Only Two Months Remaining

Thursday week ago we arrived back in Nabilatuk at 8:30 pm after driving 6 hours (for me) from Soroti and a total of 11 hours for Summer, from Jinja. The roads were rough but now that it is dry season, it's the pot holes causing the pain, not the mud that slides you any which way that you pray the truck won't flip over.

So glad to be back and with us came 100 chicks (tiny-tiny - "They're so fluffy I'm gunna die!" - 'Despicable Me' quote) that had hatched Wednesday evening. Thus they've only just entered this crazy world to be brought up to Karamoja so they can get used to the harsh climate, necessary basically from birth. The first three weeks with them, (most of October) are the most crucial. They need to be taught to drink and feed and they must be kept warm at all times (between 30-35 degrees Celsius). So the first week we will sleep in the chicken hut with them, wake every two hours to encourage them to eat and drink by tapping on their feeders and making chicken noises, bababababeraaaa! - I kid you not.  Then from there we will check on them at 9pm, 12 am, 3am and 6am (Summer and I rotating times).

The fire in the pot keeps them warm

 Valentina, a local woman employed by KACHEP, who was there for the last chicken project knows what you have to do to make this a success, and she is the real mother hen of the three of us. I really like looking after them too, I want them to succeed very badly! The plan is that 5 pre-chosen 'vulnerable' community members will each receive 10 chickens (They will be given out in February when they're already laying and have had all their vaccinations) and KACHEP will have 50 chickens for income generating to help cover the cost of the feed- which is very expensive because there is really only one company in Uganda actually selling quality feed, so the demand is there.

Every week the chicks  will get a vaccination (every Thursday), continuing for four weeks. The first is starting from day 7 (age 7 days) which is for Newcastle Disease, then day 14 and day 21 for Infectious Bursa Disease (Gumburo) and day 28 for Infectious Bronchitis. A month later they will be vaccinated for Typhoid and then they are pretty much done except for boosters for Newcastle Disease and a vaccine for Fowl Pox early January.

Last week Summer and I did the first 'Bible Club' at the local primary school as an afterschool program and it was probably the highlight of the week! We had the whole school to start with and Summer told the story of David and Goliath and did 1 Samuel 16:7 as the memory verse. Then Summer took the grade 3s and did some English teaching and I took the grade 6s and did soccer sports with them! Drills then a game, and jump rope for the girls who weren't into soccer.
I am so happy that the village Bible studies are going again and now it's our goal in the next 6 weeks to turn them over completely to the women who host them. So they will be the ones to tell the group the story and ask the questions, not us. Pray for that :)

Only 2 months left here for me. October and November, then at the beginning of December I will pack my bags, leaving a lot of my clothes for women here, go down to Jinja, spend a week with friends there, then head to Kenya to meet my sponsor child. On the 14th I start my journey home, flying first to Singapore to spend a week with my good buddy Sonja Graml who is a ministry worker there and then fly back to Melbourne, arriving 2 days before Christmas. It's going to be a hectic three months before I return to the land of Aus. Let's see what God has in store for me!

 Things you can be praying for:

 - Pray I don't check out too early and that I can continue to make the most of every opportunity while I am here.

 - Pray for the success of the chicken project: that it can be a blessing to the Nabilatuk community

 - Praise point that a German couple, Simon (Bible storier) and Carina (veterinarian) are coming out here next year to join Summer as the start of a new team but continue to pray for workers for this harvest.

 - Pray for our ministry activities still on-going; Bible studies and storying, vet treatments and trainings, 'Bible club' at the local primary school with a bible talk & memory verse, and soccer & skipping games with me and English learning for the kids with Summer.