Bird-watching Paradise (Part 2)

It seems once you start listening and noticing the birds here, they are everywhere…and in such variety!  A few more that we see around here at Timothy Centre are…

 

Double-toothed Barbet

 

African Swallow-tailed Kite

Dusky Tit

Little Bee-eater

Helmeted Guineafowl

African Wattled Lapwing

Pied Crow

Bird-watching Paradise

  The Timothy Centre is an ideal site for bird-watching, as the property includes a large protected wetland area and many natural  and planted trees that attract a large variety of Uganda’s birds.  At any time of day one can hear a multitude of bird calls and enjoy watching birds in flight, in the trees, and hopping through the grass. 
These are some of the commonly seen birds at Timothy Centre.
(Not being bird experts, we rely on our bird books to help us identify them and as far as we can tell these are their names!)

Crowned hornbill

 Black-lored babbler

African pied wagtail

Ruppell’s long-tailed starling

Vinaceous dove

Brown parrot

Black-headed heron

Gray-backed fiscal

Crested crane (Uganda’s national bird)

Hadada ibis

 

 

Ross’s turaco

Encouragement

It is always great to receive visitors from home who give a boost to the staff here, and over the weekend one of our Canadian board members, Helen, paid us a visit.  She was able to see first hand the development of the Timothy Centre project and also see some of the changes that have taken place in Kibaale over the last 5 years or so.

Our community services director, Samalie, was able to share some of the exciting updates about our post secondary students who are now being assisted to attend university and are gaining a strong reputation as students of integrity and faith.  Several are taking positions of leadership in the institutions they attend and are looked up to as models for other students.  We praise God for these great  reports!

While we were visiting Samalie, we also met one of our students who had a dream of studying medicine and who was praying for some time for the opportunity to open up.  Just this past week he heard that a doctor in Canada who has been sponsoring his secondary education in Kibaale has agreed to help him through medical school.  He was absolutely thrilled and was excitedly making plans to travel to university this week. 

  

Samalie’s daughter, Esther, was very happy to have some attention from “the visitors” as we showed Helen the site. 

We were also able to “talk” to Justus, one of our staff children who is studying in our Special Unit for hearing impaired students.  He is confident in his use of sign language and is always happy to communicate with someone who has even a little knowledge of sign language.  Justus is another student who brings us special pride, as he is learning the regular Ugandan primary school curriculum (through sign language) and his teachers hope he will be able to write the government exams at the end of his studies. 

A New Season: Farming God’s Way Plot at TC

With the rains having arrived earlier than anticipated this year, we began working on our demonstration plot at the Timothy Centre today. 

This is what we started with.  Notice the excellent mulch cover -– as a result there were very few weeds that grew over the dry season. This plot was only weeded once in the last 4 months.


Two plots of equal size were dug out,  one third for beans and two thirds for maize (Longe 5).


Look at these guys go!  In about 3 hours five of us prepared the planting stations in both plots.  This is the 5th season of planting.  The first season it took 2 of us about 3 days to hole out one plot -– that’s how hard the soil was.



The soil is getting easier to work each season.  Look at the organic material encompassed in the soil -– not seen five seasons ago.


What great form Mugembe has!!!!


Moving our teren rope down the slope to mark the next row.

After digging the rows and holes, Edward is applying fertilizer, cow manure in this case. 

Here is Medad carefully placing soil over some inorganic fertilizer (DAP) already in the rows…


and finally planting, before we cover the seed with soil and apply the mulch again.

Well done guys!  The rest is up to you, Lord.

Market Gardening Farming God’s Way at TC

The Timothy Girls High School received a quick lesson on Farming God’s Way principles before they left for their term break this week.

We began working on a plot 18 meters by 11 meters, that will eventually be a 74 meter by 11 meter market garden, all done Farming God’s Way.  We plan on growing everything from French beans to beets, sweet corn to various kinds of lettuce, tomatoes to ginger.  Twenty different vegetables and ten different herbs.

We hope to sell a lot of these products within the Masaka area, the proceeds of which will benefit the girls high school and  further development of the farm.

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Celebrations!!

Today was quite the day for celebrating in Kibaale!  It is the end of the second term of school so students were receiving their report cards, receiving words of encouragement and “well done”, and looking forward to the term break.

      

Some primary boys seemed especially happy to be done for the term!

The students also had a very colourful “Music, Dance and Drama” inter-house competitions with much excitement as they performed entertaining dramas and original dances celebrating God’s grace.

 

The winners of the competition were so excited…especially their teachers who had worked very hard to coach them!
Another wonderful cause for celebration was hearing the news that one of our post secondary boys just received sponsorship to attend university …something he has been hoping and praying for in spite of setbacks and discouragements!
Dissan was a small boy in nursery school when Kibaale Community Schools began, and has been a model student throughout.  He has shown himself to be a very hard worker, and a boy of integrity and faith …we celebrate with him that he has a Canadian sponsor who will help him to complete a degree in science/agriculture.  We are grateful for everyone who has had a part in providing a quality education for these needy students!  So much to celebrate today!

Sunday Afternoon at the Pond

One of the most beautiful spots at the Timothy Centre is the small pond fed by a natural underground spring.  It is a lovely place to sit and relax, and reflect on the goodness of God on a sunny Sunday afternoon.