Month: January 2017

So, I know I’ve been MIA…again! Life is just so busy and when I sit down to write it is inevitable the internet will go out. Lets see if I can get an update of the past few weeks up before the next adventure comes along!
Christian has been stopped at least three more times. It’s just a part of life now, he makes it a habit to take plenty of money with him to “gift” the police, or “buy them dinner”. It’s the difference between 50,000 gifts or 500,000 tickets for something or other. The other day it was for inconsiderate driving because he passed a taxi van. Haha! (Taxi drivers are THE rudest drivers I’ve ever seen).
We have a pretty good schedule going with the rabbits now. It was quite challenging at the beginning, we had rabbits dying just about every day for the first week. Our rabbit guy went AWOL the second we picked up the rabbits…We are giving him the benefit of the doubt because we know he is a very busy man, but it was pretty terrifying being alone in this the first couple weeks. He came and looked at the rabbits and helped inject them all. Out of the six we originally started with, two have what is called foot and mouth disease. Pretty common I guess, we are treating them. This week we learned that some rabbits have a nasty habit of chewing their own feet off. Now that was pretty horrific! We had to pack ash on what was left of two rabbits feet and wrap with cloth. We read that some do it because they are bored. We are sending Raelee down this evening to do a song and dance.
Speaking of song and dance, apparently while Sunday School was waiting for me Raelee entertained with her own. She got a new tutu skirt she needed to show off I guess. I was told it was entertaining although they had to stop her, she kept going and going and seemed to forget there was a room full of people.
The guys have finished plastering our apartments and are moving on to construction of the mill building. It has been a nightmare dealing with the mill equipment people. We spent a lot of money there with the assurance a crew would come set it all up. We paid a pretty big sum for the labor. Come to find out one guy is coming and our guys are supposed to be the labor! We will see what happens on Monday! Please be in prayer that Christian doesn’t lose his Christianity with this guy.
It’s been about a month since we bought the vehicles, still trying to get the titles. First we needed “this”, took a little over two weeks to get it, went to Kampala with it. Then we find out we needed “that”! This time they want us to have our own rubber stamp to stamp our organizations certificate of incorporation. We are finding that this is kinda important here to be “official”. Today Christian went to town to see about getting a stamp, found a guy in an alley sitting outside with a desk and ordered our official stamp which was to be ready in two hours. Christian said he had the rubber and tools right there. At his desk. In an alley. OFFICIAL stamps made here!
The rains seem to have come, meaning we will have muddy floors, clothes and girl! She and her cohorts were making a pool in the sand pile that is being used for concrete work. Before lunch she had to change and bathe because she was filthy. Took a nap, went back out under orders to not get wet and muddy. Ha! I just heard a little voice at my window asking me to open the door and let her in. “I am finished for the day” (also filthy again) Now for another bath!
Thats it, I am also finished for the day

I had to post this picture of Becca, I had just taken a few pictures of the car when I heard her yelling “Mama Raelee, Mama Raelee!” I turned around and here she was! I told you, people are as excited over this car as we are! She will most probably never ride in it, wouldn’t even ask to ride in it, but taking a picture with it was exciting enough for her!

Ibra is my “driver” in the cover photo! I was moving the car to behind our house, and he jumped in. I drove to the back of the property and then back to park. I told him to get in the drivers seat and I would take a picture – I’m going to print it so he can show it off when he goes back to school! We are running out of room in front, and there are too many people (kids) around it. We are closing in the covered concrete for the mill, so the truck is also parked up front. Maybe we put a big garage for the vehicles on our to-do list?!

We have been so busy since Saturday, even our usual day of rest wasn’t very restful! Saturday Christian and Indianga left at 3 am to go to Kampala and pick up two hundred rabbits. Christian has built a very nice large traveling cage and a smaller one to separate the males. While they were traveling I was in charge of the guys trying to finish up the water system. Our property has five acres running long ways and I walked (sometimes speed walked) from front to the very back of these five acres countless times! I will admit by about 5 pm I drove the car twice to carry stuff! Sunday morning my legs were so sore! The guys told Christian Sunday that Mama Raelee was back and forth – a hard-working woman! Haha! Christian messaged me around 11 am that they were close to home so I had to get all the workers out of the building. We can only allow two to three workers that are directly assigned to the care of the rabbits in the building. So that left Christian, Yahaya and I to unload the rabbits. (Raelee also helped!) It was a huge job, we had to do it quickly, it was so hot! They wanted to huddle in the one place we couldn’t reach so Yahaya and I had to crawl inside the 18″ high cage! It was funny seeing a grown man in there! We lost seven on the trip, it was so hot and they kept getting on top of each other so the heat got to them. We got them in each cage and then because the water system wasn’t quite finished we had to water each one in a bowl. That took me over an hour, was not fun! We had to water them again Sunday, but Monday morning they got the water running and every rabbit was happy!

