Seasons greetings from Uganda! We hope everyone has a Merry Christmas. We are doing pretty well, other than a trip to the hospital for Paige due to a bacterial infection that made her rather I'll for a few days. She is doing better now, thank God.

We made a trip to the coast of Kenya and back. The traveling was rough, but we had some highlights. Paige and I were invited to plant a tree on the grounds of a Maasai tribe church, so the would remember us visiting. I was happy it was a nitrogen-fixing tree, but even more excited that local leaders expressed interest in permaculture after I described it, and invited me back to teach them.

We also spent a few days in an area called Kibwezi, which is a dry place. I had the honor of co-teaching a dryland sustainable agriculture conference with a native Kenyan. The 35-40 local leaders and farmers in attendance were receptive and encouraged by our practical hands-on workshops, and we had follow-up reports they had already begun implementing what they learned.

We are back at the Connect Africa Hub, and have been continuing the work on the land for the permaculture design. We have dug over 300 feet of rainwater harvesting Swales on contour with the land. Plantings of many trees, including orange, guava, coffee, cocoa, macadamia nut, mango, avacado, and nitrogen-fixing varieties, as well as passion fruit vines! We are preparing to teach some smaller home-scale permaculture garden techniques appropriate for villagers as well.

It has been a tremendous learning experience for me, and I am looking forward to working hard the last monh of our time here in Africa. Thanks for the support and prayers.

Grant and Paige