Our Newest Venture- Friday Market Beads

Suzy returned the to the U.S. last week to help launch a business we have started called Friday Market Beads. Shortly after we moved to Uganda, Suzy began going to a local craft market held each Friday along the railroad tracks on the edge of downtown Kampala. It became a weekly ritual for her, and she was able to build strong relationships with the women in the market. Last summer when we were back in the U.S. on furlough, we brought a lot of jewelry from the market to sell. The products were well-received by our friends in the U.S., and the sales helped us support ourselves during our furlough. We also saw the huge benefits our purchases had on the lives of women here. They told us how grateful they were to be able to better provide for their families.

So we started praying about how we could provide these women with sustainable business- a regular income that they could count on month after month to pay rent, buy food, and pay for healthcare and education. Suzy and I spent countless hours learning about the lives of these women and the details of their trade. There were two things we kept hearing over and over. One was that these women felt that they needed a larger and broader market for their products. The second was that they never knew from week to week how they would fare at the market. Some Fridays they might do really, really well, but the next sell virtually nothing. This uncertainty was not only frustrating for them, but paralyzing as well. How can you plan for your future if you can't be sure that you can feed your family tomorrow? These women felt completely powerless to do anything to change their circumstances as they were completely at the whim of the ebbs of flows of the traffic at the market. When we would visit women in Kampala's slums, we were always struck by the material poverty they lived in. But the more time we spent with them, the more we began to see poverty in a whole different light. As Westerners, we had been programmed to see the material affects of poverty, but we learned that it went much, much deeper than that. Poverty is far more than an absence material things that make our lives more comfortable, safe, and easy. The real tragedy of poverty is the utter sense of hopelessness and powerlessness that it breeds in its victims. This is what broke our hearts and what we became determined to fight against.

It became clear to us that the best way to bring about sustainability and empowerment for the women God has brought into our lives is to give them an expanded market for their products. We created Friday Market Beads to serve as a bridge from their small craft market to a much larger market in the U.S., a market that more greatly appreciates the unique works of art these women create and one that also has compassion for women and children who live in poverty. 

We'd like to ask for your help. First, help us spread the word about Friday Market Beads. We have a Facebook page at www.facebook.com/fridaymarketbeads. Please go there and “Like” our page. 

We also desperately need people to help us sell our products. One of the best ways to do this is to host a jewelry party at your home. We pay a generous commission on all sales, and we hope that these parties can provide meaningful income for people in the U.S. as well.

We also have Fund-raising Packs available. If you or someone you know is trying to raise funds for a mission trip or other cause, please let us know. Each Fund-raising Pack will help you raise $75 to $125 for your cause.

Finally, we need your prayers. Please pray that God will continue to lead and direct us in this endeavor and for His blessings to be on this business and the women we are working with. Thanks for your support of us and Friday Market Beads!

Written 30 March, 2012- We just sent home Aid Sudan's first team of 2012. They were an amazing group; I've never felt so encouraged after spending time with a mission team. While in South Sudan the team visited each of Aid Sudan's work sites including our radio tower and building projects in Nasir, our radio tower in Malualkon, and our newest tower in Tonj. They also visited a possible new site for future work in a village called Akot. We pray that each team member will quickly adjust back to life in the U.S. and for discernment as the team members process all they saw this past week in South Sudan and determine God's call for each of them in being involved with South Sudan in the future.

