It has been a busy week getting everything done up so we can be gone for a few days.   Thursday we drove to Kampala and set up a booth for a Public Relations hand over on Fri.  The service projects each ward or branch performed will be the turn over.  The news media will be there and we will have our secretaries there to answer questions much like the "Launch" of the website last Feb.  Many other booths will also be set up to explain our Seminary and Institute, welfare, missionary & humanitarian programs.  We hope it went well.  As for us we flew to Nairobi Fri morning to spend some time with the Kenyan PEF couple and confer with the church's finance department.   Sat. we took a P-day with the Richardsons to visit some of the interesting spots in Nairobi. 

Kensie and Josh are on their way to Kenya as I write this.   We will meet them at the airport tomorrow morning to begin showing them around Africa.  Excited is not a strong enough word.

Here a care taker is feeding this baby elephant in an elephant orphanage.  Most of the elephants are at least a year old.  They need a care giver with them 24/7 because they need mothering since they lost their mother to poaching.  At night the care giver sleeps in the stall with the elephant and his job is to keep a blanket on him.  Elephants sleep with adults elephants who keep them warm.  You can adopt one of these elephants for $50.  Then you can visit him on off hours and have your picture taken with him.  It costs $900 per week to feed an elephant so there are many who sponsor each elephant.  The formula in the bottle is human milk.  None other agrees with him.                         The elephants will eventually be able to return to the wild but not till they leave this place to learn to live in nature.  One problem elephants have is that if they catch pneumonia they usually die because their lungs are attached to their ribs which makes it so they can't sneeze or cough.  Bet you didn't know that.

Sister Richardson is asking the guide a question and the giraffe looks like he is just as interested in her question.

Elder Richardson is petting this reticulated giraffe.  he is a "reticulated" giraffe because his spots have black in them and stop at the knees.

This is Lynn, quite the friendly giraffe

Elder & Sister Richardson picked us up at the airport and took us to the offices where they work.  A ward meets on top of the mission offices

In Uganda a car is decorated beautifully with wedding bows.  None of the tin cans and shave cream used in USA.    In Nairobi they must have more money because these friends of the groom were decorating the car with roses and bows. 

Rand is standing with the finance team that services Uganda.  They work from Nairobi and are in the Church's Service Center.  It was great to sit down with them and discuss our challenges with PEF checks.  Charles on the left served his mission in Uganda many years ago and baptized some of the leaders now serving in Jinja.  Joshua is on the left and is a PEF student.

Getting ready for our Gorilla hike in to Bwendy Forest in a couple weeks we hiked stairs at Jinja Nile Resort.  I counted over 500 stairs that we went up and down.  Hope that puts us in shape.  The Nile is below me so the stairs lead down to the Nile from the Bunge Jump and the resort.

This structure is the bunge jump that the monkey is dangling from.  His purpose is to reach under the base into the cob webs for yummy bugs.  So funny to watch

For three days we did a bunch together.  Elder Hoffman is the South East Africa medical experts and a Patriarch.  He came to Jinja to give Patriarchal blessings.  Next is the Caspersons, us and the Jonson's who were the guide for the Hoffman's and the Ugandan Medical experts.   Tue. night we enjoyed a meal at Ling Ling's then had a movie and popcorn at our place which is not far away.   I learned that wearing a head scarf is hot.