I am being punished :( or I am blessed :) - you decide

Which is it for each of us.  Don't we decide with every episode in our lives if things just are not going the way we think they should.  Or do we decide, even on a very bad day, that everything is just peachy and how blessed we are.  We already know, from our own experiences, that life has plenty of lemons for each of us.  The one thing I know for a fact is the Lord has a plan for this life and for the world as a whole.  He knew how long and in what order it would be required to create our earth.  He knew when each of us would have the opportunity to come to earth and prove ourselves herewith.  If there is a timeline and a plan for each of us, doesn't it make sense for each of us to understand that our individual life experiences are ours alone and there is a purpose in them?

Even when we make bad decisions He treats us the way we need to be treated so we can grow.  When we make good decisions, we still have new problems arise to see how we handle the new trial.  We always have two decisions to make when our life becomes difficult.  One, do you become discouraged and quit, then the game is over.  You didn't use the experience to learn the lesson that He has given you to grow and develop.  Or, did you see the road block as stepping stones that could be used to work your way out of it and see what you can learn from the experience.  We are entitled to blessings when we are keeping the commandments and we lay claim to them when we ask with a sincere heart to know what we can do and how best to handle the opportunity/trial.  At least that is what I think :).  For me, I am very blessed in so many different ways.

You may think that all we do is jiggers projects.  The charity arm of the church, LDS Charities, has an ongoing project to do 10 jiggers projects in a different village over the next 10 weeks.  We try and go if we don't have a conflict on Saturdays.  Here are two of the latest projects in the following pictures.

Surrounding all the villages are homes spread out and surrounded with a garden.  If you don't have a garden, you don't eat so everyone has some garden area.  It is all prepared with hoes.  You will see the people up before the sun chomping away in a field covered with weeds.  After a couple of weeks you see beans and maize and other vegetables growing once the rains starts.

The project one week ago had over 200 kids waiting and we only do 100 in each village.

And so it begins, cut out those jiggers.

Some nasty toes where the nail is gone because the jiggers have laid eggs under and they then have to be cut off.  If this kind of thing bothers you, you may want to skip the next few photos.

This old one had some of the worst feet, hands and elbows I have seen.

Look close and you can see the white eggs in his skin.

Nasty feet.

No nails

For those so inclined a bit of video to show how you get jiggers out.

We always have to go to a bore hole to get water for spraying the homes to kill jiggers in the dirt, inside and around the family huts, and for washing the feet etc.  You always see some cute kids -always.

At the school this week they had little reminders for the kids to read scattered around the school yard. This is a primary age school.

I had to get a picture in this cool tree with cows and garden area behind us.

The one sister would look away but you see the three ladies all with a little one.  I love the look on the young one on the left hand side.

This was by another bore hole to show better the home surrounded with gardens.  Some very large.

Yes, I know my way around a bore hole.

This is as close to a smile as you will get.  They will be laughing amongst themselves but once the camera comes, out the stern face come on.  It was nice to get a bit of a smile.  When they smile my world lights up.

More kids at the bore hole.

It can be dangerous doing jiggers so this man brought his bow and arrows to help protect us.

All I said was "aren't you a little old to play with a bow and arrow?"

I was able to release three missionaries this week and we took two of them home.  One reception was really special as the mom and family were so excited to see him come home.  He is the only member of the church but they sure do understand family.  I posted on Facebook the welcome he received because it was so fun.

We found about a hospital in the Jinja Area (25 km away) and went to visit.  It is where they treat people with leprosy and they send them from all over Uganda.  They have their own living area and only come to the hospital when needing treatment.  Good news, they get fewer cases all the time.

One of the great examples of putting a picture up that tells a thousand words.  Well done baby!

Oh, oh, this one is sick and sorry for the glare on his poor face.  Not too funny because there is a lot of poverty in Africa but Uganda always has food because of the climate.

Sign going into the hospital.  I love and appreciate all the loving sisters throughout the world.

Here is another sister with a sick one.  Not as crazy as Kampala was but we still get our sick calls.

After we were done this week we had one of the ladies bring a whole bag of avocados to sell.  She was only asking $1000 shilling for 10 avocados or about $30 cents for all 10.  We wanted some more so we went to her home and she picked us some more.  Cinco D Mayo guacamole party for anyone interested.  We paid extra for what we received and she was dancing on her way back to her home she was so happy.

So many pictures of cute kids I could share but I think we are both tired by now...ok, ok, one more, this is the famous Sister Squire talk-in turkey.