LIFE BY THE WHITE NILE

Oh the chickens here think the dumpsters are their feed.  And then we buy the eggs......mother nature is amazing

Another shot at the edge of the Nile.  Elder Harris and Elder Ballstaedt with the boat man.  The full time Jinja Elders/Sisters enjoying the sights.  We were hoping to see the monkeys, but they weren't out that day.

Sister from Njeru branch with the traditional baby sarong.  These women sure have strong backs.

After church in Njeru.  The little girl in the blue dress started screaming and ran to her mother when she saw us with our white skin.  It scarred her to death.

Showing us her notes from church

This baby really hated us.  She had never seen white people.

I see these trees all over and I don't know what they are called, but they are distinctive because they always have two trunks.  Or maybe it is two trees connected at the roots.  Sister Harris took a picture of this tree to give her husband for their 44th anniversary as an allegory about their marriage.  How sweet!

This woman was on her way to go plant the corn.  Her two daughters were with her.

It's the rainy season and time to go plant the corn

This is one of the most horrible things we have seen here.  We drove through the dump as a shortcut to another city.  How shocked we were to see how many people search through the garbage for food and usable items.  There is nothing eatable that the birds and chickens and dumpster divers haven't already picked through, but people fill bags with things they take home.

The desperate plight of the poor and starving people

Right after the truck dumped the dumpster.  I can't even imagine how many worms and bugs are swarming in this trash

On a brighter note, we were visiting some venues looking for a place to have District Conference when we came upon these beautiful dancers at a hotel overlooking Lake Victoria.  It was really quite beautiful

This is the branch clerk of the Jinja branch Emma.  He payed his school fees by working as the tree surgeon around the Jinja chapel.  He will be a missionary in a year or so.  We adore him, he speaks beautiful English, and takes really good care of the building.

Early this morning just as the sun was coming up I caught Alex mowing the grass.  He said his "push mower" wasn't working....of course he has never seen a push-mower, he was joking with me....

Cephas and Barbara just got engaged.  

Little kids are always taking care of the younger siblings

What strong necks.  I always wonder if these women get back problems ever.....We even saw a girl with  a load on her head who was still able to tip her head as she drank from her pop bottle and her load did not even fall off...

little kids are always carrying loads

amazing

These beautiful bushes will bloom with gorgeous pink flowers.  They grow around the perimeter of the grounds at our compound and at the church

but if you look closely, you will see why you don't want to play around this.  If someone crawled over the wall at our compound, this is where they would land

Mothers get their work done and the kids get plenty of sleep

I remember now what these are called!  They are called Rolex, yep just like an expensive watch.  I think they meant it to mean rolled up eggs....

These birds are huge, they fly in the air and look like small dinosaurs from the Jurassic era.  I think they clean up any garbage that the chickens don't polish off first.

Oh here are my grand kids, (well most of them) sending me a message.  They are so cute!!!

Here is the boat we hired to take us to the Source of the Nile.  Apparently the Nile is the only, or maybe one of the few rivers that flow from south to north.  Lake Victoria feeds the Nile, or so they say it feeds about 70% of the water, and an underground spring feeds the other 30% of the Nile water.  That is the story they told us, but I didn't ask for certification so that's all I know.

Here we are where the spring water comes up to feed the Nile

View from the boat

As usual I missed the picture, but in the far left side of the screen you can see the edge of a huge lizard tail.  The tail is the size of the tree trunk that is lying on the ground near the lizard.

more views from the river

This is some kind of marker to mark the place where the spring originates

These little structures are some kind of black magic witch doctor stuff to keep the bad spirits away

This is James.  He is our new project this past week.  He is making a plan for his life and reporting back to us.  He is a returned missionary and in the District YM presidency - great kid and he's looking for a wife if you know anyone?...