Thought I would let you all know what Tom and I have been doing since June. This is the market where the butchers are receiving the fresh kill of the day. The butchers take a big machete and cut off a chunk and then cut it smaller and hand in the little kiosks in the sun. it is delivered on a wooden wheel borrow with exhaust billowing around it and dirt flying. And HyVee makes my friend cool his eggs from the farm to the store, What would the dept of Ag say about this? The guy in the gum boots works in the slaughter yard. Sorry no picture of that yet.
These lovely ladies are who work at LifeStitches. They are modeling some of their wares. All HIV+ and all in the process of becoming tailors. Some are just learning how to cut so it will be a long process. About 2 years before the tailoring begins. They are sweet spirited and interested. They do tend to be jealous of each other though and will steal bobbins and fabrics to make their own projects nicer. They have had maybe a 6th grade education and many still live in the village now with there mom's as the husbands have kicked them out for being +. It's like going to a AlAnon meeting when you go to the workshop. They are starting to trust each other a little more and work cooperatively. The ultimate goal...
This is baby Dylan. He is about 3 days old. His coat matches my hair. and he has strong markings on his legs so it looks like he has on brown gogo boot. He would settle in and let me hold him and pet him and nuzzle me. That was in early July. Now he is having a testosterone surge and I have to catch him and them he fights with me. So, baby Dylan is getting left at NACWOLA. I had enough experience with testosterone driven boys... I named him Dylan after KT's boyfriend, the one with the MS from Georgetown and working in Namibia in development, got himself 5 goats. I think Dylan Groves got all females though. He said he is planning on a profit during wedding season as goat is the meat of choice for celebrations.
Same lovely women from LifeStitches. I was trying to get them to smile. Because their skin tones are so black they look fierce if they don't smile
A couple from African Inland Mission that have gone back to the states. We became friends while doing the LOVE & Respect videos together. It was a sad day for us when they left and we miss them dearly. He was a pilot and she was a missionary kid from Tanzania and now they both are missionary's to America in Naperville, IL
This is Mary, who works at Nacwola. She tends the animals, digs the gardens, plants, picks and is the caretaker sort. It is flying ant season and the Lugbara love them. So in the next picture you can see how many they collected for lunch. What they can't fry and eat, they make a paste out of and eat as an accompaniment with their meal.
School was out for a month when I got back and Tom and I had to go to our close of service (COS) meeting for Peace Corps. It was right after the 4th so we took a holiday weekend to Fort Portal in the mountains again. These are some views of the Crater lake and Kyanga where we hiked again and had lunch. This time we saw the colobus monkeys up close. They were eating the sweet potatoes in a field we were walking through. The lodge and cabins/ condo's sit on the ridge and have a huge porch that sits out over the ridge of the crater. The are beautiful and pricey like 300 a night. They do have a helicopter pad and a grass badminton and tennis court. Only ones in Uganda.
Save your dimes and nickles if you want to visit.
This is what is left of the 46 Peace Corps Volunteers that we came into country with 2 years ago last week. 31 of us left and there we are. We were staying at one of the nicest Hotels in Uganda compliments of your tax dollars and mine. (Nice to be able to put them to such good use) We finished the course and were learning what and how to do the paperwork before going in Oct.
8 of us are staying on for a little bit longer, but the rest have future plans. Our director is the one in front in the pink purple suit
This is the view of the Nile out our front porch from the cabin we were staying in
A Forth of July,(on the 28th) good bye party for the first volunteer leaving from Arua, and a welcome for our 3 new volunteers that joined us up here. Plus some other kids here doing NGO work.
This is still July. Remeber when I did a blog about putting a roof on a church. I think I wrote it in early 2012. While the Methodist back home sent some money to help and we rode our bikes out to the church. (it is a long hard ride that some of the school employees do everyday) and they had a service that we were the guests at. This is the harp section. 5 guys have different sizes of these odungo's and they make the most amazing beautiful sounds. They played them and the church sang a couple hymns that I recognized the song at the time but it was sung in Lugbara.
These are a few of the future members of the church and the rate it is going they will probably still be fundraising when these little ones get old enough to worship.
I still illicit stares. I must not look trustworthy...
Two of the church leaders and a translator walked us to the CONGO. So this is Tom with one of Musevani's CIA men on his L. He was just back to his village to see his family and translated for us.
If you look closely you can see bee hives. This is an apiary. The best honey in the country come from ARAU. This is one of the church leaders holdings. Bosco's said he has 50 some now with plans for expansion. He also buys from the Congo and sells in Uganda, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe. They gave us 2 jugs and it tastes like caramel to me..
Last shot, I am back in school. Teaching about reusable menstral pads. Suzy, another PC volunteer, came to visit and we taught the girls how to make these. With such a limit on funds for girls they do not have resources to buy pads and they don't have access to rags so they stay home when they have there menses. This provided another option. So this is what has been happening since June.
Hope you are all enjoying summer. I am enjoying winter. It is cool and rainy. Our extensions are approved and we will be staying until June 1 Lord willing (EN SHALAH). Still time to get your reservations in... Love from Uganda, Marcy and Tom
