Playground is up!!

Well, most of the playground is up at least. The “Neutron Spinner” is a huge hit, we are definitely testing the strength of the thing. I don’t think there was a moment after we put the top on there that it saw any less than 15 children at a time. They love it. I decided that I wanted to have at least the swings and the spinner up and running by Friday noon so that they could play with them as we go to Bujugali falls tomorrow. These playground pics are from today. I spent most of the day in the attics of the orphan homes wiring lights. If you think that it is hot in your attic, you are probably right, its hot. These places have metal roofs and it is SUPER muggy. You start pouring sweat about 2 minutes after you go up in those things. Id say that the temp was around 115 degrees F up there. I got 2 orphan homes done with the help of Eric, Kellie, Bob, and Tiffany G. We were divided up into teams, and got to tackle different homes simultaneously. After I got that one house done, I really enjoyed just watching all the kids go crazy with all the new playground equipment. Its quite a step up from kicking around a filthy wadded and taped piece of paper as a soccer ball in the dirt. (although they still do it.) It was really just amazing to see the joy on their faces as they played. I got to take it in for a solid 15 minutes and just smile at the whole thing. Thanks to Playcraft Direct for the awesome equipment.

Yesterday we had a translator appreciation evening. We invited them over to the Ridar (Hotel) for a fun evening of swimming and BBQ. We ended up dancing after the BBQ also. It was a ton of fun. This is me sneaking into a picture that they were posing for… I had a really good time with them. They don’t really know how to swim all that well, but we had fun in the shallow end just goofing off together. They Ugandan BBQ is amazing. If I could describe the flavor; mmm… Heaven in your mouth? Yeah, that sounds about right to me. I am a steak guy for sure, and they have just the right amount of char, juice, deliciousness.. yeah.

Bob and I were chatting while taking a 15 minute break today. We noticed a few kids that were sitting over near us watching us talk. We decided to teach them how to say “hasta la vista baby.” It is pretty cute to hear their little voices saying it. They will pretty much say anything you want them to say. And they all say it. Their voices are so soft and sweet. And their laughs are unforgettable.

Pastor George and Mike left for India today. They are going into some pretty dangerous areas where Christians are persecuted pretty regularly. They need your prayer. My roomies are in bed for the night, so I better get off this thing so I can get some rest for Bujugali Falls. !!!

Opened the Container

Ok, so I am forgetting what I have said in the past postings, and don't have the time to check, so if I repeat myself ever, forgive me.

We had some awesome things happen in the past 2 days. Started with a service at Christian Life Church Sunday morning, which was amazing, and ended with an amazing night of baptisms at the Ridar Hotel pool of 255 orphans. It was real cool, I got to see Joan (child I sponsor) baptized. she had a HUGE smile on her face. A lot of the people here would like to get baptized but cant afford it. Everywhere that has water charges. there aren't many bodies of water around. and those that are are either private, or too harsh for something like that. The baptisms were unforgettable, and it made for a wonderful evening. I did a ton of filming. The picture is of me showing one of the Interpreters how to run the camera. They are all very fascinated with cameras.

Today we actually got word that the contents of the container is all ours. We have paid the Ugandan Government their Tariff, and received custody of the container. We started the day with that knowledge, but we wanted to spend the cooler part of the morning getting more trench dug for the electrical conduit and water piping. We knocked out a good 600 feet or so. We did somewhere around that amount Friday as well, but now we are getting accustomed to it and creating a rhythm; makes the work go by so much faster. after we dug, we decided to unload what we could of the container. We got most of the Clothes out, playground equipment out, AMERICAN PICKS AND SHOVELS OUT.... Finally we get to swing a pick with something other than a tree branch as the handle.. =) I am really excited about that if you cant tell... =) I'm sitting over in the massage area with Pastor George and Mike at the moment, they are waiting to use the computer watching Spanish soap operas in English... haha...

Had some Chipote on the walk back from Seeta this morning, was DE-Lish!!

Day 3 (container arrives)

Ok, so today was an awesome day. I mostly just sat out in the sun filming huge celebrations all day. Our container arrived on site today. I filmed the container coming around the corner, I interviewed Pastor George, I filmed us opening the container, I filmed everyone being happy too. I know it sounds amazing when I say it like that, but seriously it was really fun. I am looking foreward to editing the video that I shot today. This is a shot from my Nikkon (that Steven took) of everyone helping unload part of the container. I was sitting on the roof of the kitchen filming the children pandamonium that was taking place. I actually did that all day. I got a great tan... if you dont count the chest.

It was really awesome to see the kids get so excited when we brought the container.

