The wedding of the year is that of Joseph Ssmpala to Vilate Nielsen yesterday in Jinja.  Joseph is the second counselor in the Jinja District and a PEF student.  Vilate came to Uganda to work with Melissa (other girl in photo) who runs an NGO jewelry store in Lugazi.  Summer is a busy time with guest NGO workers and Vilate and Joseph fell in love and got married in short order.

Vilate called me the night before the wedding and asked if I would play Cannon in D and  accompany the opening and closing song at the wedding ceremony.  I felt honored and also sad for them that I was the best there was to play at their lovely celebration.  

A tradition for the bride and groom to cut the ribbon on this arch as they arrive at the wedding reception.  The reception was held at the Uncle's home.  I guess you would call it a garden wedding with lots of happy relatives of Joseph to celebrate with them.

This was the fanciest wedding cake we have seen in Uganda.  I worried that the lower layer would lose all the roses that were beginning to slide off the cake.  We left before they got around to cutting the cake.  

We had a good turnout at the Busia fireside.  We left in time to get there and set up but 1/4 of the way there we realized neither of us had brought cash for gas and realized that we may not have enough for the trip.  No one here uses visa.  What a trial it is to always remember to have cash.  We always carried emergency cash in the truck but had to use it last week to help with Pres. Charles' wife's emergency surgery.  Since we had forgotten to replenish the fund we had to turn around and go home for the cash.  Luckily the two hour trip only took us one hour forty-five so we weren't late.  Being late around isn't that big a deal.  Not many came anyway till a half hour after we were to start.

This is Wilberforce, named after one of my favorite characters in history.  He attended the Self Reliance/PEF workshop in Busea.  He is too old for a PEF loan and has just started a shop to sell milk.  He wanted us to donate a counter to his shop.  Wasn't he listening when we talked about the evil of "something for nothing"?  We gave him a Self Employment Workshop booklet and showed him how to budget his money so he could save and buy his own counter.

I had never seen this fruit before coming to Uganda.  Maybe we have them in the produce department of the grocery store but I don't remember seeing or hearing of passion fruit.  Right now it is my favorite fruit drink.  Until this week I had no idea how to make the juice.  Mary, the lady that cleans for us taught me how to make a yummy passion fruit juice.  

The same day I made pesto carrots, one of my favorite vegetable dishes from home.  Since getting a blender I picked fresh basil from the garden and blended it with all the fresh ingredients like at home.  Wow, there was almost no flavor.  

We find that dishes we made at home all have the same problem here.  The basil smelled as pungent as ever and so did the garlic and cheeses. Why does this happen?

 We are looking forward with mixed emotion for the next 3 1/2 months.  We've loved being here but sometimes home looks just wonderful.

Another activity this week was tearing one bathroom apart when we discovered the built in tub had a leak behind the door leading to the plumbing.  The 3-4 inches of water was a great place for mosquitoes to grow.  Rand couldn't get to the tub without removing the toilet.  Nothing he has done yet has stopped the drain from leaking.  We've learned from experience that telling the landlord is futile and hiring our own plumber means going to get someone then going to get parts then taking them home afterward.  Such a bother when something goes wrong that it is easier to try and figure it out ourself.

We've discovered when we travel that we don't get our blog added to.  Last Sat we did a fireside in Masaka, spent the night then headed back to Kampala the next day.  We went to Makindy Ward and met a lady who is the church's authority on international adoptions who also just happened to be visiting Makindy ward.  When the Vans left they had made arrangements for an adoption that no one knew how to accomplish.  They just left us in charge of a soon to be newborn that has no home but with a family in USA wanting to adopt.  We felt blessed to find someone we could trust to advise us.  What a miracle.

Yesterday was our Self Reliance/PEF fireside for Jinja.  It was our third and last one for Jinja district and we wanted it to go well.  We went to the church early to set up and wouldn't you know, the Jinja Branch President called in a panic because he was in the hospital with his wife who was in terrible pain.  The doctor needed her to go get an ultra sound at a distant clinic and he had no way to get her there.  We hurried to the hospital and somehow stuffed the wife, husband and her mother in the back seat of the truck.  Her pain was immense and we all hurt for her as Rand drove as carefully as he could over about 50 speed bumps to the clinic.  I think the doctors suspected a tubular pregnancy and sure enough that is what she had.  It  had ruptured and she was bleeding internally.  By then the wife was about to pass out and we had to do the trip all over again back to the hospital.  We were so thankful Sat. night to hear that she had done well in the surgery to save her life.  We will go see her soon but not today.  We think most the ward went to see her today.  She is still in terrible pain so don't know if she appreciated the company or not.

We didn't get the turn out at the fireside that we had hoped for but the content has gotten lots of great and encouraging compliments.  We feel that the district is learning to think like self reliant members of Christ's church and we are learning what needs to be taught.

These two are famous.  The one on the lest was burned badly some months ago and the one on the right nursed her back to life & health.  A miracle to see them together at the wedding Sat. night. 

