One year!

I woke up around five am yesterday, September 27th, thanks to the horn of the Kalita bus announcing it's eminent departure.  The power had been out all night.  I was hot and there was no sound of the fan to drown out the outside noises.  By the time the call the prayer came I decided to just get up.  

I woke up early last year on this day too, with a nervous, excited churning in my stomach...  I was getting married that day!  It is hard to believe that was a year ago.  What a year it has been!  We have lived in 3 different houses, been on the ground in 11 states, 4 countries, been on 12 planes, spent the night in 24 different locations (that I can remember) and driven over 15,000 miles, an adventure for sure.  I am overwhelmed by the blessing of having a partner in all these travels.  Yesterday we celebrated by taking another adventure.

When the road was paved the old pass up and over the mountain was abandoned for a more level option.  We love the ease and seed of the new paved road, but miss the beautiful view of the Semliki valley stretching to the Semliki river into the DR Congo.  We decided to take a picnic and drive up the "old road" to one of the beautiful look outs...

Loving the paved road!

Taking the road less traveled... into the jungle. 

First stop... first switch back with a great view of the steaming hot springs.

A few switch backs up the mountain and another great view, a good place to park.  No cars yet to be seen. 

Anniversary selfie

Lunch with a view...

... and handsome husband.

Semliki River and Mountains in the DRCongo... I don't think I have ever seen it this clear!

Wild Life...

Red tail monkey sightings.

Didn't have the presence of mind to take a picture of the giant forest cobra I saw
slithering/leaping from the road... gross! I screamed,  but you probably don't was to see that anyway.

Grasshopper doing the splits on our windshield for oh, maybe 45minutes.

No fancy restaurants, so candlelit enchiladas and passion fruit G&Ts will have to do :)

Thankful for a special day, a great year, and an amazing husband!  Can't wait to see what the future holds!

Slowly by Slowly, Transformation Comes

One of our primary tasks getting resettled into Bundibugyo is to rehabilitate our future home on the mission.  It's a home that's not been lived in by a family for a long time and most recently was used as a school for the children on the mission.  When we arrived, there was no power, no running water and the walls were painted the deep purple and bright teal of a fun elementary school.

Here's the main living area before (wow those are bright colors!)

Here's the old shower room

And here's the shower room in progress - painted and primed walls with a new sink and shower outlet

Here's the paint master at her work

BECS (The power coop) came and installed power by hand. It took three and a half weeks from payment to working power.

By hand.

I had to do a little tree trimming for the power lines.

Working with some guys to rework the shower soak pit outside the house.

My friend Kiiza doing his best to repair a REALLY OLD metal water tank.  The verdict is still out on whether or not we will be able to repair it.

Both Anna and I are really eager to be in our house so that we can spend more time in in the community learning language and preparing for transitioning into working on the community water systems (Josh) and working with local, marginalized women (Anna).  We have completed about 60-70% of the work that needs to be done before we can move in, so please keep praying for endurance for long and tiring days and for often not having the right tools to complete the job.