My Snake

I just had the unique opportunity to kill my first snake. It was really small so not much. Thankfully my first hit was accurate and I succeeded in chopping its head off with one clean cut. After that I hit it a few more times for good measure. We were kind of creeped out by its reflexes. We could see it opening its mouth and its body wriggling around for a few minutes after. I decided I needed to take some pictures after it was done.


My handy tool, now sitting beside our door.

 

The snake

 

The snake's headless body

John's Blog

Since he didn't write for such a long time, you may not be checking John's blog anymore. He has recently written two posts so click on the link to read them.
www.johnsadventuresinuganda.blogspot.com

Ugandan Wildlife

So when you think of African wildlife what do you think of?

Maybe this:

 

Or this:

 

Or perhaps this:

Or maybe these are what you think of:

You might even think of these:

Now, do not covet your neighbour's wildlife. I will try not to tempt you. Here is our more common wildlife.

This dragon fly was 7 cm long and had an 11 cm wingspan. The photo doesn't really do it justice. I found it today. To some this may still seem like a beautiful creature. (Don't get me wrong. I like dragon flies too, but not huge ones that are half dead fluttering around and attracting dozens of ants.)
So if you're still being tempted, how would you like this bed time visitor?

Yes, this one was right above my bed last August. My dad comforted me by saying, "Don't worry. He's definitely eaten anything else." Thanks Dad! Yes, we caught him and he is dead. (Not my dad, the spider.)

PLEASE DO NOT LET THIS KEEP YOU FROM COMING TO VISIT US!!!!! WE DO NOT HAVE THESE SPIDERS VERY OFTEN!!!

Cookies for Three

We've been doing some baking for the S.4s (Grade 10/11. Our secondary school is only for O levels, up to S.4, and they take big exams at the end of S.4) as they've been writing their exams. We've done it a couple times over the past few weeks. Yesterday afternoon as I was getting ready to deliver success cards to the P.7s in David Family, I suddenly remembered that we were scheduled to bake for the S.4s today. I wrote a note on my hand which I hardly ever do and went over to David Family. I stopped to see if my friend could come over and then we biked back to our house. aka the Dangers house where we are currently living. Catriona and Acacia set up Settlers and I placed my settlements. (That's about all I did except for a few questions from Catriona about what I wanted to do. Not that I really knew since I had no idea what cards I had or where my or anyone else's settlements, cities, and roads were. Needless to say, I didn't win.)

Meanwhile, I baked oatmeal cookies. We decided to bake 2 batches since there were 19 S4s and we wanted to give them 2 each and wanted some for ourselves as well. I had kind of forgotten how much each batch made. I thought it was about 2 dozen. By the evening, I found out that 2 batches made more than 4 dozen. More like 6 dozen. Oh well, I thought. It means more for us.

So this morning, I walked over NHA with my mum. At 8:00 because although we were told to go at 7:30 the last time there were only 2 people there at 7:30 so we decided to go at 8:00. We were walking up to the school. It wasn't raining today so of course everyone would be on time.

But then I looked at the library. There were only 2 students there! What!?!?!? We went at 7:30, there were 2. We went at 8:00, there were 2. Anyway, we walked to the library and gave them their cookies. "You can have 2," I said. So the guys each took two and then one of them said, "There is only one more guy coming." What?!?! Here we were with our 40 cookies and there were only 3 students to take the exam. "And I don't know when he will come because our exam is in the afternoon." Go figure. "Well, you can have another one then," I said. Mum prayed and then we left then with about 10 more. Anyway, when they returned the container later, they were pretty happy. Who wouldn't be after 6 cookies?

Please be praying for the S4s and P7s as they finish up their big exams.

I'm sorry for my lack of posts. I'll try to get some pictures up.

Webale Mukama!

Webale Mukama! Thank you Lord!
I have had much to be thankful for this year. On Monday, we celebrated Thanksgiving with our American friend Uncle Tal. His family is on furlough and he came back to do some work. He's been staying with us. We had chicken, stuffing, green beans, corn, and mashed potatoes with banana chocolate-chip cake for dessert. So that is my first thing on my Thanksgiving list. Food! When you live in Africa, you see and interact with children who are starving on a day-to-day basis. You come to appreciate food more. Of course, that doesn't mean we're perfect and sometimes I still forget that there are children right on our doorstep who don't have enough to eat. 

Our Canadian flag (and apple juice) on the table for Thanksgiving.

I am also so thankful for my family. Once again, living here has taught me to appreciate what I have. Since New Hope's mission is "bringing the fatherhood of God to the fatherless", we obviously know a lot of people who have no parents. Not only do I have loving parents, but Christian ones. I am truly blessed by the parents God has given me. My siblings too. Yes, we do have our arguments, but we do truly love one another and are very thankful for each other.

And my friends, friends across the world. I have Ugandan, Congolese, Rwandan, British, Canadian, and American friends. I have never lacked friends. Wherever I have lived, I have made friends and kept them. Over the summer, we were able to meet up with many friends who I hadn't seen in over a year and for some it was much longer. And then we came back to our friends here. So I'm thankful for friends!

Kara, Catriona, me, and Kasana

I'm also thankful for the way God has provided a house for us to stay in. We are sort of "homeless" since we don't have our own house. But everything has worked out amazingly well. At the end of September, there was a time when we had been planning to move to one family's house for a week since the people's house we were staying in were coming back. Then we would move to another house for two days and then to another house. But the people returning ended up being delayed so we cut out two extra moves. So there is my list of a few of the things I am thankful for. There is so much more and I could go into much more detail but for now that's it. Thank you for your prayers and support!

How to Germinate a Bean Seed

Last night I discovered that you could germinate a bean seed by leaving it in your kitchen sink. I don't know how long it took but the bean germinated and has a nice little root system going. What I'm wondering is why it doesn't work so well when I'm trying to do a science experiment.

Reunion, Weddings, Babies, Birthday Party, Wedding

The last few weeks have been really crazy. Homecoming (New Hope's 25th anniversary) took place the week after we got back. We met lots of old-timers and spent time with people we knew. This last week has also been crazy. On Friday, my parents attended a wedding, or weddings since there were three couples getting married at the same time! And that was after they attended the crusade that was happening at the same church! That day, two New Hope babies were born. And then on Saturday, my dad was busy transporting people to another wedding. Uncle Mulu's brother got married and there were many guests staying at David Family. Catriona, John, and I got to go to Hassan's 11th birthday! Hassan was the first Special Needs kid at New Hope and we say he "started" the Special Needs Program. Many believed he wouldn't live long. And now he's 11! After the party, we headed over to David Family. A big meal had been prepared for the guests. We started eating at 8:30 because they got back from the wedding just a little before that. Needless to say, we're grateful for this day of rest.