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This past week, I continued to teach the grade 5 and 6 classes, and Frank and I finished the library in Makhai. We had sorted all of the books and then put them onto shelves. I can’t wait to take some classes in there. Frank also helped with response letters the children write to their sponsors and he also had some fun games of soccer with many of the boys. We were also honoured this week to receive Bagisu names in Makhai. We were invited to the fellowship service at the church, where they took time to “baptize” us with names and pray for us. The community leaders came together to choose the names.
Frank was given the name Mambu. Mambu was the first Bagisu person and he lived in the mountain right behind Mbale. I was given the name Sera, who was Mambu’s wife. They say that she was patient and encouraging, and always ran out to greet Mambu when he returned.
As the title suggests, we went away this weekend to Sipi. It is about a 90 minute drive from where we’re staying and there are waterfalls and caves that you can hike to. We wanted to stay somewhere cheap and had researched some places before we left. The Crow’s Nest looked alright so when we got to Sipi we went to check it out.
There were guys on the road trying to recruit us to go to their places of lodging, and so the ones from Crow’s Nest took us up there. The main lodge looked quite nice and clean, and had an
amazing view of two of the waterfalls, so we continued to one of the guesthouses. It was made from bamboo and wood, was nicely painted, and had a mosquito net. It also had an outhouse (rather than a pit latrine) and a shower. So, we decided to stay.
Lunch was also good, but it took about 2 hours for us to get it; we had ordered beef stew, did she have to go out and carve off a slab of beef from the cow?! When we were finally finished, a guy named Patrick came up and told us he was a tour guide and could take us around to the waterfalls and
caves. We hiked for about 10 km up and down the mountains and saw so many beautiful things. We even saw a vervet monkey, which was very exciting!
In the evening I decided to take a shower, and when I walked into the bathroom there was a big, ugly looking lizard on the wall. I ran back to the guesthouse and was sitting there trying to convince myself to have a shower when the power went out because it was so windy. I took a deep breath and told myself that I could still go in there, so I did with the headlamp. But next I saw a rat scurrying along the top of the wall, and when I turned around to leave there was a giant spider in the doorway! No shower for me that night!
All night, as we were trying to sleep we could hear rats scurrying around on our floor and squeaking. We didn’t sleep well at all.
The next day we were traveling to the FH office in a village called Piswa (Peace-wah). It is a remote village way up in the mountains, so an FH staff member had to come in the 4x4 truck to take us up. It was a long and bumpy ride, and even though I usually don’t get sick in vehicles, I was feeling sick. The views were beautiful and we were glad when we finally got there.
This place was much cooler than Mbale, which means that they don’t have mosquitoes. They can also drink water without boiling it because there isn’t anyone who lives above them, so it is not contaminated.
Frank was so excited when he found out there was a cave that you could actually go inside in Piswa. The ones in Sipi were very shallow so you couldn’t go inside. The cave was huge, and in the rainy season the mouth of it is covered by a huge waterfall. Right now though, there are just a few drops trickling down. Roteach (the guy from FH) and James (the security guard) took us to the cave. We had to hike up for about twenty minutes, and in that time acquired a group of children who walked with us. I knew that there were bats in the cave, so I wasn’t too keen to go,
but I didn’t want to miss out. The cave was really cool, and we walked into it for about ½ km, so it was pitch black other than our headlamps. You could hear bats flying around, which really freaked me out, but my strategy was not to look up. (If you can’t see them, they’re not there right?) Frank also enjoyed the fact that he could practice his photography skills in such a dark place. He just kept snapping pictures while I was ready to sprint out of there!
Frank was given the name Mambu. Mambu was the first Bagisu person and he lived in the mountain right behind Mbale. I was given the name Sera, who was Mambu’s wife. They say that she was patient and encouraging, and always ran out to greet Mambu when he returned.
As the title suggests, we went away this weekend to Sipi. It is about a 90 minute drive from where we’re staying and there are waterfalls and caves that you can hike to. We wanted to stay somewhere cheap and had researched some places before we left. The Crow’s Nest looked alright so when we got to Sipi we went to check it out.
There were guys on the road trying to recruit us to go to their places of lodging, and so the ones from Crow’s Nest took us up there. The main lodge looked quite nice and clean, and had an
amazing view of two of the waterfalls, so we continued to one of the guesthouses. It was made from bamboo and wood, was nicely painted, and had a mosquito net. It also had an outhouse (rather than a pit latrine) and a shower. So, we decided to stay.Lunch was also good, but it took about 2 hours for us to get it; we had ordered beef stew, did she have to go out and carve off a slab of beef from the cow?! When we were finally finished, a guy named Patrick came up and told us he was a tour guide and could take us around to the waterfalls and
caves. We hiked for about 10 km up and down the mountains and saw so many beautiful things. We even saw a vervet monkey, which was very exciting!In the evening I decided to take a shower, and when I walked into the bathroom there was a big, ugly looking lizard on the wall. I ran back to the guesthouse and was sitting there trying to convince myself to have a shower when the power went out because it was so windy. I took a deep breath and told myself that I could still go in there, so I did with the headlamp. But next I saw a rat scurrying along the top of the wall, and when I turned around to leave there was a giant spider in the doorway! No shower for me that night!
All night, as we were trying to sleep we could hear rats scurrying around on our floor and squeaking. We didn’t sleep well at all.
The next day we were traveling to the FH office in a village called Piswa (Peace-wah). It is a remote village way up in the mountains, so an FH staff member had to come in the 4x4 truck to take us up. It was a long and bumpy ride, and even though I usually don’t get sick in vehicles, I was feeling sick. The views were beautiful and we were glad when we finally got there.
This place was much cooler than Mbale, which means that they don’t have mosquitoes. They can also drink water without boiling it because there isn’t anyone who lives above them, so it is not contaminated.
Frank was so excited when he found out there was a cave that you could actually go inside in Piswa. The ones in Sipi were very shallow so you couldn’t go inside. The cave was huge, and in the rainy season the mouth of it is covered by a huge waterfall. Right now though, there are just a few drops trickling down. Roteach (the guy from FH) and James (the security guard) took us to the cave. We had to hike up for about twenty minutes, and in that time acquired a group of children who walked with us. I knew that there were bats in the cave, so I wasn’t too keen to go,
but I didn’t want to miss out. The cave was really cool, and we walked into it for about ½ km, so it was pitch black other than our headlamps. You could hear bats flying around, which really freaked me out, but my strategy was not to look up. (If you can’t see them, they’re not there right?) Frank also enjoyed the fact that he could practice his photography skills in such a dark place. He just kept snapping pictures while I was ready to sprint out of there!Well, here you have it, a condensed version of our trip to Sipi and Piswa.
1 comment:
Hi ,
Its Uncle John I'm enjoying reading your stories.It's good you can have such great experiences.It's true "The more you give the more you recieve. Continue the good work.
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