Our home in Mbale

Thursday was moving day!  We loaded up our truck to the hilt, said goodbye to President and Sister Collings and hit the road.  The office staff bought us a new freezer (because the one at the house wasn't working) and a new dryer.  I think President was feeling a little sorry for me when we got talking about bedbugs and how to get rid of them and then I told him the house in Mbale didn't have a dryer (because apparently that's how you get rid of them.)  So he made sure we got one.  We will be going into some extremely poor homes (in fact, we already have been) and bedbugs are a definite possibility.  Whoever is reading this, please keep us in your prayers on that account because that is one challenge that I do NOT want to have to face!  

 Anyhoo...the back of the truck had the large appliances, and with our groceries and supplies that we had purchased in Kampala, meant that there was not enough room for our luggage.  We ended up having to put two pieces on top.  Didn't think about a possibility of a rainstorm downpour which did happen but it's all ok:) All in the name of missionary service!   Our stuff only got a little wet:-0

The drive to Mbale once we get past Jinja and Iganga is very nice.  It is still a two way road, which is scary but the scenery is beautiful.  We passed many little towns with interesting things going on.  

(I will post about Ugandan life in an upcoming post.)  

I have taken lots of pictures because it is all so different than ordinary American life.

When we arrived in Mbale we were a little uncertain of how to find our place because we had just been there the one time.  But thankfully, we drove down a couple of familiar roads and we drove right to it:)  That was a true blessing!

This is our Mbale house!  It has two bedrooms (one is used as an office) two baths and a nice big living area.  The kitchen is small but we don't need anything too big for just the two of us:)

When we arrived, even though it had already been cleaned, I felt the need to wipe everything down!   Everything in Uganda is dirty feeling.  Whenever I go to the grocery store my hands get filthy from touching the different products.  It's kind of like a fine layer of dirt on everything.  Anyway,  Rick and I worked late into Thursday night and all of Friday morning getting things clean.  It felt really good to be done and I feel like it's livable now.

                                                          Rick wiping down the pantry.

                  All of our groceries needed to be wiped down before they went into the pantry as well.

 One thing that threw us for a loop was our washer and dryer.  We went to use the washer and dryer on Friday morning as we were cleaning and ended up melting one of our electrical sockets.  We got an electrician over right away but it wasn't going to be fixed until Saturday......or later.  I had a load of laundry in the wash and I couldn't very well let it sit for who knows how long so I got to do something I have never done before......  I finished up washing, rinsing and wringing out a full load of clothes in big buckets right in my kitchen.

I hung up the clothes and turned on a couple of fans and by the end of the day they were all dry:)

That was really the only hiccup in our moving in process.  I'm so grateful because sometimes you just don't know what's gonna happen.  Here are some shots of the inside of our home.
The walls are still bare....

         President Collings was also kind enough to let me take a keyboard from the mission office.

This is Frazida who helps take care of the gardens.  She and our security man, Godfrey are here everyday.  They work long hours, usually 7 to 7 and pay is very low here in Uganda.  I actually think Godfrey is living in the gatehouse, so he might be here all of the time,  but I'm not sure. It does feel good to be behind locked gates. (Notice the razor wire on top of them) There are bars on all of our windows and we always lock the door as we leave and when we are at home.  Not quite as free as we are in Grantsville, where we rarely lock doors but I feel safe here in our Mbale home!