weeks, other than a tiny speckle here and there. The grass looks burned in some places, the cows wander through our yards at night searching for greens, and our tanks are running dry. All is not lost though (depending on how you look at it) - we're all pumping water now.

From Pahmp you ahhhp

Shortly before this was taken, I say "There's a 50% chance my hand is going to look bent and femmy when you take that." This is the school's borehole. The big metal box on front is an iron removal plant to get rid of the iron in the water.

From Pahmp you ahhhp

Our jerry can.

From Pahmp you ahhhp

... in the shade.

Woops

2009-07-19T10:31:00.000-07:00

It's been a bit long....

Could I say "nothing to report" and get away with it without telling a lie? Well, no. It's obviously been pretty busy so all that either of us can do is say, "woops, sorry" for the lack of updates. Let's try and run things down:

Family Team - 27 people
We bought a new truck
Fish Farm Install Crew - 2 people
Hired a Full-Time guy for SODIS
Mpigi Team - 17 people (ish)
Fixed 4 boreholes
Jeff's Cousins and a PA Student - 3 people

Now, I'd lie (again) if I said I had any remote semblance of responsibility with any of the visitors (I did get to have fun buying the truck at least), so I'm not going to try and look like a hero for organising those throngs of people. A huge thanks to everyone else but me for getting everything organised and ready for all of these people, namely the Dycks for Kibaale, Brent, Cheryl, Morgan and Anna for Mpigi, our big boss Jon Imbeau for the fish farm crew (and everything else he does), and Jeff's Aunt and Uncle for the cousins (haha). Thanks to Cassie for making her way over here from PA to visit us again. We're blessed to be visited.

So, despite a lack of preparing for arrival (speaking for myself, Sean, only), we did get the full benefit of having these visitors around. It has been just awesome talking with people from back home and seeing what my skin could possibly look like without dirt caked and embedded all the way into the subcutaneous layer. Honestly though it has been so good seeing people pumped up about Africa and making sacrifices to come over here and help out however they can. And they sure did - someone has a new house built, lots of sponsored kids got to meet their sponsors in person (think about that... how cool is that?!?), needy people in the community have some gifts and were able to receive prayer and love from others who genuinely cared enough to fly over and show it. Lots more too - all very very cool. All the teams did great work and were a pleasure to have. I hope if you guys are reading this you were able to take away some life changing experiences! Uganda can do that :)

In other news, it is now very lonely here. Everyone has left. Rachel has left to Kampala to give Paul and Megan, our new coworkers working with the Timothy Centre in Masaka about an hour away, a tour of the big city and helping them pick up some groceries and stuff like that... the first time in Kampala is pretty overwhelming. Picture real life Frogger combined with Carmageddon, throw in some AK47's with your pizza, and the ability to buy children's life preservers from Habib on the street while waiting for Licky Calmichael to pick his motorcycle up off the pavement and that's Kampala. Jeff & Shannon are dropping and picking people from the airport. I spent the latter half of the day sweeping puke from the sidewalk due to sick children. Jamie and I reorganized the house saturday leading me to endlessly quote Will Ferrel from Old School in my head and secretly smack myself when Jamie wasn't looking (actually, it wasn't that bad - the place looks better now, and I probably led the charge on the project). We haven't had rain in ages and are out of water, pumping it from the borehole to flush toilets, wash dishes, and sweep puke from the sidewalk. Yeah, so, another weekend in Ug actually.

I hope that we can do a bit more posting than we have been. And hopefully we haven't lost everyone who used to read. We're still here!

PS - Oh yeah. I broke out my tooth. Minor detail.

Some pics of the babble above for all you cliff-noters:

From Woops

The Family Team givin'er at church

From Woops

KCC's new truck, "the dominant ruler"

From Woops

Tim and Geraldine from H20 4 All with Elkanah, our farm manager, hooking up tanks for the new fish farm, and experimenting with the human hamster wheel

From Woops

Yobu, our SODIS dude

From Woops

Some of the Mpigi team, and Jamie's cute head

From Woops

Confused Chameleons!

From Woops

My "toof" as it looks while at church

From Woops

Jamie, and a kid after sugar-cane

From Woops

Really?

