Quinn has caught Naomi’s bug it seems. (“Which one, mommy?? Where’s the bug?”) Which is good I guess because it means it likely is a flu rather than the sanitation or food safety issues I worried about with her symptoms of vomiting and no fever. I am realizing that Quinn never really throws up. His vomiting this time is explosive and very sudden. He’s waking up from a sound sleep already vomiting and struggling not to aspirate it all.
So what do I really want?? I’d really like a washing machine or at least more than two pairs of sheets because we’ve already used those up and are now playing musical beds. I thanked God that we we have some spares as we tucked the kids into the guest beds a few minutes ago. A wet vac would be amazing or at least a lot more rags. Some ant free zones to help the wet bedding dry until we can start hand washing tomorrow (I pay someone to do that). It’s really gross to have the wet bedding lying all over the floors and have ants already attacking it all.
And last but not least I’d love a dryer or at least a day of the dry season back so that I would have some hope for clean sheets tomorrow night. Instead I have a great team who will loan me sheets off their beds the moment I ask, no doubt.
And David is the best husband and Dad EVER . . . . . Doing clean up duty without a sound as I get to snuggle the sweet boy.
Pray for him to be well soon. And pray for a little sunshine tomorrow so we can dry those sheets and maybe find enough power to run a movie for him on the computer.

Sickness and a week of relaxed school have made a big difference for me and the kids. RMS (the kids school) was out this week with teachers and families on the road. Naomi and Louisa spent the mornings at Miss Kim’s house doing super-fun learning activities like math projects, science projects and cooking.
Of course we had two days at home due to sickness.
Quinn’s best buddy has been out of town all week and that has given me a lot more solo time with him and time for N and Q together. I am enjoying it so much.
The days have been really relaxing and refreshing though constant rain (we seemed to have a three day dry season!!) has kept us inside and brought our power so low we don’t even have the capacity to pump inside. We are carrying water in from the outside tap, instead.
Last night Louisa spent the night and we had a great dinner with our friends and ministry partners the Bartkoviches. Today I am going down to Pat’s for a much needed haircut and we are heading back to the market to check on the skirts we had made. I am still in process of finding out whether we are having the whole cross country here for a party tonight. But the wonderful news is SUN!!! Which means POWER!!!
Thanks for praying – our spirits feel those prayers.

Here are the girls on pedicure day – aren’t they gorgeous?! Pray for them to be willing to say no to all the fun that comes with not focusing on their studies – this is truly their only chance to move past village life and into educated life.

Naomi is sick today – she’s been throwing up all day. I am so thankful for enough power to watch a movie together. And so thankful for Trish’s package that arrived today and tempted her to eat the wonderful American snack foods – her first real bites of the day. We snuggled a lot. I’m not feeling so well either and we both slept. We read Mema stories. Mema is David’s grandmother – an amazing 98 year old woman who is an inspiration and gift to us. She had sent – upon request – Naomi some of her stories of her childhood. It is amazing to hear how similar her life in the 20′s was to ours today. No washing machines, running water was a maybe, etc. Naomi is begging for more Mema stories, but we’ve finished all we have!!
Health has also been a general issue over the last few weeks for me. Extreme tiredness makes me wonder if the dengue fever has recurred or perhaps I’m having thyroid issues. My blood sugar has also been a really big deal and I am realizing that one thing I really do need in care packages are good protein bars (i.e. the ones I can get down even when I feel really sick; Kashi are the best for me so watch for sales!) This week I am really focusing on eating well, getting extra protein into my body and resting even more than usual. As always, our team doctors are on it!! But we can use prayer.

