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Raelee being the doctor and giving her patients check-ups!

She bathes for awhile in the bucket and then I have to pour clean water to rinse off the African red dirt!

The following pics are of the castle, tree fort and dome house which is where she also plays. We are in the process of cleaning it up and cleaning the area around it so that I can see it from the window of our home. More pics to follow when we get it all done. The dome house is big enough for even Christian to stand in, and we’ve been told at one time a guest lived it in for awhile. It is pretty cool, but when you get in it, even your breathing echoes. So, I can’t be in it with our loud mouth girl, the sound is too much. We are trying to figure out how we can reduce the echoes a little bit. It is great fun for Raelee and the other kids!

Entrance to the dome house

Up into the tree!

Work on the gutters has been moving right along since the rain stopped on Monday morning. The tin on all the roofs had to be trimmed back and then brackets mounted. There are four guys working on this, and a fifth one that I think has appointed himself supervisor when he feels like it, around lunch time. I’m pretty sure he is going to be a little disappointed come time for payment of work done!

Today, we are waiting on the gutters to be delivered, and the tanks that will hold the rain water. Looks like we are going to get it done by the time the big rains start, hallelujah!

I am so proud of our new screen door! Now we can leave the doors open later and keep the pests out! It also stops anyone from just walking in and waking me from a nap to ask how’s here or tell me well done! (Not that I take many, but Raelee has been woke up from her nap like that, and in this house that is a BIG no no!)

People have been coming to marvel at the oddity, and the word cage keeps getting repeated. Now, if you live in a mud and brick “hut” you don’t even have a door, just a curtain. But even if you have worked hard and have a house with a door – well it is usually a metal door. Most don’t even have screens on the windows. And even though most doors and windows have metal “decorations” or bars, this door is seen apparently as a cage door! Funny! I told Christian he may just have found a new business, screen doors!

We’ve been trying to find a cracker close to a saltine. These are not it, but they are good!

I know many of you have already asked us how you can pray for us, and I realized today I haven’t done a very good job of giving you specific things to pray for. I was reminded this morning how quickly health can turn, even though the scare was thankfully just a learning experience – don’t take my malaria meds in the morning! I was fine one minute and then laying on the bathroom floor (which here for sure is not a good place to be laying) throwing up and feeling like I was going to die. Christian found me and it scared him until I remembered that I had taken the meds an hour before because I forgot to last night. I thought it would be okay since I ate breakfast. Feeling better now, but it did make me think about our health, and how quickly things can turn, and how little medical help we have here.

So, forgive me for not being specific, and thank you that there are prayer warriors out there, asking for God’s protection on our behalf.

Today, when you have a minute, please pause and pray for us and our community. Here are some things for today:

Our driver, who we appreciate so much right now since Christian hasn’t begun to drive, has a sixteen year old daughter who has been very very ill and in the “hospital” here. At first they thought it was strep throat, and she seemed better, but yesterday took a turn for the worse. It sounds to us like it might be pneumonia, but with so many sicknesses here it is hard to tell. Please pray the doctors have the wisdom to find out the cause and for her total healing.

The sun came out and the workers are hard at it. Please pray for their safety as they climb ladders and are on the roofs of the buildings.

Pray that our generators will work and stay working so that tools can be used. (P.S. as I was typing this post, I heard the generator come to life! God is so good to answer our prayers!)

Pray for our health, so far until today, we have been healthy and happy! Pray that it remains that way. We have a 5 year old who cannot keep her hands off of everything and her fingers out of her mouth!

And above all, pray that as we do our daily work, and Christian is helping the guys, we can be examples of Christ to them and be able to share the light and the joy that we have in Christ.

