Upwards Basket Ball, Cheerleading and a Break

One of the fun things that Rebecca, Jimmy and William got to do on furlough was to participate in Upwards Basketball and Cheerleading.  Upwards is a lovely not-very-intense program that encourages the kids spiritually and helps them to better their skills in basketball and cheerleading.  We ended up traveling more than we planned so they missed some of the practices and games, but they enjoyed it so so much!  And they picked up some new skills while they were at it.

We had to laugh a few times at some Ugandan holdovers that crept their way into even this.  The first was when the kids were asked to find a nickname for themselves for all the games.  Rebecca just decided to use what all her friends...in Uganda...call her: Rebecca Kadaga.  The real Rebecca Kadaga is the speaker of Parliment in Uganda...she's well respected and well liked by the majority of our friends in Mbale and our Rebecca ended up being named that by all her friends.  But of course, 99.999% of Americans wouldn't know this.  And so I asked Rebecca..."did you tell them where your name comes from?" She said, "Yes, I told them that's what my friends call me!" (Leaving out the small detail about how her friends are in Uganda because that's where we live...)  So every game, we not only got a chuckle out of how our last name was slaughtered in its pronunciation during the announcements, but also how her unknown nickname was also slaughtered.  Poor MC...we didn't make it easy on him!  haha!

We also had a small incident with a snake in the gym when we arrived for practice one night.  I totally thought, in my Ugandan mindset, that by the looks on everyone's faces we were going walk in to find a 4 or 5 foot good ol' southern rattler...because that's how we look when we see our cobras.  It turned out to be a garden snake (I think) about 10 inches long and the thickness of my pinkie.  We took care of it for them.  ;-)  

Rebecca and her coaches.  Super sweet ladies... so thankful for how well they loved on all the kiddos.

Every game begins in prayer.

William and Jimmy playing. (Jimmy was No 34 and William was No 3)

Every practice and game the boys got stars ironed on their shirts

Then, 24 hours after basketball season finished, William jumped off this pile of mulch and fractured his arm.

He gets his cast off right before we leave and will be in a splint for a while.  And the $20 I spent to get a waterproof cast?  Worth every penny.... especially when he started digging in the sand, when he fell off the canoe into the water and when he went running in the rain.  So much energy, this one...

December Photo Project: Day 2

Getting back into school after driving across America is made all the harder by beautiful sunshine and wheels to ride.  Love these sunny days...even if they are a bit on the cold side.

Bodas, Mud and a Karamoja Pastor's Seminar

The pastors with our mission in Karamoja planned a pastoral training seminar a while ago and asked Eric to come teach at it as well.  It was presumed that the roads would be pretty good.  So, we planned the trip and four of the kids planned to go along as well in order to have some play time with our friends up there.  Then the rain decided to come back in full force turning the bad road into a muddy mess.

Reflecting the spirit of the US Postal service, Eric decided to try to make it up there anyway.  While the roads were certainly not passable in any of our Mbale vehicles, the bodas could still make it through.  And somehow the kids managed to talk their way into still going too.  The apple doesn't fall far from the trees in regards to finding adventures.  They had a blast.  For three hours they went through and around the mud...sometimes slowly and sometimes they had to get off and walk, but they loved it.

The seminar went really well (they had representatives from 10 churches there) and the fellowship on all accounts was great.

And speaking of bodas... they do have a saying here...

"Any load, any road..."

Yes, these pigs were very much alive...

And unlike my children, they weren't quite as pleased with their adventure...

December Photo Project: Day 12

We've been hearing baby pigeons in the boxes for a while now.  Today, we got a better peek.  Here's to hoping that the dogs don't get them before they know how to fly.

"eww...they have poo on their claws!"

December Photo Project: Day 11

Ooops...missed a day yesterday!

Oh well!  These two cuties just "hangin' out" will make up for it, right?

Ice Skating!

The kids absolute favorite thing that they did in Nairobi was ice skating... crazy, right?  There was a super fancy hotel that had built an ice rink.  We all had a blast!

We spent a lot time trying very hard to stay on our feet... haha!

My Canadian husband was thrilled, scored major dad points, and thoroughly impressed the kids with his skills... haha!

Jimmy was Mr. Crazy Man on Ice...I only managed to get this picture of him flying around with a seal, but he didn't hang with the seal for very long.

How often does a family that lives on the equator get to take a family picture on ice??

Goats!

The boys have been wanting goats for a while and today they were able to bring some home.  They are both females and they are hoping to breed them and sell the offspring.  We'll see.  First they have to survive the dogs, which was no small ordeal this afternoon when they were trying to get the dogs out of the pen and put the goats in.  The pass-by didn't go so well and one goat ended up with a few wounds from the dog.  :(  For now, we will be keeping them off the compound, but hopefully we will be able to figure something out soon.  Matthew's goat's name is Phoebe.  Jimmy's has yet to receive a name.

Football Tournament

Last week, Wednesday night at about 6 PM, my husband decided to host a football tournament for all our neighborhood friends.  On Thursday at 12 PM, we had 8 teams and an afternoon of football.  How he manages to pull these things off, I still can't understand...but I love him for it.

He set up three small fields on our compound, painted lines, secured goal posts, found three referees (hailing from Kenya and South Korea), and set up the playing schedule.

Each team had to have at least 1 girl and have less than a 45 year cumulative age.  That opened it up for everyone to play.

There was lots of cheering...

lots of goofing off...

Shoes were optional...

But mud wasn't...

The final games were exciting as the last two teams had one set of brothers against another set of brothers...

And the sports commentating was a bit hilarious...

Rubber boots and rain coats were a blessing through the afternoon showers...

Finally the results came in...Adrian, Emma, Jimmy and Rebecca...after two overtimes and two sets of shoot outs... won...

The winning team received notebooks and pens for school...

And everyone (about 50 people in all!) finished the day with ice cream.

Fun times!

Summer Vacation is over...

My kids seemed to have had a crazy fun summer this year.  In addition to getting chickens, going to Queen Elizabeth, and visiting with Grandparents, they got pretty creative outside.

Timothy and our friend Joel, with a little bit of help(both manually and financially) from the sisters built this house.  In Ugandan culture, when the boys reach about the age of 13 or so, they move out of the main house (where they would often be sleeping in the same room/bed as mom and dad) and they build their own house there on the compound.  It's actually more like building one's own bedroom.  Of course Timothy has his bed and room inside our more Americanized house here, but that didn't stop him from still wanting to build a house.  So he bought bricks, made mud for the mortar, bought tin roofing and even laid a concrete floor.  (And Mama dealt with loads of muddy clothes and many muddy footprints into the pantry where the cookies are kept.)  They also made a loft and ladder, so they can cram more people into the little hut.  His friend, Joel helped show him how to do it all and they worked side by side.  They are super excited to spend the night out there some time soon.

But in the last couple days, they have been minorly majorly distracted with thoughts of building a zip line.  They plotted and planned and tried this and that and finally found the "perfect" rope and stick.

yea...it starts pretty high up...have I mentioned we live in Africa?

I said to Eric, (after I was eagerly called out to watch my children jump from terrifying heights putting their trust in a rope that they tied up and a stick to which they frantically call to each other, "Whatever you do, don't let go.")

"I think this is the point at which we are probably better off buying a real zip line."

And he quickly and wisely responded, "I think this is the point at which we are better off starting school so they stop building zip lines."

Ahhh...so true...

...although their creativity makes me smile...

but still...it's time to hit the books kids!