Friday nights, a group of about fifteen students gather with me in S2West to meet for Storytelling.
The idea sprung from my love of storytelling evangelism, discovered just as I arrived on the field, and my belief that stories are among the most culturally appropriate, simple and effective ways to share the gospel. Since our students love drama, song and dance; I though storytelling would be a natural extension. We also hoped to really train them to read a passage of the Bible and simplify it into something they knew how to share. We knew our group could serve in churches around our area as children’s storytellers blessing and encouraging churches and their leaders. Perhaps this model will serve to strengthen the very weak area of ministry to children in this place.
One thing that has surprised me is that the leap from Bible reading to dramatic storytelling has seemed very difficult for the students. They are so good at drama, but perhaps because they know the Bible stories are true not fictional they struggle to dramatize them well.
We (one of the Ugandan staff is partnering with me in the club) are trying lots of fun games and methods to encourage them past their inhibitions and their shyness. This past week we tossed around a ball and made up a story as we went, each person telling their part. We talked about the wonder of not knowing the end of the story and the way it keeps us excited about listening. We talked about how to tell a story that WE know the end of to someone who maybe doesn’t yet and how to keep the excitement there.
It’s a work in progress for sure. Some Friday nights I head home late full of joy and anticipation at what the kids are doing. Other nights I feel sure I can’t manage another night in storytelling club!!
This past Sunday we went to the village church of one of our storytelling students. Bubandi New Life is a Presbyterian church, very simple and yet vibrant. Our students greeted the members humbly, sang for the church service and then went outside to teach the crowd of church children on benches beside the building. We told the story of Cain and Able as well as the story of Noah, asked questions and sang lots of songs. I think the kids enjoyed their morning and I know I learned a lot about my students and about village ministry. Naomi and Quinn got very hot, tired and hungry . . . Church here can really take it out of you. Next week we’ll have a quiet at home Sunday again.

Saturday morning began well – David and I sat on our porch and drank in the beautiful morning, our dry season has started and the sunshine is amazing. We were able to talk for nearly an hour about all that is going on in our lives and about plans over the next year. It’s so nice to feel that we are doing more than surviving, that we are looking ahead together.
Workers and visitors showed up and our Saturday really swung into action. Michael came over on motorcycle to invite us to swim in the river bordering Congo – safe now, except for the cholera in the water. (Keep your mouth closed!) Meanwhile Naomi and I had made plans to hit the market with JD and her daughter Louisa so we headed that way. En route we discovered Louisa with a yucky burn on her leg from said motorcycle so I got JD, Louisa and twins in car and we headed up to Drs. Scot and Jennifer for some quick burn care. Not much later we were back down at the Barts with Louisa and Naomi ensconced on the couch for pampering (due to that burn) while JD and I headed out to do our errands.
We walked into “town” and met with Joshua, a great tailor at the market who makes really decent quality things, like skirts and shirts. We ordered a few simple designs with African fabrics, we also scouted the market for interesting things. I discovered coffee sold localy for the first time (though they grow it here there is no local production that we know of, perhaps those selling it in the market are resellers, the amounts were very small.) We bought dried tangawisi (ginger) for gifts for old widows or teachers – you can add it to tea or chai, a big deal here each morning. I found a gorgeous long pumpkin for 500 shillings (about 30 cents) and bought it eagerly to be made into pumpkin soup, casserole and pie – we all love that!
Back at the school I loaded the fifteen girls from my CSB cell group into the car and headed up the road to our home. I had promised them a pedicure day. We ate a hearty lunch cooked by a Ugandan friend – catering is simple here! – and then began our pedicures, two hours worth! It was true sacrifice to help those girls use up my foot lotions and potions and special nail stickers, etc. There wasn’t much left at the end! But their smiling faces and delight in their beauty was enough. I enjoyed washing and massaging their feet and giving them a little lesson in hygiene and the reason I used disinfectant between users.
Saturday night closed well as Larissa (intern) joined us for a quiet dinner and some games. Beef, killed that morning and ground that afternoon was our main course as a sloppy joe equivalent, yum! Quinn has become quite an expert at Speed Uno (grandparents watch out!) and beat us all after we ate.

