Party all night

Is what our neighbors here in Nakaale enjoy doing when truckloads of corn, beans, and even cooking oil have been distributed by an aid organization, just down the road from us. Our eldest daughter, Rachel, & one of our teachers, Eden, were walking back along the main road and heard and saw the massive crowds who had come for a handout. Some local people were too frightened of the Ugandan soldiers - sent to keep men from attacking old women to steal their bags of maize - to come and pick up their portion. What we can't figure out is why the free food - eriliif, in Karimojong - arrived just now. Last week when we went to town, sorghum had dropped from 2000 a can to about half that, and even maize and other food is less expensive. We are harvesting sorghum every day from the fields around us. But what we hear is that people are fearing akoro, hunger, too much this year.

So here we are.

I have been thinking about writing some news and have not gotten around to it until now. I would really prefer for Martha to write as I find her much more interesting and perhaps eventually she can write. I at least wanted to get something written- besides this is something I can do in a malarious stupor.
We have arrived back in Uganda with a lot of visitors from all over the US- Wisconsin, California, and Maryland to name a few places. We were able to get a lot of construction work done in a short time with all of the capable hands and also had a VBS program at several of the local public schools which was very well received. I have gone to Kampala to work on immigration stuff and deliver/pick up people at the airport so we have been pretty busy.
We have begun our harvest which is bringing in a fair crop. Craig put the crop in and the rains stopped- so he replanted and we are seeing a fair return. I threshed 14 bags yesterday afternoon with the guys and we have more than triple that on the ground drying right now. My guess is we should see over 200 bags- maybe more than double that. It is hard to tell until you get it in- and there is a lot of theft in the fields right now.
Pastor Dave is faithfully bringing the Gospel of peace to the people here, and I am happy to report the disarmament campaign has born fruit. We have not seen any guns or heard any gunfire since we came back. There seems to be a fair bit of vehicle traffic on the road which is a good sign of security. We are hopeful this will last and that peace can come to this place.
We are all well, some in various stages of illness but on the most part everyone is okay. We enjoy our new house and I have gotten my office and a classroom finished so we are getting a bit organized. One thing at a time.