Language Challenges and the "Cone of Shame"

Here we are in Uganda . . . serving alongside Ugandan staff and loving the children --with whom we live and we are privileged to know. Some of you may think our lives as missionaries are difficult, beyond what you might want to endure, but our reality is one of enjoyment, fulfillment and contentment as we are where God has called us. The days do not come challenge-free, however. And all the challenges do not exclusively fall to the ex-patriot types such as ourselves. Take our dear fellow staff member and friend, Isaac. In the picture you see his broad smile--mostly a permanent fixture on his face--he and his wife, Christine just had their first child within the last few weeks. He and his wife are not originally from this part of Uganda. They are northerners who have come to serve the children here in the central area of the country. Yesterday Isaac sent a message for Geoff to come quickly as he was dealing with a frustrating situation. Seems he had ordered 4 kg of meat for a special meal for the Sunday School helpers whom he leads. Seems the butcher heard 40 kg. Isaac is a dear friend whose 4th language is Luganda! He only wanted 4 kg and only budgeted for 4 kg, but the butcher who is used to larger orders heard 40 kg. Who was to blame? Probably both of them. The difference between 4 and 40 is very slight and extremely subtle in Luganda. Isaac did his best, but as so frequently happens, the language challenges rose and conquered. Not to worry, though, Geoff and Uncle Simon were able to talk the butcher down on his price and made a quick decision to buy all 40 kgs, giving the extra to our children's family groups. All and all it came at a good time as they are beginning midterms this week and can use a few extra grams of protein!!!! When you pray for the work here, please remember the Ugandan nationals who are from other areas and tribes and are not familiar with the culture and language of this area. There is almost MORE pressure on them to "perform" as they are given less grace than we are by the villagers of this area when they make mistakes.

Twice a week I read to the primary school students. On Tuesdays I read the selection in the Chronological Bible reading to the students in the primary 2 class. We are reading through the Bible together as staff, children and church members and will conclude this November! It has been exciting and wonderful to see the story of the Bible unfold as we read together. In these three pictures, I am reading to the primary 5 class (Toby's class). On Thursdays I choose a book to read that will, hopefully, get them excited and interested in reading on their own. So far we've explored with Marco Polo, visited ancient Pompeii at the base of Mt. Vesuvius and in these pictures we went to Egypt with Howard Carter as he uncovered King Tut's tomb. And speaking of language challenges, I have to be careful what I choose and must be aware of words in the book that may not translate easily to Ugandan English. It is a welcome challenge, however, as I love seeing the joy in their faces at having "explored" yet another foreign land!

Bubbly and Geoff share a moment. Geoff was heading off to weigh our black bean harvest. We started with a Walmart package of black beans and our harvest this year is approaching 30 kg!

Ahhhhh....here we are at the section of our blog entitled, "Cone of Shame" (phrase stolen from the wonderful movie, "Up") Just look at that face . . . our little kitties were spayed last Friday and in an effort to keep them from tearing out their stitches they are wearing these plastic cones. It's been quite a conversation piece around here. Some thought we were putting special hats on them for decoration!!!!! And the heaviness of the cone makes them walk a bit funny as well, so a lot of laughter has been directed their way! Poor little kitties. We will be able to take the cones off later this week. A little comfort for all the mocking that has gone on . . .
commiserating together out near the bamboo in our yard . . . The rest of the pictures are from Toby's birthday party we held on Saturday. Just as it was starting a huge rainstorm came up and they all ran around trying to catch leaves and raindrops! After the rain we went back outside to swing on our tire swing--freshly up and running just for the occasion!!! They also played a local version of hide and seek called kick the can, and our own Britton version of basketball, called "Verandah Basketball". We served them frozen juice pops with the cake and it was new to many of them as ice is not common out here in the village.

Stuart guards the can during hide and seek

The awesome tire swing!!!

Sammy hiding in the bamboo

Lots of fun for everyone!

Stuart swings as he swings

Toby guarding the can

Abraham is spoon fed his juice pop

Stuart

Buyinza

Emma

The whole gang trying to get the most out of the ice pops!!!

Time for CAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Abraham plays Verandah Basketball

They each cheered the other on! It was great to watch!

Kakande heard the cheers and came running over to be a part of the fun! The kids were so gracious and cheered him on as he took his turn. He was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited. I love his face in this picture!

Abraham and Kevin

Catching leaves and raindrops

This invited friend walked 5 km to come to the party. He arrived more than one hour late, having been caught by the rainstorm. Geoff and Toby took him home on the motorbike and visited briefly with the grandparents who care for him.

Birthday Weekend!!!!!

We had the Peterson kids staying with us toward the end of last week and Kara's birthday was on Friday. Toby made her a yummy chocolate cake and I made her homemade sourdough pizza. (OK, the pizza was for all of us, but it was VERY good!)Singing happy birthday to Kara brought a LOT of smiles!!! That thing looks like it's ablaze, but it wasn't as bad as it looks in the picture!!!Toby's birthday was on Sunday and he also made HIS cake!!!! It was lemon, but he wanted to color it red! The icing was supposed to be blue, but somehow it came out green. Oh well, it tastes wonderful no matter what color it is!!! He and Acacia made the icing, put it together, iced it, decorated it and we ALL ate it!! I can't believe Toby is into the double digits!!!

My Mom sent some things with Uncle Cody to bring to us. Acacia received two of the princess parable books that our friend Jeanna Young wrote. She loves reading them and looking at the pictures!

Toby sneaks a peak at a princess parable book . . . Kevin received fuzzy monkey slippers and couldn't wait to put them on . . .

The best part of the night was receiving his "Dangerous Book for Boys" and the Dangerous Book for Boys Game that Grammie sent!!!

These photos are out of order, but at least they posted!!!! This was at the guest house on the morning of Toby's birthday. We gave him the 2011 Guiness Book of World Records and his friends, the Peterson's, gave him two new Asterix and Obelix comic books. Aunt Constance made him a prince crown to wear for the morning!

For supper we went to the Gately and the boys quickly found the couch and books to read . . .

Two good friends, Tim Peterson and Geoff, enjoying visiting with each other at the guest house.

Posing for the camera . . .

Uncle Cody

Aunt Marian and Aunt Constance

It was a great weekend with friends and family!!!!! Happy birthday again to Kara and Toby!!

Wish I could provide sound effects . . .

All in the course of 30 minutes our house blew wide open . . .

Geoff rewired the solar set-up in order to keep the govt power from going through our inverter . . . NO, he didn't blow anything up, but I'm not sure how he was able to concentrate with all the mayhem that was going on . . .
Alex, who collects water for us came by and he ALWAYS likes to talk . . .

Kara (and her brother Micah are staying the night with us for two nights) and Acacia got busy in the kitchen making pie crust for a pumpkin pie from total scratch . . .

Fun times and lots of noise

Joel, who takes piano lessons with our kids on Thursday mornings, came by to practice and to have me photocopy his theory lessons . . .

Perez, from the IY program and EYO (Emmanuel Youth Outreach) and Joel, from the IY program came by to complete some planning and computer work . . .

Toby, Micah, Elisha and Kevin decided to make a jungle gym out of the boys' room--lots of noise there!!!!! And the dog just needed to scratch . . . (which reminds me that not too long before all this happened, I found PART of a bloody mouse tail on the floor of my guest room, with guts smashed into the curtain . . .)For an introvert, I handled the chaos quite well I think. And now I need to go because we are having company for dinner . . . oh my