Sustainability

Hey Everyone!!!!!!

My time here is getting shorter and shorter...35 days! I'm looking forward to my cousin, Melissa, coming the middle of November. I'm excited to share with her all that is happening here, and to have her work with the people.

The last week has been very busy; not only have I been teaching classes, but Katie and I have been researching how to build earth ovens. One of the major issues here is sustainability, so Katie and I have been looking for ways in which the girls at Dorcas can continue baking even when they return to their homes. After many Google searches we settled on an earth oven. They are inexpensive to make and all the materials can be found locally.

After reading many websites on the subject, we set out to create our own earth oven.

We had a lot of help from the boys at Home Again and from Kolby and Logan. First we mixed soil and fresh cow manure together as the mortar for our brick base.

It was really foul smelling, and even after many washings our hands still smelled like manure.

What a nice looking base (Yeah Dad, I know you taught me better than that)...Hahaha. After we completed our base, we piled a heap of sand and covered it with paper.

Then we covered it with a couple of thick layers of mud mixed with sawdust to help it stay together.

TA DA!!!!!!!

Now all we have to do is wait for it to dry a little more so that we can cut out the door and the chimney....or not...

Shortly after we finished, it started raining (Did I mention that it's rainy season???), and it's rained everyday since. It's so wet that we're still waiting to cut out the door and the chimney. So it might not be the ideal time to build an earth oven, but we did, and I look forward to baking breads and pizza in it...someday...I hope. Hahaha!

If all goes well, we'll be teaching the girls at Dorcas how to build these in the next couple of weeks, and maybe I'll build one at home...when I get there.

Talk to you again soon! Thanks for all your prayers and support.

Love,

Joyce

La Gringa

The Wildlife

Hey Everyone!

I've had many people ask my what the wildlife is life like here, so I thought I'd show you.

The wildlife is not what people typically think of as "African Wildlife." Uganda does not have any giraffes, and you have to go on safari in a the national park to see typical African wildlife. But that doesn't mean we are devoid of interesting creatures.

People here are afraid of just about everything, and Uganda is full of many "scary" creatures; they come in sizes big and bigger. The first on my list of feared creatures is the Praying Mantis. It was about 3in long hiding out between the screen and the window. When I showed the girls in my class the picture they screamed and backed away.

On my daily walk between Faith's house and Katie & Chris's house I pass by another fierce beast...the Hybrid He Goat. This goat is know far and wide as an "evil" beast. The goat and I got into it a few weeks ago, he was in the middle of the path and refused to move so I pushed it a little. He didn't like it, so he decided to ram me. It actually made me mad, and I almost kicked the goat. But, I thought better of it and just stood my ground. The goat finally stopped, and I kept going. The owner was yelling from the other side of the field, "So sorry! So sorry! That goat is a demon; I swear." Now when ever I walk by the goat, he glares at me with his yellow eyes. I think I won. Hahaha!

The next exotic beast is the Baboon. This beast is found not in the wild bush, but rather along the highway to Fort Portal and commonly accepts food from passersby. But beware, if you are not careful, it'll try to hitch a ride.

Next in our list of Ugandan wildlife are the trash eating Town Cow and Stork. These two usually spent their days near the dumpster. Not much to fear here except all the germs and disease that seem to surround them.

Perhaps the most feared beast of them all is...Buff, the orphaned puppy adopted by the Sassers. The sound of his bark causes people to tremble; one flash of his sharp puppy teeth causes people to run in fear. Hahaha! People do run, but I told you Ugandans are afraid of everything. They marvel at the fact that he has a bed and is allowed in the house; Americans treat their dogs much different than Ugandans.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the exotic Ugandan wildlife. I tried to capture more of the gigantic insects that are here, but most of them have stingers; I try to avoid them...not get close enough to take a picture. The big spiders that I share a room with, we avoid each other, and the roaches die as soon as I can kill them. So there are no pictures of them...Sorry. (Not really.)

Talk to you again soon.

Love,

Joyce

La Gringa