Christmas Day

After a huge breakfast on Christmas morning, we headed to church for a very meaningful service at Mom and Dad's church, Kigezi Baptist Church. As you can see in the picture, Eli and I got new outfits (purchased in Yabus market) and Mom's blue outfit is also from Sudan.

Audrey and I sang a duet: "Mary Did You Know" in church. We printed out the words of the song in Rukiga (the language in Kabale) so those who don't understand English could still get the meaning of the song.

Stan sure loves his nephew. Stan and Joshua have developed a special bond over the past week together.

Christmas stockings and gifts

The boys were very proud of their new stockings that Aunt Audrey sewed for them.

Evan proudly shows off his new toy!

Joshua is thrilled to finally have some cars of his very own

Full days

Uncle Caleb wrestles his three nephews

Eating like kings! Shish Kebabs, baked potatoes with all the works, and a salad

The beautiful couple: David and Audrey

The guys worked on a project all morning - fixing Mom and Dad's dining room table

On Saturday the boys and I made Christmas cookies - the process took much longer and made a bigger mess but we all had so much fun.

Frosted cookies: the finished product

There have already been several water fights with Uncle Stan's water guns

There's always something fun to do and in the background the Christmas lights are on and Christmas music is playing - everything's just perfect!

At Home in Uganda

We're so sorry we haven't updated this blog for so long. We were having troubles with our internet in Yabus. But now we're in Kabale, Uganda with Bethany's family. We'll be here for the next three weeks celebrating Christmas and the New Year. I will do my best to keep adding new photos. Please make sure you read the next few posts because I added some pictures and stories from our last month in Sudan. MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL!
Isaac and Evan acted as Mimo's little elves and helped put all the Christmas presents under the Christmas tree.

Can you see how happy we all are? Mimo is thoroughly enjoying her grandsons and I'm LOVING the extra help.

Yabus Friends

Kids movie at our house.

Antony and Sonia joined us for the last three weeks of homeschool. Class picture: 2009

River slide

Eli invented a great water slide down at the river one day. He took a long piece of black plastic, set it up on the sandy incline that runs into the river, and made a super duper water slide for the kids. At first Evan, Praise, and Isaac tried it out, but soon all the other village children joined in when they saw how much fun it was.

This is what they looked like in the end!

Thanksgiving in Sudan

Lori, Phalice, and I, the three American women on our team, spent most of the afternoon cooking up a storm. Yes, this is our kitchen.

Dreamwhip in Yabus? You bet ya! Lori's parents sent homemade whipped cream packets.

Our team gathered for our special Thanksgiving meal. These were very strange foods for them to try but overall we had a very good time and we were all stuffed by the end.

THE MENU:

Glazed ham

mashed potatoes and gravy

green bean casserole with real frenchfried onions sent from the States (except made with mixed vegetables)

jello fruit salad

homemade rolls

pumpkin pie with whipped cream on top!

Coffebreak - Sudanese Style

I gathered the team in the racuba (dried grass shelter/Sudan style gazebo) and served them all Sudanese coffee. I'd done the whole process myself: roasting the beans, pounding the beans, brewing the coffee in the clay pot, etc. so I was so thrilled to serve my SIM family true Sudanese coffee. Should I mention the whole process took more than an hour?

I want to apologize for not updating our blog in such a long time. We've had some internet problems in Yabus, so we weren't able to post updates. We are now in Uganda enjoying a sweet time of rest and family fun with Bethany's family who live here. I will try to put up a few pictures from our last month in Sudan and then give you a peak of our past few days here.