Meet Emily

Written 20 March, 2012- It’s been nice to see that the media is beginning to talk more and more about the atrocities committed by Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army. Suzy has gotten to know a few ladies over the last year or so who have been personally affected by the evil acts of the LRA. She and a friend went to visit one of them last weekend. Emily is a young woman that Suzy has gotten to know well at the weekly craft market, and Suzy wanted to explore possibilities for Emily to make some jewelry to be sold in the U.S. through Friday Market Beads. Their journey started with a series of taxi rides (taxis here are vans that carry up to 14 people) to an area east of Kampala called Kireka. Emily was waiting there for them and instructed them to get on a boda boda (motorcycle) for the rest of the trip to the place where Emily lives, a slum area called Acholi Quarters. They made their way down narrow alleys filled with dirt and sludge and across small wooden bridges until they finally reached Acholi Quarters. The Acholi are known to be very clean people and this area was proof of that. It was the cleanest slum Suzy had ever seen. Here is Emily’s story. Emily is 26 years old and lives with her husband Richard and two-year-old son Michael in a simple two-room block house. They are both born again Christians. Each has a college degree from the top two universities in Uganda. Emily is an Acholi from northern Uganda. She was displaced from her village near Gulu during the civil war there in 1998. She fled to a rehab center near Gulu and later came to Kampala with her parents. Her dad has since passed away; her mom is HIV positive.

Emily is one of eight children. Four of her sisters were abducted and killed by the LRA. They were taken into the bush and beaten severely. They were too weary to go with the others to the rehab center and had to be left behind where they died. Emily witnessed all of this first hand as a twelve-year-old girl. She says that God showed them love and kindness at the rehab center. They were assisted by an NGO and moved to another place near Gulu and then on to Kampala. The family traveled on a truck carrying fruit from Gulu to Kampala, and her mother was carrying a young baby. When the family arrived in Kampala work was difficult to find. The family members started working in a near-by quarry using a hammer to break rocks. Now Emily and her sisters make jewelry from paper beads and try to sell them in the local market. She says that the market for the beads is very small, and it is difficult to make a living from that alone. At times when the family needs money for food, Emily goes back to the quarry to break rocks. She is able to earn 150 shillings (about 6 cents) for filling one 20-liter jerrican. On a good day she can fill 30 jerricans and make 4500 shillings (less than $2). Emily says she trusts in God. He has helped her survive, and He alone gives her hope. She desperately wants a market for the handicrafts she makes so she can help to support her family. And this is where Suzy and Friday Market Beads come in. We want to help Emily find a market for her beautiful products in the U.S. Over the next few weeks we will be working with Emily to develop a product line and then to produce a whole lot of jewelry. Please pray for Emily and her family and pray that her products are well-received by people in the U.S. To learn more about supporting Emily by buying her products, please email us at rliving1@juno.com or check out our Friday Market Beads page on Facebook.

Hand-Held Radios Distributed in Nasir County

It was a blazing hot morning in Nasir. Fourteen pastors from several villages had come to our Aid Sudan compound to pick up hand-held solar-powered radios that they could pass out to their church members and fellow villagers. A few of them had walked for two days to get there. Our Nasir staff set up some plastic chairs and a table under one of the few trees in the area. As the sun rose, our shaded area became smaller and smaller. I welcomed the pastors and told them about our radio tower and the broadcasts that occur each evening. All of them were already familiar with them, and I was glad to know I was speaking to regular listeners of Good News Radio! I explained how these radios would be a great tool to enhance their ministries. The tower broadcasts Bible stories that allow the people to hear the Word of God in their own language. This gives the pastors opportunities to discuss God’s Word with their villagers and to help them apply it to their lives. The radios are fix-tuned to the frequency of our tower, and they are solar-powered so they are easy to keep charged and ready.


Then it was time for the really fun part. In order for these radios to be used, some assembly is required. In all I was about to pass out 2,000 radios, so I needed to teach these guys how to put them together. For an American, this would be a breeze, but for Sudanese who have no experience with electronics, it was going to be a bit challenging. I showed them each of the parts of the radio- the radio itself, the batteries, and the solar panel. Then I demonstrated how to attach the solar panel, how to open the battery compartment, and how to properly insert the batteries. Then we gave each pastor a radio, two batteries, and a solar panel and went through the instructions again allowing them to practice. Not surprisingly, the hardest part was the batteries. They had to slide open a door and then make sure that one was put in with the positive side up and then the second one with the negative side up. It was quite funny watching them struggle with this, but most of them picked it up fairly quickly.


It was approaching mid-day, and we needed to get on our plane and head back to Uganda. I made sure our compound manager and other staff knew how to help with any issues that might come up and left them with instructions about what information to get from the pastors so that we can track the radios. Then we grabbed our bags and supplies headed back to the plane.

