Random Photos

By Sara:

Here are some fun and interesting pictures from our lives over the past few months.  We got kind of behind on sharing pictures, so some of these are a little bit old.

First of all, Paul, who works for us, has been saving the money he has been earning in order to start a shop.  He just started it recently and we went to visit.  We bought some sugar while were there.

At home, every evening, Caleb and our friend's dog know when it is time to go for a walk.  This is what happens around 5pm.  However, they have gotten to the point where they nudge open the door earlier and earlier each day, maybe thinking (hoping) that it is evening already?

Beorn's favorite place to hang out is on top of the clay oven, even when there is a fire burning inside.

In fact, he loves to climb on anything he can.  Here is a video of one time when he sneaked inside and started jumping on the furniture.

He also was hanging out in the wheelbarrow sometimes.

We had some heavy rains in October and November and it got to the point where the soil was pretty saturated.  As a result, one day when it rained a lot, the water just sat in our yard for a few hours before it was able to start soaking in.

I bought this giant passionfruit from one of the pastors in Anthony's Amuria TLT group.

This is a picture with the flower for that passionfruit plant:

And the inside (it was really good! - you can eat the outer part and it tastes kind of like honeydew melon and then the middle part with the seeds is like regular passionfruit):

I also chopped my hair short again.

We enjoyed celebrating Thanksgiving with Trent, who has been working in Kaberamaido the past few months.

Then, the next day we went hiking in Mbale with him and another friend, Eric.

Sometimes people take pictures of us and aren't very sneaky about it.  I got a picture of this guy who was taking pictures of me.

Sadly, in preparation for moving, I had to sell all of my animals.  I said goodbye to the goats and chickens yesterday and I was very sad to see them go.  I wanted to take pictures with them to remember them by and when I was trying to do so, this happened:

I think Luthien was the only goat who realized that this was a sad day:

Creative Farmers

By Sara:

As part of my work, I have continued visiting the farmers we work with in Amuria, Katakwi, and Kaberamaido to see the work that they are doing and encourage and advise them in it.   I want to share some of the good things that they are doing.

One farmer in Katakwi built several different kinds of kitchen gardens right near his house and his family has been enjoying fresh vegetables from them.  He decided that he likes this one in the front of the picture best because it is easiest to build and maintain.  This is a keyhole garden like the one I built in my garden.

As part of disaster risk reduction training, some other people in Katakwi identified flooding as one of the biggest disasters that they frequently face.  They talked to old people in their villages and learned that people used to build raised houses so they could put their belongings in a dry place when it floods and even be able to sleep somewhere dry.  So they have started building some of these houses again.

In Kaberamaido, there are resource people who are teaching their neighbors about conservation agriculture and trying it out themselves.  Their neighbors have seen their example and are also trying these techniques out, including the man below (in the blue shirt), who planted jackbean with his cabbages to improve the soil and protect it from erosion.  He looks forward to making a good profit off of the cabbages when they are ready to be harvested.

Merry Christmas!

By Sara:

Merry Christmas from Uganda!  Our friend Eric, from Mbale, came to spend the week with us.  May you, too, have a wonderful day celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus!

Even though there is no snow (it is hot and sunny), Christmas in Uganda is still Christmas.  We thought you might like to see a little bit of what we do for the holiday.  We've been celebrating Advent for the past four weeks.  O come, o come, Emmanuel.

And we even have a Christmas "tree" (it's a branch!)

We are eating gingerbread cookies:

The traditional Christmas sweet roll (made in the shape of a wreath by my mom, but too big to fit in my oven like that, hence the double C)

And the Christmas turkey (roasted in the clay oven at 500 degrees!):

May God give you peace and joy this Christmas!

The Wonderful World Renew Staff of East Africa

By Anthony:

At our last Regional Team Meeting (for East Africa), our pictures were taken and we thought we'd share them with you so you can see the great people that we work with.  These photos were taken by Theo Bremer-Bennett, the husband of the new World Renew executive director of the USA, Carol Bremer-Bennett.

This photo includes most of the people on the World Renew East Africa staff, including visiting staff from the home offices in US and Canada.  World Renew has offices in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, but there are also a few people working in South Sudan and one of them joined us for our East Africa meeting.

The Tanzania Team:

The Uganda team we have come to love!  A couple people in the photo work in a much larger region which includes Uganda. The second photo is more recent and includes our new country team leader, Raymond Mutava as well as other staff that were missing in the first photo.  We are so thankful that after nearly two years, the Uganda team has a country leader again.

 

The Kenya team we are excited to join and get to know (there are also some missing from this picture)!