In Which We Celebrate the Anniversary of Pearl Harbor, or something like that

December 7^th-9^th: Monday-Wednesday

Almost the entire western end of the big house is getting repainted. The big room, Jim’s old room, and the hallway and pantry. Lynn and I have been given, no privileged with the job of doing all this painting. Monday we trimmed Jim’s old room which will now be a guest house and gave it a first coat. The color we are using is a Sage Green and has the amazing ability to look either gray or brown under almost any lighting condition.

Over the next two days we steadily worked our way around the big room and it’s a joining section. By the end of Wednesday we had put at least one coat on everything. The end was in sight. I really like Lynn. He is a cool old guy. He cracks me up.

So Monday was Pearl Harbor Day. Also it was the day of my birth, 19 years ago. That night for dinner the Tricarico’s invited me over for Indian food, Tika Masala Paneer and Nan. It was incredible. Thank you Laurie and Maria. Then around 7 everyone else on the mission came over for cake. Thanks Kris. James and Maria made me a really cool card full of excellent illustrations of adventures I/We have had. Emily sent a cool birthday card with a recipe for Man-erole (Man Casserole). It included ingredients such as 6 beers, 2 bags of pretzels, 64 slices of American cheese, I cup of hot sauce, 3 ib. of beef jerky, 3 bottles of BBQ sauce,10 large potatoes, 7 glazed donuts, and a can of motor oil. Instructions called for a wheel barrow, a weed whacker and a spray gun. The Eldeens gave me two brand new razors and Jenny gave me a very strange cup with several cartoon kids with ------------- on it and the words Happiness Trip and Sweet Family on it along with this message inside a heart: I want JJU: everywhere ♦and if JJU:’s ∆ beside me I know • I need never care. Now I have no idea who or what JJU is or why there are all those symbols in the message but I feel like it is from the heart.

So after work Wednesday I hitched up my trousers, rolled up my sleeves and commenced to give the house a thorough cleaning. I swept out the fossilized remains of crumbs and dirt from the floors. I mountain of dirty dishes by the sink, I scrubbed the counters, I pulverized the dust bunnies, I man-handled the dried on spills on the stove. I Was Lancelot of the Kitchen. The sponge, Excalibur. Victory was mine. Actually the sad part was the general cleanliness of the house was a couple notches below where Jim left it but it was so much better than where it had been several hours previously that it seemed much cleaner.

Wednesday we had a community meal to welcome back Jim and welcome Ben Smith. I was recruited to make dessert and Laurie asked me to make those Peanut Butter Chocolate cookies I made a couple weeks ago so I got of work around four and went home to start baking. My computer is going to the dogs. The battery cannot last for longer than about 40 minutes now so I just took out the battery and keep it plugged in when I use it because I think that uses less power than charging the battery every 40 minutes. It really ruins the mobility of the laptop though.

The Wrights and company arrived back shortly after six. It was good to see Jimbo again. I think he’s gotten taller. He brought back copious amounts of everything. It will take him days to unpack. That night we had pesto pasta stuff which was delicious. Maria found a bunch of old videos that James had taken of himself and then somehow failed to delete so we watched them after dinner.

That night Jim and I stayed up late and talked. It is really good to have him back. That night we prayed before we went to bed. I forgot how much I like doing that. Also Jim bought me the set of Bourne movies for my b-day. Cool beans.

Sunrise, Chicken Dinner, Road Trip, T-shirts, Cigar, Psychotic Hunters, Big Game, Football in the Sun

December 1^st-6^th:Tuesday-Sunday

Tuesday morning the Wright girls, Rachel, Anna, and Mary, Hannah and I embarked from the compound under a full moon. The girls had wanted to climb the hill behind the clinic in order to watch the sun rise and I was asked to go because they needed a guy escort. As we left their house at 5:00 we discovered that t heir gate was locked so we moved down to the Okken’s compound were we hopped the gate. With the full moon we didn’t need lights. The hill behind the clinic is a couple hundred feet. We positioned ourselves on an outward spur of rock and waited for the sun. Because the sun rose behind Mt. Kadam it was light well before we first glimpsed the sun. Africa is beautiful.

That Thursday I had JB, his friend from Namalu whose name is like Octavias or something of the like, and Moses over for dinner. I had had JB buy a chicken and sweet potatoes in Namalu that day. JB and I took the cock out back along with a knife. JB plucked some of the feathers off its neck and then held its body down with one hand and its head up with the other. Then I beheaded it with a few short strokes of the knife. While JB held down the still moving body I went inside and got some boiling water so JB could pluck it. We gave the head and feet to the dogs who seemed over joyed.

