ALREADY A MONTH IN AFRICA, WHERE DID THE TIME GO?

It is amazing the things you will see out on the street.  They transport everything on bikes or "bodas"  which are kind of small motorcycles.  These are also the main way to transport people.  

Boda drivers make their living by transporting things and people.  The gas is very expensive here, and they don't charge much to transport so I would say they only make a few dollars a day take home pay

There is always activity along all the roads we have traveled.  All my pictures are taken outside the car window so I can say I have missed some great ones, but maybe later

Often you see the children carry the "Gerrycans" full of water.  They are very heavy,  a 5 gallon can of water probably weighs 80 lbs.  Sometimes you will see children carrying two cans alongside the road

Missionary conference in Kampala.  We don't like going to Kampala very much, it is a crazy place to drive.  However, duty calls and there are all these missionary meetings to attend which are so wonderful because of what we learn and the spirit is go great.  Every Missionary conference requires a lot of food prep for all the missionaries.  We usually have doughnuts and juice for breakfast and then do a really big lunch.  There are about 150 missionaries and about 6 Senior couples. The Elders work very hard and are very successful.

Priesthood meeting in a new branch named Njero.  It has only been a branch for 6 weeks and they have already grown out of the building.  We now have 5 branches in the Jinja District

Three of these kids were baptized in the Njero Branch on Sunday.  We visited their home the day before the baptism.  They are all siblings.  The Woman in the striped shirt is their mother, she is not baptized yet.

just pictures snapped out my window

The children are so darn cute here.  But very shy

That says; "London Bridge"  Probably because they expect it to fall any moment

And did I say the babies are extremely adorable?

Primary Chorus in Jinja

Oh this was fun!  We attended an enrichment activity in a town called Mballie, about 2 hours away from Jinja.  There is a lady named Olivia who makes liquid soap and then teaches church members how to do it so they can do a little business to earn money.  This was at the class.  It is impossible to find containers to sell the soap in, so we save our water bottles and catsup bottles to give members so they can sell soap.

She showed how to mix the ingredients together, mostly chemicals that are hard to get here because you need a license to dispense them, but she has a certificate and she supplies them to members.

This is Olivia teaching the class.  She has all the ingredients on the board.  Notice most of the members there are men.  Trying to eck out a living is extremely difficult here, and they will try anything.  But the market is difficult because it is the poor selling items to the poor.  Most people cannot afford soap and do not use it or buy it.  But; Olivia's son paid for his college by selling bottles of liquid soap door to door.

If they cannot afford to transport their things on a boda, they use a bike.  The bikes do not have gears on them, they are totally man-powered.  The missionaries refuse to use the bikes because they are so hard to ride, requiring a lot of strength,but the African men carry large loads on bikes all day.

Sometimes I miss the picture because Elder Ballstaedt is driving too fast.  But this was going to be another picture of a load of sticks being transported on a bike

Another load on a bike

We buy everything at the open-air market.  It is fresh for the veggies, but let me tell you, I don't know how long those eggs have been sitting out in the heat even before coming to market.  I try to use the vendors who sell quickly hopefully the eggs are going to be fresher.  I can get about 30 eggs for less than 7,000 shillings which is about $3 US money.
For sure you would never make "over-easy" here.  Most likely we overcook our eggs a bit.

The fresh veggies are wonderful, but not genetically altered like in the USA.  So things tend to be smaller in size and have more seeds.  This is real organic living!  But of course we have to bathe everything in Clorox before eating anything.......

Boda driver with the two women who hired him to take them to church.  They sit side-saddle and have amazing balance while they sit precariously on the back of the boda.  Sometimes we have seen 3 or 4 kids on the back of a boda.  Sometimes there is a mother with a baby in front and a baby on her back!  We say a lot of prayers for people!