Four Young Girls who Need Life-Saving Heart Surgery

Please read this blog post written by a nurse at our clinic.
http://newhopeuganda.org/2013/08/06/four-young-girls-who-need-life-saving-heart-surgery/

Thank you!

Further Travels

Since I last wrote we have travelled across the continent to Ontario and back to Calgary. We stopped in Sparta, where my grandpa's church was. Then we went to Indiana and visited the Mitchells, friends from New Hope. We got to Ontario the next day to visit friends we knew from Toronto. I had hives for a few days that week. We also visited another couple that used to live in Toronto. In Toronto, we stayed about 5 days at the Vandenbergs (Mum's sister's family). We visited many friends and relatives before heading up to the cottage where all of Mum's family was. We stayed there for a week. Then we went to Almonte, Grandpa's home town. We stayed with Dad's cousin John and spent a couple days at Uncle Jack and Aunt Cindy's making lots of apple treats. (Applesauce, apple pie, apple crisps, apple muffins) We also had lunch with dad's uncles and aunts, Grandpa and Susan, Fiona, and John. Next we camped at Rideau River with Granny's family. There was a family reunion on Saturday. We then camped (we cheated and stayed in a motel one night because of intense fog and rain) across Ontario and Manitoba. We stayed with the NHUMC treasurer in Regina and now we are in Calgary staying with friends from church. Today we're moving to the Frasers. I have to go for breakfast now.

From Calgary to Colorado Springs

We enjoyed the rest of our time in Calgary, visiting friends, speaking, and getting some boring things done. (dentist, doctor, blood work, etc.) From Calgary, we drove to Lethbridge with Fiona, my aunt and Dad's younger sister. There, we spoke at a PCA church there and spent the night at the pastor's house.

We spent two nights in Glacier National Park and GOT TO SEE SNOW!!!!!!! AND PLAY IN IT!!!!!!!! That was fun since we won't see it for a while.

We then went to the Woods' house. Uncle Gary is the president of NHUM. His wife, Auntie Louise and my mum's sister-in-law are sisters. Confused? Well if you know my Auntie Helen, she is Auntie Louise's sister. We had a great time there. (The best thing about being here is that you're never too sad to leave a place because you're going to another fun one.)

Now we are in Colorado Springs with the Morton clan. In Uncle Drew and Aunt Cindy's house there is a total of 17 people. Fiona has an apartment about half an hour away. It's been so much fun to get to know our younger cousins and reconnect with our older ones.

In Calgary

We arrived safely in Calgary on Wednesday evening. We were a little delayed because of the wind and rain. There have been some very crazy floods here. The rivers are very high and fast and thousands of people have been evacuated. Downtown Calgary was completely shut down yesterday. We are fine and the house isn't in danger of being flooded now that we've gotten the septic tank cleared out! We spoke at Bearspaw Christian School (where we used to go) on Thursday and spent time with some friends yesterday. Today we don't have much planned. We are enjoying our time here.

Holidays

The schools here have been on holidays for 3 weeks. In that time, we've had lots of the David Family kids coming to get help with studying and two girls coming for piano lessons. The P7s had holiday homework to do. The 3 P7 boys in David Family have come for help with SST and Math and Margret was getting help with biology and English. So I have learned a lot of random facts about African geography, climate, rivers, etc. I have also heard lots of imaginary piano. When the power is off, our piano doesn't work so Stella and Esther learned a lot of piano by hearing the notes being sung. Yesterday, they went back to school.

Our family is also finishing up school. I only have Health to finish and 2 final exams. We'll be finished by the end of the month!

Home schooling at the beginning of the school year

I Live in Africa

Saturday, we went into Kampala. I hadn't been in Kampala since December and hadn't been farther than 10 km away from home since February. Here are some signs that I live in rural Uganda.

• I don't think of putting a seatbelt on when I get into a car.
• Bumpy roads are normal; paved roads feel unnatural (but very nice)
• Skyscrapers scare me (actually buildings taller than two-stories are quite nerve-wracking)
• In restaurants, I'm prepared to be told that something on the menu isn't available. Sometimes only about half of what's on the menu is an option.
• I have trouble remembering what a shopping cart is called. (I was thinking shopping stroller at one point.)

I guess I'm going to be in trouble travelling downtown in cities in North America.

An Ironic Week

We had a few ironic incidents over the past week/week and a half.

A week ago last Friday, Aziza, in David Family, had asked about Zipporah. And we said we hadn't seen her for a while. Little did we know that she was at Jonathan Family. The next day, she showed up at our house. A little ironic, but wait until you hear the next one.

Two weeks ago, Dad was at a training conference in Kampala. The leaders of the conference came to Kasana with him to set up some new wireless things. They were here for three days setting things up. On Wednesday afternoon they left. As they were leaving it started to rain.
Fast forward an hour or two. I'm sitting inside our house with John, three of his friends and one of my friends. All of a sudden, the room lights up and there is a huge BANG! It sounded like a gunshot and my ears hurt after it. The roof was rattling and it had sounded like something had hit the roof. The boys, crazy as always, dived under chairs. I said to my friend, "I think that hit the roof." Needless to say, our hearts are pounding pretty fast.
Anyway, when we checked the solar inverter, it was, well, not working. The next day Uncle Gabe, the construction guy and Dad opened up our box. All the fuses were burnt. Our neighbour's power supply box exploded and our other neighbours' were burnt as well. And the internet wasn't working. So my dad is now trying to fix the internet and will need some more parts. The internet guys hadn't even made it to Kampala and our internet went down.

We have definitely had a pretty crazy week.