a week of pics

Happy Sunday, everyone!

as our American friends are getting ready to watch the Superbowl, we are having a quiet evening at home.  the boys are watching Narnia - Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and we girls are playing "kitchen" with Rey's new b-day gift of toy food.  right now, she is serving me chocolate pie and eggs.

i'm trying to keep my commitment of blogging more often...  this time, i thought i would spare you words and just post some pics from this past week.  

last Saturday, the teens hosted a concert called Oil of Gladness at Watoto Central.  we were esp. proud of some of our Suubi kids who danced - they did great!  i thought our Jackson friends would appreciate this pic., as they are wearing the Madison High basketball jerseys that were donated last summer by our Jackson FCA team. 

on Monday, T and i had a date day!!!!!!!!  i was very excited about that!!!!!!  (can you tell?)  we drove 15 min. down the road to Mpanga Forest and tromped, and chased butterflies, and swung on a vine, and had a picnic.  it was lovely - for 4 hrs. we didn't see or hear another soul.  this is a rare treat, living on a village with 1500 other ppl where personal space is hard to find. 

the only negative thing about the forest (besides the snakes, which we didn't see any of!) is the safari ants.  they move in a thick, mad frenzy across the path, crawling over top of each other, while the big ones with pinchers guard the route.  you have to step past them quick - it is amazing how fast they latch onto your foot!  

ok, i do feel dumb posting a pic of our lunch, but i think it was the best meal i ate all week!  my MawMaw sent us canned salmon in the mail, and i had been saving it for a special occasion.  so, it was salmon patties and passion fruit/ carrot juice.  

 

and this is who visited us while we stopped to eat

 our other highlight of the week was Reynah's 3rd birthday!  

it was a sweet and girlie as could be... and her brothers tolerated it well.

  and two more random pics that very well illustrate the gripes and joys of living in Uganda...

T thought we should end our date day by buying ice cream at the supermarket in town (something we've never done before).  can you guess how much this cost?

$20 for one pint of Snickers ice cream!!  

of course, we didn't buy it. 

 we settled for cheap stuff from Nairobi that tasted more like flavored ice and had little to do with "cream."

BUT, later this week, we did have to appreciate the fact that we could buy 2lb. of ripe garden tomatoes beside the road for $1.  and we couldn't help but feel sorry for the shoppers at Kroger right now, buying their over-priced, unripe Feb. stock.  

so, we thank God for the simple joys... 

and try to find contentment at least popping the lid and sniffing the Snickers.  :)