It’s great to know that as I write this, 2000 hand-held radios are making their way into the hands of thousands of people around Nasir town. Please pray that what they hear will transform their lives and bring hope to their families and villages.

Streaming Operational in Nasir

Thursday evening, 8 March, I was in Nasir with my colleague Kerry Henderson. One of our primary goals during our short stay was to get our satellite stream established. Although we have been broadcasting in Nasir for several months now, we have been doing so using CDs burned by our office here in Kampala. Although the CDs were a great temporary solution that allowed us to be on the air in Nasir since last fall, they had several limitations. Establishing the stream from Houston would greatly improve the quality of our programming and allow us to add new programming such as community announcements and national and international news. A few weeks earlier, Kerry had traveled to Nasir with a satellite expert, and they still were unable to get the stream established. So we knew we had a difficult task in front of us.


A beautiful full moon was also rising as we made the one-mile trek to the tower. Our staff in Nasir started the programming at 7 PM using the CD player, and we listened in on a hand-held radio. We decided to unhook everything and connect the equipment receiving the stream. Nothing but static. We knew the stream was being received by the transmitter; it just wasn’t sending it out from the tower. Not sure what the problem could be, we reconnected the CD player. But now it wouldn’t work either! This was extremely frustrating. Not only had we failed to get the stream going, but we had messed up the CD player as well. Now there would be no broadcasting unless we could figure out the problem. Discouraged, we shut down the whole system and turned off the generator. We got out the sat phone and made a few calls to relay the bad news. Then we decided to turn everything back on. When we did, the CD player worked! This was a good sign; at least we could continue broadcasting. Then it hit me- we needed to shut down the system, connect the streaming equipment and THEN start everything up again.


10 minutes later our stream was going out all over Nasir County! At that time, the stream coming from Houston was in Dinka. The people in Nasir are Nuer and speak a different language. As we celebrated, our compound manager looked confused. With his hand-held radio close to his ear, he said questioningly, “This is Dinka language.” I said, “Yes, I know, but tomorrow it will be Nuer!”


Praise the Lord that our Nasir tower is now fully functioning after over two years of struggle. Please pray that many people will be transformed as they listen to Good News Radio in Nasir!

Ethiopian Food!

Nasir is only a few miles from the Ethiopian border, so it should be no surprise that the few restaurants in town serve Ethiopian food. My favorite is in the central market next to a photo studio. A huge poster of Avril Lavigne and the smiling faces of many locals grace the door adjacent to the restaurant. The dining area is dimly lit and has a few plastic tables and chairs. The walls and ceiling are made from large tarps, and it’s absolutely stifling inside. Within a minute of taking your seat, you can feel the sweat pouring off you. There are no menus, but you do get to choose between red wat and white wat. Both are stews made with goat meat; the red is spicy while the white is mild. We made our selections (I always go with the red wat) and we each ordered a cold Coke (which hits the spot on a 112 degree day!). A few minutes later our food appeared on huge metal plates. Spongy flat bread called injera covered each plate and there was a small bowl of stew on top. The Ethiopian lady serving us poured the stew onto the injera. We prayed and dug in. There are no utensils so it’s a bit messy as you tear off pieces of injera and then use it to scoop up the goat meat. To make things even trickier, you are only supposed to use your right hand since the left hand is considered unclean. You also have to be wary of bones. When you find one you spit it out and put it on the table. It might not sound pleasant to some, but all in all, it’s one of my favorite meals and one I always look forward to when I travel to Nasir. I never leave disappointed!