Due to not having the water running, using the food bowls for water, we had to get matoke leaves to feed them since the pellets would fall through the floors of the cages. We would have had to strip all of our trees to feed 200 rabbits so Christian called me while he was enroute to have some of the kids that hang around go through the village collecting matoke leaves. I relayed this message to Jennifer who told me that wasn’t possible, she would call a man who had many trees but we would have to negotiate a price. She told me that no one was going to just give us leaves. LEAVES OFF THEIR TREES! Needless to say my blood pressure went up but Christian was incensed. I got another message and I read it to the workers. It went kinda like this: “We hear all the time how much we are appreciated and how much we help and now in OUR time of need we can’t even get leaves off of trees for one day? If there isn’t a truckload of matoke leaves here in the next few hours things are going to change. This is what’s going to happen. Goats and cows grazing on our land – will now cost you – 5,000/day. Helping to haul bricks and firewood will be a charge of 10,000/load. Jenifer can find someone else to help her get her goat, Sharifu owes me for all the broken bricks I gave him today, go get my wheelbarrow from lady that borrowed it and get 5,000 for using it, tarps are now 10,000/day to use. SPREAD THE WORD!” How fast do you think we got a truckload of matoke leaves? Pretty fast! Haha! (I believe Jennifer just didn’t want to go do it – I didn’t ask her to, I asked her to get all these kids we give lunch money and her daughters who are always wanting to work). Anyway, the rabbits got fed Saturday and Sunday with matoke leaves!

Yesterday we got the water running so we could feed the rabbits their pellets. While Ibra and I were filling bowls, we heard sounds of distress from the other side of the barn. We both ran around to investigate, but just see rabbits looking at us. We went back to the other side and kept filling bowls. We hear the squeals again but this time I see through to the other side and one of the smallest rabbits was practically doing backflips, then stopped and stared at me, apparently they were just being impatient and wanted their food NOW! They all knew what was going on! It was pretty funny, but as soon as all were fed they calmed down. We have to put wire over the windows and build a door but we just ran out of time. Joseph couldn’t separate the males enough – they were hurting each other – so we had to get them. We will finish that next week when they are settled some more, they can die from stress so we are trying to prevent that!

Yahaya and Ibra think it is funny that I come down and talk to each rabbit, but when I told Joseph he said that was a good thing, I will probably be able to tell pretty quick if one is not feeling well because I will learn how they act normally. He asked if we have a vet here in case we have an emergency and he can’t come. We don’t, the one vet we know of killed two goats, a cat and a dog. Almost killed our cat injecting it with too much medication. So we won’t be calling on him. Joseph has decided I am the farm vet and he is coming to teach me how to give injections. We’ll see about that! Now I will not only be the farm vet, every one of our neighbors and workers seem to think I am the village doctor also. They come to me with scrapes and cuts wanting me to bandage (I think sometimes Raelee has something to do with that!) All the way to wanting me to treat babies with high fevers (which I do – by sending them to the hospital!) Mother to many, Doctor to some, Vet to the animals. My my, how life has changed in the past year and a half!

There are some very small

There are some very big!

Water system – will have solar pump from the well to fill the tank

They are very curious!

Big tanks to catch rain water for the gardens of rabbit food!

When Mike was here it was decided we would buy a tipper truck to use for hauling rabbits, crops and whatever we might need. We have made a deal with Indianga so that he can use the truck everyday to make money and pay us weekly so that we can put that towards the cost of the truck and it’s maintenance. Indianga has had cars that were for hire, and also a taxi van, he is one of the elders in the village and a very wise man with some common sense and business sense. He went to Kampala and found the truck through one of his friends. While Mike was still here, we discussed the process of buying a vehicle here with Indianga and also our lawyer. We were told that when you purchase, the business will take care of everything – tax, transfer of title… Also, when you purchase most vehicles from a business, most likely that vehicle has been imported from Japan and you have to purchase tires and immediately have the vehicle serviced. Okay. Sounds easy enough, right? Ha!

