Today's Happenings

Two fun things for today that have very little to do with each other...

First up, we got two guinea fowl.  We let them out of the coop for the first time today.  They are fun little birds with very little brain. 

And second, I took the church girls' volleyball team swimming.  Too fun!  Only downer was that we missed our former MA, Miss Paige who used to do so much with the girls' volleyball team. 

Visiting Swaib's Village

Today we had great fun visiting Swaib's village.  If you are new to our blog, Swaib is the young man that has been living with us for just over a year.  About a year and a half ago, he was in a severe accident that left him burned from the knees down.  Our church first met him in the hospital where his life was on the line due to severe infection, malnourishment, collapsed lungs and no oxygen or medicine available.  His burns and skin graft sites have just recently healed.  He now has one more surgery to go in order to correct his toes that healed incorrectly so that he can once again wear shoes.  That surgery will be February 8 in Kampala.  Please be in prayer for him for that. He's come so far though!  Last year, we went up to visit youth camp for a day and we were so happy because he was able to walk from the building to a nearby rock...he was so weak from his injuries, collapsed lungs, and tuberculosis, that the 50-yard walk was a huge accomplishment!  This year he attended youth camp with all the rest of the students in our church and kept up just fine!  God's healing hand has been so gracious!

In Ugandan culture, visitors are given food and drinks in the living room, but the hosts do not stay with them while they eat.  It's only after eating that fellowship takes place.

But we still have lots of neighbor kids peeking in the house to see the visiting Mzungu...haha!

Swaib with his mom, uncle and auntie.

Talitha found a puppy that was bounding through the compound.  All the neighbors were laughing when she chased it down and picked it up.

Lots of neighbors to visit...

They gave us a hen to take home. So kind! Talitha held it in her lap on the way back.  (An hour drive on dirt roads!)

Youth Camp Pictures

The kids had a great week at the PCU youth camp in Entebbe.  They brought home lots of fun stories, great memories and hopefully some good learning too.  Eric spent the week with them (as a speaker and counselor) and I'm told survived the late nights and early mornings on coke and biscuit crackers.  

Here are some pictures that I got from them!

Birding

Last year when we were studying Apologia's Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day book, we started a wall of pictures of all the birds seen on our compound.  That list has grown quite large over the past year.  It now includes over 30 species of birds.

The binoculars have found a permanent resting spot on the table during school time. 

Lately, our kitty has been a major distraction by climbing the trees to play with the birds.  haha!  So far the birds seem fairly content to ignore her since she can't really pounce in a prickly tree.

Here is our list of birds.  I've included links to their Wikipedia pages.
Barn Owl
Pearl Spotted Owlet (this little one makes the cutest call...it took us so long to identify it because we hardly ever saw it during the day, but we would laugh every time we heard it just after sunset or before sunrise.  Finally, we got enough of a glimpse of it to figure out who it was we were hearing)
Speckled Pigeon
White Browed Robin-Chat
Eastern Grey Plantain Eater
Pied Crow
Yellow Billed Kite
Piapiac
Ruppell's Long Tailed Starling
Ring-Necked Dove
Red Eyed Dove
Red Cheeked Cordon Bleu
Blue Headed Coucal
White Browed Coucal
Marabu Stork (we were pretty excited to be able to add this one to our list when it finally landed in our yard.  We see them in the area, but we had pretty strict rules that it had to found on our compound...haha! They are affectionately called "the ugly birds" by our kids, and they are absolutely huge in size...usually around 3-4 feet tall)
African Grey Woodpecker
Hadada Ibis (these birds come across elegant and beautiful...until they fly...then they are noisy, brash, honking things that one really doesn't care to hear from early in the morning)
Common Bulbul
Scarlet Chested Sunbird
Marico Sunbird (the sunbirds are so pretty to watch and they often distract us from school)
Muscovy Duck
Common Chicken (we couldn't forget our pet birds!)
Speckled Mouse Bird
Baglefecht Weaver
Bronze Mannikin
African Thrush
Black and White Casqued Hornbill (noisy but fascinating pairs come through our compound most afternoons)
Ross's Turaco (probably one of our favorite birds! Stunningly beautiful!)
Red Chested Cuckoo
Brown Parrot (These parrots hung out on our power pole and nearby tree for a season.  They were super fun to watch and we enjoyed their daily antics)
Woodland Kingfisher
African Palm Swift
African White Eye

We are so blessed to live in a place with such a wide variety of creatures sharing our little plot of earth.

Family Vacation and New Years Celebration

We just got back from a wonderful, restful week in Kampala.  We got lots of time to visit with the VEs and lots of time to rest. 

We also made Oliebollen together...a dutch New Years tradition.

Played a little ninja...

 Made bracelets...

Played Capture the Flag and watched the big kids forget that their little cousins/siblings were playing and one little forgotten cousin played Benedict Arnold and told the other little forgotten cousin where the flag was and the other little cousin snagged it in victory.  haha...can't forget the power of those littles!

Roasted hot dogs...

and helped with kitchen duties...

We arrived back home around noon on New Year's Eve.  To bring in the New Year, Eric and the big kids went to church for an overnight...an all-night service with singing, dancing, prayer, testimonies, 4 sermons and ending with a movie at 6 am. 

The littles and I rang in the new year in a more cozy way.  We listened to a Narnia story while coloring and then they slept around the Christmas tree.  Although I went to bed early (staying up is for the birds! haha!), I did end up outside at midnight trying to calm our frightened dogs who don't care for the fireworks so much.  Last year, one of our dogs got scared and ran away and we didn't find her for a couple of days.  This year, the security guard and I tied them up and sat with them while they cried and shook.  Poor doggies!