Hills on Holiday

We've become accustomed to some of the British-influenced wording we hear so often in East Africa. One of these phrases is "on holiday" which doesn't necessarily mean a holiday in the American sense; it means a vacation. Here are some photos of our family from our recent much-needed holiday to Western Uganda and the Indian Ocean. From the enthusiasm on their faces you can tell that it had been a long time since we had last been on a road trip.

The only photo of all 5 of us, taken on the ridge overlooking Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda. It was low tourist season, so we couldn't find others to take shots and resorted to the self timer. Otherwise it was pretty nice to have so few others around.

A water slide made of tile with right angles. Awful for the left hip, but awesome for Daddy-fun!

Western Uganda is covered with old volcanoes, so we enjoyed quite a few views and walks around the residual crater lakes.

The only caves in Uganda have a small waterfall which made us thankful for our raincoats. We were in for more than we bargained - it was a wet, tricky trek in the name of ecotourism - see next photo.

This is taken at the bottom of a steep muddy incline as I watched Dusty crawling under roots and vines and pulling Cooper up with him after removing the baby backpack. It became clear early on that ecotourism here means doing as little as possible to alter nature even if it means broken ankles and claustrophic vines. In other words, Adventure!

On to the second half of the trip. There were 10 dogs on the cottage compound where we stayed in Kenya. Although that is too many dogs for Dusty and me, it was a perfect source of entertainment for the kids.

It was lovely to have only 2 options for things to do every day in Kenya. Pool or beach. Marvelously brainless, and fun! Jack discovered flipping into the water while Tessa discovered flipping underwater. Cooper discovered that leather shoes don't go in water.

Cooper discovered the joy of eating fresh mango without utensils - a great sport when followed by a dip in the ocean.

The red snapper we bought which lasted us for three meals - unbelievably tasty in a coconut curry made from coconuts on the trees outside our cottage.

The next post will have photos of scenery and some of the animals we saw minus the dogs and fish! Stay tuned.

Forgetting America

Living so far away from our home country can put one in something of a time warp. Literally, we're always eight or nine or ten hours ahead of our families and friends. But it is also easy to forget what is happening in America.

Seasons - It's chilly and rainy here in Uganda, so I've been out of touch with that summer heat most of America experienced. And as your leaves are changing colors, our blossoms continue to burst forth in color year-round. We watched a National Geographic show recently, and when they showed a yellow leaf from somewhere near the Mississippi River, I gasped when I realized how strong of a nostalgic sensation that one image caused. There are NO leaves like that in East Africa. I miss them - their smell, shape, and changing colors. And although I feel sad when I think of the piles of leaves my children are not jumping in, I sure don't miss raking them!

Holidays and important days - Labor Day came and went without recognition on my part. We were in school, and Dusty was at the office while you were probably out water skiing on some lake or watching a football game. On July 4th, we were on the coast of the Indian Ocean and forgot about America completely - no fireworks or BBQ or parades. When Dusty's mother's Fourth of July package with flags for the kids arrived after our return to Uganda, we did not know what to do with them. The eleventh anniversary of 9/11 took us completely by surprise.

Yet we still are not familiar with Ugandan holidays, so they take us off guard as well. The most recent one was August 19th, Eid al-Fitr (End of Ramadan), and one never knows exactly which date will be chosen as it depends on a sighting of the moon, and clouds can delay things by a day or even two. The next will be October 9th, Independence Day. I'll have to mark it on my calendar this time.

Elections - I confess that forgetting this is not something I feel badly about. I don't mind missing the speeches, marketing, commercials, flyers, signs, billboards, and general broo-ha-ha leading up to November. I still have not figured out how or when to vote from here, but considering that I'm not informed multiple times a day in multiple ways about the positive and negative aspects of each candidate, this might not be a bad thing.

Terminology - At times we struggle to communicate with each other and the kids because we don't know if the other is speaking/hearing our British-influenced East Africa meanings or our American ones. For instance, one of us will say, "Let's play football; go get the ball," but when the kid returns with an American football, we say, "No, I meant soccer!" football/soccer. chips/fries. torch/flashlight. nappy/diaper. holiday/vacation. These are now somewhat ambiguous words to us.

At least I can keep somewhat in touch through Facebook. Friends' posts about presidential candidates, minor holidays, photos of temperatures from dashboards, and sports remind me that things continue to happen back home whether or not I remember them. And even though I never was a football fan, I do know that when you write about football, you surely are not talking about soccer. After all, how many of you are watching soccer? That's just for the rest of the entire world...

How the Hill House Works

I thought some of you would appreciate SEEING how our house in Uganda functions. Here are some examples:

The dryer.

We dry 90% of our clothes on the line, but we actually have a very old Maytag dryer which we bought from missionaries in Nairobi who were moving back to America. We use it when it's raining or too cloudy to finish drying the clothes and diapers.

The air conditioner and part of the security system.

We are very fortunate that Uganda has such a great climate! The windows are open all the time, and the house stays cool in the shade of some big trees in our garden. Most homes in East Africa have some form of bars on the windows to protect from intruders. And we definitely have screens on every window to keep out the most common invaders - mosquitoes and their malaria.

One of the security guards.

Koko stays outside all the time. Ellie sleeps inside with us so that we have double the protection from inturders. Although we are mostly concerned with thieves, the dogs also help out by keeping snakes out of the yard and house. Tessa's cat, Tiger helps out with mice, rats, and geckos as well.

Another part of the security system - the front door.

Having a large set keys is the norm, and you can see why - every door and gate has its own set of padlocks. Most interior doors have their own skeleton keys as well. This is the first time we've lived in a house with a solid metal door.

The produce aisle.

We're fortunate to have ample space for both flowers and edibles. Here you can see lettuce, ginger, and broccoli, but we also have tomatoes and several avocado trees. The saying here is "if you plant it, it will grow." We've found that to be true for the most part.

The local private school.

Before we arrived, there was a home schooling co-op, but those kids have moved away or into boarding schools, so we're on our own, although there are some other home schooling families in Entebbe. Now that I'm teaching kindergarten and 2nd grade, I really feel like an actual teacher, and we facetiously call our school "Queen's Road Academy" since we live on Queen's Rd.

The water supply.

We get our water from the city of Entebbe. It makes its way to this red tank above our bathroom and then into the house, and so far it's been much cleaner and significantly more reliable than what we had in Tanzania, but you won't find me peering into this tank!

The official filtration system for the water supply.

Although our water is clean enough for bathing, it certainly is not trustworthy for drinking, so any drop of water that we digest goes through this metal container with ceramic "candles" inside. The only trick is remembering to fill it!

The widow maker, otherwise known as a suicide shower.

Why the morose name? This modern version is much safer, but former versions of these individual water heaters can shock careless users. It intimidated me at first, but now I'm quite thankful for being able to heat water for a shower immediately instead of having to have the foresight 15-30 minutes in advance.

Self explanatory.

The reason I've included this photo is because of the awkward pulley for flushing (black thing on top near the right). If you don't pull it properly, the entire plastic top falls off. It seems that almost every toilet here requires an explanation before someone can use it. Either there's a tricky flushing mechanism or a missing/sliding/pinching seat.

The attached garage.

Apparently our house had an actual garage that was then converted into our guest bedroom and bathroom. We're thankful for this covered parking place which keeps the car cleaner and cooler. And now, you can come stay with us in comfort instead of us having to put you in the garage!

Ugandan power outlet/switches, 220V.

The lowest switch is for the light, and the right one is for the water heater in the shower. There are multiple ways to heat water for a shower, including solar, but this one has its own small heater attached, and you turn on the switch about 15 minutes before you want to take a shower. All the power outlets in the house look like this one, with safety switches to turn them on and off. Occasionally, Cooper turns one off near the floor, and it takes us a while to figure out why some appliance isn't working. An odd thing about the switches is that many power cords have only two prongs, so we're frequently shoving a ball point pen or scissors into the top opening in order to get it to work.

American power, 110V.

Any time we want to use an American electric device, we either have to use a transformer or an adapter. This transformer is in a kitchen cabinet, and is actually wired to an outlet over the counter, so we recharge the cordless drill and other devices in the kitchen.

The alternate power system.

When the power goes off, which is often, these batteries kick in to provide us some power in the house. Even though we can't run everything in the house, this is a great help to us when we're in the dark!

The entertainment system.

OK, so we actually do have a TV and a DVD player, but we limit the kids' viewing time, so they keep a lot of craft items in this Action Packer and can play checkers on top of it with bottle caps. They spend a lot of time outside playing as well.

While Dusty's been in Thailand, we've been staying busy, which hasn't been hard since we've been sick and have kept up with our home schooling schedule. In between easy meals, naps, and school, we've been playing outside, doing some crafts, watching a few movies, and playing games while we wait for Dusty to come back.

We are borrowing a trampoline from friends who are in Montana on furlough, and the kids are using up great stores of energy on it, which makes everyone happy, especially me. I wish I could get up there and jump like I did when I was a kid, but I'm too nervous about my back.

One of the kids' favorite things to do is to make paper airplanes for them from a book my mom gave us. OK, I'm the one who makes them, but then they color the planes, name them, and have flying races.