Christian went a week ago Monday to see the truck Indianga found and put a deposit on it. He also gave “chop-chop” money to have the process speeded up and was promised the truck in two days. Seven days later we get the call to come pick up the truck. We leave at 5 am Monday morning so that we can get the truck, go pick up the milling equipment and take it all home. Our first stop was to meet the friend of Indianga’s and he took us in a car lot near where the tipper truck was. We looked at cars and found one that we thought was right for us. Things were looking good! But then (there seems to always be a “but then” here) when we got to the lot with the truck the complications started. Everyone neglected to tell us that to purchase any vehicles or any land, you must first have what is called a TIN number, which as far as we know we do not have. They said for a fee they would take care of that for us, we could still take the truck, we just would not have the title until the TIN number was filed – a few days. Indianga started up the truck and started off the lot and it died. We also noticed that a brake light was not working. Okay – let me stop there for a moment. I was just asked last week after the arrest and also wrangling with customs for two weeks for a package, if anything ever ruffled Christians feathers. I replied that only when it comes to someone messing with his family does he lose it. Monday morning he lost it. The men were fearing him! It was out of frustration, we never get the full story on anything. We were told you do ABC and D and then we find there was also the E step that is pretty important! And then after spending a very large amount of money the truck doesn’t even make it off the lot. After much back and forth – the truck was taken across the street to the service station. There was water in the gas tank. The vehicles that are imported are drained of most of their fluids, that is why first off you must have it serviced. This part you have to follow closely – this is a sampling of what we deal with almost daily. We had other things we had to do so we left Indianga and Sharifu with money to wait on the truck to be serviced and the light fixed. They were then going to take it to have a kind of frame welded on the bed. We barely get across town to where we had to go when Christian gets a call that the truck has been serviced but they don’t have enough money to pay. When Christian left them, the man gave him an estimate and Christian left quite a bit more to cover it. He left that money with Sharifu. With Indianga he left money for fuel. So when Sharifu called and said they didn’t have enough to cover the servicing, Christian asked if they had already filled up the truck with fuel. They had. So we have to stop eating our lunch and go all the way back. This is where it can either be very funny or the most frustrating. When we pull up, Sharifu comes and says they are 12,000 shillings short, as he is handing me the change from the fuel that Indianga had. How much was the change you say? 12,000 shillings exactly. Yes, they had exactly enough to pay for the service and could have spared us skipping the errands we were trying to accomplish because Sharifu was the one given the service money – the change was from the fuel money Christian had given Indianga. We were already stressed out, we are now going on FOUR hours of trying to get the truck. But we had to laugh, it is so beyond our comprehension how their minds work. Richard is the same way – if he goes to market for me, that’s one charge, then the supermarket is another charge and I can’t put the totals together and pay him, that is too confusing. I have to pay for the market and then pay for the supermarket and then pay his fee.

Anyway, we decide that getting the frame welded will put us too far behind so we move on to pick up the first piece of equipment, the pellet maker. This machine takes ground corn, rice, worms…and compresses into pellets that we can then feed the rabbits. Christian had already called ahead to let them know we were coming. Didn’t matter. That stop took another 3 1/2 hours, putting us at 4:45. The business that had the milling equipment said it was too late, we would have to come the next day. So now we have to make a decision. Drive 4-5 hours back home, get up and drive back 4-5 hours the next morning (we weren’t going home anyway because we can not drive our truck in the dark). The decision was made for all of us to stay the night. We gave Indianga and Sharifu money and went on our way.

Needless to say, Christian was pretty stressed by the time we got checked into a hotel. The next morning we went to pick up the milling equipment. That only took about six hours in total, with Raelee and I sitting in a hot truck, thankfully we had a few snacks and cold water. I kept falling asleep and waking up with my mouth open and drooling while a group of men sitting on the sidewalk watched. Fun times!

Everyone made it home Tuesday evening. There was so much excitement over that new truck, people actually bowing down and thanking Christian. As we were headed home, we got the call that our car was ready, so Wednesday morning we and Indianga went to Kampala and in about one hour we had the car! That was very exciting. We had it serviced and headed home. This morning there have been people all morning coming to the door to thank me for the new car! You would think it was bought for them, they are so excited! It is really nice and for once we didn’t get pulled to the side at the traffic stops!

We are now in a race against time to get the rabbit cages finished. The males are maturing and are now fighting and trying to kill each other. Joseph can only separate them five to a cage so we HAVE to get them  ASAP. We are down to putting in the water system so we are scheduled to pick them up Saturday. Joseph has given them all medicine to try to help them cope with the travel and new homes. It is quite scary to think about transporting and then caring for two hundred rabbits!