Friday morning was spent interviewing with Tim (film maker), talking about what our Bundibugyo primary schools are like and what our Bundibugyo kids really need. Larissa (intern, at seminary studying counseling) came for our weekly prayer and reflection time together. We talked about the research project she has been working on with Christ School girls – finding out more about how they view themselves and the world around them and how they choose to respond to the problems they face.
After lunch we faced some of those problems head on. We learned through some students that were willing to talk to us, that there were potentially some older male students in relationships with younger female students. At CSB our age range goes from about 12 – 22, due to the six years of education and the delays many students have while still in primary school. This can cause some problems. Just like we have statutory rape in America, we have “defilement” here. If we find students who are defiling under age girls, we have a responsibility to turn them in to the police. Unfortunately the culture of the people goes against this. In a place where women are still quite seriously property (exchanged for goats in marriage ceremonies), it seems ridiculous to claim that an older student or even a staffer doesn’t have the “right” to sleep with them. Yet we do claim that. We claim Ugandan law, to say clearly and firmly that we do not tolerate even “complicit” sex with a minor. Obviously, when a male student of twenty approaches a fourteen year old there is an unbelievable amount of pressure involved, especially given the culture of power that males have here.
JD and I took urine samples from four of our youngest girls here -ones potentially implicated in these relationships. We visited the health center for their tricky pregnancy tests which made me long for our simple “clear results” style tests. Instead we used drops of refrigerated antigen that reacts with HCG on a black glass plate. We praised God as we discovered that none of the girls was pregnant . . . Yet. Back to campus we headed with our negative results. The girls had been left to wait in the sick bay with a female staffer. JD and I sat them down and in a scene so reminiscent of my days in the Crisis Pregnancy Center I explained to them how risky their behavior was. We talked about the “gifts” those boys could give to them, STD’s, pregnancy and HIV/AIDs – an obvious and unmistakable chance here. I advised them to resist those boys – to turn in others that approach them and to focus on their studies. To become the beautiful women that they are already beginning to be and to be successful, bright and accomplished as well.
When we released the girls to meet with the discipline committee (three were sent home for the weekend and told to return with a parent, one was just sent back to classes) we walked into more drama. One of the girls had lapsed into a panic attack, not uncommon among our girls, especially during exams. Since our student body isn’t aware of the intersect between their psychology and physiology, they really believe that the students are dying from a heart attack or lung failure. And of course the students who are suffering themselves believe that they are dying. I am thankful for my experience with anxiety and the way it allows me to calmly and patiently reassure all students while understanding their fear. We sat with her awhile as she moaned and convulsed and gave her drops of soda until she recovered somewhat, a bit later she walked back to her dorm to rest.
The day closed with dinner with our ministry partners, the Barts. Yum, JD does amazing things with food. We ate, we debriefed the day, we worked on new ideas for the school, we enjoyed our sweet, sweet kids. Then Kevin and I and their son Joe headed back over to the school for Club Night. Friday nights are a sort of extracurricular time for the kids – we are a boarding school in a remote part of Uganda. There are not so many fun things for kids to do here, even in a mission school. Friday nights groups of about fifteen students meet in different clubs where they spend time engaging in activities related to “biology”, “praise and worship”, “drama”, and “technology” among others. As I walked around the classrooms a bit I saw students learning to make soap, students working with lego robotics, students learning how to sew.
I run the Storytelling Club – more on that soon.

