Rogue Bull Elephant Charges the Explorers!
Beans and Jacobsens at Murchisen Falls
Oooh! Look at those long necks!
Sandra's Karate Class
The Lion King
Another Handover Ceremony
Dear Family and Friends:
We had a very enjoyable Christmas Holiday Season. Kami and Brent arrived in Kampala the morning of Christmas Eve. We stopped on the way from the Entebbe Airport and visited the botanical garden. It has very lush beautiful trees and plants and one area was the location of the old Tarzan movies. There are waterfalls, hanging vines to swing on and monkeys in the trees. It is very interesting to visit and it is located on the shore of Lake Victoria. We then drove them to our apartment in Kampala to get a little something to eat and a few hours of sleep. We were so happy to see them. They brought with them all our Christmas wishes. We had previously E-mailed a long list of wants and needs to bring from America, so the family got together and provided all the things on our list. There were Oreo cookies, mixed nuts, face cream, lipstick, nylon stockings, white shirts and dark stockings for Ron, and two pair of comfortable brown shoes for Sandra. The list goes on and on. They even brought packages of flour tortillas and Nordstrom chocolates. It was so much fun to open all of this good stuff from America. Words cannot describe how good those Oreo cookies tasted. Santa did make it to Africa. He even filled a stocking for each of us using Ron’s black missionary socks.
On Christmas day all the missionary couples, plus Kami and Brent, went to the mission home for a lovely Christmas dinner and some good conversation and much laughter. Sister Christensen (the mission president’s wife) and I wore our Gomesi. This is the traditional African dress for women. When President and Sister Christensen attended one of our humanitarian handovers, a lovely African lady came up to Sister Christensen and I to thank the Church for what was provided and to tell us that she wanted to make us each an African dress. She asked us what colors we liked. She and her husband called several weeks later and invited us to their home for dinner and to receive the dresses. She had invited several friends to come and show us how to wear the gomesi and how the sash was to be tied. It was very nice and we love the dresses. So we decided that we should both wear them on Christmas day.
In the afternoon took Kami and Brent out to see the Kasubi Tombs. These tombs have been designated as a world heritage site. The tombs are where some of the Kings of Buganda are buried. Buganda is a kingdom within the country of Uganda and is still ruled over by a king. The president of Uganda really wields the power for the country, but the king has the people’s ear. The Buganda culture believes that their Kings do not die completely but rather disappear into a sacred forest and will come back one day. It was interesting to see inside and see how they have prepared for that. It at one time was the palace of the king. It is a large domed structure of poles, reeds and thatch and has changed little in appearance over 130 years or so. It is very interesting, so it is a must see in Kampala.
The day after Christmas we drove to Jinja to show them the source of the Nile and took the boat trip on the Nile and visited the Speke monument erected for the explorer who discovered the source.
The most exciting and fun time we had was when we all went to Murchison Falls, a big game park on the Nile River. It is a long drive from Kampala, about seven hours or so, and some of the roads are dirt and are pretty bumpy, but it is well worth any discomfort. Upon arriving, you take a small ferry boat across the Nile. The Lodge where we stayed sets on a bluff above the river and you have great views from all rooms. We signed up for the river cruise and saw all kinds of hippos, elephants, crocodiles, and water buffalo along the shore, as well as Murchison Falls. We also hired a guide and she took us out on three animal drives in the savannah. We saw 42 giraffes all at the same time; they were walking in long lines toward the Nile for water. We got out of the truck and just couldn’t stop taking pictures. Giraffes are very beautiful and very graceful. We drove off road in our truck in the high grass and saw a male lion so close that we rolled up our car windows. He had just eaten and was lying down in the tall grass. Our /guide had us drive right up to him and rev our motor and he got up and walked around our truck and posed as if to say,”OK get your pictures and then let me take a nap”, he then laid back down. A few feet away we saw the female lion with three small cubs and she also let us get very close to her.. It was very exciting. We were told it is very hard to see a lion because they hide in the tall grass and most of the time people do not get to see the lions. So we felt very lucky.
The climax of the day came as we were driving back to the lodge after finishing our animal drive. We were driving down a very narrow dirt road and out of the bush stepped a large bull elephant. Our guide said he was about 64 years old and a real loner. He was huge and had very long tusks. She told us to stop the truck and of course we did. This huge elephant just stood there for a moment looking at us and then stepped on to the road and started walking towards us. Kami, Brent and our guide, Sarah, were standing up in the back of the truck taking pictures and Sarah hollered to Ron, “Back Up”. Ron started backing up, but the road was pretty narrow and bumpy and he couldn’t go very fast. The elephant kept coming and Sarah hollered again “Back Up and go faster”, which Kami and Brent repeated and so did I. Ron continued to back up as fast as he could and then the elephant stopped. Sarah hollered, “Stop”. She thought perhaps he would just go back into the bush and she didn’t want it to be distracted by us backing up. We watched it for a moment, and then it put its big ears straight out and tossed its trunk and again started after us. Sarah shouted this time, “Back Up Faster, and try and find a place to turn around”. We could not outrun this elephant by backing up. Sarah said they can run at least 40 miles an hour and that is all or more than our truck could do on a narrow dirt road backing up. Of course Sarah, Kami and Brent were in the back of an open pickup truck and they were quite justified in wanting us to go faster. She also said the elephant could pick up our truck with no problem. It was pretty exciting.