A Day in the Life of a Logistics Coordinator

Next week Aid Sudan is building a radio tower in Tonj, South Sudan. I am managing the project and all of the logistics for it. Everything was going along well until two days ago. I had booked the construction team of five on a commercial flight from Nairobi to Rumbek, South Sudan. In addition to the five guys, we also had over 100 kg of cargo. As I was giving the details of the cargo to carrier, they informed me that they could not carry one very important tool called a hangman pulley. This tool is a long pipe with hooks that breaks down into two 3 meter long pieces. Certain restrictions prevented the airline from carrying these pieces in the cabin and they would not fit in the baggage area. So I began exploring other options with some of the charter organizations, praying that something might turn up. Many times they have flights that have space available on flights that have been chartered by other organizations to carry people and cargo. As of this morning, I had not been able to turn up any possibilities. I was about to give up and charter a full plane. The problem with this was that it would cost $7000 instead of $3000 and put me way over-budget for this part of the project. I hated to spend an extra four grand just because of two pieces of pipe, but it seemed I had no choice. I had prayed it through and contacted everyone I could think of, and God hadn’t opened any doors. Then late this afternoon I got a call from AIM Air. They would be able to carry the hangman pulley to Tonj! But to make things even better, the plane would also be going up to Malualkon where I have another 100 kg of cargo that I have been trying to get to Tonj for some time. So this plane can also take my cargo from there to Tonj, which will save money and complications later. I love it when God not only answers a prayer, but also takes care of another problem that you weren’t even asking about!

Car Accident

The other day I got a call from Suzy at about 4:30 in the afternoon. She’d been involved in a small car accident in one of the roundabouts coming out of the city. In this particular roundabout, four or five lines of cars jockey for position as the road narrows to a place that only one car can pass through at a time. This is huge bottleneck that is difficult to navigate. Cars are inches away from each other; motorcycles and bicycles are also trying to squeeze their way through the maze of traffic. It seems like total chaos, but there is actually some order to things that you learn over time as you drive here. Suzy was in line to make it onto the one-lane road when a guy whipped around her on the outside requiring him to drive up onto the curb. Her front bumper touched his rear door and left a surface scratch. These things are fairly common and can usually be dealt with pretty easily. But Suzy was mad and in no mood to compromise (can’t say I blame her). The guy she “hit” was demanding enough money from her to repaint his whole rear door. Suzy only had 4000 shillings on her (about $2). She had tried to negotiate with the guy, but he was not giving in. So she called me. I decided the best strategy might be to wait him out. So I told her to tell him that I was across town and that it would take me an hour at least to get there. After about 30 minutes, I called Suzy back. The guy was still quite content to wait and was showing no signs of giving in. The traffic police had gotten involved and taken both of their driving permits. I asked Suzy to let me talk to the guy. He explained what he was demanding. I again told him I was far away and that it would take some time for me to get there. He explained that his mechanic was coming to give him a quote for re-painting the door. I told him I would come as soon as I could to resolve everything. Then I called a friend to find out what it would cost to repaint a car door. He told me around 40,000 shillings (less than $20). Armed with this piece of information I made my way to the scene on a boda boda. When I got there, I talked with the guy and with his mechanic. His mechanic said it would cost 60,000 to repaint the door. I told him I would give him 40,000. If he didn’t want to accept that, I would take it to my mechanic to have it done for that price. Seeing that my price was firm, he accepted, and then we asked the traffic cop to come back to release their driving permits. He gave back the guy’s permit, but then said he was not releasing Suzy’s because he needed to write her a ticket for “careless driving.” It was all I could do to not burst out laughing, but I kept my cool and reasoned with him reminding him that we had resolved the situation with the person she hit (who was really the one driving carelessly) and that there was no reason to give her a ticket. Even the guy Suzy hit came to her defense asking the cop not to write the ticket. He finally agreed and gave back Suzy’s license. With that drama finished, we headed home for a nice dinner. I drove.