After plucking it JB butchered it. At first he kept out heart, lungs, and spleen and stuff. I asked him what they were and Moses interjects that he didn’t think we ate that so JB saved only one unidentifiable organ and threw the rest to the dogs. Then we peeled and sliced all the sweet potatoes, the must have bought like a kilo of the stuff. I mixed up a flour based seasoning to put on the chicken and then we began frying. Shortly we were eating a delicious chicken dinner. There is nothing quite like eating an animal you killed yourself.

Friday the entire mission was invited to a Christmas party at the Proctors’ in Mbale. Also that night though Simon, one of the local Karamojong was having a huge party to celebrate his graduation from something or other and to make many friends since he wanted to go into politics. What better way to do that then bribe people with food and beer? I was to ride down with the Eldeens along with Leah and Ben. I packed an overnight bag and we left around 10:00.

We arrived in Mbale and dropped our stuff at the Shelburne’s were we would be spending the night . Leah, Ben and I were turned loose for the afternoon. We walked over to the landmark for lunch. Delicious. And then headed into town. Leah needed to stop at a bank to see if her account could be accessed and a post office to buy stamps. As Leah bought stamps at the post office I wondered around reading signs like “No Radioactive Material Allowed in the Mail” and the like. I found a display showing all kinds of Ugandan stamps, crested cranes, animals, flowers, the Nile, Michael Jackson. What?! Yes they had a set of four Michael Jackson, king of pop, stamps all of little cute Michael as a 10 year old. I told Leah she should buy some but when she asked the man behind the counter told her they were out. So we asked if we could purchase the ones in the display which he assented to. All you gotta do is ask.

After that we decided to wander further into Mbale just for fun. almost immediantly we ran into Jamie. He was at his friend Alex’s phone shop buying phones and stuff. We tagged up with him as he went to the Mtn Shop and the Zain shop so he could buy air time to sell. Then we wandered around. We went into a bunch of stores and tried to get free t-shirts and things. A lot of phone company stores and other places give away free t-shirts and posters and things in order to promote their product although sometimes they are reluctant to actually give you anything. Jamie got a dummy phone through his contact in the Warin (a phone company) Shop and then he sweet talked a lady at Orange (another phone company) and got two women’s t-shirts. We also tried to get some Ugandan Telecom T-shirts but the lady said they were out.

Around 4 we started walking back. We met Maria, Josh, and Laurie on the way back and Maria came with us. when we got to the Shelburne’s Jamie and I climbed up their tree house were we split a ginger soda and a candy bar. Then Maria came and she and James through sticks at each other.

Around 5:30 we headed over to the Proctors’ who are just next door. There were a ton of people there. I didn’t meet too many of them. Derrick from Cure was there along with a lot of the members of the OPC church in Mbale. Also there were a bunch of ex-pats there as well. The party was fun. we ate delicious food. The goat was a bit strange. I got to smoke a cigar with Craig, Phil Proctor, and Derrick. I hung out mainly with James and the other kids. That night I slept in the same bed that I slept in the first night I came to Africa. I didn’t use the mosquito net.

The next day while we waited for the Eldeens to come and pick use I watched Bambi with the Tricarico kids. Great movie. Very epic. I did find it odd though that the hunters shot at all the woodland creatures. Even lick little song birds and chipmunks. Like, did they want to kill and stuff those to put over their mantles? More like exterminator than hunters.

After the Eldeens picked us we went to happy where I bought an apple for breakfast and some Chowda (it’s like Indian snack food, like chex mix kinda but way tastier and foreign) just for later. On the ride back we say a couple of antelope like animals along with several ostriches and baboons.

Sunday afternoon there was a soccer game at the main compound so I went over and played. It was really fun although after about a half hour I had to quite because my feet hurt from playing barefoot on all the thorns and hot ground. After that James, Maria, Leah, and Jenny came over and we made smoothies. Jamie decided he needed to make a hibiscus flavored smoothie which turned out ok actually. Having the little bits of ground up hibiscus in you mouth was a bit unpleasant though. That afternoon no Africans came to the bibles study.

Rain on a Hot Tim Roof

November 26^th-30^th: Thursday-Monday

We spared the Turkey. We decided to give good will towards birds by letting him off the hook for thanksgiving. We may have ruined our gesture by killing 6 chickens Thursday instead though. For our thanksgiving dinner we pulled all the stops. We had stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, salad, rolls, and some form of cranberry sauce from a can. We all ate together in the courtyard. After dinner we had a time for everyone to give thanks for anything. We also sang a couple songs. As we sang a massive storm cloud moved over the mission. Lightning shot across the sky illuminating the cloud bank. It was awesome.

After putting up the trusses on Jim’s house and then some pearlings along the top of the roof line. After that though Bob and Craig decided to call off work for a bit. The roof was a bit too wobbly, resting only on steel posts and rebar to add the extra pounds of more pearlings. We’ll wait tell the work crew lays some more stone up to and around the trusses.