Drilling update

2009-06-26T01:55:00.001-07:00

So the drilling hasn't gone very smoothly so far. At all. In fact, it has been a bit frustrating, but I'm still thankful I get to be a part of it. It's definitely a unique job when I realize that the majority of the work I end up doing in such a large project such as this is sitting in the shade of a tree and praying all day long.

So, here's some issues. Join us.

Water quality - it's not very good yet. This is a potential problem with all new water sources, but not very common. We've had to delay the second half of the installation (installing the handpump) so they can treat the water and fix the turbidity issues. I remember the turbidity warnings we'd get back in BC. Suffice to say, that was nothing:

From Drilling Update

Stupididity

Stupid turbidity.

Also, water quantity - surveys are only so accurate. This one said there would be lots of water, but so far not so much. There's more than enough for any human to be able to pump out, but we were hoping for more. Then again, it's the dry season, so hopefully things get better when the rains come again. In two months.

From Drilling Update

Drilling complete, now doing some pump testing to see how much water is down there

From Drilling Update

Ugh

Drilling!

2009-06-18T03:35:00.000-07:00

We're drilling again. I'm taking a quick break from the action for lunch. Probably about 40 metres down so far, so pray for water if you see this before we finish! Stay tuned (next update will probably be tuesday)

From Drop Box

Yummy Matooke

2009-06-13T10:46:00.000-07:00

So we definitely eat our fair share of Ugandan food – whether it be for staff lunch, at people’s homes or eating out at the local restaurant. If it has been a while since we sank our teeth into it - we actually crave it. Here are some photos of Matooke – one of the staple foods. Matooke is a plant that looks much like a banana, but has an extremely hard interior that requires it to be boiled for a long time before being edible. It’s served in banana leaves and is it ever filling!
-Jamie

From Matooke

Matooke being peeled. It's very sappy so you have to oil up with Mukwano (translated - "friendship") cooking oil first

From Matooke

Mmmmmmmatooke

From Matooke

And this is peeled matooke

Luganda Language Lesson
Ok, since we've thrown a few Luganda words in our posts recently, here's a very quick language lesson.
a = "ah"
e = "ay" ... or "eh" I guess
i = "ee"
o = "oh"
u = "oo!"

And just to keep you on the right track with the language - Luganda, the main local language where we are, has a funny little rule that will (ok, it might not) blow your mind. Double vowels = stress that syllable. So, where you might be tempted to call it "Ma-too-kee" like it would be pronounced in ye olde english, it's "Mah-TOH-kay." Now you too can get by in Uganda about as proficiently as I can!

Webale kasiima (thanks for appreciating),
-Sean

Sipi Falls (Time Away – not as grand as Niagara Falls but it was Ugandan grand)

2009-06-07T10:18:00.000-07:00

My mom told me that we only have 104 weekends and to make the most of it. So, with this in mind, we try to see as much of Uganda as we can. In May we made quite the drive to see the eastern part of the country – 8 hours of driving! We went with Rachel and Cheryl (Cheryl was visiting Kibaale for a week) and it was so much fun! We hiked to three different waterfalls, went swimming in a swim hole (maybe this is why Sean is sick), slept two nights in a cool hut and ate some great food! Next adventure is South Western Uganda for Sean’s Birthday!
-Jamie

From Sipi Falls

Pay as you go... they accept blood and sweat

From Sipi Falls

The hut we all slept in. Like a Ugandan yurt, except not at all

From Sipi Falls

The beginning of our "half hour" (actually 3 hour) hike

From Sipi Falls

Kids looking on from the top of a cliff

From Sipi Falls

One of three sets of water falls. These are just over 97 meters high

From Sipi Falls

Real men hike in polyester sweaters!

From Sipi Falls

Jamie on the edge of a cliff. There is a guy abseiling from the top of the waterfall in this photo which you can't see

Kingdom +1

2009-05-21T21:52:00.000-07:00

We've got a friend in town named Paul who works with NEFHCOD, a small local NGO that was just started up in October of 08. Great guy and hard working. NEFHCOD, being brand new, has no funding and is mainly comprised of community volunteers. However, there are some full(er) time employees doing various work. Paul's one of them and mans the office in town, serving as the administrator for the office and taking in help requests. We've been able to partner ourselves (KCC) up with NEFHCOD in a few ways - for one, all of our community loans applicants are now required to take some business classes which are handled by NEFHCOD. Another is that once a borehole repair is completed, NEFHCOD swoops in with some follow up training and sensitization materials to educate the community about health and maintenance and all other issues that are applicable to their newly repaired water source. Paul is kind of the go-to guy for all of these activities and more.

