Our day at the "M-O-S-K"

For a class assignment we were tasked with observing a worship service of a different religion that we would  find in our new country. Since Islam is on the rise in Uganda we decided to visit a mosque in Charlotte. Now  this was a new experience for us and we were unsure of how it would go. Levi told me "I don't want to go to the M-O-S-K tomorrow" Hey, you've got to give him credit for spelling "mosque" phonetically.

So on Friday, a few families went together for the visit and it was a beneficial experience. The Imam was friendly and met with us for 30 minutes afterwards to answer any questions we had. There is a lot of debate in the Christian community about how to most effectively reach out to Muslims with the love of Christ. Although we didn't get into any deep discussions during our mosque visit, it has helped us to begin to think through some of these issues.

Following this we headed over to an East African restaurant but it was closed. Thankfully next door was an Ethiopian restaurant whose owner was from Eritrea. Below is a shot of our time there. I caught Christine off guard with my photo.

Liver Mush

A brief overview of our day yesterday:

"Now Serving Liver mush"? Seriously??

On our way back to CIT after church, we pulled off the road to get a picture of this lovely billboard. The bolts and gasket just after the catalytic converter on our Honda Odyssey rusted off. Then our little minivan sounded like a drag car. Silas liked it a lot, we laughed and our ears hurt a bit after a 1 hour ride. After getting back to CIT a quick rig up job with hose clamps will hopefully keep it together for a few more weeks.

Finally, I think all of these classes discussing multiple cultures and all they eat has had a large impact on the boys. We found Gideon, Silas and Levi daring each other to eat red ants raw. They all ate some, (Josiah didn't. He thought it was cruel.) Christine and I also passed on the dare. Go ahead ... call us ethnocentric!

Our first week at CIT

So we arrived at the Center for Intercultural Training this past week. It is located in Union Mills NC in   the western part of the state.  Thankfully Levi and Silas split the driving duty so that I could get some rest.

We will be here for a total of 6 weeks. The first four weeks covers intercultural training and the last two weeks covers language acquisition.

For this term there are roughly 30 adults and 30 children. The families are going to many different countries with many different mission agencies. Our boys have quickly found new friends and have enjoyed spending time in the pool. We even had a giant slip and slide set up this evening.

Our first couple of days covered things like our own personality profile and mind style assessment. I know this may be shocking for you all but I came out as a Concrete Sequential processor and Christine fell in as an Abstract Random processor.

Our last two days were filled with discussion about things like:  culture, ethnocentrism, marriage, cultural awareness and much more. Now just to get used to doing homework again after a 10 year break.

Seeing the container off.

Our container arrived at our house all ready for packing. The next step in the process was to load it up. What better way to load it then to get the help of our good friends John and Nate.

These guys obviously spent some time playing Tetris to warm up. Their help was so skilled that we had extra room in the container for another bureau, bikes and even some other items that are needed in Uganda. This included things like......

.... a shipment of solar batteries totaling 2,800 pounds. So how do you load all of those batteries in an efficient fashion? You call on your good neighbors Nick and Dan. They have this hand truck/ fork lift combo tool. With the use of their handy lift the batteries were  loaded in no time flat.

Now the container is on its way to Norfolk Virginia where it will be loaded on a ship to go around the tip of South Africa up to Kenya. From there it will go over land to Mbale Uganda. 

Thanks everyone for all your help!

A Bittersweet Time

I know the quality of this pic isn't very good, but I really wanted to post it anyway. Yes, it is a pile of debris. This is what I swept off the floor of our home school room as I cleaned last night. (Don't judge me too harshly...this was all hidden under furniture. ;-)) As I swept up piles of dirt and washed muddy hand prints off doors, I was reminded of all the joys and gifts of grace we have experienced in this house. For example, in this pile there are:

1. Clumps of pet fur, which remind me of our great cat, Woodstock, and dog, Dynamite. They were such sweet pets, so tolerant of being loved on by four boys. We are so thankful that the Lord has provided new homes for both, but we will miss those guys!

2. Airsoft bullets, which call to mind backyard battles involving Gideon and anyone else who was willing :-).

3. Math pattern blocks, a counting bear, pencils, erasers, etc. We certainly shed some tears over challenging math problems (and homeschooling in general), but also rejoiced when a difficult concept was finally understood. I have loved homeschooling here and delighted in learning along with my boys.

4. Glitter. This was before Mark made us throw away the glitter, as it has a tendency to spread ALL OVER your house.

5. Legos. Another thing that has an ability to mysteriously spread everywhere, but oh, have my boys had some fun times building with Legos.

I could go on, but you get the idea. We thank the Lord for 5 plus great years in this house. We are thankful that even though we are leaving this house behind, we will always have the memories we have made here. But we are, in Josiah's words, feeling a little sad and a little scared. Thank you for your prayers.

When your husband likes to make stuff and you are moving to Uganda...

When your husband likes to make stuff and you're moving to Uganda, you face a bit of a dilemma. He's made some things that are beautiful (or at least aesthetically pleasing), some that are quite functional, and some that are a bit weird, but sadly, we can't take them all with us. So I thought I'd write a blog post and pay tribute to those creations that will have to be given away, thrown away, or moved into Mark's sister Amy's attic. (Don't worry, Amy, we won't make you store too many.)



Creation #1: Mark welded this globe in college:

Then he tried to teach me to weld - my efforts didn't turn out quite as nice.

Creation #2: I've never been exactly sure what this next sculpture is supposed to be, but it looks nice on our fireplace mantel.

Creation #3: This jungle gym was made from the pieces of our broken trampoline.

Creation #4: We like to use this skull sculpture to scare young children. (Just kidding.)

Creation #5: This one definitely belongs in the weird category. Yes, folks, the cut out hearts do light up.

Creation #6: Having a skateboard half pipe in the basement has been great for tiring out rambunctious children.

Creation #7: This was made during Mark's period of fascination with cast concrete. (Thanks for the book from the thrift store Mom!) It took him a couple of tries to get the mixture right, but in the end we ended up with this really nice (and heavy) coffee table.

Creation #8: Fortunately, this last item has found a good home with some dear friends as a nightlight. Mark and the boys made it with some stuff they picked up at the Durham Scrap Exchange. I think it's pretty cute. The eyes light up :-).