Tails In Africa . . . or lack of Tails in Africa . . .

Friends and Family,

I am writing you this rainy, windy, cloudy Monday morning, with a thankful heart for the NEPA we have right now! We have had sporadic power the past few days and as a result, I have not been able to get online to check email. Thank you for all of the encouraging emails! I can't tell you how much I love to read them! I also received my first package last week! Yay! :) It is fun to get mail, everyone gets so excited! I am currently enjoying some of the American chocolate that was sent to me . . . THANK YOU! :)

So much happens in one week here, even in one day that sometimes it is difficult to know what to write about or even where to start. I have a ton of pictures of the kids that I will post on this blog . . . where to start. Well, we can start with some good news, Uncle Sunday (one of the uncles at Gyero) his wife had her baby on Thursday night. Both mom and baby are healthy and safe, a big praise, as giving birth is a bit dangerous here. We were able to pick up the mom, baby and rest of the family from the hospital on Friday morning, it was really fun!

We do have a bit of sad news . . . You may remember me posting a picture of Gospel, the guard dog for the girls compound, the little yellow one with a waggy tail. Well . . . I'm not exactly sure how to put this, but Gospel is no more. When we arrived at Gyero yesterday for church, the girls came running up saying "Auntie, Auntie, Gospel is sick." The poor dog was really sick, he couldn't see or hardly walk. So while we were out on Sunday a few of the boys killed Gospel, which was really good because the poor dog was in a lot of pain and needed to be put out of his misery. Now, um, well, not exactly sure how to put this, but as we were driving down the road in Gyero, we saw a bunch of the boys behind one of the houses, we stopped and asked what they were doing. They replied with "we are cooking". Nicky they asked "what are you cooking?" The boys replied "Meat". Slowly we put the pieces together THEY WERE COOKING GOSPEL THE DOG . . . I am not kidding . . . I thought that when the girls kept saying they were going to eat the dog they were joking . . . no joke. They ate the dog. I walked into the girls compound and they had a huge platter of meat . . . IT WAS THE DOG . . . I freaked out and the girls, thought it was hilarious . . . I guess when meat is scarce and your dog dies, you eat your dog . . .

There are TONS of dogs running around all over the place here, and Pastor's dog just had puppies. He said that I could pick one out for the girls compound. :) I am excited, but I don't know how I will handle it if it dies and they eat it! AHHH! Okay, enough about the dog . . .

Yesterday Nicky and I went to church in Gyero, which is always a wonderful cultural experience. Almost three hours of sitting on a cement bench, not understanding a word . . . It is actually a lot of fun to go with the girls, and have them explain what is going on. Yesterday was the day that the church does communion, which was an experience. Communion consisted of bread for the body, normal enough and . . . orange fanta (orange pop) for the blood! It was quite hilarious. Before I new that it was fanta, I was wondering if I should even take it because we will get sick if we drink the water here . . . I was thinking how ironic it would be if communion made me sick . . . :) Thankfully it was just orange fanta, which is fine to drink, but quite a funny thing to drink as a representation for the blood of Christ! :)

I have many more stories, but they will have to wait for another time. Please pray for energy and good rest over the next few weeks. We will be busy with camp and several short-term teams. Please email me any prayer requests you may have. - Much Love!