Radio Tower Foundation Completed in Tonj

Over a two week period in late January and early February, a pair of guys from a Christian non-profit organization called Diguna traveled to Tonj to lay the foundations for Aid Sudan’s next radio tower. We are building the tower on the compound of our ministry partners called In Deed & Truth Ministries. They have been doing some amazing work in Tonj for over 10 years, training pastors, planting churches, and operating the only medical clinic for miles around. In advance of the Diguna team traveling in, I had been working closely with IDAT’s compound manager Albino to make sure that cement, gravel, and sand were on site for the foundations. All of this went smoothly except for the gravel, which proved to be difficult to find. Fortunately, this didn’t delay things much as they were able to bring small truck loads in each day as the Diguna guys worked. What did cause a delay was the digging of the foundations. It hasn’t rained in Tonj in about 4 months so the ground is dry and very hard. The holes had to be 1 cubic meter, which meant that they would be over 3 feet deep. In all, seven holes needed to be dug. IDAT had hired a group of local men to do the digging. After the first two holes, the men decided that the work was too hard for them. They threatened to quit and demanded more money. Albino agreed to pay them more, but the men quit anyway. As the days went by, the digging was finally completed. Then the cement, sand, and gravel was mixed together and poured into the holes. About 700 blocks were also made that will be used for the building that will house the transmitter and other electronic equipment. The foundations now need about 3 weeks to cure. At the end of February, another team from Diguna will travel to Tonj to construct the actual tower which will be over 200 feet tall. Please give praise to the Lord for the successful completion of the foundations, and pray for everything to go smoothly with the construction of the tower. Also, please pray for us as we seek to get the radio frequency and license from Juba over the next several weeks so that broadcasting can begin in Tonj as quickly as possible.

Water Well Season

The dry season in South Sudan is prime time to drill water wells. For much of the year, many parts of the country are inaccessible by road. So once things dry out, drillers move en masse into the country to provide clean water to as many people as possible. Over the next few weeks, I will be working with 3 different drillers to drill 6 wells in the 3 different parts of the country, Nasir, Tonj, and Mvolo. The two locations in Tonj are pretty typical of areas that we look for when we consider where to drill a well. The first well will be drilled in a village called Guaria. A pastor trained by our ministry partners in Tonj, In Deed & Truth Ministries, has recently planted a church here. IDAT has also done some training with the villagers about health & hygiene. During the wet season, the women of the village have to travel there is water nearby, but that water isn’t very clean. As a result, many in the village are struggling with diseases caused by drinking impure water. In the dry season, the whole village is forced to move because there is no water. The situation is very similar in Warkar where many are sick and the villagers are displaced during the dry season. In the next 2 to 3 weeks, life-saving change will come to both villages as JB Drilling sends a rig to drill a well in each village. Please pray for these projects and for the projects I am coordinating in Nasir and Mvolo as well. Pray that as the people in these villages drink clean water for the first time in their lives that they will also come to know the One who gives them "a well of water springing up to eternal life."

Trip to Gulu

At the end of January, Suzy, Kerry & Neltia Henderson, and I traveled up to Gulu, Uganda, to check out the area for possible future work. For East African standards, Gulu is a fairly large town located in northern Uganda. It lies about 60 miles south of the South Sudan border. The Acholi tribe inhabits this area. They are culturally and linguistically similar to the Dinka, Nuer, and Luo tribes of South Sudan. We wanted to survey the area to see if it might be an ideal place for Aid Sudan to re-launch the Philip Project. This project seeks to equip and mobilize Ugandans to go into South Sudan as missionaries. It was a great trip, and God showed us great favor throughout. We were able to meet with several people already working in the area, and we learned a great deal from each of them. We also got to see a couple of really unique and interesting ministries in Gulu. One was of great interest to Suzy. There are several women who are handicapped or HIV positive who make jewelry. Suzy got to shop in the store that sells their things. We also met an American couple who runs a school in a village outside of Gulu. It’s amazing to see the work they are doing and how they are trying to bring about positive transformation of the educational system here. The next step is to pray through all that we learned while we were in Gulu. One possible scenario would be for us to move our family to Gulu to start up the Philip Project. Please pray for the Lord to guide and direct all of us in these next steps.

Innocent Until Proven Guilty- Not!

