On Monday morning last week, Lorenda headed out to Country Lake Resort on beautiful Lake Victoria. The event was a retreat for the staff from the three Watoto guesthouses. They have never had a retreat- they are always needed to host other people instead. This year management decided they would block out two days for the staff to get away, have some education sessions, get to know each other better and have a little fun.
We arrived at the resort (not far from Kampala) at about 10 AM and checked into our rooms. It was wonderful to spend the next two days getting to know the guesthouse staff and management better. We spent time in education sessions, eating great food, talking, swimming and we had one great volleyball game. Peter (guesthouse general manager who used to be the chef at the guesthouse our building teams have stayed at) and I started out on the same team, but since I am rather competitive and he is a ball hog, we had to get put on opposite teams so a fistfight did not break out! Just kidding, of course- it was all in good fun!
After our time of resting, fun and learning, we boarded the bus at 3:00 on Tuesday. We left our quiet solitude behind and headed back to noisy, crazy Kampala!
Meanwhile, there were exciting things going on in other parts of Watoto while we were off enjoying our time in the country.
As I mentioned earlier, Greg went off on Tuesday to buy a suit to wear to the wedding we were attending on Saturday. I mentioned the purple shirt, right? Ugandans seem to love purple- we even have a purple chair and stool in our apartment! My sister would love it here! Anyway, on Tuesday Greg went and bought his suit and purple shirt (photographic evidence below!)
Another very exciting event happened last Tuesday. Our Watoto family grew by 4300…chicks! Watoto has several sustainability projects that include a goat barn, a vegetable farm and now a chicken farm. Construction of the chicken barn has been underway since before we arrived and now it is up and running- what an exciting journey it has been. The barn is a fully automated operation with a conveyor belt that takes the eggs away as they are laid. The second batch of chicks (another 4300) arrived yesterday so in about 4 months there should be about 7000 eggs per day being produced in that barn. That is enough to feed the children in the Watoto villages and have some to sell. Four of my friends and I went out yesterday to see the chicks and see the barn in operation. It is so exciting to see such an amazing operation in the middle of sub-Saharan Africa (much thanks goes to an egg producer from UK who is a great friend of Watoto).
Sustainability- one of the big things that drew us to Watoto when we first started looking at the organization several years ago.
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| Greg with two of our Ugandan "sons" Ed on the left and Grace on the right and of course, the purple shirt! |
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| The Men in Black- Grace, Ed and the pasty white guy! |
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| They are all so proud of their new work van- it had to get in the photos too! |
LOVE the pictures! Men in Black, and a pasty white dude indeed. Sheesh, you guys are so much more tanned than you were when you left, but still seeing dad that close to Ed and Grace, he looks albino! The purple shirt looks good though- good work Albert for his fashion advice!
ReplyDeleteYep- they were all pretty sharp looking! The first couple of pictures we took inside were nearer the front window so the black curtains were behind Ed- you couldn't see him in the picture. I showed them the picture and Grace and Ed thought it was hilarious that Ed didn't show up in the picture. I had to move them over against the white wall!
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