Living in Uganda

Family Team

2009-07-08T14:43:00.015-07:00

It's been amazing to host the 6 families from Pacific Academy in Kibaale these past two weeks. They have been very busy - in the classrooms, on outreach, home visits, bike clinic, VBS, chapels, sports day, laundry by hand, and even mudding a new house for someone in the community!! It's been so encouraging for us to see families doing so well in Uganda, hopefully this is just the beginning!!

Our kids have LOVED spending time with the 15 kids on the team, they can't seem to get enough play time in each day!!

Going on a monkey hunt!!

Canada Day BBQ

Staff Sports Day

2009-06-30T10:54:00.018-07:00

We had our 2nd Staff Sports Day on Saturday, and it was again an incredible day. All of our staff in Kibaale come out to participate or cheer each other on; it's so fun to be a part of this community!!

The Pacific Academy Family Team also participated, and were a huge help entertaining all the staff kids!!

Alyssa Miller came in 4th running the 400 Meter, way to go!!

Bakery

2009-06-28T06:31:00.012-07:00

One of the departments of our Vocational School is Catering. The students learn about guest services in general, but a large portion of the class takes place in the school bakery. It's quite common to see staff members stop by the bakery in the afternoon, in hopes of sampling a new creation!!

Avin is very social and loves to be around the students whenever she can, she also loves to help with cooking, so she was thrilled with the opportunity to participate in a class last week. They were making a few different types of buns and the teacher said she was a quick learner. Av had a lot of fun and has already asked to go again!

Delicious!!!!!

Home

2009-06-12T01:15:00.027-07:00

"Is home in Canada or Uganda?" We were asked this a lot during our visit!! Canada will always be home, especially when we're surrounded by family and friends. Uganda is also home, it is where we live, also have great friends, work, serve and worship.

We’re so thankful for the time we had to reconnect with everyone; we were overwhelmed by your generosity – a car to drive, meals, financial support, having our kids for playdates and sleepovers, and for just taking time (we forgot how precious time is in North America!!) to be with us. We are especially thankful to Mike and Heather Hoffmann, along with their 3 girls, who opened their home to us for 2 months, we couldn’t have felt more welcome. We loved our time with them, not just because they are great friends, or the fact that they have an amazing house and backyard (with a pool!!) although that definitely was a great treat!! They’re an inspiration to us, the way they are so hospitable, giving, and focused on their family.

Although our time at home was busy, it was a different busy than here, and we do feel refreshed and ready for the year ahead!! We are very excited for the two summer teams that are arriving very soon. On June 26^th a team of 6 families (27 people!) from Pacific Academy arrive in Kibaale, and as they leave we will join the team from Peace Portal Alliance in Mpigi. We are organizing guest houses, menus and final details right now!!

Time with friends...

Time with family...

Thanks for continuing to keep our family in your prayers!

Vancouver Aquarium

2009-05-25T21:00:00.012-07:00

Our kids had a list of fun things they wanted to do while we're visiting, and the Vancovuer Aquarium was high on their list!! We've been pretty busy during our time at home, but are so thankful that we got to take the kids here for the day, they loved it!!!!

Grandma Gesang, Auntie Lisa and Ashton came with us!

White Rock Beach

2009-05-15T00:08:00.017-07:00

It was fun to bring Mazzy to the beach for the first time!! Even though it was pretty cold outside, she loved getting wet!

Kibaale Walk

2009-05-13T08:56:00.010-07:00

Every year students at Pacific Academy School get pledges from family, friends and neigbours as they commit to walk 5km to raise money for Kibaale. We were home and able to walk with the school this year and had a lot of fun, it was great to see how excited everyone involved was!

The money raised from the Kibaale Walk goes towards operating costs to run Kibaale Community Centre as well towards an eating shelter for our students.

This year the most money ever was raised -- $144,000!! THANK YOU to everyone who helped organize this event, walk the 5km and especially to all of you who gave!!

Visiting

2009-05-12T15:15:00.012-07:00

On April 10^th our family arrived in Vancouver!! We were amazed at how smoothly everything went traveling with Mazzy thru London and into Canada, we’re so thankful for this opportunity to introduce her to everyone.

We have loved having this time to visit with family and friends, we

were all very excited to meet Baby Ashton (Shan's nephew), who was born on April 1st! We also got to meet Baby Sarah (Jeff's niece) for the first time, she's already one!!

Finn playing Peace Arch Soccer.

