Last week we met a potter.

On Friday, we stopped to take a picture of a lady with a water pot on her head.  Dickson was with us and just happened to know the potter and he took us to her.  Dickson found a lot of clay on his property and had it tested.  It was found to be good so the village potter has been buying clay from him.  She was in the process of mixing it when we were there.  Later, she would be forming it into pots and we planned to return but it rained a lot and we couldn't get there.  Maybe this week we can go back and watch her.

We bought this one.  It's for water and keeps it as cold as the fridge, we were told.  Haven't tried it yet.
It was the last one that she had from her last firing. 

She uses that hammer looking thing to mix the clay and the piece of gourd to smooth it.  She uses a twig off of a tree to  put the texture on it.  The mixing tool is from a branch of a tree too.

She is a tiny little thing.  Can't wait to get to know her.

The children love to have their pictures taken.  Then they have to see it on your camera.  When they see it, they just laugh and laugh.

MURCHISON FALLS NATIONAL PARK

On Monday, our P day, we went to Murchison Falls National Park which is about 1 1/2 hours from Gulu.  It turned out to be much more than we had expected.  After exiting the pavement and re-entering at a different location 50 miles later, we felt as though we had truly been on a genuine African adventure.  We drove on the craziest roads we could ever imagine, forged rivers, drove through grass that was taller than our vehicle, and an occasional swamp, and saw more wild life than we had hoped for.  We also got to see some of the powerful rapids and water falls on the Nile River.  Here are some of our pictures.

Before we even entered the park, we saw a huge elephant, close to the road.  We all got out and started taking pictures.  He looked at us as if he were posing and then shook his head and flapped his ears and snorted.  That put the fear into us.  Then he turned and walked over to a tree, reached up into it with his trunk, wrapped it around the trunk of the tree and shook it violently as if to see how strong it was.  Then casually went around to the other side, put his trunk up against the tree with his tusks on either side and pushed it to the ground.  We're told that this is what they do so that they can reach the small branches and leaves which they eat.  So whenever we saw a tree fallen and defoliated, we think we know what happened.  It was a sight we'll never forget.

It's nice to have zoom lens on our camera.  

We saw lots of Giraffe at both ends of our trip

Crossing a river.

Notice the birds in the tree.  They're following the water buffalo.

Water Buffalo

Birds that follow the water buffalo.

The Grundy's

The Woods'

Rapids at the top of Murchison Falls

Leaving the park.

Elephant 'scat'

Hippo in the Nile river at Chobe Safari Lodge

The pools at Chobe Safari Lodge

The Nile River

The end of a really good day in Africa!!!!!