That Sunday during church it began to rain. I never remember it ever raining so early in the morning before. It started out quietly enough shortly after we began Sunday school. Within a few minutes though the sound of the rain on the tin roof completely drowned out sound of Al and Lokwii. Thus we sat for several minutes talking amongst ourselves and watching as Bobby and Mary ran back through the pounding rain to get their bed cloths off the Wrights roof.

The rain ended and Al began teaching again however it turned out to only be a lull in the storm because the rain started up again almost immediately. Sunday school was canceled for the day and the congregation mulled about waiting for the rain to let up. James and I though walked back in the rain. As we neared the Okkens compound the sun came out although the rain didn’t let up. I love it when the sun is shining and the sun is out.

Bob asked me to go down to Mbale with him to help the Mayville’s, a missionary couple, to pack their container since they are going back to America. We left that afternoon for Mbale. It was fun driving down because Bob got to drive through a bit of mud. Bob talked almost the entire way down about his life. He has lived a fascinating life.

That after noon after arriving in Mbale we went to the landmark were Bob ordered a massive amount of food. We had 3 or 4 appetizers along with several mains dishes, rice and Nan. We spent the night at the Shelburne's house were I began reading a really interesting story about England and Wales during the time of King Henry through John.

The next day Bob and I headed over to the Mayville’s which is just down the road from where we slept. We spent the day helping the Mayville’s, Tom and Carolyn to pack up their things. Tom and Carolyn are a nice couple somewhere in their fifties. Most of the things they had packed but there was still a lot of little things to do and quite a few boxes to tape up. This meant that Bob and I spent the entire day helping. Bob had hoped to only spend the morning and then pick up some supplies and be away by 5.

We ate lunch of samosas and chapatti along with a case of coke. Several men from the church came to help and most were sent home after lunch. That afternoon while waiting for more boxes to be readied for packing I say one of the strangest things I have ever seen. Directly outside the brick fence there were between 20 and 30 big hawks or eagles all swooping low over the road, no more than 5 feet from it. They would swoop low and then rise and circle up for another pass. One of the workers told me that they were eating flying ants. In only a few minutes all the birds had gone.

They day wore on and by 5 we still hadn’t left and were still a long ways off. By 6 we had all but finished and Bob decided to drive back anyway rather than spend another night in Mbale. That night we drove back to Karamoja under a full moon. Truly Africa is a beautiful continent.

We arrived at 8:30 that night and Martha had prepared a small dinner for us. After eating I stayed around and talked to Martha, Rachel, and Anna for a bit before heading back and hitting the hay.

Return to the Scene of the Crime

November 22nd-25th: Sunday-Wednesday

This week in Sunday school we began to practice to learn the ten commandments. Nakaramojong is an incredibly hatd language to speak and I had a really hard time trying to get my mouth around all the syllables.

That day I spent a lazy Sunday afternoon reading. Jim has a set of the Harvard classics and I have began reading The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin. it is very interesting because he writes it for the layman, not getting too technical about the science. He also spends a lot of time just talking about the people. He is basically traveling downthe South American coast. Later that afternoon we got together for the bible study in the big house. Some Africans came again which was really fun. Pastor Al is talking about prayer which is really challenging me.

Monday Bob and I along with Lokwii Bon and Lodim Paul returned to the Bore-hole we had worked on the previous week. Because when the pipes slipped and fell we lost the pump we had to look for another. Bob knew there were some in the shipping container on the Okkens compound. However we also knew that that container was invested with wasps. Bob found a couple of bottles of insect poison and thus armed with our spray cans we entered. At first we couldn’t see any wasps or pumps for that matter. However we found them at almost the same time. An epic battle ensued. It raged back and for but the wasps got the worst of it and were forced to retreat. Indeed neither Bob nor I were harmed in the retrievence of the pump.

Upon arriving at the Bore-hole we set to work. We connected the pump to the pipe and began to lower it down. Adding pipes as we went we eventually put almost all the original pipes back in the hole. However this wasn’t nesecarry because the water level was higher then the depth of the hole. After replacing the entire mechanism the local Karamojong joyfully pumped out water. All in a days work.

For the next few days Bob, Craig and I worked to put the trusses for Jim’s house in position. Because Jim has such a large roof we had to put the individual trusses up separately and then clamp and seld them together instead of building them on the ground first. This meant that Bob and I spent most of the entire day about 15 feet up in the air balancing on top of scaffolds. During the dry season the winds here really pick up. So we are balancing atop these scaffolds trying to place these trusses and Bob is having to weld in this buffering wind. Bob compared it to someone giving him a shove.