Granville Island.

Mazzy's 1st time at McDonald's!

A Dessert Evening with the Dyck Family -- Join us!!

2009-04-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

Staff Saturday

2009-04-02T15:00:00.023-07:00

A couple weeks ago our social committe planned a Staff Sports Day. There were sign up sheets posted the week before and we were quite impressed with how many people signed up for the many events, including: running races, sack races, chess tournament, badminton, volleyball, netball and to end the day off, a big soccer game!!

We were thankful it was a beautiful afternoon, but didn't count on it being so HOT, everyone still came out and played hard though!! It was great to see our staff all hang out together on a day "off" and gave us a chance to get to know them better, it was a great day!!

LOVE the kids!!!

JOY!

Sports Day

2009-03-29T03:55:00.016-07:00

Last week the PA Outreach Team ran a Sports Day for the Primary School.

It was really well planned and organized, all our students were very excited about each station they went to!

Happy 5th Birthday, Finn!!

2009-03-20T13:10:00.011-07:00

Finn turned 5 today, this is the 3rd birthday he's celebrated in Africa!!

We had a casual celebration tonight with our team, bbq hot dogs and chocolate cake at Finn's request. Although we are far from a lot of family and friends, God has surrounded us in Uganda by incredible people, we're especially thankful for amazing "Aunties" and "Uncles" in our kids lives. They are truly loved and invested in by Rachel, Sean, Jamie and the many visitors we get, we are blessed.

Joel

2009-03-19T07:53:00.005-07:00

Joel had a great day today, he was busy all day hanging out with different people.

Brenda Gaynor, who is a Science teacher at home, did a lesson with him this morning which he said was really fun. He then helped the PA team out with their work project, painting a wall in our primary campus, and somehow ended up with more paint on himself than the wall!! When we called him in for dinner we found him playing a volleyball game with some secondary students, he said he was serving and "bumping" it over the net, he was very proud of himself!

We love how our kids embrace the visitors we get in Uganda, and love to see how much fun they have with them all!!

Large Bug

2009-03-17T12:30:00.004-07:00

Joel never tires of finding new creatures to play with, like this very large bug hanging out on our back deck!!

Nursery Students

2009-03-13T01:25:00.000-07:00

Check out www.kibaale.net to see pictures of the new preschool kids who are waiting for sponsorship!!

The cost of sponsorship is $25.00 (Canadian) per month for nursery students. One hundred percent of the money goes for the benefit of the student and their family, which includes education, a feeding program, medical care and family agricultural needs. Administrative costs are covered by Pacific Academy.

Mpigi with the Anderson's

2009-03-13T01:21:00.003-07:00

We had a great week with the Anderson family in Kibaale and were so thankful to then spend a week together at our church project, the Peace Portal Children's Village, in Mpigi!

The preschool kids and staff kids who are home in the afternoon are hanging out with us at the guest house on our first day.

The Anderson girls were unsure of the chameleon at first, it didn't take long though until they were picking it up and playing with it or trying to catch bugs to feed to it!

The kids loved playing with us in the church and getting to make great crafts!!

"Cheese!"

T-shirts and fabric paint were donated to every one of the kids, they are so creative and made some very cool shirts. THANKS so much for your generous donations!!!

Mazzy and Praise had a lot of fun playing together, they're both too cute!

The VBS campers made these great balls for the kids, we hid them around the property, they had so much fun running around everywhere to find them!!

Sugar cane, yummy!!!

Donations

2009-03-12T14:52:00.006-07:00

Dan and Sherri Anderson were able to pack their family into one hockey bag, leaving 9 to fill with donations!! One of the donations was a bag full of clothes and shoes. We were able to take these to a school in a nearby village where the students are very needy. There were a few very shy children who had never even seen Mzungus before!!

Avin and Ally came to help us out, but were even happier to be little babysitters for one of the teacher's!

The children were so blessed with these gifts!!!

The Anderson family visits us in Uganda!!!

2009-02-28T11:11:00.010-08:00

Our good friends, Dan and Sherri Anderson with their 3 girls (Michelle, Allyson and Kylie), have come to visit us and see the projects we’re working on in Uganda!! We feel incredibly blessed to have their whole family here with us!!!

Today we focused on visiting families where the parents have died and the children are being raised by their eldest sibling or an elderly grandparent. The families we met are very needy and were so grateful for the gift baskets of essential food items, school supplies and treats we were able to bring.

