Life in Africa

(My apologies:  The following two posts are two weeks old but "old news" is better than no news i hope!)

August 15, 2008 

Last night we cooked our first real meal at home (beyond foods like eggs, toast, macaroni and cheese, oatmeal, etc...).  We made spaghetti!  Mmm it was good!  We boiled tomatoes down until they were like a soup, added a very tiny can of tomato paste along with fresh garlic, onion, basil and some Italian spice Brian found in the Palm Tree kitchen.  Meanwhile the electricity went out so we were ruing on the military generator and the water coming out of the sink was coming from a reserve tank that sits under ground, therefore the water was the strangest yellow-ish brown color!  We boiled it anyway and added spaghetti noodles, asking God to bless and sanctify our food!  (We are still alive today to tell the story.)  So after combining the mincemeat (hamburger meat) to the sauce, we sprinkled a bit of Romano parmesan on top (thanks to mom and dad sending us some!) and enjoyed some tasty food that was close to home! 

I'm beginning to "show" just a little now (you know, enough for me to notice but maybe not you) and am making sure to get a good walk in here and there.  I'm at 9 weeks now and feeling pretty good, thank God.  Brian took a picture of my belly last night for the first time...  I know, it's about time.  I will try to get it posted on here someday.   

Besides picky eating habits, I keep waiting for the notorious "food cravings" to kick in...  I have a harder time figuring out what I WANT to eat...  (besides Mexican food of course, which I can't help but miss on this side of the world).  I did find some milk that I can stand the taste of.  It's the only pasteurized milk here and you buy it in a little plastic bag, about 4 inches by 4 inches.  I cut a corner off and pour it into a pitcher.  It's nice.  Brian drinks milk delivered to our door.  Straight from the cow!  We boil it down and strain it.  Then refrigerate.  Much cheaper that way!  So we have "my" milk and "his" milk in our tiny college dorm room sized fridge.  :)  
Business is picking up at the salon which is really nice because being busy makes the days go by faster.  All the mzungus (white people) are very excited to have me here--I've even got a lady who comes in once a week just for me to shampoo and blow dry her hair! 

Brian has been playing a lot of music lately...  coming up with multiple new ideas and we finally got the recording stuff out this week and have been playing around on that.  Very fun.  It's nice to have time on our hands in the evenings for creating--something we wouldn't have near as much of if we were home in the States.  We can't wait to come back and play again with our Church of Philly family!  We love and miss you guys! 

WE LOVE AND MISS ALL YOU GUYS! 

Micah and Diane

August 15, 2008

Our friends Micah and Diane have been in the country the last week or two.  We took a coaster (a small bus) into Kampala last Thursday to meet up with them.  It was our first taste of Kampala (the capital of Uganda) which is much bigger and busier than Jinja.  The bus got stuck in traffic for a very long time and we decided we could get there faster by walking so we just got off the bus in the middle of stand-still traffic and caught a "picky-picky" (a terrible name for a motor boda boda a.k.a. motorcycle).  We then were able to weave in and out of traffic and reach our destination much faster!

It was so good to see faces from home and likewise for them.  We found our way to a VERY fancy Italian restaurant (we were quite underdressed) where we enjoyed Margarita pizzas and bread dipped in olive oil!  It was quite a refreshing experience for us all!  We then walked at least half an hour to "Garden City Mall" enjoying the sights of the city and reached it just as all the shops were closing about 6pm--too bad!

Back at their guest house we said our goodbyes and they loaded us up with a bag of Jelly Bellies (Thank you Micah!) and a few more candies and treats from Mama May, and we headed back to Jinja.  The next morning, we got a phone call from the girls--they too were now in Jinja!  None of us knew that the first contact they would be working with lives in Jinja as well!  So it has been fun to have some Texans around town and we've been able to see them at least every few days.  We took them to Amani (the orphanage) on Monday and we all played with babies for a few hours--and fell in love of course.  

On Sunday I went to a village church with them where we experienced African children dancing and dancing and dancing during worship.  It was incredible!  Micah spoke to the people and her words were powerful and full of truth!  I myself was inspired and reminded to line up straight according to God's Word which all comes down to loving God and loving the people I come in contact with in the same way I love myself!  Those two things are the most important things.  How quickly we get distracted thinking we have to do this or that or pointing our fingers at those who we think should or shouldn't do this or that, or looking out for our own interests when really it all just comes down to...  or shall we say "up" to...  LOVE.  hmm.....

Anyway, with that I'll wrap up this novel sized post.  The last few weeks in this new world of ours have really started feeling a bit more like home (at least for now) and the weeks are actually beginning to fly by.  God-willing we'll be back in Texas for Aaron and Rachel's wedding before we know it!  

Much Love to All!

Random Ps.  I just want to give a shout out to my pal Jess Clark... just because I think you're swell!