Rand's 66th birthday,  we got mail.  Yea, in Kampala we found all kinds of good mail.  Rand is opening a package from Andrew.  He is holding a wallet made with duct tape.  The Browns thought Rand could use these as fakes so no one will steal his good one.

Thanks to Arick, Andrew, Leslie & Kara for the birthday cards.

We've really missed our waffle iron.  I found one in all of Kampala.  Then found some african wrapping paper.  It is so pretty I think I will hang it on the wall.

Pretty fancy waffle.

This bird was trying to crash our birthday breakfast this morning.  Our window is hard to take a picture through.    We wondered how he could fly with that heavy beak.

Our new favorite drink is called Alvaro.  I like pear flavored and Rand likes pineapple.  For dinner today we had a very organic salad.  The dark green lettuce and spinach was our first pickings from our garden.  The other lettuce, peppers and tomatoes came from Safari's garden.  The carrots are also grown locally. We bought them at the market.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KENSIE

Been taking pictures of cute hair dos for the last month in honor of you and your talent.  Many of the women here have very short hair.  African hair is more like wool and not very manageable.  If they have smooth looking hair we're told it is a wig.  Long hair is always braided or covered with a pretty scarf.  My favorite is little girls with beads.  They are the kind like Ava plays with.  The other day Rand told me I should try getting my hair cut at one of the beauty salons in town.  I told him that I didn't want to come out with braids all over my head as that is mostly what they do.  

My friend, Sister Harris cut my hair last time I was in Kampala.  Then she showed Rand how to cut the back so that it doesn't get so straggly between cuts.  Sister Harris is leaving for home in 8 days so having Rand know how to cut it may come in handy.  

This little girl was walking along the road to Bugembe branch building.  She let me take a picture of the front and back  of her hair just in case you want to do this on someone one day.

The road this little girl is on goes right by the butchers.  There is a big cement slab and I try not to look.  The few times I have it was pretty gory.  

This shop was down a long ally of vey tiny shops in Jinja.  It has a hair dryer or two and even a mirror  That is surprising as that means she has electricity.  The hair designer is bent over sweeping.  You can see the back of her in red.  The brooms here do not have handles.  They bend right down to the ground to sweep.  When she stood up I asked her if I could take a picture and she said "no".  I would liked to have had a picture of more than her behind but if she was Muslim they do not want a picture taken so I didn't.

Daddy & daughter

Isn't this cute, they are color coordinated.

I noticed this young lady at the Youth conference.  The next day she was at the branch we attended so I finally was able to get a picture of her.  She was so pleased to have her picture taken.

So when Lacy gets some hair you can do this for her.

Notice the mother's hair covering.  That is what I meant by covering with a pretty scarf.  They often have glitter or sparkly fabric

This young lady comes with her mother, Fielder, to our English class.  At church she had tiny braids poking out all over.  But this day they were tiny french braids.  I thought the band across the front was especially cute.  Her parents have only been members 3 months.  Her father speaks English well and teaches Sunday School's Gospel Principles class.  It is amazing how well he does for being so new in the church.  Fielder hardly knows any English.  Our goal is to get her reading the Book of Mormon.  They also have two boys.  One was old enough to be baptized when his parents were.  It is really wonderful when a whole family joins.  Many baptisms are single individuals.

In Kampala you would probably find most everything you have in your Kirkland salon.  This shop is in a new mall that we checked out on Sat.  

This is Joseph.  He lives down a road we walk on several times a week.  He once had many men at this property cutting long planks from logs.  It was a picture right out of "Uncle Tom's Cabin".  He has not had the wood cutters since but we go by often with the camera hoping to catch them again cutting the planks.  Now Joseph recognizes us and comes out to talk.  He always has a story to tell.  He served with the Ugandan military many years ago which is the topic of this narrative. 

Sat. Aug 18th was Mormon Helping Hands service day for the Jinja District.  It had been decided to clean a hospital in Iganga the furtherest branch from Jinja.  The district rented a large bus to transport the members that lived in Njeru, Jinja, Bugembe, Walukuba and Mpumedde branches.  They loaded the 125 passenger bus with everyone that could make it.  Because of the Ebola virus the Missionaries were not allowed to go into the hospital.  We went to the activity to connect with PEF students & take pictures outside.

This short movie is cleaning outside.  Our friend Safari is the one with the machete trimming the shrubs.

Some members worked outside to clean up the grounds of the hospital.  They had to work around many patience who were told to wait outside under the trees while the hospital was cleaned.

Pres. Mbiro is the District President of Jinja.  He is a graduate of the PEF program and told us that his education gave him much more confidence.  He told us that he is has not found employment in his area of study but that he hopes to at some time.  In the mean time he has found other ways to make a living.

This sweet lady came and introduced herself to us and said she was one of the hospital administrators.  She was so grateful for the work the district did to clean the hospital.

 Pres. Kikaire on the left is President of the Bugembe branch.   Rose is in the middle.  She is the District Relief Society second counselor.  She and I are giving the Relief Society lesson Sunday in the Bugembe branch. 

Some of these men are in our English literacy class.  Some are PEF students and all are YSA that we associate with.  They love posing for pictures.

The way they clean the floors is to dump soapy water on the floor or walk way.  Then they scrub around with a brush then squeegee the water away then dump clean water and squeegee  again till it is almost dry.  This walkway was about the last thing that they did after cleaning inside the hospital.

Fri the 3 of Aug all our appointments fell through so we got the compost for the garden and planted seeds in the planters on either side of our front door to apartment.

We have a watering can in case it doesn't rain.  Some days it doesn't.

Sat. Was the YSA activity.  We don't talk politics but we wanted to send you this photo of a Young Adult's idea of a good tee shirt.  It says "Everybody want to be black" on the top and on the bottom it says "nobody wants to be black"

These birds are amazingly huge  but we don't seem to be able to get a picture that does them justice.
We keep trying though.

This was taken on Thur while waiting for our English class students to come.  They finally removed the pile of dirt that made it difficult getting to church.  There is room for two vehicles to park on the bridge in front of the church.  Luckily no one has a vehicle in the branch.  Periodically the couple missionaries drive there and need to park.

Sunday again, the shorter lady in the middle is named Agnes.  The other lady is wearing a baptismal outfit with a broken zipper.  The solution?  Wear a dress over it.
 TIA stands for "That is Africa".
White folks or Mazoongas use it often after rolling their eyes at the way things are done here.
I brought the baptismal outfit home and will see if I can fix the zipper once it dries.  Look how pretty she looks in the dress.  It really was a good solution.

Happy Birthday Dillon Brown.  Are you 9 this year?  Hope you enjoy these pictures that we took for the guys in the family.  Love Grandma and Grandpa Brown

We wonder if the Africans eat these guys.  There is quite a bit to him.  

This is a video of the kind of scaffolding they use here in Jinja.  The thin poles are nailed together and some of them are many stories high.  Looks pretty rickety to us.

Rand is absolutely fascinated with the ladders around here.  How would you like to be up that high on this rickety thing?  This is the remodeling of the Iganga Branch church.  Last time we went to churh here all three hours were held in the open except for a tiny room off to the side where the primary children met.