I think that brings every body up to date on our adventures. I had to leave out a few things because you wouldn’t even believe me if I told you! It’s so crazy how different the thinking is here, how what would be unacceptable in America is just a part of life here. I am so thankful to God that we are able to do all the projects, and for the new car. It is very, very nice – has seven seats and will be a blessing for sure when we have visitors. (The A/C is also a plus when stuck in traffic in the 90′ heat!) It has a camera and screen so you can see what is behind you – Raelee thinks that is fantastic. It also has a navigation system, the lady tells us something in Japanese! The stereo controls are also in Japanese so it will take a little while of pushing buttons to figure that all out!

Will keep you up to date on the arrival of the rabbits!

I have gotten a few messages asking if we are doing okay, and I realize that I haven’t posted since last week and Christmas. We have had a whirlwind week and I still don’t have much more than a minute to update. I wanted to say we are well – just busy!

Last week Christian was arrested and held for about four hours because his wiper fluid dispenser wasn’t working, the reflectors on the truck were not good enough, and the passenger seat was ripped deeming the truck a very dangerous vehicle! (Seriously). I called the Chairman and he went to the police station but they had already released Christian with just a warning, telling him that he would  be arrested and held and sent to court if he was stopped again and it wasn’t fixed. Our sometimes driver Indianga took the truck and had everything except the seats fixed. The very next day the same policeman stopped Christian to see if everything worked and would  you know the wiper fluid didn’t squirt out? The motor made the noise just as the policeman turned to check out the back of the truck so he didn’t notice that it didn’t actually produce the water! It works about every other time. We get stopped frequently now since there are more and more police check points. The one that took him to jail is located between our village and the town.

We were going to take a break and go camping in the rainforest over the New Year’s weekend but that didn’t happen. Christian volunteered to help out a ministry move their camp from the other side of us to a village on the other side of Jinja on Friday. There were three guys and their equipment that he was transporting, they stopped here on their way and our workers were very blessed in just the few minutes they were here. The visitors just started singing and all the workers joined in, it was so awesome! They were begging me to get those guys back here! We will definitely try to get on their schedule. The entire ministry moves from place to place, staying 2-4 weeks in each village. They will be going to Kenya and Rwanda in the next couple months. The man and woman that head up the ministry are from Alaska, a really great couple. We hope to keep connected with them, they have many of the same struggles we have had in ministering in a different culture! (I have a video of them singing with our guys but not the time to post it)

One very good thing to come from their short visit was that the guys in Bible Study have asked to start singing before and after study. They didn’t think it was “allowed” because it was study. I told them they can do anything they would like, it’s just that Christian and I don’t sing! They are welcome to sing, and we will sing along if we can! So Sunday morning they sang and it was the greatest!

So, on to the rest of their travel. They made it about 45 miles and had to make a detour onto a terrible road full of huge rocks which sliced a tire and left them stranded in a sugar cane field for about three and a half hours while Sharifu walked to the nearest town (with the tire) to try to have it fixed. There was a spare on the truck we have never had to use and Christian said he and the guys tried for three hours to get it off but it would not  come off. Finally, just about the time Sharifu came back, they got it loose! It was late by the time Christian got home and I couldn’t bear to wake him up early on  Saturday to go camping. He never sleeps past seven, but he didn’t wake up until 9:30! It was a good thing we didn’t go because on Sunday morning 250 kids showed up to Sunday School! Apparently word went round that because it was New Years Holiday we would be handing out not only footballs (soccer balls to you!) but the whole football uniform also. So we had a packed house of some of the rudest kids I’ve seen so far in our time here. It was chaotic, nothing  the girls and I could do to get some order. We played a couple of games after Christian came in, but then when it was time to give out the snacks, we had girls falling down and about passing out because of the pushing and shoving. One of Jenifer’s girls finally got a switch (you southern mamas know what I’m talking about!) and started swinging that. Let’s just say there was a scattering of kids! If I would have had toys to pass out I wouldn’t have done it. I know they have nothing but I can’t let them think that it’s okay to act that way and be rewarded for it. I tried to explain to them that the reason the kids were blessed on Christmas was because they came to Sunday School every week the entire year. I don’t foresee us having that many come back this Sunday.

Well, that brings you up to date for last week. This week deserves its own post, it has been an epic adventure of buying vehicles and equipment! Some of it I will never be able to properly convey to you because it is so unbelievable you will just end up thinking we are idiots! But I will try in my next post! We have a busy day today preparing for the arrival tomorrow of two hundred rabbits! Please pray for us and the rabbits safe journey!

Happy New Year to all, hope yours has been as exciting as ours so far but with less headache!