With Geoff on the EYO outreach this week, we are holding down the fort with all things normal. Well, sort of. (Or as we say here, "somehow.") Next week Geoff will post a blog about the outreach, so for now let's get you up to date on the recent happenings.
There is the young brother of two of our David Family kids who wants to help his mom out at home by bringing in a little money during the school holiday. (The Uganda school calendar is currently in the midst of their three week holiday between 2nd and 3rd terms.) He comes each morning around 9 a.m. and rakes leaves, mows grass or kills snakes, just your basic Ugandan lawn care needs. Yesterday he showed me a snake he killed while raking (barefoot). Thank God he didn't step on it! He usually stays through lunch time and goes home about 3 p.m. He's a pleasant little chap and adds a smile to our days.
Toby and Acacia were asked to be a part of the activities of a visiting outreach team this week. Yesterday they finished up construction work on a bath house for a local family and today they will repair a mud structure in a village about 4 km from here. Acacia wasn't so sure she wanted to be a part of it all, but she has really enjoyed it and is looking forward to today. Of course, Toby is always up for new people and extra adventure, so he's loving being a part of the team.
Then there is Sam, who despite the holiday, is still going to school each day with his S4 comrades. Their holiday will be shortened to two weeks due to the upcoming national government exams. Study, study, study. It's been a steady stream of books, late nights, early mornings and long days at school since the academic year began in February. This morning at the breakfast table he looked at me with his big eyes and whined, "Can I PLEASE stay home today??" (Well, it IS raining quite heavily and has been all through the night . . . we all know that Ugandans don't move around in downpours . . . but, "No.") I'm such a meanie. We agreed that he would wait until the rain had slowed, which just happened about 5 minutes ago and so, he's off to another long day of learning.
There hasn't even been a Saturday that he has had off in quite awhile! Except for last weekend.
We took full advantage of last Friday and Saturday by going into Kampala to celebrate his recent 18th birthday. Also, Toby, Acacia and Kevin met some new friends this summer at MK camp, so they met up with 3 of the kids on Friday. Sam tagged along as they went to the movies, ate at KFC and did some mall lounging. We took Sam out to dinner (Indian food at Khana Khazana) on Friday and then enjoyed watching, "Cool Runnings" at a "new to us "bed and breakfast where we stayed. (Sam LOVES that movie, "Yeah, man!")
Saturday was saved for sole focus on Sam, whatever he wanted to do. That meant starting the morning off by sleeping in as late as possible, taking a leisurely breakfast and then going hover boarding. Unfortunately, our excitement twisted to frustration as we got the news that the owners of the hover boarding enterprise are Seventh Day Adventists---who don't work on Saturday! Disappointed and not sure what else there was to do in Kampala, I quickly ran to a nearby shop which carries, "The Eye Magazine," a Ugandan tourist magazine, to check their listings for "things to do outside in Kampala." Geoff got on the phone with Steve Brown, of our IY team, who has now lived in Kampala for the past six years and knows a great deal about what's out there for fun activities. Between the two sources we came to know about "Adonai Paintball adventures" which also offers zip lining. Given the choice, Sam chose zip lining and we learned our lesson, AGAIN, to not so quickly sink into moaning, groaning and complaining when met with disappointment! Zip lining was a great adventure with much more challenge than hover boarding would have offered! I wish you could have seen Sam's face!
As a matter of fact, here is Sam's face (and Toby, Acacia and Kevin's faces, too)!!! Enjoy!
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| strapped in and ready to fly! |
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| A little pose before the adventure begins. |
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| High above the ground is no problem for this smiling kid! |
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| Because it was Sam's birthday and also his first time to zip line, the owners comped us a second adventure with more ropes and precarious bridges to scale, plus two more zip line runs! |
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| Acacia, after finishing up the longest zip line run. |
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| Pure joy after flying through the air about 10 meters high and slamming into the padded safety catch. |
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| Toby pauses after scaling a thin log to hook himself to the zip line. |
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| Taking off to fly over bananas and be the focus of village spectators! |
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| They had SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!! |