The thing is that he doesn't get paid. Like I said, they're a brand new NGO, and a local one at that, and so far finding funding has been incredibly difficult. They're organized and have a great work-plan, but expecting people like Paul to hang around and do the work being done with no compensation seems like a tall order. At least from my Canadian perspective.

Paul just left our house, saying that it has been tough but that he enjoys the work and will just keep pushing forward until the end of the year, and hopefully some money will come of it. He's confided in me earlier that he doesn't care for the money at all but instead just wants to serve the people and make a difference in his country. Man... what a fantastic attitude to have. I don't want to overly expose Paul here, but his attitude is nothing short of dumbfounding when you realize that he makes zero money and gives everything he has, though he has barely enough to eat and his house is little more than a tiny storage room. People like him put everything into perspective for me and make me realize how much more there is to give everyone here. I just pray for the strength to be able to do it, day by day, without collapsing. Unfortunately I've proven to be weaker than I thought and some days it feels like there's nothing more to give.

So it's conversations like the one I just had that give me a boost and slam everything back into perspective. The key words he spoke tonight were more than just his descriptions of living a life I want to model, giving everything while having nothing. More encouraging than that, and I hope this doesn't sound like I'm giving myself a pat on the back, but he just gave me hope by defining an action I've always hoped to be able to have a part in in someone's life. Paul's a new christian.

We'd sat in his office a long time ago. Over the weeks we had become friends, and one day after finding out that he was a catholic I jokingly told him that he should switch sides - become a christian. We chatted about it a bit and what it meant, but it really was just casual conversation. Even that small thing I said combined with everything else he had heard, pastors in the town telling him to get Jesus... yeah, he took the step, did his homework, decided it was right, and found a pastor to seal the deal. Now he's asked to be baptized. No idea if he meant by me or not just yet, and I'm not exactly thrilled to go wading into a river teeming with you-don't-want-to-know and the rare hippopotamous, but I'd do it in a heartbeat.

When you feel a bit down, I don't think I could imagine a better pick-me-up than what he told me tonight.

Anyway, life continues here in Ug. We'd appreciate your continued prayer support while we're here as school is about to ramp up again, people are continuing to be incredibly needy, water sources continue to break, and we continue to do the things we do.
-S

Community Services

2009-05-14T02:36:00.000-07:00

The community services department is where I get to work (I being me, and me being Sean.) Some pretty cool stuff happens here daily, so I think I'll try and do a small blurb on each area every now and then to keep you all in the know.

One part of the work we do is to help out needy families in the area (you might recall the wheelchair for Annet). Some of these assisted families are child-led homes because of AIDS. Some are dealing with physical issues such as age or disability. Some are just needy and need a helping hand to come along and give them not only a gift or physical item, but also some love and encouragement. That's where the staff in the office here shine.

From Community Services

People are so thankful for whatever we can do.

Jamie and kids

2009-05-09T02:17:00.000-07:00

Here's some of Jamie's favourite pictures (either taken of her or by her) with Ugandan kids.

From Jamie & Kids

At a graduation ceremony, Jamie hangs out with Immaculate

From Jamie & Kids

Jamie doing a home visit with some of the students

From Jamie & Kids

Jamie milling about

From Jamie & Kids

Baby Amos. The proper way to say his name, by the way, is "AH-moss"

From Jamie & Kids

More Amos. Perfect size to fit in one of our bags when we eventually come home (we like him :) )

From Jamie & Kids

A photo of Derek, who we both think looks and acts like one of Jamie's cousins...

From Jamie & Kids

The eyebrow baby

From Jamie & Kids

A typical site in Uganda. Question: What is the cheapest diaper? Answer: .....

