Our house, Part I: A few photos

 There's more to show, but we wanted to give you a limited tour of our new digs.

Here's what greets you when you drive in our gate. The small building to the right is called the "boy's quarters"—as in, a place for house help to stay. (Or friends and family who come and visit missionaries in Uganda! Hint, Hint. Not that you'll be expected to clean or anything.) That's where we keep our washer and dryer. Can you hear the angels singing? I didn't think we'd have one of those. Apparently the landlord didn't either, because they blew out the power and we had to get a new circuit breaker.

You can see our garage on the left, which we open up for homeschooling. We had one wall painted in blackboard paint! I'm pretty excited about having a room just for school, which we didn't have before.

And yes, our house was supposed to be painted yellow. But you know, considering it was two shades of orange when we arrived, and one was really more of a peach, I am thankful for the orange. Especially since the dirt is orange. We're in the hottest time of the year here, i.e. the dustiest, with the coolness of the rainy season just around the corner. But the heat is dry, and even at 90°, it's only like May or late April in Arkansas.

The above is our back porch, which we adore. It's a peaceful place to eat, and the kids have a drag strip right down the middle of the yard. Our avocado tree is on the right here. Even now, the weather is beautiful for outdoor living, and we have bougainvillea, a couple of rosebushes, a mango tree, a papaya tree, and a pumpkin patch. I thought the avocado tree deserved its own photo, considering I was hoping to have one in heaven and am getting it way early.

Even though we live in the middle of the city, you can glimpse Lake Victoria, the third largest lake in the world, from over our back fence. We have a fishmonger, Moses, who brings a box of fresh-caught tilapia on the back of his motorcycle every Tuesday and filets it right at my gate. I really like the local produce here, too, and I think I've found a milk supplier.

This is our living/dining room as of this evening. (See J. there in the corner?) All of the furniture was made for us from local wood (this kind is called mugavu), and we just got the cushions back tonight. Can you see the little African drums on them? We asked for extra stuffing, because all the padded furniture here is kind of like sitting on a couple of pieces of plywood. Let's just say it's "very firm."
There's this lovely industrial, linoleum-type tile that covers my home that kind of makes it feel like a Wal-Mart. It's probably a good thing considering the red mud that's tracked down every hall. The floors have to be done every day. But we are looking for a rug because Dad and the boys miss wrestling.

 Found this in the living room and it looked hungry. Guess we'll keep it.

We're thankful that our toilets are sitters and not squatters.That's probably all you care to know.

Here's our master bedroom; we love our new bed, and it was very affordable. As for the paint on the walls, we really like how the colors turned out, but the full story is a minor fiasco for another post.

Thanks for visiting. I'm sure we'll have a little more soon. Don't you want to come see the real thing?