Mangoes, Mangoes, Mangoes!!!

Well

Once again

It is that time of year

I love Mango Season!!!

Super yummy

And who knew

There were so many types

So

Pretty much everyone

Has a mango tree

....

Unfortunately

For some reason

We have the only farm

In all of Northern Uganda

(at least I am convinced so)

WithOUT a Mango tree

Thank goodness 

For Awesome neighbors!!!

People here

Like to give mangoes as gifts

And I am 

A VERY willing recipient

Anyway

I think people have realized

That we love them

And that...

Well...

:)

We don't have a tree

So lately

We have had

An over-abundance!

Today it hit new heights

And I realized

I needed to take a picture

And share :)

So here it is

Our mango extravaganza!

 So indeed

We are all VERY thankful!

And looking forward

To eating more :)

God bless our good neighbors!

Ah... Rainy Season

Well things have been
Pretty busy
Here in “Little Village”
As we jokingly call it!

Rainy season is in full swing
And we are all
Loving it!

Most of the time :)
Occasionally
When we are dodging
Rain puddles
That just so happen
To be in our huts
We aren’t quite
So thankful for the rain :)

Fortunately
As long as the rain
Isn’t to heavy
The roofs seem
To be holding up

When the storms blow up
They blow up fast!
Once you see
The clouds rolling in
You have about
15 to 20 minutes
To get your act together
And organize
Before those big rains hit!

And with the rain
Comes the lightning
And the thunder!
I LOVE it :)

Then...
There is another thing
That comes in the rainy season

Let me introduce you to

Cordylobia anthropophaga

A big name
For a big bug!
We just call them
Mango flies

They sound innocent
Don’t they
After all
Mangoes are yummy
And flies
Well they are pesky
But what is there to fear
???

Maybe I should reiterate...
The mango larvae
That is what there is to fear
Holy
Moley!

These things
Are beyond gross...
And this
Is why

Yeah I know

Right

Disgusting...

Oh wait!

It gets grosser

Mango flies

They are also known

By their other name

"FLESH EATER"

Yep

That's right

The momma flies

Lay their eggs

In a variety of places

All of them

That are conducive

To their eggs

Being able to find

Something to "burrow" into

When they hatch

So they lay their eggs in

Sand

or

Laundry

YIKES!

So once the larvae

Attach to a host

They dig in

Under the skin

And grow

And grow

And grow!!!

Praise the Lord

None of us have gotten any

The dogs however

Have not been so lucky

I have been

Removing these things

You have to

Find the wound

And squeeze

On their side

Till it pops out

YUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am pretty sure

I am scared for life from this experience

:)

I am NOT exaggerating

They leave small craters

You can see the sores

From feet away

They get huge!

Poor things :(

So believe you me

I am praying like CRAZY

That we are all spared...

Yuck!

As long

As we don't leave

The laundry out overnight 

(which NONE of us are doing)

We shouldn't have any problems

But seriously

One has to ask

Why?

As a closer :)

I thought it was cute

So I will share

Yesterday

During a huge rainstorm

Enoch who is three

Needed to move

To a drier room

:)

Summer told him

To get his shoes on

There was a pause

She looked up

And realized

His shoes

Weren't outside the door

She asked him

Enoch...

Where are your shoes

Another pause

Then the answer

"Them floated away"

It was true!!!

There had been so much rainy at once

They floated down the courtyard

Into the yard

:)

Only in Africa!

Love it

Greeting, Africa Style!

It’s the little things
That remind me
Of how blessed I am
To live where I am
Doing what I do

Today we went out
For one of our walks

In the evenings
Sometimes after supper
We get all the kids together
And go on a walk
Around the neighborhood

As long as it isn’t raining
The evenings are such a nice time

It is cool
The sun is getting ready to set
So the clouds are beautiful

Since we make a bit of a habit
Of walking in the evenings
We are getting to know
Some of the neighbor children

A lot of them have been quite shy
But there are always a few
Who get “brave”
And want to run up
And greet us

Here when you greet
You shake hands
With your right hand

There is one little boy
In particular
Who always is so excited
To see me and run up
And greet me

He is about four
I wish I had a picture
He is so cute
:)

Anyway
Today was not an exception
As soon as he saw me
He came running

He put out his hand
But he tried to “greet me”
With his left hand

Bad manners ;)
So I told him no
Pointed to his other hand
And told him to greet me
Properly

Unfortunately
Four is a bit young
To know English here
So he was trying to figure out
What it was I wanted

What he decided
Was his hands were too dirty
And he needed to clean them

Now understand
His hands were SO dirty
But no dirtier
Than his clothes

His little face scrunched up
As he examined his hands
Then he started to scrub
Up and down
On his shirt
Which was just as dirty
As his dirt encrusted hands

Then he examined his hands
.....

Nope still too dirty

So he took it to the next level
And started rubbing them
Up and down
On his jean shorts

Another examination

From what I could tell
If anything
They had just gotten dirtier
But since I wasn’t too concerned
About whether his hands
Were clean or not
It didn’t really bother me

Then he looks up
From his examination
Of his now “clean” hands
And gave me a brilliant smile
Showed me his
“Properly cleaned” hands
And offered me
His grubby little hand

I took it
Left hand or not
How could I not
:D

I was once again reminded

I love Africa :)

Thank you Jesus!

