...:::The New Normal:::...

WOW!

I can't belive I've already been home (Uganda for now) for 3 weeks! It feels like I was just in the US a few days ago! Luckily, that feeling doesn't still include the jet-lag I came back with!!! Although it's felt like a blur the past few weeks, there's actually been a ton of stuff happening over here...

 
To start with, we're finally in a home that we can once again call our own! As many of you may know, God has been a bit of a showoff for us since this whole "we're going back to Uganda" thing happened. One of the ways He's reminded us of how big He is, is by giving us a free house to stay in! Not only is it free, but it's BEAUTY~FULL!!!

We share a compound with an amazing family of missionaries, The Carrolls, and are blessed with a daily spectacular sunrise and a constant cool breeze (unheard of here!). We're also only a 5 minute drive from where we now serve (Bombo). To keep things exciting, we've got no running water or flushing toilets! We rely 100% on collected rain water and are getting quite adept at pulling buckets of water from our well/cistern, but honestly, we kinda love it!

The past few weeks have pretty much been a time for us to become better acquainted with the work being done here through Align Ministries and the amazing volunteers and staff that work tirelessly to make it all happen!

Coryn has spent most of her days getting better acquainted with Align's "Life With Hope" program. LWH was established to accomplish exactly what the name implies by coming alongside individuals in the most dire situations (most affected by HIV/AIDS) and providing immediate and long term care. This is done through monthly support and food donations, as well as medical care, and in extreme cases, admission into a "life home". 

Coryn has also been spending a lot of her time teaching and developing leaders and programs at Align's school, Donela Orange Primary and Secondary School.

I, like Coryn, have spent my days familiarizing myself with the projects, ministries, and processes that Align is involved in here. I've also had the opportunity to begin looking into new ways of impacting the communities we're planted in.

One of the first projects our team tackled here was installing "Tippy Taps" for our LifeHomes. Running water is rare in most of the rural parts of Uganda, and because of this, good hygiene is not always an option. This leads to an increase in disease and illness which, in many of our HIV/AIDS infected clients, is detrimental! Tippy Taps provide a great hand washing solution for areas where water conservation is a must! So far, they're a great success, and we're now planning on installing them around our schools and communities!

Daniel and Nehemiah pretty much love it here! They've really taken to their new school, and put up quite a fight on days

when they can't go! They also really love living on the same property as the Carrolls because they've always got kids to play with! Both boys have been hit with a myriad of different infections and bugs (like any kid at a new school) but are hopefully on an immune system upswing!
Lastly, we've got some exciting news...

We're once again "Real Missionaries"! Align Ministries has added us to their easy to use support page! If you're one of the many people who've wondered how you can partner with our family, now you can!

All you have to do is go to alignministries.org/donate/ and select "Uganda Missionary Support". Fill in the required fields and, Boom!!!, it's like you're right here with us, loving and serving the Align community! You'll notice that there's also a ton of other great ways to learn about the ministry and support Align on that same site!

...:::If Laundry Mats Were Gyms:::...

“I wish there were laundry mats here!"

That is a phrase I definitely never thought I’d hear but, in the last few weeks, I know that Coryn and I have both said or thought that phrase many times!

In my bachelor days, I loathed the thought of dragging all my dirty clothes to either my apartment’s overpriced laundry room, or hauling everything over to the, always crowded and rarely clean,  neighborhood “Sud N’ Wash”, but recently, those days seem like fond memories. 

During our previous stay in Uganda, Coryn and I both worked in fulltime ministries/jobs that left little time for a lot of the everyday household chores made easy in the US by the aid of modern appliances! We instead opted to hire a dear friend as a caretaker for the kids and a housekeeper. This was a great solution but since we’re just here, basically waiting, we figured we’d take on the household chores on our own.

One thing we knew when deciding to do this was; laundry here is quite the ordeal…

Being the “Googler” that I am, I set off to learn all the inter-web had to offer about hand washing clothes which was basically; It’s hard work, don’t use too much soap, vinegar gets the soap out, wash often, and it’s really HARD WORK. Keep in mind our process has only been adapted over the last few weeks of washing but it goes something like this.

It all starts with a pre-wash-day soak. Everything gets divided up, just like back home, by their various colors and wash temps. Each pile goes into its own bucket or basin with a bit of soap, and left over night to soak. Sweet, the easy parts done!

The next morning we get the kids up, washed, fed and hopefully entertained by some toy, game, or show so the real fun can begin! We start by removing the clothes from the soak water and setting up three buckets. 

The first bucket is for washing. We throw a few items into about 8in of water with a tablespoon or so of detergent (not too much) and look for any persistent stains and scrub those out with a firm bristled brush.

Then we agitate the snot out of it with this handy gadget that people on the web were raving about. It works really well too! Wring the clothes out and transfer to the next bucket.

The next bucket is plain ol’ H2O. Using our new “washing machine”, we again agitate the clothes until our arms give out, forcing as much of the detergent as possible out of the clothes. We then wring and toss them in the last bucket. (Apparently, most manufacturers recommend 3xs the amount needed to get clothes clean which just makes clothes harder to dry, attracts dirt, and leaves clothes feeling stiff. Who knew?!)

The last bucket is again water, but this time with a capful of vinegar, which neutralizes any remaining detergent left in the clothes. Then we just give them one last hardy wringing and hang them on the clothesline (which I fabricated out of angle iron so that it clips onto our balcony and can be removed without damaging the property). 

All done (almost)! Yup 5 whole pieces of clothing all clean! Now we just repeat those steps over until our family of four’s half week of laundry is clean which typically takes half a day. 

Then we wait for the sun to dry them, which takes the rest of the day as long as it’s not raining (it’s rainy season).

The last step is to iron every, yes EVERY, item of clothing! Flies here lay their larva on wet clothes which can then burrow in ANY part of your body (yup, laundry mat sounds pretty good right now) which would be a bad day in my book!

Well, that’s about it! Sorry about the long post but, seeing that it takes up a lot of our free time here, I figured it was worth the five minutes of reading! Hope you enjoyed it!