A Year in Review

Wednesday was the first anniversary of us moving to Uganda. It’s been an eventful year and I thought a recap of it might be nice.

March… The month started with our commissioning service. Later in the month we loaded our container and saw that ship off. Then we flew out of Chicago with 26 pieces of luggage on March 22. God blessed and all the luggage made it to Entebbe with us. Matthew Stensaas and Tom Tracht met us at the airport and helped load the luggage. Our plane got in late at about 11:30 PM and then, by the time we’d gone through the line to get our visas and found all our luggage, loaded it up, and driven to the motel it was almost 2AM the next day. We slept a few hours and then got up and going again. We looked at some appliances and then drove to Mbarara with Matt and Keila. The following day we looked at houses and a couple days later decided to take the house we’re currently living in. It needed a LOT of work. Only half of it was finished and that half had a lot of damage so needed repair. James worked out the contract with the landlady and work was begun to finish it. God also brought along a vehicle for us to buy. It needed a new engine but it was the right price and, it turns out, the right kind of vehicle for the ministry we’re working in.

April…. We spent most of the month staying with Bro. and Mrs. Brian Stensaas. James worked hard every day to get the house finished as quickly as possible – mainly he just supervised to make sure things were getting done right. He also ended up making a trip to Kampala to get some of our appliances. We got mattresses to sleep on and then we just waited for it to be done. We moved into our house as soon as it was finished enough for us to live there. We’d decided to have them tile the house and the tile on the finished side was barely dry before we moved in. They had a lot to finish on the other side and that was done about a month later. So we had workers in our house every day starting at about 7:30AM until dark (about 7PM). We also didn’t have a wall or fence around our house because of a disagreement between our landlady and the man next door.

May… May was a busy month, particularly Mother’s Day weekend. We got up that Sunday morning and someone had stolen several of the fence posts we’d put in to have them in readiness for the fence to be put up. James spent the entire day dealing with police reports and all the mess that came with it. The next day, one of our workers was planting some plants around the outside of the hedge surrounding our property and broke a water main. A 20ft geyser of water was opened and poured down our hill, through our house, and around the septic tank in the front. After that was stopped, two walls of our septic tank collapsed. It was weak already and would have eventually broken but the main break revealed the weakness and forced us to repair it sooner rather than later. The day after that happened, we got our dog Teal’c. We’d wanted to get a dog for a while so James was really pleased with being able to get that particular dog. We’re all glad he did. 😀

June… Thankfully June wasn’t as eventful as May. 😉 We butchered a cow in our garage. That was interesting! The other side of the house was finally finished completely and cleaned and we moved the kids into their rooms on that side. We also started language study and then restarted three weeks later when the Trachts wanted to join us in it. Father’s Day Sunday we found out we were expecting Huckabee child #6 and so ensued several weeks of miserable morning sickness for me.

July…. I was quite sick for the whole month and James and Osbert ended up doing most of the cooking. Near the end of the month our container arrived. First it arrived in the country and James had to take a trip to Kampala to clear it through customs. Then they brought it to our house and we unloaded it. We got most of the unpacking done in the next couple weeks. It was so nice to have our own beds and the familiar things from home! It was like Christmas!

August… We got most of the packing done and I began making curtains for the house. I was able to repurpose many of our curtains from the States and use them on the windows here with just a little work. We also started school in the middle of August with the kids and continued our language study. Thankfully, about the time we started school the morning sickness went away and I started feeling a LOT better. That helped!

September… Relatively uneventful aside from the fact that we started going with the Bassetts to the refugee camp on a weekly basis. James had gone with them one Sunday in late July or early August and really loved it. So we all went at the end of August. It was our niche. We all tremendously enjoyed it! God seemed to be directing us into that ministry and so there we are. And we still love it!

October…. We took our first trip back to Kampala. On the way there the transmission went out on our vehicle and had to be repaired. That made the time there interesting in finding transportation! But God worked everything out for us. I had my first Doctor visit while we were there. We were planning, at the time, to have the baby in Nakasaro Hospital in Kampala with Dr. Mbonye. She is really nice but kept recommending we check a hospital in Mbarara. We had an ultrasound and found we were having a girl! We got our third dog – a female Rottweiler – and she’s been fun to have around and great for our other puppy. Calmed him right down! We also had a baptismal service at the refugee camp. I ended up missing it with sick kids but James and the boys really enjoyed it!

November… Our first Thanksgiving here and we hosted it at our house. It was a LOT of fun! We bought two turkeys and had them butchered right in our yard! Definitely a learning experience there!

December… Our first Christmas here. We took another trip to Kampala the first part of the month and were able to get some paperwork taken care of and also find some special things for Christmas. Our church family sent a couple boxes of surprises to us from the states for Christmas and that was so special. It was a very special time for us and, while we missed family back home, we had a really good time remembering Christ’s birth here in Uganda. There was another baptismal service at the refugee camp and this time I got to go! It was great – a very moving service. We got there early and I got to visit with many of the ladies in the church there. It was such a blessing.

January…. We finally decided to tour the hospital here in Mbarara and decided to try having the baby here instead of going to Kampala. It was a big decision for us but we both had peace about it. Debbie and Matthew Guimon and her niece, Sarabeth, visited from America. It was SO good to have someone come from the states! James had an accident on the way back from taking them to meet Phyllis Hall in Kampala. God worked things out with that, helping him have the right people with him at the right time.

February…. Baby was due but didn’t arrive. That’s okay, though. The election took place on the 18th and was relatively uneventful.

March…. Brennah LaDynne was born on the 6th, almost 2 weeks late. Her birth went very well and I’m so glad we decided to have her here in Mbarara. She came before we’d been here a year.

So there you have it. Our first year overview. Sorry this is so long. Thanks for persevering to the end of this post. 😀 It’s been exciting to see God work in the good times and the hard and discouraging times as well. We’re really enjoying being here in Uganda and wouldn’t want to be anywhere else! It really feels like home.