Category: Uncategorized

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!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! We did, we had the joy of giving on Christmas day. I think we gave sixty-five soccer balls and sixteen jump ropes out to our children in Sunday School. We wanted to give them a gift because they have faithfully come every Sunday, have a desire to know more about the Bible and we just love them! It was a little tricky, and had to closely co-ordinate the giving as to not have hundreds on our doorstep, but we accomplished it and made all the children so happy. Raelee and I made ONE HUNDRED FIFTY cupcakes, Christmas eve was spent with Christmas music on while we baked and Christian pumped up balls. It was a really good evening and even better morning! This is how God works, we were hesitant at first about giving gifts – not knowing for sure how many would be there Sunday morning. Sometimes we have 75-80 and some times we have over 100. Do you know we had three balls left over and only because Raelee’s three amigos were absent. One child too many and we would not have been able to give any of them out. (We decided our plan B would be to drive around throwing soccer balls from the truck! Would have been pretty fun also!) Zula came right after church looking so forlorn because he missed it, but because I knew he had been sick for a couple of days – I was the one doctoring him – we gave him a ball. The other two apparently had not come because they were out running around in the center so they knew they weren’t getting one. We emphasize every Sunday how important it is to hear God’s word. It was funny with the cupcakes, the children thought they were the strangest things and weren’t too sure about eating them at first. Raelee was blown away that they didn’t know what a cupcake was, but they soon discovered they liked them very much!

For us, the saying it is better to give than to receive was definitely true Christmas morning!

Wednesday was Raelee’s seventh birthday. We had to go to Kampala to get supplies for the rabbit project and so we decided to celebrate her birthday there, hotel with a swimming pool! It was so hot on the trip there, we couldn’t wait to go swimming! She was so excited, she gave us our orders. While Daddy took her shopping for new floaties I was to go get a birthday present. We met up and ate lunch and made it to the hotel. As soon as we were checking in to the hotel it started thundering – huge thunder! So the staff got the pool ready and Raelee got her suit and floaties on and the downpour began! It was the biggest storm we’ve seen since we got to Uganda, it looked like hurricane winds and there was even hail! It all blew over in about thirty minutes while Raelee stood at the door watching. The pool man got out there in a hurry to scoop the leaves out. (She is treated like royalty everywhere she goes!) The manager asked if we wanted to wait until the pumps cleared the water up, but Raelee couldn’t wait. So, while most of the staff was watching (it is a small hotel), she got ready. We had a big argument beforehand about the water being cold, but Raelee INSISTED no water was too cold for her. So I decided to record her reaction when she jumped in. (She still denies the water being too cold – she’s stubborn that way!)

After she jumped the first time the manager of the hotel asked how I stayed so calm, she would have jumped in. I told her that the floaties weren’t going to let her go under, and even without them she can swim. She can’t swim without them if me or Daddo aren’t in the pool especially when most pools around here are over her head even in the shallow end – which this pool doesn’t even have. She knew she couldn’t touch bottom here. And unless she was going under I wasn’t jumping into that water after the storm! I had a light sweater on as it was!

She got a new dress, sparkly shoes, more doctoring tools and Sparkles the unicorn. She was quite excited, Tuesday night she got to get frozen yogurt and put sprinkles and gummy worms on top! Wednesday she had a strawberry milkshake. We looked all over for a cake or even a cupcake but found nothing. They aren’t big on cakes or good desserts here. She was content with the trip, all the birthday wishes, including a video from two very special people! So I hid the 7 candle in my purse and when we got home last night she found it. So apparently now I have to make a cake for it (maybe she will forget about it! Ha!)

Sparkles the unicorn ate breakfast, doesn’t like eggs, has special sounds when she is happy and sad. Loves to nap. So, when Raelee and I got out of the truck to run in a store I told her daddy “Don’t let Sparkles jump out the window” Raelee put her hand on my arm and in all seriousness said “You DO know Sparkles isn’t real don’t you?” I guess I can’t participate in her imaginary world!

Birthday #7…..Success!

Our bunnies waiting on their new homes to be built! This row is probably about half of the two hundred! Can you imagine when they have babies there will be 800-1000 tiny bunnies?! Wow!