Joann is one of our Book of Mormon reading ladies and she had all the local neighbors dancing up a storm at Mpumudde Branch.  We waited for the wedding couple to appear and when it got dark and the music was too much for Elder Brown we left before the couple arrived.  No picture of the bride and groom or the wedding cake.

Ugandan boy scouts, we had never seen any boys in uniform like this.  Turns out Primary School has scout troops.  These boys had just learned to do knots.  They had very few patches on their uniforms.  Didn't think to ask them if they had a troop number.

This is a wedding cake I made for a PEF student who asked me to do it 2 months ago.  Since then us missionaries have been asked not to do things for weddings.  It takes away from members businesses.  Since I wanted to fulfill my promise and not take away from anyones business I decided to teach Christine how to decorate a cake.  I taught her how to bake a cake a few months ago.  She did a pretty good job decorating the cake for the first time so hopefully she can get more business as a cake decorator.

This was a strange flower growing up through razor wire on the top of this compound wall.  Kampala now wears us out with exit interviews.  We have about 25 students and each interview takes about an hour.  One student lived half way home to Jinja so he asked us to meet him at the gas station in Seeta to do  his interview under a tree.  Wish I had thought to get a picture. 

 Fireside attendes at Masaka Branch.  Masaka is about 3 hours West and South of Kampala.  Opposite Kampala from Jinja.  We taught them about self reliance much like we did in Lira and Gulu.

Members often ask if they can have their pictures taken with us.  This sister had made a very lovely bouquet of satin roses and sewed them on her dress.  Her goal is to go on a mission as soon as she has been in the church one year.

Two weeks ago we had the two zone conferences we have here in Jinja with our new mission president.  With new management some things are same, some things different.

 Sisters Tanner, Casperson and Brown cooking up the chicken Alfredo dinner for the missionaries.

Our new mission president, Pres. & Sister Chatfield from Alpine Utah.  Elder Brown and have been on our mission longer than any other couple in the Uganda Kampala mission.  I guess we're the senior couple.  This was the Jinja Zone Conference.

July 7, 2013

We didn't get a picture of our new Mission President, Pres. Chatfield.  We did meet him on Wed. and visited for a an hour about PEF.  He and Sister Chatfield are going to do wonderful things here in Uganda and we're thrilled to meet and have such a wonderful Mission President.

Wednesday we had exit interviews with some Kampala PEF students.  They all were thrilled with the  web sites Elder Brown helped them find for employment in their field.  

That night was the earthquake when we felt the bed or apartment shake.  Nothing of any significance happened but native Ugandans at the mission office and PEF office wondered what had happened.

Friday we hurried back from Kampala to Jinja to host the Grundys and their Grand children.  It was fun to celebrate the fourth with the other Jinja couples with a movie and popcorn.  We also played the dice game that my sister Amy taught us at a family reunion years ago.  

Thanks Deirdre for sending us the dice.

Can you see the four foot monitor on the island of Lake Victoria?  The place was almost white from bird droppings.   It is a favorite spot where those who worship water falls come to sacrifice chickens to their god.  The dam built in 1950 by the British covered over the waterfalls.  What do you do then if that was your God?

This is a Fish Eagle according to the guide.  Our new favorite movie is "Big Year".  The story of bird lovers that see if they can beat each others record for how many birds they can see in a year.  Some people have a lifetime record of birds.  Rand and I are thinking of doing that.  This would be bird number about 40.  We have a long ways to go as we don't really know much about birds but find them fascinating.

Our group of 12 that floated out on to the Lake to see "Source of the Nile".  Elder & Sister Grundy, Elder and Sister Barton, Elder and Sister Casperson, Elder and Sister Tanner (from Ethiopia) E & S Brown and Mason and Kaylee

 Elder & Sister Grundy with Grand children, Mason and Kaylee.  They spent the night with us so the kids could see the "Source of the Nile".  Sis. Grundy thought the morning glory fence quite attractive.  We all talked about the noxious weed it is back home.

Saturday morning we took a p-day and went boating on the Nile to see the "Source".  We found a good deal on this boat - 60,000 for twelve.  At the official "Source of the Nile" the boat ride was 40,000 each.  We were there a year ago and decided we didn't want to pay that price.  We found this boat across the river in Njeru at the "Kingfisher Safari Lodge"

 Our guide took us by this floating Tilopia farm on Lake Victoria.  The storks are standing on the cages hoping to get a free meal.

Coming in to the harbor after a lovely, peaceful trip on the lake/Nile.

 Elder Brown found a new friend at the "Black Lantern".  African carvings are not life like but this one was pretty good.

 Checking out the "Kingfisher Lodge to make sure it had a boat available when the Grundys came with their Grandchildren.  The Tanners visas expired so came here to replace the Vans for a few weeks till they can get the visas renewed.

Elder and Sister Brown found an Arizona looking cactus here in this tropic setting.  The spikes were almost invisible.