Saturday out and about

Emily asked me several times today about taking a bird walk together. So, about midway through the afternoon we outfitted ourselves with binoculars and made a short round of our immediate neighborhood. There's a naturally swampy valley just down the slope from our house, where at various points little springs feed a tiny stream that runs down the middle of the valley. It's an excellent habitat for a variety of birds, and there's a plethora of flowering vegetation types, both wild and cultivated. We walked a short distance on two sides of this little wetland, and slightly more than half-way round met Jonathan and Luke coming to meet us from the direction of the house.

Here the three kids are half sitting next to a small spring, with cassava plants in the background, as they look across the way at some of the birds we spotted.














Not far from there we came across this black and white butterfly on a lantana bush (no idea what kind of butterfly it is).














A pleasant way to spend part of a Saturday afternoon together in Mbale.

Sunday in Soroti, Monday at Sisiyi

Emily, Luke, Jonathan, Nathanael and I visited the Soroti town church Sunday. Had about 30 people in attendance for the morning service, and afterward took a van-load of people 17 km down the road to a bridge across the western tip of Lake Bisina for some baptisms. Eight people were baptized, while the rest of us witnessed the event and sang songs as each person went into and came back out of the water.















Today, Monday, I took the kids back out to Sisiyi Falls, where we hung out with the Sheros last Monday. Enjoyed a lunch of samosas, chapatis, and mandazis (local fast foods), clambered around on the rocks for a while, then went on what Christopher Robin might have called an "expotition" some distance into the drier and wilder bush-and-savannah country to the east. Saw a lot of nice birds and beautiful countryside.

Monday at Sisiyi

Monday the three younger boys, Emily and I joined the Shero family on an expedition to one of our favorite get-away-and-play spots: Sisiyi Falls on the first terrace of Mount Elgon. It's a wonderland of waterfall, rocky stream (complete with frogs and crabs), trees of all shapes and sizes, and house-sized rocks to climb. Here are some pictures of our day there: