I just finished doing the laundry. Sadly enough, the ladies here have done our main garments for us. Kim, Raegan, and I watched to learn wht we could by observation. Now I just spent the last half hour or so washing our undergarments and socks by hand. I expected my back to hurt from bending over but, much to my surprise, my back was fine but my neck hurt. :) I had to get a chair to change my body position. The good news is that I completed the task and now everything is hanging out to dry.
At lunch today we met the founder of New Hope and his wife, Jay and Vickie Dangers. After having met Uncle Jonnes, the co-founder, this morning, it was a pleasure to meet more of the original families. I also met Jennie Dangers, one of their daughters. It was nice to meet her, especially because I'm in chapter 4 of the book she wrote, the Long Road to Hope. It is the story of New Hope Uganda.
After lunch we came back to the house for a short while, then the boys came to let us know that some boys were selling ice cream at The Forge. After many requests and informational visits from the boys, we decided we'd all go see for ourselves. We bought some home-made ice cream and it was a nice treat. If you didn't know, it is very rare to have anything cold in Uganda. They don't have ice and because electricity is scarce, things are not refirgerated. Ice cream was definitely a surprise and a welcome cold treat. Of course, it was a bit different in texture but it was fun to sample. Also, as we talked to the boys we bought it from, we learned that they were Jeremiah, son of the Dangers, and Joseph, son of Uncle Jonnes. They were not the ones who made the ice cream; rather they were selling it for a friend.
It's now nearly 5:30 pm and we have hardly seen the boys since the ice cream trip. In fact, other than going to get ice cream and a few random pop-ins we haven't seen the boys. They've been outside playing with other children and finding random ways to entertain themselves. At some point today or tomorrow, we'll have them write down some thoughts on their experiences so far, especially going to school yesterday.
Since we don't have electricity very often, we have to use the laptops sparingly, so I haven't had a chance to share many pictures. It doesn't make much since to carry around the IPad to take pictures evacuee it's so big and I can't lod pictures from my camera onto it, but hopefully I'll get to load some pictures the next time we have electricity.
On that same note, the water that is supplied to our house is rain water that has been collected. Some how there is a tank outside the house (picture to come) that gets water from wherever they store the rain water. There is a switch in the house, like an electricity breaker, that turns on the pump and fills the small tank. Unfortunately, the pump runs off electricity. So far, we've been able to turn it on when we have power and we haven't run out of water, even with 5 people showering and using the restroom. I admit that I'm surprised because the tank doesn't look that big. And I am grateful because a flushing toilet is a luxury that we definitely appreciate!
The ingenuity that goes into making everything work here is quite impressive, especially in the middle of no where in Africa. I believe it is an excellent example of what God can do when his people follow him. Knowing God is the root of all knowledge and He demonstrates that by what he enables his people to do here.
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