Happy 2014!!!

Well, this is my first blog post of 2014. It's hard to believe two weeks have almost gone by in 2014 meaning that there are 50 left. This week New Hope's annual Envisioning is starting up. Catriona and I are going to be at Hope Family every afternoon so that will keep us busy.

Hope Family

Catriona and I have been helping at Hope Family more. We have been going every Wednesday and Tuesday and are doing more in the holidays. Today we did chalk and went to the playground. Enjoy the pictures.

Mary and Shakira

Smiles on the Slide

Silly Jafali

Jabez on the swing

Me with Isaac and Joseph

Jafali in the tunnel

Kalungi looking at the camera

Auntie Irene with ? kids

Trying a group picture

Trying to crawl up the ramp

Treasures Class

Today Catriona and I went to the Special Needs Class (which is being re-named Treasures Class) end of year party. I have really enjoyed helping out in the class this year on Thursdays. These kids are so much fun. The changes in these lives are incredible and miraculous. The staff and parents shared things about the kids that have improved over the past year and we had a time of singing which Stella did not enjoy and added her own noise (not a particularly joyful one) to the sound of voices, recorders, drums, and bells. Enjoy the pictures! We missed Kakulu and Julia at the party.

Carol

Brian

Junior

Ivan

Godfrey

Carol with her Taata (Dad)

Hassan

Kakande

Sharon and Dorcas (Dorcas isn't part of the class but she is often around)

Allen



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.