Offspring--what a funny word, but here they are...

Kevin--Mr. Animated

Toby--reads anytime, anywhere

The dirt is not on your computer screen, but on the face of a pretty little girl who loves to play in the mud!

Butterfly hunters Kevin and Acacia

"When you see banana plants you see a home"

Someone commented to me this week that our house is looking like a home. He said that in Uganda when you see banana plants you know there is a home there and he thanked us for making our home here. In the picture, some of our many banana plants are in the background.

We continue to do a little this and a little that on the house. This morning Toby put the varnish on our curtain rod holders while Kevin and Acacia decided to slash some of the weeds in our compound. Acacia has a panga (machete) for her tool and Kevin has a very sharp blade called a slasher.

Geoff fixed some more plumbing leaks last night and is now putting shelves in our storage shed. I will spend a bit of time with the David Family girls this a.m. helping them further fine tune their bread making skills. We also have an all day prayer meeting to culminate a week of focused prayer on bringing God's Kingdom to our families, the church, ministry, our community, district and beyond.

There is a team here from North Dakota and they will be doing VBS during the afternoons this week. The kids are very excited!!!!!!

In these next pictures, Kevin, Acacia, Judah, Sharon and Biru are building sand castles. Next to them is Kiweewa clearing some of the weeds/bush that surround our compound.

Nothing else to report for now . . .

A Tribute to Bear

Simply knowing that a habit acquired in "babyhood" by your child has to be broken at some point before they enter university doesn't always provide the strength against the emotions that come when they finally announce they are ready to give it up. Kevin has carried around his red bear (or sometimes a blue fraternal twin would do) since infancy. He snuggled it often and when the bear found it's way to his arms, his right forefinger would immediately go into his mouth--bear in hand, finger in mouth without conscious thought. So, earlier this week when Geoff was telling the boys goodnight, red bear was tossed out of the bed with the accompanying comment, "I don't like him anymore." At that point the parents took up the mantle of concern for "poor old bear." He looked so dejected sitting there alone after years of love and care, and confession here, "abuse". Kevin carried him so often that if we weren't paying attention, before long, red bear became "stinky bear". It was always a tough toss up . . . leave him stinky or wash him and have him lose fluff. Kevin didn't like it when we called him stinky bear, but there frequently came a point when even he realized that the stink was overwhelming and bear needed a bath. Then came the agonizing waiting time while he dried.


So, thus ends another stage in the life of our youngest. He's growing up. I think I'll tuck bear away in a safe place so he's ready to bless my grandchildren . . . or at least give me special memories when I look at him.

Creepy Crawlies

Kevin: "MOM!!!!! Give me some of those doctor gloves!!" "Why?" said I. "Bees, (Kevin's word for because) we are gonna pick up a snake!!!" "Is it dead?" (a very important first question) "Yes!" It's not just any snake. Eeeewwwwww! It's a green mamba!!!!! They played with it and showed all the girls and then gave it a proper burial in the sand pile--not to honor the snake, by the way, but to hide it so they could invite their friend over to dig in the pile and get the surprise of his life!!!! I DID NOT grow up with brothers-----I'm learning a lot these days!!!

Later, I saw the David Family kids throwing rocks at a tree and all standing around nervously looking up. I asked, "Is it a snake????" The reply? "No, just an animal!" I'm thinking, WHAT KIND????? After 20 minutes of throwing rocks and climbing trees I see that it is a squirrel!!!! My, my, my---all that for a squirrel. And if they get it down???? They plan to eat it! Yuck!

Now off the creepy crawly subject . . . we had a request for pictures of Hasan's house. The green is not the green we thought it was going to be, but it will be the green we have for sometime!!!

Earlier today I taught our music makers class for the young missionary kids. I show this picture to show how much they love the class. Our living room is so big they can run around unhindered and they love it!!!!!

And lastly, I am thankful that our three kids play so well together. From lunch time on, we had no other kids at the house today. They simply played and laughed and were VERY LOUD, but had a great time!!!!

We've Moved!

Our move is complete and we are blessed to have been helped by so many!!!! All the big/heavy furniture was in the new house by noon on Saturday August 1st. The rest was finished by mid-afternoon. The last of the tid bits that always seem to hang around forever filling this box and that box finally got moved Monday a.m. In this picture, Kevin is seen playing in the sand pile left over from the construction. As you can tell, landscaping is needed! Lots of dirt right now!!!

On Sunday night the 2nd we had more than 30 people come to pray with us as we dedicated this house to the Lord. We are blessed to have been given the funding by many of you for the construction and we are privileged to be living here as we serve God’s children at New Hope Uganda. This land was once the site of much witchcraft activity and the horrible war atrocities of the 80s. Praise God that it is now the site of a place of peace and life-giving ministry!

Geoff and I spent Thursday in Kampala buying shelving, plants, plumbing, baskets, household hardware, etc., for the new house. It was a long day and traffic was horrible as we were trying to leave Kampala. We’ll have to make a few more trips like that, but we’re slowly getting things in the places where they need to be.

