Some things I have learned so far

1. There are many grades of rice.It is worth the few extra shillings per kilo to get the better rice. We are now eating wonderful, fluffy, white rice.

2. Charcoal goes on TOP of the sigiri, not in the little compartment on the bottom.

3. Beans will only cook if you are using the sigiri the way it was intended to be used. We all (even WREN!!) are eating delicious, filling beans every day for lunch.

4. You can NOT trust the pot of beans to balance on the sigiri. Charcoal moves as it burns and your pot will spill a week's worth of beans all over your back porch.

5. You know when you feel something and you think it's a bug, and then you look, and it's just a hair tickling you. Well, in Africa, it is always really and truly a bug. Never assume it's just a hair.

6. Children in ministry are phenomenal. When the adults are busy planning and organizing, the kids are observing, loving and allowing God to freely lead them. The kids cover more ground more quickly than we adults ever could, and in doing so, have found children needing medical attention, a new mom who had passed out due to high blood pressure, and chameleons...they find so, so many chameleons.

7. I need to check my attitude and my heart multiple times every single day. I can wake up on the right track, but one negative thought can completely derail me for the entire day. In my down time, my thoughts get the best of me if I am not being proactive and getting my focus on God. I don't know who said it, but "Don't forget in the dark what God promised you in the light" has been such a great reminder for me. God's hand was over the preparation and planning for this journey in an incredible way, and I have no reason to doubt that even the hard times are in His will.

8. Dogs can be sweet.

9. As hard as it was to leave home and as much as I miss parts of our old life, I can already sense how difficult it will be to leave Uganda when the time comes. As I build relationships and begin to truly love people here, I understand what it means to leave part of your heart somewhere.

10. Love grows best in little houses. 8 people can share a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment for a month with no internet and be perfectly happy and have so much fun together. Just last week, we moved to a much bigger guest home, where we will live for the remainder of our year, and we have great wi-fi. We also are playing less card games and spending less time in good conversation and prayer as a family at night. Boo! How do we get so easily distracted? We MUST be intentional with our time.