What a FUN week we've had!  We drove to Addis Ababa Monday (my birthday) and stayed with the Preators and Tanners overnight then flew Tuesday morning to UGANDA for a Mission Couples Conference at the Paraa Lodge.  Uganda is VERY lush and green and quite different than Ethiopia.  The people even look quite different.  We LOVED stopping a a supermarket and seeing things we can't get in Ethiopia.  We have gone on two games drives, a river safari and had a great time getting to know the other 16 couples serving in the Uganda Kampala Mission!  They are WONDERFUL and we have exchanged experiences and ideas... SO inspiring!!  Today is our 41st Anniversary.  What a way to celebrate!! The photos of the baboons were taken from our balcony this afternoon! We had 12 baboons out there climbing the tree next to our room and running around!! 

We and the Tanners (on the left, serving in Awassa)
stayed at the Preators the night of my birthday, so the
Preators invited Elder and Sister Moses (Humanitarian
Missionaries in Addis too) over for dinner and my
birthday cake. We are the four couples serving in
Ethiopia.

Blowing out my candle... 

Driving from the Entebbe Airport to Kampala

past Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa!

On the road to Paraa Lodge (on a shortcut that took 2 hours
longer!)

We took a ferry across the Nile. Elephants were grazing across
the river.

Paraa Lodge

View from our balcony

Our first game drive on Wednesday
I LOVED the cute little baby elephant! 
These elephants walked RIGHT behind our truck!

We saw dozens of giraffes ~ my favorite!

Sunset at the end of our drive

River Safari on the African Queen the second day we were there

We saw LOTS of hippos right next to our boat!
Notice the BABY ones!

One of MANY crocs on the bank

A huge world globe on the banks of the Nile

Elder and Sister Palmer serving in Rwanda
We are good friends with Elder Palmer's sister Phyllis!

I thought this was a fun looking little gift shop...

This bus that stopped at the same gas station we stopped at
was PACKED with people!! I just missed getting a picture
of a guy getting off carrying a bunch of chickens!
The red, yellow and green colors of the Ethiopian flag are
found EVERYWHERE!

Papyrus plants on the roadside

No signs when a road is closed.... just rocks!  We have seen this in
Ethiopia and in South Africa too.

They drive on the left side of the road and there are bota-botas
ALL over the roads weaving in and out of traffic sometimes
carrying as many as 5 people or egg crates, baskets, etc. Crazy!
(We drove with other couples in their trucks and didn't have to
drive ourselves, but we STILL think Ethiopian roads are scarier!)

When we got back to Kampala, on our last night
there, we all ate at the Mission Home (Chinese take-out)!
Then we had a Christmas Devotional and sang Christmas
carols around the tree. It was really nice! 

Uganda looks very different than Ethiopia with it's red tile roofs
and red bricks made from the red clay you see all over.

These trees outside the Mission Couples' apartments
were SO different! I had to get a picture.

These are the five couples' apartments in Kampala.  We stayed in
the one on the top floor on the right.  Sister missionaries
also live in one of the apartments.

I thought these fan palms were also very different looking!

Birds lay eggs in holes in the side of the cliff

Murchison Falls
We hiked to the top!

The falls from the top

Taking a break after the LONG hike to the top of the falls

About 12 of the 16 couples in our mission made the hike

Lion prints.... the closest we got to seeing a lion.  : /

Sunrise on our morning game drive (out of order)

Water Buffalo

Baboons outside below our balcony

A mother carried her baby underneath her and is sitting with
her baby by the trunk of the tree.

I just realized that there are a lot of photos taken our last 24 hours in Uganda

that I never did post on our blog.  Here they are....(but they are all out of

order now that I added these!? : / )

There were about 5 or 6 of these strange looking trees all around
the lodge.  They said elephants LOVE the things hanging from
the tree and shake the trunks with THEIR trunks to knock them
to the ground to eat them.  They were as hard as a rock!?

One last photo as we left the lodge.  It was REALLY decorated
for Christmas ! I LOVED that because Ethiopia's Christmas
is not the same as ours and we had seen NO decorations!

This is our Mission President Robert Chatfield and his
wife Katherine from Alpine, Utah. They got to the mission
about a month before we entered the MTC.

We shared the Storys' two bedroom apartment
for a few nights in Kampala. They had been
there for just FOUR days!! They are from
the Pocatello, ID area.

The Victoria Nile on the way to Murchison Falls from 
the African Queen (out of place....)