From Jamie & Kids

Auntie Lamie and her best friend :)

Hey Map Geeks

2009-05-05T06:36:00.001-07:00

I'm a map geek. So while there's tons we could update on, here's something dumb just for entertainment's sake. Courtesy of my being a geek, and owning a GPS (geek +1)

Check this link to grab a Google Earth file showing some of the boreholes I've been working on in the area. If you don't want to bother with Google Earth, you can check us out in any nice atlas.

Find KCC on the earth at

0° 46.629'S
31° 20.918'E

Enjoy.

The Breakdown

2009-04-17T14:33:00.000-07:00

Our Toyota Hilux “double cab” is a workhorse. It goes through everything we throw at it and keeps on giving. Unfortunately, this week it decided to take a little instead.

We’re just thankful that it broke down where it did – in a nice cushy parking lot close to a coffee shop. The alternative place could have been anywhere but probably would have been somewhere along 300kms of highway between Kampala and Kibaale, as we were just about to return home when the breakdown happened.

We’re also thankful we had the chance to chat it up with such a cool old mechanic while waiting for the repairs to be finished. He’s an old car nut and takes pride in his work. The double cab is happy with a new clutch now thanks to Hamid - if you ever break down in Kampala, go to TAP Garage. And sit in the Mitsubishi Minica, ‘cause it’s awesome :)

From Breakdown

An old 1962 Mitsubishi Minica. Hamid bought this from Japan for 800 bucks

From Breakdown

Power via this 359cc two stroke oil-injected air-cooled two cylinder with a whopping top speed of 80kmh

From Breakdown

Not meant for large Canadians

From Breakdown

Waiting for the repairs on the double cab to be finished

From Breakdown

Repairs complete and just getting it washed now. It lives to fight another day

The Davii return to the hill...

See you later Kibaale

Sleeping in the village of Kamuli

Kyalulangira and back. . . the long way round

Junk in ma Trunk

Heidi's sponsor kid

Heather's Girl!

Hamburger soup anyone?

Forfeiture of Pallor... a Fire Fought

Timothy Center

Baby Kisakye

Moses and I

2 Legged and 4 Legged Kids

Community Kids Work Day

Say Cheese Mpigi

Football Tie

Iron Removal

Our Girl

Yup, they survived.

Headers

Obama & Karlmarx

Omosota a la emeeza?

Students, Neighbours, Patients & Prisoners

Kalema Tom will be missed

Sponsoring Kids isn't just for the first world

Happy Birthday Monica!

Drowning a thousand deaths on the river Nile

Tired of trash on your streets? Enjoy the idea of people being imprisoned for tossing plastic bags? Rwanda is for you!

Jamie shows us how to build a mud house with a smile

Hunting chimps

Safari in Uganda, with a boatride on the side

... more Uganda Motocross

Monica meets Merones

Monica Arrives!

Confirming Auntie and Uncle status... baby Chloe

Water? Hydroperoxyl?

FIA Rally in Uganda

We love Sylvia!

The Beautiful Family

Merones

Just turn on the tap

Mosquito Net Drive

Sponsor a Child in Uganda! Yes you. . .

Keeping perspective

LIVE Canada vs USA hockey game... via Twitter (yeah, sorry, its the best I can do)

A sad day

A note on the preceding 5 posts...

The Adrians visit Uganda, in pictures (5/5)

The Adrians visit Uganda, in pictures (4/5)

The Adrians visit Uganda, in pictures (3/5)

The Adrians visit Uganda, in pictures (2/5)

The Adrians visit Uganda, in pictures (1/5)

Coup underway in Niger?

Montage du Davis

Two

And we're back

Bodas, Chawch, and Football

Because Naked Babies Are Cute

Arrival

Jamie's Parents in 1 hour...

New PAOS Website

Revenge of the Babysat

New Years on Mount Elgon

Christmas in Zanzibar

Art gives Heart

Speech Day

november

sean and his friend

Beans & Babies

Ceremonies of the Buttless

One Year Later....

How are you

Immunizing Babies

Ivan

Pump *clap* my water

Woops

Drilling update

Drilling!

Yummy Matooke

Sipi Falls (Time Away – not as grand as Niagara Falls but it was Ugandan grand)

Pump clap my water