i'm so fed up with blogger. i can't it to do anything useful. grrr.

so, look for me at rhondainmada.wordpress.com

again: grrr. :(

2 more sleeps

We’re back in Nairobi now, hanging out and waiting for Saturday to arrive so that we can go back home. Good thing that Jocelyn and Judah are willing to hang out with us, so we’re not bored. :) We had lunch with them at the mall close by and now we’re hanging out at our guesthouse until we meet them (and Josh) for supper at an Ethiopian restaurant.

Our short holiday this week was only a few days, but I’ve rarely had such a packed-full, wonderful, exhausting few days. Today I just feel weary. Part of that is being tired of packing, unpacking and repacking as we have been moving around, and it makes me even more ready to get back home.

Here’s another few photos of our safari. The girls loved almost everything, and were overall very patient and quiet when we were looking for animals. I hope that they remember at least a few details for always.

Jambo!

Just popping in from the gorgeous Masai Mara to say a) we're having a wonderful time, b) it's possible to blog from the middle of nowhere, and c) I have tons of pictures to show you at some time.

I've been sighing happily multiple times a day.

we're in kenya.

we got up early
and had a good flight
and i'm exhausted.
good night.

signs of the times

I really love reading signs here. I guess in Mada they're all in French, so any possible humour is lost on me most of the time. Here they're in English and I'm amused. Some of these are just advertising. That's not so amusing, but I thought you might like to see how people have whole buildings painted with advertising. (It happens in Mada, too, and I always have assumed that the advertising is a free paint job for your house or business, but I don't actually know if that's true.) You might have to click on some of these to make them big enough to read. Enjoy. :)

FYI

I'm working on our mailing list for our newsletters and just thought I'd put some info here about that for your education on the matter.

1. If you are not on our mailing list, and you'd like to be, just send me your e-mail address.
2. If you are on our list and would prefer to get the e-mail version (saves postage and paper/printing costs and you get colour pictures every time!!), just send me an e-mail to tell me you want to switch.

laugh of the day

Happy Mother's Day!

This weekend is so relaxing and wonderful that I don't want it to be over. :) Matthew had 5 long, hard days of work last week, and well, so did I. When he came home on Friday night, I sighed a great sigh of relief and said, "Let's go out for pizza." Ha.

Yesterday we just hung out around the house, except for me making a run to the grocery store and a second-hand store. It was very refreshing to hang out together as a family.

This morning the girls were so excited that it was Mother's Day. :) They had all made cards for me, and gave me money to buy the bird book I've been eyeing. I have to tell you about C's card for me. It was a blow to my self-confidence. (not really, but it cracked me up.) It said, "Mom, Happy Mother's Day! I love you very much! Do you know what to do with the money in the box? Buy "Birds of East Africa!" We put in enough money! Dad thought that you could figure that out on your own, but I wasn't so sure. Caitlyn" Hee hee. So sweet.

We only have two more weeks here in Uganda, a week in Kenya and then we are heading home! I am alternately so excited to get back to our own house and nervous about the continuing political drama there.

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african hair

Caitlyn has been waiting and waiting to get her hair braided, and I finally arranged to have it done. It took almost 3 hours and cost me $5. She's very pleased, to say the least, and the other 3 girls are begging to have theirs done, too. :) We'll see. She has 15 braids, in case anyone is wondering.

Jinja

We're back. Tired, happy and a little bit sunburned. It was a good time away, if you overlook minor details like the hotel not having recorded our reservation. Ahem. And not having a bungalow big enough for our family. And Larissa being made to sleep in a crib because of said oversight. Oh well. We overlooked it and had a good time. :)

This is a tea plantation that we drove by on the way to Jinja. It was beautiful.

When we got to our hotel, we parked under a tree and right away I heard birds. We got out and looked and the tree was FULL of birds and nests. I've never seen anything like it. They were Little Weavers, and they were building nests and making a huge commotion while they were at it. It was amazing. There were hundreds of birds and hundreds of nests.

We ate lunch almost right away after we got there, and while we were waiting for our food, the girls played "Mother May I."

The cute little "Mother" who likes being in charge.