We were to begin our Cistern Project yesterday at 8 am sharp. At 10 am we were informed, when there were still no workers present, that it was voting day for the Chairmans of the villages and other elected offices. So, no work was done. This morning at 8 am sharp we have our 4 workers present, and pouring down rain! We were hoping to get the project up and running before the rainy season hits which is any time now. (Hopefully not starting today!) It should start any time and rain until late November or early December. We aren’t clear if this will be all day rains, everyday, or just some rain and some sun everyday. We will find out soon enough.

Please pray that we can get this project done before we get too much rain so that we can catch a lot of water to be able to water crops during the dry season. The project should only take about a week to complete if the weather would co-operate and our workers show up everyday!

The main picture is taken from abraingutters.blogspot.com, I use it just to show an example of what our project will be like. Gutters have to be put up on our buildings and then a pipe will direct the water into the large tanks. We will have two tanks, one holding 3,000 liters and the other 500 liters. We then hope to use these for drip irrigation on our crops.

The language spoken here is Lusoga. We are trying to learn, and most are eager to help teach us. There are quite a few that speak some English, but with their accents it is sometimes confusing. I was introduced to a man in our home who I understood to be the witch man, the “witch doctor” of the village. I said hello, and then he left. A little later, that man was outside and someone else introduced him as our night guard. So, understandably, I was a little concerned that the village witch doctor was walking our grounds at night. Finally, one of the girls that has been a great friend to us was sitting outside, she was the one that originally introduced this man in the house. I asked, so Bugari is the witch man? She said “Yes, the witch man” and I said “He is our night guard also?” She said “Yes, he is the witch man” “Witch man, like witch doctor?” And with that she laughed and laughed and said, “No, WATCH man, he is not the witch doctor!” And so it goes sometimes, I misunderstand and they laugh at me and correct me. I thought they needed math books when they were telling me what they would be needing to cook lunches for our workers. Finally, they made the motions of striking a match and I got that they need matches, not math books. That went over very well!

So here are some of the words I’ve learned so far:

bulungi     well/ fine

kaale   okay

kalibu     come in

isokaiyo     welcome home

Learning the language is good, and helpful, but we also have to learn how to greet and how to answer. People come to the door and say kaale and I say kalibu and then they come in and say “Welcome Back” even though they are the ones coming here and I haven’t been anywhere. Or they say “How is here?” and we say “It is good, how is there?” Or they thank us for things we are doing in our own home, like the painting. “Thank you so much for painting, well done”! It’s funny. After they come in and ask “How is here? How was your night? How was Christian’s night? How was Raelee’s night?” they will leave. Later, they may come back and it is the same thing over again!

You don’t just go up to someone to ask a question, as in getting directions to somewhere. You have to ask how they are doing, how is here, nice to see you….THEN you can ask your question. Do not be in a hurry, greetings are very important here. I’m sure we seem rude sometimes, we are so used to just getting to the point of the matter, and I know we will entertain alot with our misunderstandings, but all in all, most people are very gracious to us and patient. Our prayer everyday is that God will give us better understanding and the ability to speak with them in their language.

Christian wanted to meet our workers, so a meeting was called. The Chairman of the village was also invited to sit in. There are 12 workers in all, and 11 were there. They aren’t full time, some work on this project or that project. When Christian explained the project he would be starting this week, one spoke up and asked to be paid everyday. Christian told them he would pay when the project was completed and mayhem broke out. We had an interpreter, but at this moment she didn’t interpret all that was being said, and it was very animated, raised voices, hands flailing everywhere. This went on for about 20 minutes, I looked at Christian and said, “I didn’t know they thought they would have any in-put on how we paid them” and Christian replied “they can talk and debate all day, but the decision is the same!” Finally the interpreter looked at us and said “They are debating on what will be served for lunch each day”! We were really wishing we knew what they were saying in all this – the meeting lasted about an hour and a half, and we knew very little of what was being said. At the end they thanked us for being here and that they were grateful for the work we provided. And I thought they were getting ready to kick us out!

So much to learn, and most days it is fun learning. Some days it is tiring, but every night we three thank God that He thought of us to send on this adventure!