Today we visited the Lugazi Branch for the first time.  I was sitting in the back holding a little four year old that fell asleep.  Sister Jonson is teaching the six other children.  The two older girls are YW age but the older one doesn't speak english very well so they have her and the 13 year old go to primary.  They seemed happy with that.  Just after we got started four neighbor boys were peeking in the window so we invited them in to hear about prayer, make animals from play dough and color.  None of them spoke english but the older girls could talk to them in their language so it worked out.

Rand had the camera Sat at the Kabowa PEF fireside.  We had a good turnout and ran it similar to the Jinja fireside where we mentored present PEF students and introduced perspective PEF students.

This was one of our guest speakers who talked about setting up her business after finishing her education.  She is  a good example of making good with her education.  Getting a job in Uganda is very difficult.  Most of our students are like her, succeeding because they have their own business to sell a product or service.

Having experienced loss of vision in the form of things being blurry the mission doctor  arranged for me to see Dr. Georgina.  The doctor is in the middle and her assistant opposite me.  This optometrist had the equipment to dilate the eye and determine if you had cataracts or retina issues. (at least I hope her diagnosis was correct)   Turns out my left eye is having all the issues but no cataract or detached retina was detected.  I have a very large floater that blurs my vision from the left eye.  Right now my right eye can usually compensate so that I can see most things.
 It has been getting harder to read small print but the doctor says not to worry about it.
 At home maybe more can be done to fix the problem.  Dad had a good doctor and Kara has contacts that can help.

This biker could be seen for blocks as he peddled down the road with this huge load of baskets.  The picture doesn't quite depict the grander of the visual because I didn't get the camera out till we were past him.

Last Sunday afternoon I took some oils over to the hospital where our friend, Mary's daughter was laboring to deliver her baby.  I rubbed her feet for a while then left hoping that she wouldn't have to go much longer.  The baby was born three hours later.  Monday morning we took some warm water over for Eve and her new baby daughter Eva to take a spit bath.  Later in the day we took the whole family home (Eve's mother Mary, sister and midwife stayed the whole night to take care of the new mother)  Hospitals do not provide patient care.  The family camps out on the floor next to the patient.  You must bring your own bedding,  pots for cooking food and pots for washing clothes etc.

Jullian is Eve's twin sister.  Sun. afternoon she rubbed her sister's back telling me she was never going to have a baby.  Her tune changed once the baby got here.  She could't have looked more proud to hold her new niece.

Mary is the proud Grandmother.  

Eve is the Mother who I helped to the truck

Our fingers were the same color.

Once we got her home she opened her eyes.   Such a darling baby.

“How’s Jinja?” 

We hear that question regularly and the answer is always, “Jinja is good”.

Don’t remember anyone ever asking “How’s Phoenix?”  There are a lot a nice phrases we have gotten used to people saying to us and to each other.  I notice that Rand is using them more and more like, “where do you stay?”  To live somewhere is not something they say.  Since my niece Margie moved, over here you would say, Margie shifted”.  One day in church I should write down all the unique phrases so we don't forget them. They have become very endearing. 

Spent a good part of the week redoing our power point presentation for the PEF fireside coming up next week.  We’ve learned a lot and didn’t need anyone’s help like we did last year.  We want members to know that the bar has been raised in getting a PEF loan.  Some Bishops in Kampala have angry members because they wouldn’t sign their endorsements.  That is the main reason we’re doing the fireside.  Hopefully it will get the members to see that it isn’t them personally, they just need to get “temple worthy” now to get a loan.

Sat. we were invited by Susie from the office to go with the mission office 

staff to help out with an orphanage they sponsor.  Our mission president’s 

wife brought a huge box of baby blankets with her that the youth in her stake made back home.  Check out the pictures.

PEF checks are again slow in coming and it is the beginning of the semester. We need a way to relieve the bottleneck that happens every semester.  So far we haven't figured that one out.  There are just too many people that need to perform and it is easy for something to get bogged down.  We try to stay upbeat as we tell the students "not yet" when they ask about their money.

Drove to Lugazi to present our power point to Emeid (in red), second counselor of Lugazi Branch.  The church needs above these shops and has a good feel there.  The second counselor is the other man by Rand.  His name is Geoffrey.  He hopes PEF will someday be available for one 30 years.  He told us he could be more self reliant if he had more education.  Emeid is under thirty and a return missionary.  He is ambitious to become more than a primary age teacher.

Arriving at the center we were serenaded and cheered (Ugandan style)  the first time I hear their  cheer we were shocked but now we have learned to cheer right along with them.

Sister Wallace carrying in the supplies Ugandan style.  She did a good job

After the little children got suckers the older children received a notebook and pencil.  We had toothbrushes too but didn't even get the out because there weren't enough to make a difference.

The little guy in yellow couldn't help but steal your heart.  His eyes were so huge trying to take it all in.

We were surprised that there were so many mothers with babies.  So where are the orphans?  Susie said the goal was to put orphans in families for a more normal setting.  So there was no orphanage per say.  We were confused.

Ready to hand out the blankets

Many more showed up - at least 150-200

Sisters Chatfield and Wallace, Sarah, Susie's sister (lives here), me and Susie at orphanage delivery

 We had a fantastic turn out for the Mbale Self Reliance/PEF Fireside Sat.  Luckily we went to the church an hour early to set up.  The electricity was off and it took an hour to figure out how to turn on the generator.
I'm always the one with the camera.  Looks like Elder Brown teaches all the firesides. 
We each do part of the presentation.