___Night of the White Ant___

Wow
What can I say
Another day
Another bug!

It seems
That we have entered
Into what is known
As white ant season

They are
EVERYWHERE!
As I type this
I am sitting
Safely tucked into
My mosquito net
On my bed 

But wait...
These suckers are
EVERYWHERE!!!

Even within my bed!!!

My sanctuary

Has been defiled!

I pause as I throw
Another bug out!
Gross
It’s a good thing
That I am an Oregon girl
:)
They are literally
Swarming!

So in the evenings

We are all running

Here and there

Endeavoring to get

Where we are going

Without our clothes and hair

Being filled with these things!

Wow

On top of that
They are attracted to light
And our showers
Are outdoor showers...

So guess
Who is taking showers
With 1,000 white ants...

Yes sir
We all are!

It would probably be pretty comical
To come to our house

In the evenings
You would be hearing

Shrieks

Along the line of....

“Ugh!!! 

They are attacking me!"

"Gross ...
They are sticking to me!!!”

"Where do these things come from???"

The worst part
As soon as they
Land on you
Their wings come off...

So you are not only
Being swarmed
But you are also covered
In little white wings...
So when you try
To wash the wings off
More bugs come

And you are right back

At square one

I’m not gonna lie
I totally shrieked
A few times

There is nothing like
Bathing

Surrounded

With no where to go

While these bugs

Swarm you

And I have only mentioned
The white ants...

We also have beetles

We call them

"The Bomber Beetles"

Because every time
They see you
You hear
A diving plane sound
Nearrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrow
Then POW!!!
They hit you...

That will take you
By surprise
As you are dumping
A cup of water
Over your head
Let me tell you what!!!

Mr Ahnono
Was talking to us
This evening

He just tsked
And informed us
That these were
“The useless bugs”

Apparently
The big ones
Don’t come out
For another few weeks...

Those ones are useful
Because they
Can be eaten...

My mind stopped
At “Big Ones”

I forgot about those!

So now I have
That to look forward to

Ah Africa...

Whose idea was it to live here?

:)

After writing this

I realized

It could be misconstrued

As complaining

And I just want to reiterate
Once again
I am so blessed
To live the life I do!

And I would not trade it

For anything else!

Thank you Jesus :)

Our First BIG Rainstorm In Grass Thatched Huts ... Yeah

Well
Our prayers have been answered
After about two weeks
Of “sort of” rains
We have FINALLY
Gotten a big rain

It was AWESOME
There is nothing like
A good African rain

It all starts as the sun sets
Let me just say
Looking out over the savanna
Seeing all the clouds slowly change colors
First bright yellow
Then the slow fade
To Orange, Pink and Violet
So beautiful!

Then the clouds really start in
The get darker as the sun sets
And you can start to see the lightning

Tonight it was fierce!
Lighting up the sky
Over and over
Sometimes in bolts
Others in sheets that go across the whole sky

Then of course
Follows the Thunder
Rumbles and loud bangs!
Loud and Sudden
Some days it is so close
You start out standing
And next thing you know
You are on your knees
Looking around
Wondering what happened!

Truly
Nothing like a good African storm
:)

Before all the water started
I was running around
Picking up laundry
That was flying off the line

I love writing down my life
It just makes me laugh!

Then I did
What I normally do
I sat inside my door
And watched the “light show”

This time however
I am in a grass thatch hut

I know
How cool is that???

The dogs come in to my room during storms
And sit with me
It was a super heavy rain however
So we had to back up
From the door a ways
To keep from getting too wet

After a bit though
I lit a candle
So I could see in my room

We have a bit of a problem
With cobras wanting
Shelter from storms
So if anything were to try
And come in my room...
Well I wanted to be able to see
Where to run :)

That was when I realized
There was a bit of a problem
Because there were puddles...
All around my room

Which are NOT supposed to be there
.......
Apparently
Grass thatch leaks

Now all of this
Totally made me laugh
The reason

I dreamt last night
That it was raining on me
In my bed
Drip Drip Drip
Right in the face
I’m thinking
It was prophetic

So I ran to my bed
Sure enough
Right over my pillow

So...
Was it a dream?
....
I’ll never know
But it was hilarious none the less

Since it is thatch
I couldn’t find one particular spot
To put a bucket
So I just figured
Let the dice fall where they will

Then I did what everyone does
When there is a rain storm
And their roof is leaking
I called my neighbors
:)
To see if theirs were doing the same

You could say
In a glass half full sort of way
Zane and Summer
Have a waterfall in their room
Conveniently placed
Right over their built in computer desk
And bookshelf...

That might be stretching
The glass half full analogy a bit

Once the rain settled down
Summer and I went and checked
On the girls in their room
And discovered
That the instep to their room
Was an inch deep in water

The girls were so excited
Apparently they were playing
Like it was the beach
In their room!
:)
They couldn’t figure out
Why we seemed to think
It was a bad thing...

I broke their hearts a little
When I cleaned it up
Which I accomplished
With a dust pan
Yep
Scooped the water up
In a dust pan
And threw it out the door...
I Love my life!

Needless to say
We will be endeavoring
To patch the roofs a bit more
And pray that the grass settles
So that we aren’t all living
In a pond :)

Summer likes to say
Living in grass thatch
Is like camping...
Africa style!

Love it
Blessings all!