If you read my last post, you know that we were robbed during the Super Bowl, which airs in the wee hours of the morning in this part of the world. As dawn broke and we assessed the damage (which thankfully wasn’t much!), I started to think about who could have robbed us. The week before, I had told our main night guard that he would not be working with us anymore. I immediately suspected that he could be the thief, especially because it seemed to me that the person who robbed us had a pretty good knowledge of our property. I went to the local police post and explained to them what had happened and who I thought could be behind it. They said that they wanted to pick up my former guard for questioning. Now in Uganda, very few police have cars or motorcycles. So I had to drive them over to the place where my former guard lives. Two officers armed with automatic rifles climbed into my 4WD and we were on our way. After some time, we finally found his house. He was sleeping when we arrived. One of the officers knocked on his door and told him to get dressed because he needed to answer to a charge against him. So he got dressed emerging in black pants and a black shirt (the same attire as our thief was wearing). We all piled back into my car and headed to the police station (talk about an awkward situation!). Once there the police took my statement and my former guard’s. Then I had a chance to talk with my former guard about the situation. He’s a very good liar (which is the main reason I fired him), but for some reason I believed him when he said that he had nothing to do with the robbery. He told me how scared he was and how he had never been arrested before. Then I made one of the most naïve statements I could have made. I told him that if he hadn’t done anything wrong that he didn’t have anything to worry about. He looked at me and explained that they would be taking him to jail until they had completed their investigation and that it could take days or even weeks. This was news to me. I really just wanted him questioned to see if he had anything to do with it. So I went back to the officers and asked them what would happen next. They told me exactly what my former guard had told me- that he would be held at the local jail until they could determine whether or not he had committed this crime. I told them that based on my conversation with my former guard, I no longer suspected him and that I did not want him arrested. They said that he had already been arrested and that they must take him to jail. I was shocked! The police hadn’t even been to the scene of the crime, and they were assuming his guilt simply based on my statement that he might have been the one to do it. Quite the opposite of innocent until proven guilty! I started praying because I really didn’t want to be responsible for sending an innocent man to jail. After more discussions with the police, they finally came up with a way that he could be released. I had to make a statement that I was forgiving this man for the crime he might have committed and that I wanted him to be released. I gladly made this statement which the police recorded in writing and I signed. My former guard was so relieved- he grabbed my hand and began thanking me over and over. I asked him to forgive me for having him arrested and for being so naïve. Then we went out of the police hut, and his brothers were waiting there. I explained to them all that had happened. They told me that they understood why I had suspected him and they expressed how grateful they were to me for allowing him to be released. We all shook hands and left reconciled as friends. I still don’t know who robbed our house, and I probably never will. It’s terrifying to me that it’s so easy to get someone arrested in this country. It makes me grateful for the American justice system and the rights that we have as citizens of such a great country.

Robbed!

Super Bowl Sunday is actually Super Bowl Monday here in Uganda. Kickoff is at 2:30 AM local time. I actually didn’t have much interest in watching this year’s game, but my son Brody wanted to get up and watch it with me. I figured a little father-son bonding time would be a good thing. A couple of minutes before half time, our dog started barking (not so abnormal). About 30 seconds later I heard a man shouting (very abnormal!). I went over to the window and my guard Simon frantically explained that he’d just seen someone on the compound. I unlocked the back door and went out to further assess the situation. Simon explained to me that he had heard the dog barking so he came out from his room to see why. He saw a man dressed in black walking in the back corner of the yard. He shouted at him, and the guy took off running. He disappeared in the darkness under some trees. Simon speculated that he had jumped the fence to the next compound, which didn’t make much sense to me because our neighbor is a very big man with armed guards. Going on to his compound would be suicide, and I hadn’t heard any gunshots. We looked around a bit more in the area where the man was seen and couldn’t find anything of interest. Satisfied that we were safe and that the bandit had gone, I returned to my sofa for the second half, bummed that I had missed Madonna’s half time performance.