I Love Indian Food and Bob Gets in A Fight With a Bore-Hole

November 18^th-21^st: Wednesday-Saturday

After work on Thursday I went and visited Moses and Robert at the clinic. We hung our for a bout an hour and played cards. They taught me an African card game which was really hard and I didn’t understand it at all. It was funny though because they called the suites by entirely different names. Like flowers instead of clubs. Also all the face cards weren’t kind, queen, etc… but K, Q, J. Half the confusion on my part was I had no idea what cards they were talking about half the time.

That evening we had a community meal to celebrate the return of the Eldeens and Leah. We had amazing Indian food. Butter chicken with garlic and plain nan. Absolutely delicious.

Friday morning Bob and I went and visited a bore-hole that had ceased to function. The karamojang using it had been bugging Bob for a couple of weeks to come and lokk at they’re “Bowel”. The way the Karamojang pronounce Bore-hole is “bowel”. Just imagine how much material has been derived from that.

The bore-hole lies between here and Namalu, just around the corner. A large group of men and kids awaited us. they all crowded around and thanked Bob, All talked at once and decided that Bob looked like Chuck Norris Bob concluded that we would need to come back and remove a large part of the pipes.

We returned after lunch with Lokwii Bon, James, and Lodim Paul to help us. Bob thought the problem was that the pipes had become disconnected because there was a lot of weight on the handle of the pump. What this ment is we needed to pull out all the pipes until we found what was wrong. We started pulling the pipes one by one. We used a tool with a lang hand and a “c” shaped piece at the end to grab the pipes and host them up. Then Bob would tighten the clamp on the pipe while we moved the tools down and then loosened it again so we could host it up. After pulling up ten pipes Bob was able to spy the pump on the end of the last pipe. We had just disconnected the second to last pipe when disaster struck.

The pipes at this time where covered in an incredibly slick mud. And although Bob had tightened the clamp holding the pipe with a hammer is still somehow slipped. Bob reached out and tried to grab the pipe but he couldn’t get a grip on it. The T-bar which we attached to the top of the pipe so if they do fall will catch the rim of the hole slammed down on Bob’s left hand. The larger pipe and the pump broke of and continued their plunge into the bottom of the hole. Bob’s hand was bleeding everywhere and I was a bit worried because he went through a little shock where he was wavering a bit on his feet and nodding in and out of conciences. However after laying down a bit he felt goo enough to drive back. He dropped himself at the clinic and James and I took the truck back and sorted out the tools. Then I went back to the clinic where I watched Robert give Bob a couple stitches.

Peanut Cookies and Potential Peacemakers

November 14^th-17^th: Saturday-Tuesday

Saturday I worked a half day and in the afternoon made desert for the community meal. after pouring over my mother’s cookbook I decided what I really wanted to eat was peanut butter kiss cookies, which is a peanut butter cookie with a Hershey kiss in the middle. However due to the fact that we didn’t have any chocolate kisses I used a bag of chocolate chips. The bag was one my dad had brought from America and was already partially melted. So I finished the melting process over the stove and then as the cookies came out warm from the oven I firmly pressed a chocolate chunk into the center of each cookie. They tasted very good if I do say so myself.

That evening after eating all the children and young adults hung out afterwards. We played one of my favorite games of all time. I don’t actually remember what it’s called or if I even ever knew its name. basically if you have a stack of note card sized paper equal in number to the people playing. Then everyone rights a strange sentence on the top paper and passes it to the person on their right. That person then has to read the sentence and draw a picture of it. They then pass the stack of paper after putting the sentence on the bottom of the pile and the next person has to write a sentence from the picture. And you go all around the circle and much joy and good will is created.

Sunday afternoons all the mzungus on the mission get together for a time of singing and a short lesson from one of the pastors. We sing western songs, use guitars, and hear a message that is not overly simplified. Recently though there has been a push to include some Africans, specifically the clinic staff, in this worships time. So on Sunday William, Moses, Robert, Albert, Stella, and Rachel came. I thought it was really cool to include these guys because sometimes it feels like an us and them sort of deal here.

All the Africans were very enamored with the guitar playing. Pastor Al passed around some printed out bible verses for people to read and William on my right got one. His reference was incryptically labeled Th #:##. He asked me what Th stood for and I graciously told him it stood fro Timothy. Doubts however waged in my own mind but I decided that Timothy logically would be Th. As it turns out however Th is Thessalonians. William found it very funny that I had misled him which is really unfair.

Monday Jim left Karamoja for his 3 weeks in the US. it was a time of great sadness. that night for guys night I made beef stroganoff with rice. It turned out very good I think. The Wrights have encouraged me to do more at guys night then just eat dinner and watch a movie. I think we will try to go through the young peacemakers.