Dukul Progress

It has been a wonderful experience to help design and build the house Larissa and I will be sharing in only a few short months. Since we are building with ferrocement, all our furniture will be built in the walls. Over the last few weeks, we have been making decisions about where to put our beds, desks, and shelves. Pretty soon we will be picking fabric for curtains. The tent next to the main house has been a good home for the last six months, but I am looking forward to having a quiet place with a desk to sit at during the day and hopefully fewer visitors of the animal variety at night. We are rapidly running out of construction supplies, but thankfully the truck of supplies I purchased with our contractor a week ago in Kampala is now making its way from Uganda to Sudan.


Local houses in Mundri are called tukuls, and since two people will be living in each of the structures we are building for single men and women we have decided to call them dukuls (duplex + tukul).

Blue Pipes

The last time Michael and I were in Kampala, we bought some blue PVC riser pipes to install in local boreholes. This week we had the opportunity to replace some corroded galvanized iron (GI) riser pipes with the PVC riser pipes. The PVC pipes were about half the price of the GI pipes and won't corrode. Corrosion of the riser pipes is one of the most significant causes of handpump breakdown we have seen in the Mundri area. The PVC pipes are also lighter and easier to work with than the GI pipes. We are working with the county water office to continue replacing corroded GI pipes with PVC pipes.

Friends in DRC

Here are a few pictures from my visit to Beni, DR Congo. I had an amazing week at UCBC (Christian Bilingual University of Congo) with friends I met at CIT and new friends. We have been on the field about six months now, and it was such a blessing to be able to talk to someone who went through missions training with me. I had great conversations with students, played cards and Settlers of Catan at night, and rested to prepare for the second part of a hectic shopping trip in Kampala.

At the construction site of the new classrooms at UCBC with Meredith

Chelsie and Grant in the teacher's lounge between classes at UCBC

Grant hasn't had a haircut since he arrived in Congo

All smiles
Check out Meredith's tan!