Thought I’d share a typical day with you – because my typical days are always full of surprises and I feel blessed to lead the life I do.
Wednesdays start with an hour and a half team prayer time where we pray specifically over two people on the team (rotating) and hear a devotional about the ways they are learning and growing. It’s always a blessing to leave the house before dawn, or just in time to see the sun rising over the mountains, to hear the loudness of the frogs croaking and eating the baby mosquitoes in the mud puddles, to pass the soldiers sleeping while guarding our village/town . . . And reach the haven of another mission home and hot drinks and warm smiles and prayer together.
Today however, David was the one heading off to that haven while I woke early enough to watch the kids sleep, read a bit and pray over my day alone with a hot drink. The kids need me lots these days and the early mornings are our best times together . . . I wanted to be here with them.
We enjoyed plenty of those early morning snuggles, greeted the puppy, read together and finished homework. I drank in their sweetness. We made a simple breakfast of oatmeal pancakes and papaya slices and hot cocoa and they were happy . . . . We began packing lunches (Wednesday they are both in school for the full day) and our workers arrived to greet the kids and start clearing the counters and reading the list of necessary work I had prepared for them, and so the day begins.
The Masso pick up truck arrived at 8:45 – our normal morning school bus. Today I jumped in the bed of the truck alongside the kids and we pulled out and down our single dirt road towards the Christ School compound where our little mission school also meets – we are three families worth of kids, three teachers, and a school bus driver.
Outside the gate I jumped out. At 6:30 that morning I had gotten a phone call from one of our staff teachers that his wife had been laboring unsuccessfully all night. He asked me to come and said they were calling for the doctor. I was afraid of a c-section, the risk of infection is SO high here. Yet by the time I arrived God had answered many prayers sent up and she had “produced” a 4.5 kilo baby (almost ten pounds!) a record size here in Nyahuka where most babies are born undernourished. It’s all the great CSB food that momma’s been eating! I stayed with them for a while, sitting on their mattress on the floor admiring the baby and taking in the sights and sounds of the room before wandering on to greet others working in different parts of the “hospital”. Since I try not to bring N and Q down to the health center, I don’t get down here too often. There were several places I wanted to visit.
I went next door to the new pediatric ward with a huge number of beds, twenty-seven . . . . Yet not enough for the demand this week. I think there are forty one patients on the ward. Poor Jennifer and staff – one nurse attending to all. Next I headed around the corner to the an ART clinic where the life-extending HIV medications are given out each Wednesday. A full room of women, babies, small kids and some men (including many soldiers). Several of the toddlers were so adorable I had to sit and speak with and tickle them a little . . . They responded with adorable giggles. So perfectly humanly delightful.
Dr. Scott gestured me to come into a small anteroom where I found a woman lying on a table with her beautiful pregnant belly out and gelled up, ready for an ultrasound. The mission’s portable ultrasound machine provides lifesaving technology in a place where it’s shocking to see it used. The woman had been sent because of large size for dates and possibly too much amniotic fluid but I watched enthralled as we discovered twins cupped against each other head to toe in her distended stomach. What a miracle to see. There is an outrageously high twin rate in Bundibugyo . . . . And though twins are thought to be a sign of blessing they also often mean suffering and death. This woman had already lost her firstborn during birth and seemed none to pleased with the news of two babies, likely sick at birth and perhaps not strong enough to survive their first week.
David had brought our vehicle down on his way to school and I was able to transport the new mom and baby home to their staff housing inside the CSB compound – imagine the transport of most moms here, home from the hospital just two or three hours post-birth on the back of a motorcycle or bicycle along our bumpy dirt road – ouch, ouch, ouch.
I spent the next two hours observing several of our teachers in their classes and remembering how little I know about math and chemistry. We shared the staff lunch as we often do – makooke and goat today. I normally enjoy the school lunches and find them filling and comforting but the large portion of goat hair in my soupu (as they call the meat juices) turned me off. I headed across the football field to JD to look for other food. I grabbed a quick lunch of cooked beans and cole slaw – yay for JD! – and headed back across the field for our weekly chapel time. Chapel is an hour of preaching/teaching on God’s word and it’s applicability to our lives. Today the topic was rules and our lives and the idea that rules are there to protect us and those around us. Afterwards I met with the girls from my cell group for another hour. We had some good discussions using the study questions; we talked about faith and life, our doubts about God, behavior and why we do things we know we shouldn’t. I invited them to my house for a Saturday pedicure party and there were cheers all around.
Time to head home with a car full of kids and teachers but I find that today Dr. Jennifer has everyone loaded into hers. I follow her home after some brief conversations and enjoy a snack with her and the kids – then I leave Quinn with her to play with Jack and Julia while I take Naomi over to her ballet time with Miss Bethany, our summer intern coordinator who always has extra time for loving on team kids. I get to sit and talk with Karen about some kid and education issues before heading home.
Strangely, I am now home alone. Naomi still with Bethany, Quinn still with Jennifer and David still at the school. I find my workers and a number of others waiting for me in the kitubbi and as I pull into the yard, opening my gates, a stream of at least twenty kids enters with me and with shouts of joy head for the swings, “Mwesungu”, as they call them.
Daniel, my friend and house helper is in sad shape as he has discovered his six month old son is seriously ill with malaria out in the bush where his wife and sons are staying with his family . I give him money for transport and pray with him. I advise another worker and give him an advance on his pay for an unexpected expense. Three others visitors say they will wait for David. and I finally enter my house, hoping to check email before our internet hour expires.
I have a few moments to bustle around, grabbing a drink of water, filling our water tank while the sun (and power) is high, etc. Now our cross country kids from CSB start arriving, as do Naomi and Quinn and the XC coaches and the running fun begins. Wednesdays are a fun day for the team, always at our house. They do circuit training, relay races, and running games such as capture the flag. Then we have a devotional time and drink sweet drinks like home made lemonade. Today is no exception and the crowd of small children in the yard gather in the kitubbi to watch it all go down. Naomia and Quinn assist me with my minor coaching duties while we all shout encouragement to the students. Knowing their names and hugging them and greeting them is the love they so desperately want and need.
By six pm the students are heading out the gate and back down to CSB for dinner and evening prep time. And we are heading inside for our late day cold showers and tidy up time. Everyone always melts down a bit at this time of day. I start some music and light some candles to help us prepare for evening and the calmness of togetherness. Naomi and Quinn start getting clean, as does David, and our dinner arrives. Wednesdays a Ugandan friend cooks for us, a good way to support her and provide a tasty Ugandan meal to be hospitable with – and a lot simpler for me on such a busy day. I write in her book so as to make sure she’ll be paid properly and have her set the saucepans, black with the charcoal from her outdoor cooking, on my counter. The chicken that smells so good in the pot now was carried home under her arm, alive this very morning! Better her than me!
We are getting clean and so is the house, it’s a lovely time of day . . . . Our evening guests arrive, three male staff from the school, none with wives in the area. We sit down and get familiar with each other, bring them their sodas and begin talking before serving our dinner an hour later, around eight. Rice, g-nut sauce, kikonje (cooked hard bananas) and chicken. One lucky teacher gets the gizard. Naomi and Quinn eat well then fall asleep in our arms at the table. Their day has been long.
We make coffee for our teachers – a rare treat in a place where coffee is frequently grown yet never processed. Ours is from Kenya. We serve them banana cake and listen to music until about ten thirty.
Now David has driven them home, to keep them from walking the pitch black dirt road. He’s back and we are wrapping up our day, giving leftovers from the plates to the dog, stacking the dishes for washing by someone tomorrow, brushing our teeth and getting the kids comfortable in their beds.
It’s been a long full day – I fall asleep thanking God.