Ron finally found a small place where he could turn the truck around, but we were all quite tense and worried that it would take him too much time to turn around and the elephant was still coming after us. After a few tries on the narrow road, he turned the truck around and we got out of there. Sarah said she was just about ready to fire her gun in the air to try and scare it away. Wow! The neat thing is though, Kami captured the whole episode with her video camera and you can tell when it got pretty scary because she stopped filming and sat down in the bed of the truck. We were very late getting back to the lodge because the elephant had blocked the road that takes you there and we had to drive around the whole park to return. When we come home, we have some pretty exciting elephant film to show anyone interested. Of course it was the topic of conversation that whole evening.
We were so glad that Kami and Brent came to Africa. It was a good time for us since it was the holidays and most of the people in the organizations we deal with had gone to their villages for the holidays, freeing us up to have some fun.
Brent had to leave a week before Kami and we hated to see him go, but we were able to take Kami to one of our handovers in a very poor village in a place called Kagoma Gate. This project involved seven villages organized into ten groups of 20 women each. The project consisted of all kinds of agriculture tools, seeds, fertilizers and mosquito nets for a significant number of the children. This was to provide food for them and their families, and to have a little extra to sell.
The site of the handover was held in one of the poorest villages in the whole area. The village consisted of mud huts with thatched roofs and hardly any trees surrounding it. The handover was unbelievable and we think the most colorful and entertaining one we have been to. There were a lot of women dressed in colorful traditional dress. They were singing and trilling and were brought to the handover in a big cattle truck. It was a sight to see them get out of the big truck. Some of them had babies on their back and things on their heads and when the truck pulled in, they started trilling and dancing.
There were all kinds of traditional African dancing, singing and women honoring us with vegetables and fruit from their gardens. There were all kinds of speeches and Ron and President Christensen also spoke. We also had a Member of Parliament there and this was wonderful to have such an important person as a contact for the Church. After all the singing, drumming, dancing and speeches were finished, we and the dignitaries were taken to a nice restaurant for a traditional African dinner. What a day. Kami also got all of that on film. She was our photo journalist and was setting with all the other media present. She was our own CNN.
We also had her come to our office on Wednesday and meet with some of our organizations. It was a fairly slow day due to the holiday season, but we did have a few people and organizations come and talk with us.
We went to Church on Sunday. It was fast and testimony meeting and she got to see the nice little house that we meet in and hear the testimonies of some of our members. The people here are warm and friendly and it is so easy to like them instantly.
I suppose some of you have heard about the problems in Kenya. There have been riots and many people killed due to a contested election for president of that country. Kami’s ticket to fly home took her from Uganda to Nairobi and then to London. She was able to change her ticket and miss the flight into Kenya. We were worried that maybe there would be problems at that airport. This rioting caused some long gas lines in Uganda, since most of our gasoline and goods come from Kenya. Uganda is a landlocked country and depends on the port in Mombasa in Kenya for any imported items as well as fuel. Things are still not good in Kenya, but we heard that the military in Kenya are escorting the fuel trucks to the border and we seem to be getting enough gasoline and diesel now, although the price has gone up. The price has also gone up on food products. It does make us aware that we should have a food supply in our apartments.
We also recently had a great handover at the magnet school in Jinja. We provided them with computers, school supplies and agriculture implements and seeds. This school has twenty-two schools bringing in their six graders, four times a year, for a unique experience in science, computer training, art, drama, and agriculture training.
A week ago we had another handover ceremony with an organization that works with women who have AIDS and also helps orphans. We gave groups of these women pregnant cows, and the orphans received blankets and mosquito nets. As soon as the calves get big enough they will be given to additional women groups, they will be bred and their offspring will be given to additional women groups, and so on. This was also a very colorful handover. Since it was in one of the districts that we are rehabilitating a significant number of boreholes, the turnout from all the politicians and district management people was huge. We have made a lot of good friends and people with much influence in the country.
Things are going well here. The Church is growing and the missionary effort is really taking hold. Of course the goal is to someday have a stake here, but that won’t happen very soon. We would love to have it happen before we leave. We have already reached our half way point. The time is really going fast. We are following the primary elections somewhat here and hope to be able to vote absentee.
We love and miss you.
Love the Beans