We swam for awhile after lunch and then we went for a boat ride. The hotel was on Lake Victoria, but very near the beginning of the Nile. The hotel had boats for hire, so we found another couple there who also wanted to go and we all went together. Unfortunately, our camera isn't really good enough to take pictures in a situation like this, but we went onto the river and for one hour we just went up and down the shoreline. We saw about 12 different kinds of birds, monkeys and 2 monitor lizards. It was all just so fun and so amazing.

This morning after breakfast, the girls swam again before we had to check out. You can imagine that a pool like this was a big hit. :) They are getting very comfortable in the water now, and like to try new tricks all the time.

When we left the hotel we drove over the dam (hydroelectric dam in the Nile) and went to find the Bujagali Falls. The photo above is the dam, and the photo below is the lower side of the river.

Here we are at the Bujagali Falls.

In this photo you can see the rafts and kayaks getting ready to go over the falls. It looked like so much fun, and the girls begged to go. Someday. That's the sort of thing that makes me look forward to having teenagers. :)

We stopped at a little cafe called the DeNile Cafe. :) We ate fish and chips and couldn't resist the passionfruit cake and ice-cream. It was delicious! I think I might have to figure that recipe out now. I saw this tree as we were walking to the cafe, and thought it would make a good picture.

Larissa was so tired on the way home, and convinced her Daddy to stop the car (proof that he's wrapped around her finger...) and get her blanket out of the suitcase. :) She was asleep soon after this was taken.

We stopped for groceries on the way home, then came the unpacking/sorting/cleaning up that comes after a weekend away. Now the girls are bathed and in bed, and we are relaxing. :)

Bowling and other stuff

Listening to stories on the mp3 player.

My girly-girls.

Caitlyn (she got a few spares and a strike with that thing!)

Aimee (I think she got a spare or two as well)

Sierra (she also got a few spares)

Larissa (she got two spares...she is aiming the ramp in this photo and she had a pretty good eye for it.) Unfortunately this is the best photo we have of her, and I had to crop my head off because I clearly didn't know that anyone was taking my picture at the time. :)

the week

I couldn't sleep after about 5:50 this morning and now I'm enjoying a slow, rainy morning. Two girls are awake and reading books. I'm still in my pjs, since I can't think of a good reason not to be. :) One of these days we'll have some breakfast and get on with life, but for now I kinda like this.

This week has flown by. On Tuesday Matthew had the day off (about his "days off": when he doesn't have flights here, he has nothing else to do. It's so nice for him to have this break from all of the office responsibility he has in Mada.) and we took the girls to the bookstore to spend their money and then we went bowling. We thought he had to fly on Wednesday, but in the end he didn't, and we found a place for the girls to play while we went out and did some focused shopping. Tuesday was fun with the girls, but I hadn't been able to get anything I was looking for. I'm starting to want to actually buy the things I want to take back to Mada, instead of just looking and planning. :) We had a dinner invitation on Wednesday evening, which was fun. Thursday morning Larissa got to go with some friends to a music morning for preschoolers. She was a little nervous about driving off with a carload of people she doesn't know very well, but when she came back she was very excited about her morning.

Today we are going to do school, then pack for our weekend away. Tomorrow we're going about 2 hours away to a town at one of the sources of the Nile. We're hoping to do a boat ride on the Nile and then I'm not sure what else there is to do. The hotel we're staying at has a pool, so I'm sure we'll use that a time or two. :) Tomorrow is our 11th anniversary, so it's nice timing.

Please keep praying for Madagascar. Things are not really improving at all, and it is quite sad to see this turmoil.

Internet!! At home!!

I never expected to get internet at the house while we’re here, so having a decent connection is really a bonus. After having no internet at the house since we arrived on March 30^th, I’m enjoying this with mixed feelings. It’s so good to be back in touch with blogs, e-mail, skype and facebook, but I find it is so easy to waste so much time here. I had been getting so much scrapbooking and painting done, and now it seems hard to find time to do those things. It’s a good lesson for me in keeping my priorities straight.

We had a good weekend. Friday night I went bowling with 8 MAF ladies and had a good time. I even managed to win one game, in spite of being very tired by that time of night. It’s so amazing to me that you can go bowling here, and not even at a completely ridiculous price.

