Long time coming

It has been killing me to have so much to say and no way to say it.. Some of you have probably been receiving updates from Joe's wife, Cheryl. Others have been wondering, "What is happening in Uganda."

Since so many things have happened, I cant elaborate. I have an entire volume that I was hoping to cut and paste into my blog, but it turns out that there is some issue preventing me from doing that, so I am trying to type directly connected to the internet.

Our progress has been very good. We have built nearly 3/4 of the wall. We have had our setbacks with delay of materials, theft of materials, theft of funding, and delay of surveying. Our biggest challenge right now is getting the surveyor whom we payed back in January to complete his work. This surveyor has been so bad in his work with Christian Life Church, that the orphanage was originally built in the wrong place because of his direction. This is the biggest prayer need that we have currently. We have communicated with his superiors, and called many people in the community with power through friends and other people we have met.

Through all of the surveying drama we have come to terms that the chicken coop that we constructed last year is lost to a municipal roadway, and that we will be losing a large portion of land that everyone understood belonged to us.

We have replaced our old contractor with a man named Henry Jones. He has a very good story attached to him, and everywhere he goes he wears a very nice white leather cowboy hat that looks like it was taken from a cheesy old western cinema. He has more character that he needs, but is very humble and dedicated to his job. He was orphaned when he was young, served in the military, and became a christian later in life working with missionaries building churches, and houses. This morning he showed me all of his certificates for schools in engineering because he wanted me to know him more.

Bruce, Julie, and Susan arrived safely, and have been keeping busy with various projects, and helping with construction. Joe also left on the 28th. I will miss Joe, he added a flare that leaves something lacking when he is gone. I love working with him. We recently purchased tables for each house to place in their main room. I swear we left money for this last year, but there are no tables. We have painted blackboards in each house, and have fixed all the major problems in the orphanage.

We had another lottery for the workers today. They are used to making 6000 shillings ($2.50) each day, so we gave about 2000 shillings on top of it. to them it is a big deal, and it encourages them to remain loyal to us.

Henry might want to flip our crew, he says that most of them are too young and inexperienced. He is not a man who manages by sitting in a chair, he performs work right along side the others and instructs as he goes. I will be having a meeting with him in the morning about some things I want to see him do as well as make sure we are keeping ahead of the workers so they don't have any down time.

March 4

We drove up to Soroti to meet Daniel and Rachael Graham. We left the wall project in the hands of our new foreman and Felix. I actually rode in the back of the Land Cruiser on top of a spare tire, but the road was one of the best roads I have been on in Uganda, so it wasn't half bad. We went and saw the office where they serve, and met their staff. We then took the Boda Bicycles into town and walked through the shopping district. I actually went through the market and found a lady who had a giant pile of bulk tea, and took the opportunity to purchase two kilos for a friend back home. We are now back at the Graham's home waiting for dusk so that we can go to the local pork joint. It is called "Pork Joint.