The Davii return to the hill...

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Revenge of the Babysat

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.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

New Years on Mount Elgon

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

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Christmas in Zanzibar

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

Friday, December 11, 2009

Art gives Heart

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.

Monday, November 30, 2009

Speech Day

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.

Friday, November 27, 2009

november

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.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

sean and his friend

From The Davii - Ug Fotos