We are now in the complete it/repair it mode. Geoff worked most of Saturday on the house—hooking up the hot water for the solar; repairing door locks, toilet seats and bathroom faucets that had all broken before we moved in; hanging pictures, clocks, towel racks and mirrors that needed permanent homes on the walls, and installing door stops for wild doors. Good thing he started before sunrise on the solar as the rain came just as he was finishing and he had to slide down the roof carefully on slippery sheet metal. Only a small scrape—no major falls.

I love the new kitchen. It is brighter and more open than the former one. I feel a part of what is going on in the rest of the house instead of stuck in a hole! I also love our

new bedroom as we have more windows so the air flow is better, and we are surrounded by trees. The kids are enjoying their new rooms—Acacia’s is pink and purple

and the boys’ has a blue wall in honor of the Chelsea football (soccer) team.

The living room is huge and we are excited for our first movie night with David Family! It will be the first movie night in which everyone will fit comfortably in the living room!!! (sorry, no picture yet.)

We hosted our first overnight guest last night. Joyce, who lived with us last year had a birthday yesterday so we invited her for special dinner and a sleepover. We had a great time talking and the kids climbed all over her as usual. After supper we watched Benji, a great Walmart$5 movie. She then came home with us after church and we had birthday cake and presents. In the late afternoon we walked together to visit a few people and give her a "push" home as we say around here. It was a great day, but has been a busy week with moving and trying to get settled. Many people have been stopping by to tell us congratulations which is very enjoyable, but has taken extra time out of our already activity-filled days.

We’ve just received the itinerary from Geoff’s parents for their visit here in December!!!! They will bring their granddaughter Sarah and will spend almost the entire month with us! The kids are already counting the days!!!!!

And speaking of the kids. . . we had a little mishap Saturday as they were playing in the sand pile with hoes and shovels. Seems when Acacia swung her hoe, Toby bent down to move the sand and Toby’s head met Acacia’s hoe! I have to say it was the smoothest ER visit of all that we’ve had. Only 1.5 hours total from leaving our house to returning. Three stitches later he’s doing fine.
And, though we are in the new house, there is not a new school banda, yet. For now, Uncle Josh, our current missionary teacher is using our old banda to teach. This is a picture of reading time with all the first grade and one older independent study child. In the background on the banda porch you can see our makeshift carpentry workshop from where our carpenter is still building our kitchen.

Guess this has turned into a novel. That’s what happens when I take more than a week off from the blog. More news another time . . .

For the moment . . .

It's rather quiet here on site for the moment. Today is our semi-annual maize harvest. Our enterprise farm grows a good portion of the maize used for the posho flour to feed us here at New Hope Uganda. As a community we consume 1 ton of maize flour a week!!! (apologies to those of you whom I told 2 tons as I was having a memory black hole!!) After the harvest, our maize mill will turn it into the flour we need to feed our kids and staff.

So, today all other work stops and we as a community--primary school kids and teachers, secondary school kids and teachers, vocational school students and staff, missionary kids and teachers (parents :), administration and any visitors head off to the enterprise farm to harvest acres and acres of maize. It is a fun and relationship building time. Toby, Acacia and Kevin were so excited this morning that they jumped out of bed when reminded of the events of today. They left the house at 7:40 and the primary school kids just journeyed by our house on the way over to the farm.
We won't have any pictures to show you as I just saw the camera sitting here in the living room after everyone had already left. SO -- I'll share some photos of recent days.

Geoff had a jigger in one of his toes. It was the first time I tried to dig one out as you have to be so careful to get it all and not break the egg sac. YUCK! It's a dust flea/mite type bug that burrows under your skin and lays eggs. Is that not one of the most disgusting things ever???!! Anyway, I tried to "doctor" Geoff, but he insisted that I was "Killing" him so we stopped. The next night Uncle Mulu (our David Family father) came over to finish the job. He said, by the way, that I had done a good job and that now we had another "jigger doctor" in the house!

I think the kids got turned onto the idea of soaking their feet after the whole jigger episode that they decided it was a good way to end the day. So, they all grabbed a bucket and a good book and set in for a soak.

Here they are doing before breakfast reading in their pj.s.

This is a typical scene in our yard. Tons of kids playing--here they are having "horse races" and bicycle tire contests. The other game they love to play is a hide and seek type game that is NOISY!!!!! It's great to have a yard filled with kids! Notice in the back left is Hasan being wheeled around by Dodovico, one of our David Family boys. Hasan seems to be responding to the interaction he gets with the David Family and our kids since he's moved into HIS house on the David Family compound.

And finally, the plan is to move into the new house this Saturday. There should be no reason to hinder us that we can see for the moment . . .

Bean Boozled!!!

This is the latest sensation to sweep through the Britton household and beyond! The kids got these from Aunt Glenda (Mary's sister). They are Jelly Belly beans that can be deceptive!!! Is it buttered popcorn or rotten egg? Cafe Latte or ear wax? Juicy Pear or booger? Caramel corn or moldy cheese? Peach or vomit? YUCK! I finally found a candy that doesn't tempt me!

The funny thing to watch is that when the kids share these with the Ugandan kids,the Ugandans just eat them up regardless of the flavor--they get candy so rarely that ANY candy is "sweet"!! Toby kept quizzing his friend, "what'd ya get? what'd ya get?" But the friend just stared and smiled as if to say, "Who cares! It's candy!" That just grossed me out, I couldn't watch anymore.