Saturday we mostly hung out around here, but then we did go swimming and to the weekly MAF volleyball game. Our first tradition here has come out of those weekly volleyball games because we never get home till at least 6:00 and the girls still need to have baths before bed. So, we have pancakes for supper. With store-bought pancake syrup. (2% real maple syrup! Sad, isn’t it?)

Sunday morning I had a headache and felt a little off in the digestive department so I stayed home and napped while M and the girls went to church. We were invited out for lunch and the girls played so well with their girls, and we chatted so well with them, that before we knew it we had stayed till after 5:00! When we got home, the girls watched a movie while I gave Matthew a haircut.

Today we tried valiantly to get back into the weekday routine and just as the day was ending, we seemed to get over the Monday slump. :)

I can hardly believe that our time is over more than half gone. I have very mixed feelings about that, but mostly want to go home.

This Saturday is our 11^th anniversary and we are thinking of spending the weekend at a hotel in a town called Jinja. The girls are very excited to be coming along. :) I think we’ll be able to see some animals (probably nothing too exciting) and lots of birds, and possibly have a boat ride on the Nile. We shall see how that all works out in reality. (My cynicism rears its ugly head...that’s what 4+ years of living in Africa does to a holiday-planning individual. :)

the equator

21 April 2009

So, last night didn’t turn out quite like we’d planned. The Italian restaurant we were going to was closed, sadly. It was quite a disappointment, to say the least. We started heading towards the mall, but the traffic was very bad. Then we ended up eating at the American club, just a 5 minute drive from our house. (We’ll try not to think about the time and diesel we wasted up to that point.) We had a nice dinner there, even though we weren’t eating till almost 8:00, I think.

Matthew flew yesterday and today, and has the next two days off (barring unexpected flights). We’re thinking of driving to the equator tomorrow and having a picnic there. I’m mostly not really so hyped up about being at the equator, but at the same time it seems like an opportunity that should be taken when possible.

Today Matthew had a flight that made the rest of us a little jealous. He had to go pick up some people at Murchison Falls. Unfortunately for the girls and me, he found it a little hard to take pictures and fly at the same time, but he saw elephants, hippos, crocodiles, buffalo and a bunch of some kind of deer.

23 April 2009

Yesterday we went to the Equator! It was kind of fun to think of being on the Equator, for real. We ate our picnic lunch as we drove along, and I laughed at all of the funny signs along the way. (We passed the Comprehensive Hotel, the Hotel Stallion, the Best Hotel, the Blessed Supermarket, the Hallelujah Car Wash, Sofa World [it was a small world, after all], Microsoft Phone Center, Kampala International Hair Salon [housed in a refurbished shipping container] and many more.)

At the Equator, we took pictures, looked in the shops and then had a snack in a cafe run by Aidchild. The muffin we had was the biggest muffin I’ve ever seen, and our smoothies and coffee were also jumbo-sized. (Whispering:: I think there must be some Americans around there somewhere...) The drive there and back was beautifully green and I tried to take pictures. Our camera doesn’t take the best landscape pictures to start with and then there was the small problem of not finding any of the pictures from the drive on the camera when we got back. I’m not sure what I did wrong??? The ones from when we’re stopped are there. (More whispering::Matthew left the camera inside the cafe when he paid, and while he went back in to find it, I was debating if finally being able to get a new camera would be worth losing the day’s pictures. He found it. And I still don’t have all the pictures.)

Matthew and I had a date today – lunch and grocery shopping. Truly a married people’s date, eh? :) I had a great salad, which I’m determined to order often since a salad like that isn’t to be found in Mada. Going grocery shopping here is a funny thing. I have to keep stopping to gawk at all of the things that surprise me. Today it was canned soups, barbeque sauce and canned pumpkin. Oh yeah, there were also individual pudding cups for $1 each. Of those things I only bought the barbeque sauce, but it sure is interesting to shop with those options. :)

As I type this, Matthew is working to get an internet connection working at our house. I confess that my faith is small...not because of Matthew, but because apparently the whole scheme isn’t well tested. There is a possibility that I’m guarding myself against disappointment, too. :)