The game ended as dawn was breaking, and I went back into our bedroom. I immediately noticed that two of the screens in our room were pushed open. February is the hottest time of the year here, so sleeping with the windows open is a must. The windows have bars over them and then a screen covering them to keep out the bugs. The screens swing open toward the inside of the room. I woke up Suzy to ask her about the screens. She had no idea how they got open. Then she noticed that the basket on her bedside table was gone. Then she thought about her purse- also gone. I checked the area around the other open screen where we keep some books and our camera. The books were there, but the camera was gone. Then I went outside and found the missing basket and Suzy’s purse on the ground and a long wooden stick. The thief had apparently reached in and grabbed the basket and camera and then used the stick to reach further into the room to get the purse. All of this happened a foot and a half from Suzy’s head as she slept peacefully. He had taken money, some jewelry, and Suzy’s mobile phone. He left the purse, the basket and all the other contents he didn’t want at the base of the house.

If you’ve been robbed before you know how unsettling it is, and we have certainly gone through those emotions this week. We’ve taken steps to increase the security of our compound by putting razor wire along the front wall. I’ve also secured the screens and windows better and given my night guard a new place to sit. We also are keenly aware that things could have been much worse. The thief didn’t get away with much. My wallet, the car keys, and some electronics were close to some other windows that the thief didn’t get into. So it’s fair to say that we’re a bit rattled by this occurrence, yet we are also very thankful that the Lord protected us physically and that the damage done was minimal.

Roasting Coffee

One of the activities Suzy got to do at Sipi Falls was to tour a coffee farm. She learned about how they cultivate the beans, how and when to pick them, and the process for removing the outer skin from the bean. Then she was able to take some fresh beans and roast them over an open fire. After grinding the roasted beans (by pounding them with a piece of wood), she was able to enjoy a delicious cup of coffee.



She liked it so much that she decided she wanted to start roasting her own beans at home. So we purchased over 4 pounds of beans (for about $8!) to bring home with us. The other day she roasted her first batch. It wasn’t long before our house was filled with that distinct coffee aroma (and lots of smoke- good thing we don’t have smoke alarms here!). The final product was incredible and something that even a very sporadic coffee drinker like me can enjoy!

Trip to Sipi Falls, 10 January, 2012

After a few hot days in Soroti, we headed back to Mbale and then wound our way up Mt. Elgon to Sipi Falls. Mt. Elgon is a HUGE dormant volcano almost 14,000 feet high. The Sipi River (it’s more like a stream) flows down the northern slope of the mountain. About half-way down it tumbles over 3 different cliffs. The upper falls is about 250 feet high, the middle falls is about 200 feet, and the lower falls is about 350 feet high. In between them the river winds its way through small plots of land dotted with mud huts, matoke and banana trees, cassava, and coffee. It’s one of the most enchanting places I have ever been to.


We stayed at the Sipi River Lodge. Our cottage was small, but was located just a couple hundred feet from the middle falls offering us a spectacular view from our living room and porch. We spent our days trekking up and down the river exploring the waterfalls. On our first trek, a 10-year-old boy named Peter asked me if he could show me some things at the top of the middle falls. I knew he was hoping for a small payment for his services, but I said OK, and we headed off. Before I knew it we had a dozen other boys “helping” us. They were actually very helpful. They held Elise’s and Brody’s hands on the steep parts and one boy gave Milenia a higgy-back (Milenia’s version of piggy-back) ride. We later found out that it’s a bad idea to use the local boys for guides because they end up skipping school to try to earn money from the mzungus (white people). Should have know better, but lesson learned!

So the next morning we decided to hire a real guide named George to take us to the lower falls. He was great. He taught us some of the local language which is called Kupsabiny. We learned about the local culture. I was shocked to find out that George is the 8th best distance runner in Uganda running 10 km in less than 30 minutes! All of the other top runners come from this area as well, which makes sense given the incredibly steep terrain and high elevation. The trek down to the lower falls was steep and treacherous. At one point we had to go down a 40 foot ladder. As we struggled to keep our footing on the way down, we passed several women barefoot with a walking stick in one hand and a bag in the other yet somehow perfectly balancing banana bunches and logs on their heads as they climbed the steep slope. Absolutely amazing!


At the lower falls, Milenia and I decided to take a swim. I got in up to my waist, but the water was so frigid that my legs got numb. I decided to stop there. The climb back up was difficult, but we stopped at a cave along the way and explored it for a while as we dodged the bats that we disturbed along the way.

