A bit over 4 months in and I think that might be a pretty fitting title for much of our time here so far. That and I figured I can come up with some cheesy analogies. Frogger, Cat and Mouse, also could have been appropriate titles, but I had to pick one, so here we go.

Backing up.

This is my first blog post. Moriah has done an excellent job at keeping everyone up to date, but we felt like it was time for me to do a bit of writing 🙂

I have been doing a lot of driving so the inspiration for the title stems from the feeling that one might get just about every time they get out on the road. Eventually you realize that there is some amount of organized chaos (Moriah’s still not quite sure) and it’s not so bad. That being said, the journey always seems to include some type of adventure along the way even when the road looks so smooth ahead. And that is where the title blends with our everyday and includes more than just driving.

Feel free to interchange ‘person’ with every instance of ‘car’ in the somewhat appropriate yet terrible metaphors below.

• Try to avoid the oncoming car with the flashing lights. It’s in your lane and wants your attention, but do your best to steer around it, you want no part of it.
• The car in front of you may be driving slow, but be patient it’s a new driver and the journey will just take some extra time.
• The car flying up behind you is a taxi carrying a lot of people. It might stop as soon as it gets in front of you to drop off or get more people, but don’t get too annoyed, it actually is getting a lot done.
• The other car flying by has a driver that has someplace to go. You can help it along it’s journey or you can slow it down, take your pick.

Okay, I am done with car/person metaphors. I can’t think of anymore and they are a bit cheesy, but you get the idea (and if you don’t get it, comment below and I can explain in more direct terms). Working your way through the traffic, the relationships, etc. can feel a bit chaotic at times, but as long as we rely on the Lord’s strength rather than our own, than we know we can get through it.

Now onto a bit of what I have been up to.

As mentioned in our newsletter, which you can see here if you missed it, we have been focused on relationship building and not so much on the implementation of new projects. That does not mean we are ignoring the projects that are already in motion.

I have put a good bit of my time working with Smile Africa Ministries (SAM) with the primary goal of working towards more food sustainability. Currently almost 100% of their food is donated. Having a feeding program of ~350 outside kids on top of the ~70  full time resident kids, it is a tall task to be sure. I have been working with some of the older kids on their small gardens inside the SAM compound geared towards educating and relationship building. The kids are seeing a difference and it is great.

SAM has 3 acres about 15 minutes away in a local village. I have spent more time there in the past few weeks. We’ve built a compost pile, demonstration gardens, and are working with some of the local villagers with more training to occur at the end of this short growing season.

The guys at Bamba Forge keep getting better and better. With the recent visit from Tim Troyer and Jesse Hemphill the guys are quickly becoming masters in the art of knife making. I’ve got a barrel full of rice ash to take to the guys that will assist in the annealing process next week. The kids at Smile helped in collecting enough rice stalks to burn down into ash.

That concludes my update. Any questions, feel free to post them in the comments.

Thank you for your continued prayers!

A lot has been going on around here, but I’d have to say one of the most exciting things has been the arrival of Tia Jia! We’ve been initiating her into our daily life here in Uganda and sharing our four whole months of wisdom! The girls have been enjoying having Tia Jia around and are always excited to see her in the morning. Lillie has decided that Jia’s name is now Hannah. Ask her where Jia is and she’ll point to her. Ask her what her name is, and she’ll shout Hannah. I think she may do these things on purpose!

The week that we picked up Jia, we stayed around Kampala to meet up with our director, Tim briefly. We also visited Bamba Forge again where Dustin got to check in on everything, we got the “petting zoo” experience with the cow and pigs, and Gracie got to “help” make a knife.

Now that we have been back in Tororo this week, we have spent time at Smile, caught up with some of our friends here, and enjoyed being back in the swing of things.  Soon we will have been living here for four months! It’s crazy how fast it has gone and how much we have learned and experienced in a short period of time. It is also crazy to think of all that we want to do and see accomplished, and how fast that time will slip away from us. We continue to pray that God will help us build His kingdom and we will not work to build our own.

Last week I failed to post an Africa update because Dustin was at a Farming God’s Way conference in Kampala for six days. The girls and I had a pretty successful and relatively low -stress time together.

This was our first time alone without Dustin for that long. About an hour after he stepped out the door the gas for our gas burner ran out. Our electricity was also out, so we had no way to cook. Called Dustin and the crisis was averted after Dustin called a friend who came and filled up the tank for us!That night I decided to plug in our bug zapper. It was already plugged in so I turned it on and *pop* *spark* *buzz*! Somehow it was plugged in without the additional converter we needed. I thought I’d killed the bug zapper! Thankfully the light bulbs had just blown, so I didn’t totally fry it. Our puppy also got sick that week after another puppy on our compound had recently died. Our puppy sadly died that Saturday-I’ll spare you all the details. I will tell you though that Gracie probably handled it better than I.

“It’s ok mommy. The puppy is in heaven now and can play with the other puppy and the other dogs in heaven can take care of them.” She’s a smart cookie that one.

Why does everything happen when daddy’s away!?  But honestly, over all things went well. It was good for me to feel like I was managing and in some cases thriving in our new environment with the girls. It felt good to support Dustin in his growth and let him be confident that things back at home weren’t completely falling apart while he was gone! Dustin is back home now and we are definitely glad! This last week has been a low stress, laid back week with lots of family time. Thanks for all your continued prayers and support!

For anyone that would like to receive a quarterly e-mail updates on what we are doing here in Uganda and the projects that Dustin is working on, please subscribe to our newsletter here. Now enjoy these adorable pictures of the girls!

This week has been the usual ebb and flow of the mostly typical week we have gotten use to here in Tororo. Dustin took time to get out of the house and work on sending e-mails, research, and those type of things he can do without having to travel.  He also had the opportunity to go see some land for potential projects, and to help harvest ground nuts this week. As a family we spent a few afternoons at Smile Africa playing with the kids and spending time with the babies. I also attended one of the widow’s classes this week where they go through character training. Next week I even get to read the group the English text…good thing I’m not the one that has to translate though!

We traveled to Mbale yesterday to renew our tourist visas. All went smoothly and now we pray that over the next three months the paperwork goes through for NGO status for Forest of Hope and we can get our work visa through that.

There have also been times for good relaxation and fun this week. A play date, dinner with new friends, pool time, and getting to eat out at a great restaurant, Endiro, while in Mbale.

Three months has almost passed and Tororo is starting to feel familiar and like a place we can call home. We of course still miss our family and friends back home, along with the simple pleasures of summer in Ohio, though we are not missing the rain you all are having! But good relationships are being built here and wonderful memories made. Tororo has much to offer and we are excited to continue this journey that God has laid before us.