Sat. morning we drove up into Mt. Elgon.  This mountain is the largest in our area of Uganda.  It was formed of volcanic craters and is partly in Kenya.  From the Bartons we traveled just a short distance to begin the ascent.

Felt as excited as I used to when Grandma Howlett took us up Little Cottonwood for a picnic.

Obviously the vegetation isn't the same as the Utah mountains.  The whole mountain is covered with terraced farms.  Banana trees are the majority in this photo.

The view is of Mbale in the distance.  We share the road with this farmer and child. 

Creeks cascade down to make lovely waterfalls below.

This almost looks like Utah except maybe for the red dirt the road is made of.

Getting close to the top and farmers families live all along the road.

The water appears to come from no where.

Almost everyone we passed carried some kind of machete.  Wonder if there are snakes?

Such happy people

New construction.  These limb walls will be stuffed with mud for walls.

Surprise at the top.  Three muzungus from Kampala are getting ready to sail off the cliff.

This is the first time for the front man.  the second man is the instructor.  They will be sailing together.

If you look close you'll see the sailers.  What a curiosity they were to the locals.

Top of Mt. Elgon.  The cell phone satellites are to our right.

Bought some onions from these kids.  We were somewhat of a curiosity.

The house is loosing it's mud.

Elder Barton is collecting water from this bamboo pipe that comes out of the ground where the water is flowing.  It was pretty brown so only Elder Barton tasted it then tossed it out.  This is a clean source of water for these people.

This was quite a steep hill.  Three women are high up working their farm.  Could be dangerous if you made a miss step.

Friday we made our first trip into one of the craters of Mt. Elgon.  We felt like we were in a huge dish but mostly we enjoyed getting to know those who live there.

Villagers celebrate the coming of the new school that the muzungus are helping them build.  Notice the little albino child.  They aren't as rare as you would think.

Some LDS girls have been working with "Help International" all summer.  They helped build a school in this village.  We were visiting with the Bartons who had been asked to haul the school sign to the village which is in the crater we had asked the Bartons about seeing.  The bags of cement are to cover the outside of the mud school house to make it more weather proof.

The girls helped put the mud between the sticks to form the wall of the school

Notice the plants that are starting to grow in the mud wall

This is a four room school with windows and doors to be installed later

These girls are pretty proud of the work they have done.  Most leave this next week for home and their college work.  The teacher of the school is so happy and appreciative.  The children will really be blessed to have a functioning school.

Good bye to the Grundy's who have a commitment at home.  They will be back before the end of the year.  They have been serving in Lira.

Gigantic termites fly out and are eaten leaving only the wings.  We found these still alive stuck by their wings to the hood of the truck one morning early.

We attended Mpumudde Branch today for church.  Their building is three houses next to each other.  The one house has been the chapel and way too small.  The mission bought a tent to put up in the yard to house everyone for Sacrament meeting.  Recently a construction crew has torn out walls of the first house to make a bigger chapel.  That house is now unusable till they get through.  I took a picture of this work bench in the front yard of the building.  Africans are very creative in building a place to accomplish their tasks.  Not sure what the task is however but the sand and rock in the background is there to make cement.

Saturday was the YSA activity held by new leadership.  They wanted the young adults to have a much longer activity so they could get to know each other better.  We sure were worried about how it would go.

This taxi holds 14 comfortably but they had more like 20 YSA that loaded up at each of the branches for the trip to Jinja Branch for the all day activity.

Lots of fun activities from beginning to end.  A couple they asked to speak was Joseph and Vilate that got married last Sat.  They didn't even know each other three months ago when they had the last YSA activity.  Wonder if we'll have others get married before the next activity in November?

The Young adults were in charge of their own dinner.  They started early to get the rice cooking.  It is overflowing the pan.  They covered it with huge banana leaves and pulled some of the logs out from under it so that it would stay warm but not burn.  There is a stove in the branch kitchen but they are more comfortable outside over a fire.

This is Agnes, the president of YSA who was making the vegetable gravy over a wood fire. propped up with three rocks.

Judith is washing the dishes with a tiny bit of water and soap.  Not sure where she found the water ti rinse with.

Two sisters cutting up the cabbage.  They didn't use a cutting board.  No one has a counter so working in the back yard of the church with a chair and cement slab is a luxury

Stirring the vegys so they don't burn till more can be added.

There was no water anywhere in town so we were hauling water from emergency reserves .  the rim of the wheel makes a good stove especially with legs and handles.

Benard is one of our PEF students.  He is manning the sign in table along with a sister we didn't know

Half way through the activity the sister served the meal.  We believe we counted 120 participants.  The food  included rice with a lovely vegetable gravy that included beef.  Judith calculated the amount to buy and it served exactly how many were there.  No one went away hungry.

Alice, a PEF student studying to be a nursery teacher.  She was having a hard time getting us her tuition invoice.  We met her at the school to save her the trip.  We love getting to know the personal at the schools.  If they know us they are more apt to work with us when a payment is late or something.

We had dinner last Monday with the Hemley's from South Sudan.   With the political unrest that had developed they were flown to Uganda till the problems blow over.  They hope it is soon as they are the Humanitarian couple there.  He is also the branch president.