Wow time does fly when your having fun! I realized I better get an update going at the rate things happen around here its hard to go too long without sharing. Since coming home from Jinja, I had an opportunity to travel to Kampala with Auntine Constance. She has been here 8 years and thought she would show me a safe place to rest..and I had my first boda ride in Kampala…which is taking your life into your own hands and I am so thankful I dont live in the city! I thought for sure I was going to fall off as we stopped for a traffic light…all the bodas line up like a BMX race and when the light turns green…hold on!!! Off we went volleying for first place to the next light, dodging in between cars…I was praying hard the whole way, good thing I was going to get to rest soon. LOL We went to the ARA (American Recreation Association) that has armed guards and a metal detector at the front gates…run by the embassy in fact. The hilarious thing is that the metal detector goes off on everyone and nobody blinks…maybe it doesnt go off if you are dangerous..hummm. Anyway, it seemed pretty safe inside the compound..there was a nice swimming pool, playground, tennis courts (dirt that they mark with chalk every few rounds) and nice gardens to sit around. The food and service was “very american” and they charged “american” prices….but I did relax and they had a video library so we watched a movie and I finished an entire book the two days we were there.

The day after we got back, boda man Joseph and I went to paint the War memorial and clean the grounds. Upon arriving he set out to find the man in charge and get confirmation for us to work there, so I was left at the memorial. Within minutes, I had 30 or so kids running from the water hole and coming out of bushes to check out the mzungu in their midst…..since we have a language barrier, I got out my camera and started taking shots…then showing them their picture..this is always a huge success. But it almost turned into a riot, so I had to figure out a way to calm them. I asked them to sit down…then I started picking each one by height and lining them up. When they figured out what I was doing, they all jumped up and started measuring against each other, trying their best to get in the right order. I was then going down the line and snapping pictures when Joesph showed back up. He was amazed that I had gotten them to line up. (when my kids were little, we used to do this with all the neighborhood kids before the big Easter.egg hunt. ) It turned into a real community event when the kids started to help us clean up and then the man in charge gave a history lesson on the memorial and opened the tomb for everyone to see the 5000 or so skulls and bones. As we were leaving, I gave the ponga and slasher (yard tools) to the guy in charge and asked that he keep up the maintanece. Then we heard a “jaja” (grandmother) calling and she was headed for us…she gave me an avacado and kept kissing my neck and talking really fast….then she was scolding the other guy and we left. I told Joseph, I really hope they keep things clean..and he laughed…he said the Jaja was telling the man “this white women from another world came to do your job” so I guess she will be keeping them accountable! On the way back to Kasana Joseph shared that he actually helped collect the bones for the memorial, he had often wondered if he had personally picked up his fathers skull. Cleaning up the memorial finally gave him peace about his dad and he wants to come visit this place as he has now claimed it to be his fathers resting place. It was very powerful to be given this opportunity to give something to the community here. God is so powerful, we had an awesome day.

Auntie Christine is our family mom and watches the little ones during the day and makes lunch for Rukundo. She fell sick this past week with malaria and so I took over this role. The little ones and I had a great time and we played in wash tubs, watched movies, picked radishes in the garden…at times I would get choked up thinking of doing those things with my own grandchildren. I also watched Marie (my neighbor that is 4) and one afternoon she screamed like she had seen a snake…shen I ran outside I found her mother had come to get her and she was hanging onto my water tower screaming for dear life…she didnt want to leave! We had a fun time of playing and Rukundo was glad it was only for a week because he said he would get fat if I had to cook for him any longer…he thinks the spices make you fat because they make the food taste good and you eat more. I ended the week with a fried rice class that 27 women attended and we had a great time of fellowship. I think soy sauce will be the next big import item to Uganda…I had bought every bottle on the shelf for my class (as door prizes) and now have orders to buy more next time I shop. I finally got my living room painted and my furniture back in place…Yahoo!

My friend Jenessa went home for six weeks to see her newest grandchild and so things have been a little quiet. But we have started the Beth Moore bible study that Mimi Hailes let me borrow…thanks Mimi we are loving it and it is following along the lines of what we are doing in church right now…God has perfect timing!
The Danger family returned from their travels to the UK and have decided they need a long term break, after more than 20 years of full time ministry. No doubt it is needed and well deserved but I cant say I wasnt disappointed. Upon hearing the news, I had myself a pity party and told God this wasn’t fair…but He knew all along that it would take place. So now I am wondering what else He has in store for me! He is always faithful and I trust His plans.

Yesterday, Rukundo and I went to Ggoma to watch the cattle sales. When we first headed out we thought we could catch a matato, so we waited on the street for 1 1/2 hours to no avail. Then we seen the Zain truck….(cell phone company) there was about 5 kids in the back of a little toyato pick up with Zain shirts heading west. So Rukundo talked with the driver and found that they were heading to Ggoma. So we hitched a ride…making that 4 across the front seat! We had to stop in a couple of little town to distribut Zain minutes but we got there for only 10,000 (5 bucks) LOL OUr trip home was by matato and was 20,000. The cattle sale was amazing with 4-500 heads of longhorn cattle being piled into trucks…literally on top of each other. It was quite a site and I forgot my camera but he said we could go again. It was a fairly large little town, complete with a decent sized restaurant, pool hall and many shops. The local market was in town so that always makes it very busy. We were talking as we walked and all of a sudden Rukundo looks around in amazement…I had been aware of the entourage of 30 or more kids following us..I had to remind him he was with a white chick and we laughed. Some of the kids had never seen a white person so they come up and poke you or pull on your skirt and then yell mzungu mzungu!!

I have this week to get the schedules made and start the shopping list, as a team arrives on Monday and off we go again..I will have 5 teams visiting between now and the end of Novemeber. So continued prayers for wisdom, strength and peace about my work here is always appreciated!

I will end with some great news for the MSC family back home. Our church had started a school building for a local village about 2 years ago, when they came this summer, it was very disappointing to see the bricks still laying there and nobody had continued the project. They said there was no money for the cement and they needed man power, so MSC left the money for the cement. I then took charge and have been working on getting a team together. After talking with Uncle Jonnes, I got in touch with Uncle Geoff who heads our school of carpentry and building. He came up with the man power as a school project and I pitched in the money need to provide meals for the team of 10 for 5 days. (By those that are sponsoring me in my finances and the grace of God for being here) So in two weeks, they are heading out for a week long trip to finish the school building! Praise God, I will bring home the pictures of the completed project. Thank you MSC family for loving Kasana, poor children in Uganda and this Mzunga! Really folks, it is amazing how far your hand can reach to touch the lives here and I am so thankful for you all. For you prayers and for the finances to bless this and other projects I have in mind and for helping to buy my beans and chipates!

May the Lord bless you and keep you,

Desiree’