One of our garden visitors, and actually this one is on the smaller end. I know all of God's critters are amazing, but this kind kind of creeps me out. This morning there was a slug on the back of our map of the world in the school room. Blech. This evening right after dark while showing the kids a good-sized frog, Jack managed to step on it. Sorry Frog - he did hop away at least.

The weaver birds frequently scavenge from the dogs' bowls. So does our kitten, Tiger. We have so many weaver birds, that it's easy to forget how amazingly beautiful they are. We also have rainbow sunbirds, very blue kingfishers and one bird that is half black and half crimson - gorgeous.

Inspired by a friend in Musoma who did the same thing, we converted one of our ugly Action Packers into a game board and finally found something useful to do with the soda caps the kids have been collecting. Any more ideas for caps?

It's great to see our garden coming to life after planting several new plants while enjoying the ones that were already here. I'm not sure if I'm more happy about having blue hydrangeas or feeling confident that our new dog, Koko, will no longer try to kill Tiger, who can now roam at liberty all day long.

Tessa actually took this photo with our bulky camera. Cooper loves swinging in his swing outside, but he prefers digging in the dirt.

Easter in Entebbe

We actually got to go to an Easter egg hunt, and the kids used vegetable shortening tubs for Easter-egg baskets.

We visited a church for the first time, and Tessa and Jack spontaneously joined the children's choir singing songs they didn't know, doing choreography they hadn't practiced, in front of about 300 people they'd never seen before!

Tessa wore a new dress her grandmother gave her for her birthday, and matched it with some lovely orange Ugandan $1.50 shoes.

Forgetting to plan a fancy Easter meal, I served my family leftovers for lunch and popcorn for dinner (we did eat pretty well at the Easter egg hunt)!

We dyed hard-boiled brown eggs with white yolks. Orange and yellow did not show up, so we only had pink, green, and blue.

Easter weekend includes national holidays Friday, Sunday, and Monday so Dusty was off, but the kids and I carried on with home schooling.

And finally, we got some things done around the house, including hanging our hammock, which the kids see as a playground. Tessa apparently bit the hammock (why?), and Jack jerked it out of her mouth - along with her not-very-loose top tooth. It's great having a gap-toothed kid around these days! Congrats, Tessa!

Strange and Wonderful Entebbe

This morning in the middle of school, guess who came to our gate? Two CAMELS. They were grazing the hedges growing on the walls up and down our street. They had their shepherd (camelherd?) and his dog along with them. Apparently these are camels who work the beach selling rides, but in their off-time they cruise the neighborhoods snacking. Fortunately they did not care for our bougainvillea.

So, after being here two months, we still are enjoying the differences between our old town of Musoma, Tanzania and Entebbe, Uganda. Here are some other oddities, and I say "oddities" because they seem odd compared to what we used to experience.

-swimming pools. There are a few here where we can pay to swim so our kids can now really learn the critical life-skill of swimming.

-pavement, lots of pavement. There are also dirt roads, but it is sure nice to drive in a town where the main roads are paved.

-international airport. We live close enough to it that we hear planes all the time, and we are already enjoying the visitors the planes bring. Come on over! This also means we meet a lot of people employed in the flight industry.

-rain. Even though Musoma is just across Lake Victoria from us, we get a lot more rain, so our garden is greener.

-access to Kampala. The capitol is only an hour away, so that means medical care and shopping are close as well. It took us between 8-10 hours to get to Nairobi from Musoma.

-restaurants. When cooking another meal overwhelms me, we can choose to go for Italian/pizza, Chinese, fish & chips, continental, or Indian. Musoma had 2 restaurants where we occasionally ate, but it took about an hour between ordering and receiving food.

-expats, tourists, and short-term workers everywhere. "Expats" are expatriates, or people living outside their home country like us. The UN for the surrounding countries is based here beside the airport, and several safari companies and missions are here too.

-English! Although almost everyone here speaks it as a second or third language, it is still so nice to be able to communicate perfectly well in our first language. This is not to say that Bible translation isn't needed - many non-urban people in Uganda don't speak English, and they are the ones who need their languages written and the Bible in their languages.

So, that's why we're here, in this wonderfully strange town!

Goodbye America

It's our last morning in America. We leave in a few hours.
Today I'm enjoying with intent:
- the last glass of cranberry juice
- the last instantly hot shower with clean water
- the last bit of reliable electricity
- the last morning for the kids to watch PBS while I work
- the last use of unlimited internet
and
- the last time with my parents and aunt.

But I'm looking forward to:
- warm weather all year and the end of cold weather clothing
- a garden for us all to enjoy
- routine!! (Who knew one can be excited about the same old routine?)
- the end of traveling for a while
- a slow pace of live
- focusing more time on really enjoying my kids
and
- a home of our own!

Goodbye America; we've loved being with you!
Hello Uganda!