After our rough Saturday we cancelled some obligations for Sunday, including our usual day of church, and decided to take a real Sabbath together – resting. In a rare and desperate move we locked our gate! (usually just closed to hold the dog in) reinforcing our Sunday-no-visitor policy.
Saturday night I sat the kids down and along with David we made a Sabbath chart listing the things we wanted for ourselves and for our family to really give us rest. The kids included playing some games and doing some learning activities . . . David and I predictably requested time alone and naps.
What an enjoyable day as we woke to the first real sun in a long time and spent the whole morning enjoying each other and Him. The kids emptied our cookie jar for breakfast and I made us a large brunch at midday, relishing the time to cook and serve prettily.
The few small interruptions?? Two tarantulas were gished in the course of our day (yes, Mim, both by your son – Africa’s been good for him!) One in the mosquito net of our most recent visitor’s bed, (glad it was us, not you, Ron!!) and the other beside our shower tap. The afternoon was mostly taken up by an impali infestation right beyond our back porch. A small amount of food was left there Saturday and the next day I went out to sweep up and found a complete infestation over about 20 square meters. The grass was literally crawling with ants and if you stayed quiet you could hear them moving. Impali are biting ants with huge guard ants that bite really hard. As I stood trying to pour parrafin down some of their larger holes My legs got covered and several guard ants embedded their heads in my feet – ripping them out left bleeding holes from the large pinchers.
We have learned that the solution is to find the queen and that the locals know how to do it. Today one of our neighbors, always looking for work, is supposed to come bright and early to hunt up the nest, supposedly a hockey puck sized disk of hard dirt containing the elusive queen. Apparently once she dies they all move on and our dog Jessy will be able to reclaim our porch as home. Poor thing, she got swarmed by the impali and ran around in a frenzy till I manage to pull most of them out.

Dr. Scott and Dr. Jennifer are a cool paradox.