a few accomplishments

We’re still in a hotel, but trying to get as much done as we can while in the city. On Thursday Floyd drove us out to the property to see the status and to take measurements. The carpenter had made significant progress since our last visit. Here are a few pics:.

These are the dining table chairs. He chose a beautiful fabric & they're very comfy!

The carpenter built the kid's closets just as I designed. They aren't quite finished, but you get the idea. We have bins that slide into the cubes to work as drawers. Rods will be added for hanging their clothes. The ceilings are so high, we had the carpenter add shelves to make additional storage in the house.  He did an excellent job. Can't wait until to see them completely done.

The following day we went with Robert, one of Pastor Johnson’s sons, to order our furniture for the house. The local carpenter did all the wood work inside, but we needed more than one man can do in a reasonable amount of time. We commissioned three different carpenters in the city to do specific things. One is making 2 desks (one for the family area and a small one for Raegan’s room), many book shelves (to be used in various rooms including the dining room for the beginning of our library), two benches (one for outside, one for inside), bunk beds for the kid’s rooms, nightstands for the boys’ room, and a chair for Raegan’s desk. Another one is making some chairs to be outside on our porch. The third one is making our living room furniture (couch, sofa, and 2 chairs). We gave deposits on everything and they will receive the balance when we go to pick up everything in 2 weeks. I look forward to sharing pics at that time.

mmmm,mmmm, so good!!

This furniture place is basically a large city block where they line finished pieces along the road and you can buy them right there. If you want a different color or something different, you describe it and they make it for you. They work right there behind their samples. It is very hot and there are no trees or any other kind of shade. The first day we went, Floyd and I got a little sun kissed. This day we were there long enough to get sunburned. It was so hot and dry! At one point, I looked up and saw that Robert was eating pineapple. I asked where he got it and he said, “you want?” Of course I nodded and said, “Absolutely.” A gentleman was cutting it fresh on the spot and selling big slices. It was very warm but so juicy and tasted amazing in the hot sun. Sadly, it was my first piece of pineapple since arriving nearly two weeks ago! 

We left from there and went to a fabric store. The measurements mentioned above were for the windows. I’ll be making the curtains for our house. In Uganda, it is customary to have curtains; even the door has a curtain. A lighter weight, almost sheer curtain allows the windows and doors to be open in the daytime for air flow, while still giving some privacy from outside eyes. Also, at night, when the lights are turned on, if you don’t have curtains anyone can see everything going on in the house. So, you draw your darker curtains at night or when more privacy is wanted.

I made calculations on how much fabric I needed, but when I got to the fabric store, I had to make many adjustments. The fabric is sold by the meter, which I expected, but it is also much wider than fabric purchased in the US. A single panel is 1.4 meters wide and a folded panel is 2.8 meters wide. That is significantly wider than standard fabric in the US. This means each meter of fabric is significantly more than I expected. This was a good thing, because the fabric here is more like our nicer fabrics in the US, so they are expensive. The cheapest, basic fabric is USh 18,000 (USh means Ugandan shillings), or roughly $6.29 a meter. The prices quickly go up to around US 45,000, roughly $15.76, per meter.

It is so heavy Floyd & Robert worked
together to carry it. :)

The first thing I spotted was the perfect fabric for Raegan’s room. We ended up getting fabric for all of the small rooms, leaving only the living/dining room and kitchen. We didn’t find just what we’re looking for, and Robert told me I could look at another place since we have to go there anyway another day. Getting what I did purchase took a really long time (a few hours), so I was glad to wait for another day. 

I have to go to the other place anyway to buy thread. I asked the young man that was helping me if they sold thread. He looked at me a little odd and I said, “you know, the stuff I need to put in the machine in order to sew this fabric.” He said, “you have a machine?” with the oddest look on his face. He seemed very surprised that I would know how to sew and have a machine. I simply said, “my mom taught me when I was a young girl.” Then he finally told me where I would have to go to buy thread. J He also gave me a discount on the fabric because I was buying so much. That was so kind. It was generally about $2 per meter that he discounted me, which was significant because I bought about 60 meters.