Life at Kasana Children's Centre

 After we "shifted" to our new house in August, we have enjoyed having lots of close neighbours.  Our next-door neighbours, the Mwanjes are a great family who we have lots of fun with.  A few weeks ago, we had a big Ugandan meal with them after our sponsor child gave us a chicken.  We also wanted to have a sort of good-bye party for two of the Mwanjes as they were going back to school.  

Over the Christmas holidays, we had 10 to 20 neighbourhood kids in our house almost every day, making Rainbow Loom bracelets and playing games.  John got a Frisbee for Christmas and we also enjoyed playing with that.

John, as usual, has made friends with all the children who live near us, and it isn't uncommon to find him playing football or tag with the boys.  And all the little kids love John. The Ugandans don't have school in December or January and our 3-year-old neighbours did not understand why their big siblings were out of school but John wasn't. This meant they would come to our big window, peek in, and say, "John, jangu!" (John, come). They were always very excited when John came to play with them at break-time or in the afternoon.

Who Lives Upstairs?

We don't have a two-story house, but some think we do.  A few weeks ago we asked someone to come eradicate these unwelcome residents.  Yes, bats.  About 30 of them were killed and buried somewhere in the bush.  Unfortunately, a few weeks later we are again hearing bangs and crashes from "upstairs".  

Trees+Pangas+Chain Saws=Straight Boards

A few weeks ago, there was a bit of commotion outside the New Hope gates.  A tree had been cut down, but unfortunately it fell across the road causing a bit of a traffic jam.  It was soon cut into a few pieces so that the vehicles could get through.  We got some pictures of the process of transforming a tree into very straight boards.

You know you're a MK when...

you eat pudding...

from 1995...

and enjoy it!

(We were given this by a friend who grew up in Kenya. Her parents had given a bag of pudding and jellos but she had never used them so passed them onto us.  Whether she knew the date or not, I don't know!)

Happy New Year!!!

Wow! January is almost half over and I'm just writing my first blog post of 2015! I'm hoping to write a few more today or tomorrow.  Our family got together with some of our friends on New Year's Eve and banged pots and pans together at midnight.  We also drank some sparkling cider as a big treat. 

Kasana, me, and Catriona 

2014

2014 has been an amazing year.  There have been very exciting and happy times and sad, frustrating, and discouraging times.  But through it all, God has been working.  I don't know what 2015 will be like, especially the second part of it.  But I know that God is in control and he knows what is going to happen.  I hope you enjoy these pictures from the year!

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas from "cold" Uganda.  Well, cold by our standards, meaning the temperature is less than 30 degrees.  Yes, very cold.  Are you jealous? Hopefully, in the next few days I'll be able to catch you all up as to what has been going on.  

Today, we enjoyed a great sweet potato casserole for breakfast (the potatoes were from John's garden).  We opened our presents and then delivered gifts and cards to our neighbours. At 10 we went to church.  Catriona and I sat with the children from the baby house to help them out, until Catriona got pressed into service as the keyboard player (with absolutely no warning)! After the singing, Catriona joined us again while we listened to the sermon. The rain started soon and so we were temporarily stuck with the babies at church until someone gave us a ride back to Hope Family.  Then I and one of the staff members went looking for food, which turned out to be a rather long process.  But eventually, food was delivered and I returned to the church for a great lunch of matooke, rice, cabbage, meat, g-nut sauce, Irish (potatoes), and chapati. We were stuffed.  

When the meal was finished, our family went to Kasana village to visit our sponsor child's family. We were welcomed into their small house and sat on the mats and chatted.  Then they brought out chai and bread.  We spent one or two hours there and are now back at home. Our stomachs are feeling very full, so I think we'll have crackers and a couple Christmas cookies for dinner in a while.  I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas with your families.