Safari!!!

We left Uganda and took an hour flight to Kenya, unbelievable the difference an hour makes!! Kenya has a lot more tourism than Uganda, and is a lot more developed! We got into vans in Nairobi and had a very bumpy 6 hour drive to Masai Mara. Our kids actually slept some of it, which I can't believe!! They were occupied looking out their windows when they were awake, it was a very scenic drive! We drove through the Great Rift Valley, and were suprised to then see giraffes, elephants, zebras, and baboons!!

The Safari was a good transitional time for the team, we had some good debrief meetings, and a good time to absorb everything while being fed a little better! The drives were amazing, either at sunrise or sunset, they were incredibley peaceful!

Cheetah's aren't a guaranteed find on the drives, so we were excited to find them on our last day! The elephants were our favorite animal though, so majestic yet peaceful at the same time. Amazing!

Jamie and Avin watching the Hippos

Jeff and Finn at the Hippos pond, this is the only place on the Safari drive where we were allowed out of the vans!!

Joel, Avin and Finn on the balcony of our room, which overlooked a river where we'd see crocodiles and hippos!!

Goodbye

On our last night in Mpigi the church put on a Goodbye party. This was a big fire near the church, roasted corn, a few farewell speeches, and a lot of singing and dancing!!! It went late into the night, giving us a lot of time to say goodbye to many of the individuals we had gotten to know. It was an emotional time for us, especially when saying goodbye to the children on the property, and we found it was an emotional time for them as well to say goodbye to us. We will miss them all so much.

Jamie getting a last cuddle in before the party begins!

The kids in our living room, getting ready to go down to the farewell party

Jeff and I took turns cuddling Christine our last evening, she ended up falling asleep in my arms, which made saying goodbye a little easier actually.....she was a hard one to leave though!

Joel is feeling right at home dancing along with his Ugandan friends!!

Work Projects

During the last few days we all worked hard to complete some of the projects we had started on the property. Some of the team worked with the team nurse, Rebekah, in a 2 day medical clinic where they saw over 150 patients each day! Others labored outside in the heat building a log fence, while the rest were helping with the finishing touches on Suubi home, it was still dirty from the remaining construction, and we even had time to get some paint on the walls, that was very exciting to see!!!

Gayle weighing in Baby Gift while also having the chance to do some education with his Mom, Harriet, on immunizations and diet.

Jeff, Pat, Matt, Scott, Brent and Shawn putting their heads together to complete 2 fences on the property, they got it done in time and it looks great!!

While we were working on the fence we had to dig up a termite hill, in the process we came across the queen termite. This is just a small termite with a very large egg sac, and it is a delicacy here in Uganda!! One of the children, Sam, prepared it for Jeff and Scott to eat, who say it tasted like......fish??

Jessica and Carling took on the endless job of cleaning the windows!!

Avin and Finn were happy to help out, they were a big help to Jeff and I when we were cleaning Kwagala house back in March too!

Lavonne priming the outside of Suubi Home

Linda priming outside

Ashley finishing up in the bedroom of Suubi home, Jamie and Sean did a lot painting in here too

The kids all loved their bright room!!

Losing Teeth

Joel lost a very loose tooth during our last week, he was excited to see that the tooth fairy comes even in Uganda! The next day he came running down to our house from the soccer field with blood all over his mouth, he was playing goalie and a ball in the face knocked out another tooth!! He thought that was very cool!

Baptism

We had the oppurtunity to go along with Peace Portal Community Church to Lake Victoria for water baptisms after church on our last Sunday. There were 50 people baptised by two of the church pastors, many of them people we had gotten to know during our time there, it was really neat to be a part of their experience!

Our friend Alex

Our friend Simon