That night we climbed to the top of a hill and watched the sunset over the plains below. It also offered a spectacular view of all three falls as well as the top of Mt. Elgon. All in all it was great way to unplug from city life for a few days, and we all feel very refreshed as a result!

Trip to Soroti, Uganda, 7 January, 2012

A couple of weeks ago we traveled to Soroti, which is north and east of Kampala. The drive there was pretty easy except for the stretch between Mbale and Soroti. It took nearly 3 hours to drive 100 km on a road that was full of potholes and ruts. Once in Soroti we met up with our friend Pastor Richard Otim. We enjoyed a traditional Teso (the tribe that lives in and around Soroti) dinner with Pastor Richard’s lovely family under a beautiful starlit sky- chicken, rice, beef in peanut sauce and my personal favorite atap, which is a dough-like mixture of millet and cassava. Sunday we enjoyed worshipping at Rockview Baptist Church. That afternoon we drove out to Lake Kyoga. Along the way we stopped a village church in a place called Lale. The people in this village are from the Kumam tribe. They welcomed us with much celebration and shouting. We shared a time of prayer and fellowship in their mud-walled and thatch-roofed church. Then they invited us to the pastor’s compound for supper- more chicken, rice, and atap! The compound was made up of several mud huts and it was clean, neat, and very well-organized. We left Lale and continued on the Lake Kyoga reaching it just before sunset. It was very beautiful. Pastor Richard had been given a fishing pole a few years back, but he never could figure out how to use it. So we rigged it up and squeezed in a quick lesson before darkness fell. Then it was back to our hotel. Monday we went to the Soroti market, the East Africa pilot school, and toured the rest of the town. It was a really great time. I can’t get over how much Soroti and especially the villages surrounding it remind me of being in South Sudan. The people are similar, and I even found out that the Kumam language is very similar to the two main languages of South Sudan, Dinka and Nuer. That certainly has some interesting implications for ministry and missions in South Sudan!

A Bunny Story

We decided to get our youngest daughter Milenia an early Christmas present- two bunnies, a male and female. (And yes, I know why that is not such a good idea.) When we got them home, Milenia was thrilled as were our other two kids. On our compound, we have a fenced area for the dog that we've never used. We thought it would make a good home for our bunnies. We took out Mrs. Bunny to see how she would do in the dog pen. After a minute or so our black lab Roxy crashed through the door of the dog pen. Mrs. Bunny screeched in terror and bolted toward the fence. Somehow she managed to squeeze through the wire, and we managed to get the dog away from Mrs. Bunny.
A short while later we noticed that Mrs. Bunny's left leg was not doing so well. That's an understatement- it was completely broken. We felt terrible and called the vet. They sent someone to have a look and determined that Mrs. Bunny needed to go to their clinic for further consultation. A while later, they called, and we concluded that our best option was to put Mrs. Bunny down. Our kids were sad, but it was the only thing to do under the circumstances.

So then we were left with only Mr. Bunny. He's doing quite well. We've managed to keep him away from the dog. He's been hopping around our house and enjoying himself immensely. However, we started to get a little tired of bunny droppings all over our floors. We decided a cage was in order. Suzy went to see our favorite craftsman, made a deposit, and the work began. Just today we went to pick up the cage. It turns out that our cage is more like a bunny house. It was quite obvious that it wasn't going to fit in our SUV. So we did what all good Africans do- we hired a boda boda to carry it to our house for us. In case you've never been to Uganda, a boda boda is a motorcycle that is used to transport people and things all over town. Last week I saw one carrying a full size refrigerator. Our bunny house is a little smaller than that, so we figured it could work. As they moved the bunny house over to the boda boda, people started to gather around to watch. A few guys jumped in to help load the bunny house on the bike . It was quite tricky for them to get it secured and balanced just right, but after about 20 minutes they had it all ready to go. It was quite a sight as I looked in my rearview mirror and watched a boda boda driver weave through traffic with our bunny house. As I chuckled to myself, I couldn't help but think about what a crazy, unique, and special place Uganda is!