Happy Birthday Avin!

2009-02-21T00:55:00.004-08:00

Avin turned 6 yesterday, her second birthday celebrated in Uganda. She's very proud to be "bigger, smarter, and to jump higher"!

Friends from Masaka came for dinner on Avin's birthday.

Happy 6th Birthday Av!

Kiambethu Farm

2009-02-19T00:03:00.009-08:00

Rachel, Jamie and I (Shannon) had the opportunity to visit Nairobi, Kenya this past weekend. We enjoyed seeing the city, which although only an hour’s flight from Entebbe, is like a whole other world. The city is quite established and a lot busier than Kampala, yet very organized and clean!!

Our highlight was definitely a day trip we took to the Kiambethu Tea Farm. A British couple, Fiona and Marcus Vernon, operate the tea farm that has been in Fiona’s family since 1910. Beautiful gardens, acres of tea and an indigenous forest surround their home.

We thoroughly enjoyed hearing Fiona talk about the history of the farm -- her mother, herself and her own children were all raised here, as well the process of making tea, which was amazing!! After touring the estate we finished our afternoon with a delicious meal.

Colobus monkey's, the little kids on the tour had fun feeding them bananas!

Fiona, describing the process of making tea inside their beautiful home.

Photos by Rachel.

Wild Hogs

2009-02-06T04:25:00.008-08:00

For Christmas, we bought the kids 3 plastic motorcycles. Motorcycles in Uganda are actually called a "boda boda". If we'd known the hours and hours that all 4 kids would play with them we'd have bought them as a gift a lot sooner!

Recently, some of the guys who work with us on the property saw Joel's interest in riding "boda bodas" and for the past few days, he has been getting lessons on their real bodas. He now steers, shifts, and starts the bikes all on his own! He says it's his new hobby, just like his Papa's back home!

Here is our friend, Arthur, giving Joel lessons on the boda boda, and making sure Avin and Finn get a turn to ride around too!

Losing Teeth

2009-02-06T04:04:00.003-08:00

Avin is a very proud almost 6 year old, she's lost 2 teeth in the past couple weeks! The money she gets under her pillow the next morning has Joel, Av and Finn all searching their mouths for more loose teeth.

"Ballack Obama"

2009-02-03T07:44:00.003-08:00

I (Jeff) spent this past weekend in Mpigi. Shaun and Brenda Gaynor, from Peace Portal Alliance Church, have arrived to spend the month working there. If there is any excuse to head up there to hang out with the kids, we jump on it.

I was having breakfast with about 10 or 11 boys when one of them asked me if I knew “Ballack Obama”. I told them that I had never met him, but yes, I have heard of him. Then I watched as they sat there, crossed their legs, drank their tea and discussed “Ballack Obama”. I don’t know what they were saying, all I heard was 10 year old orphans in the middle of nowhere, with no newspapers or TV, talk for 10 minutes about “Ballack Obama”.

It was pretty funny.

Lake Mburu

2009-01-24T04:13:00.014-08:00

Our Director from Canada, Jon Imbeau, recently spent a week with us in Uganda. We all had the chance to spend one night away at Lake Mburu for a staff planning retreat. We have such a great team right now, we're all very excited about the coming year.

Jeff took over the role of Director in Kibaale this January, so far it has been a smooth transition!!

Thank you for your continued support and prayers as we begin another year living in Uganda.

Mazzy spotting the zebra.

Sean and Jamie Davis

The kids entertaining themselves on the drums during our meeting.

Watching the feeding of bush babies as it got dark, our kids really enjoyed seeing them for the first time!

Enjoying hot chocolate on the deck in the morning.

Avin with Auntie Rachel

A front row seat to watch the Hippo opening his mouth very wide!

Jon and Finn watching the hippos.

One year!!

2009-01-23T09:47:00.001-08:00

Today is the one year anniversary of when we arrived in Kibaale, it’s been quite a year. If you want the full re-cap, feel free to re-read all the previous blogs.

Here are some interesting numbers:

1 new baby
264 games of soccer (just an estimate)
63 visitors
1 completed medical clinic
1 visit from the president’s wife
3 the grade Joel is now in
11 lion sightings
4 snake sightings
1 case of malaria (Finny)
258 elephant sightings (at least)
3 new people to our team
32 man hours lost waiting for weddings to start
47 acres of land purchased for our new school in Masaka
210 eggs laid each day
8 the day in April we are coming home for a visit!!!