We're Off to Uganda !!

Hi Everyone:



I have just dropped by the internet cafe after our field trip to Kenya Wildlife Conservatory, a beautifully forested piece of property that houses and maintains deformed animals. There was a cow there with three eyes, four horns and his mouth was on one side of his chin and his teeth on another. Lots of cattle with short legs in the front. We took the grades 1 and 2 from MCCH, and we had a great time.



Before I add a few more interesting tidbits, just to let you know that tomorrow AM we will leave for Eldoret via a Kangaroo Taxi (a van that only holds 7 people). Then we will catch a Kampala Coach Lines bus to Kampala, Uganda. We will stay there Tuesday and Wednesday nights, maybe Thursday as well if we haven't done everything we wanted to do/see. Should be a very interesting trip. Have been told to watch what we eat even closer than here in Kenya, so I'm going to stop by Trans Matt grocery store and load up on rice cakes, peanut butter and water.



Speaking of water, we woke up to no water today - at all. The water company had stopped the water coming into the house and the host family had nothing stored up. So they were trying so hard to get enough water from their little bore hole for us to function in the morning.



Couple of days ago at MCCH - all the sudden one of the cows started giving birth. All the kids watched it, David took fabulous photos of the birth and "Dane" the calf was born from "Trudy" the mom cow. Here's the story of the cow: It was given as a dowry when Benta, the social worker at MCCH, got married. So she has named the calf after Dane Ruck and the mom after Trudy. Little Dane Calf is just so cute - very protective mom he (yes, it's a male) has. At out host house, we have three chicks which were hatched a couple days ago. Yesterday was their maiden voyage to the yard - oh my goodness they were adorable. Truly a farming community.



We, Trudy, Dane and I, attended the Kenyan MCCH Board meeting, as the three of us are on the Canadian MCCH Board. We were talking about some things taking so long to get done, (ie, the electricity), so the Chairman told us from Canada that he should have given us a rubber band when we arrived as it would show us you need to be very flexible here (and we are also learning to be more patient).



At the end of this week the MCCH children will be out for their holidays, going back to school in January, starting a new school year. So we as a team will be busier in December going to MCCH every day, interacting and doing crafts with the kids.



Remember Fred, the chicken which was given to us from Josephine? Well he is still alive and doing well and getting bigger. We have decided to keep him for another month and celebrate my birthday with a yummy chicken dinner!



Interesting politics going on here in Kenya. About a week ago a new Constitution of Kenya draft was printed in the newspaper. They are going to have a totally new constitution when it has passed. Right now they are asking Kenyans to give their feed back for a month, then they will go through it again.



Don't think I will be adding any photos this time. I totally believe your prayers for our safety and health have kept us safe and well. So I want to thank you for that and ask you to keep doing it while we travel to Uganda, especially since we have been warned to be very careful what we eat and traveling here and there - let's just say it's not the safest!



Hope you're all well. Is it American Thanksgiving tomorrow? Or was it last week? And is everyone starting their Christmas preparations - oh, it will be different here at Christmas. Hard to relate to it as there is nothing Christmassy anywhere here yet.



Love,

Nancy