We were really blessed today. We worked with a man that Mark and Dave met in the Amsterdam airport, of all places, that have a very large circle of influence in the Ugandan shipping industry. They have done tons of work with other orphanages in the Kampala area. We actually got an "Official" from the government that was supposed to verify that we had what we said we had in the container. She was an orphan when she was young; we did rather well in that category. We even got the Tarrif reduced from 12,000 to 7,000. Right now its about 10:00PM. I have about 12 minutes left on my internet time. Im sitting in the hotel room with Andrew and Steven just goofing off... other picture is from yesterday, me and some orphans... =)

Day 1 Africa

Well, we made it to Uganda. We actually did it with only 1 bag missing, and 1 person missing.....
.....actually one person forgot that we were leaving on Tuesday. he thought Wednesday was the 14th, so he ended up getting his flight changed to the 16th or so. Not bad for the bags though. The picture is of a mid travel stretch by the girls. Don't have any of me available quite yet, but I'm workin on it.

Spent the majority of the day at the orphanage, we got up around 7:15, had a wonderful breakfast of french toast, these fiber biscuit thingies, the most amazing pineapple in the world, and a little instant coffee, and then we loaded on the bus and headed to the orphanage. I took a video of the 15 minute voyage to the village to do a time lapse later on, and when we got close to the village, the children that were there gave us a little welcoming party with some little dances that they had been practicing for 3 months they said. I got it all on tape. Then they took us unto the church that we built from year one, and sang some songs and did some synchronized dancing for us. An African children's choir is so amazing. they can really belt it out there.. got it all on tape of course.

We actually are trying to get a hold of some people that we met while we were travelling that are actually very influential when it comes to tariffs and importing containers. We have found out that the container is being held very near the village and the Ugandan Government is wanting to collect tariffs amounting to 12 thousand dollars in order to free it. That is just not something that we have in the mission budget. If you want to read more about all this, please see the Ukids.org website, I believe Mark Gosvener has posted a few words as well. I will try to get some rad shots tomorrow to upload. I am using a friends laptop, and I was able to buy an hour of Internet for $3 dollars, so I should be able to do this for a while. at least until I go to the Orphanage for the 5 week period.

One thing that I want to mention is how good it was to see my little girls. they are so sweet. Florence is shy as always, but I got a hug out of her, and Joan just ran straight to me and gave me the hug of a lifetime. Joan gets out of class at 5:00, so I didn't get to see her much, but I want to walk home a little later tomorrow so that I can see her more. Those kids are amazing. Hope all is well. I am going to go and play a little card game with the team!!! God Bless!

6 More Days

I woke up this morning and got super excited when I realized that I have only 6 more
days before I leave. I have been packing like a madman. I have two 50 pound duffel bags that I have to pack, and 2 carry-ons. I totally stuffed one of the 50 pound-ers and it only came out as 33 lbs, so I had to stuff a few more things in there. Ive got some Steel toed boots, soccer cleats, packs of jerky, sleeping bag.... I have a backpack in there that I vacuum packed some clothes in. I managed to fit in 14 white Ts, 6 other colored Ts, 8 pair of underwear, 8 pair socks, and an entire set of church clothes. Plus a huge water bottle. Right now I just have a huge pile of things that I have yet to pack. Oh, we found a laptop!! Praise God for that.

Thanks Neal, Chris, and Ryan for the fun night last night. Love you guys to death.

Went down to where I had all my things the other day after I came back from working at the church and saw one of the bags of jerky that I made just chillin' on the floor all torn up. I had to chuckle, cause I left the door open, and the cat got in there to chew it up. It is some dang good jerky, so that cat got a treat. ...plastic and jerky everywhere.. ha ha.

Some of my buddies had a little get together for me to say bye, and after everyone but my friend Ryan left he was talking about what I was eating there and then he made me promise that I would take a container of Lowrys seasoning salt. =) makes me chuckle for sure. so I will probably head to Winco and pick some of that up. Thanks Neal, Chris, and Ryan for a night of beer, Fish'n'chips, darts, and just rad times. I'm pretty excited to be this close to going. I just pray that God keeps me ready and calm. I don't usually get all stressed out about stuff, but anxiety does set in near the end. I just need prayer that everything will go smoothly and that we travel and arrive safe in Uganda 30 hours or so later. I checked the itinerary at the Gosvener's (Leaders) house today, and Jenny and I are sitting next to each other the whole way there. I am so excited that I can share this with her. I am so stoked, you don't even know. =) I cant wait for her to experience those kids most of all. when you pull up to the Orphanage that first time, and all those kids run up to you with HUGE smiles on their faces, and just melt your heart. Ill never forget that...