A lot has happened in the last 10 months since we arrived back from Tanzania. To cut a long story short, this Friday (27th August) we fly out to South West Uganda, to spend 2 years working as volunteers for the Diocese of Muhabura based in Kisoro. 
Malcolm has been asked to be the Diocese ‘Estates Manager and Internal Auditor’. This is a bit of a challenge as he has never been an Estate Manager, but is content that his primary concern will be to get best value from the Diocesan property. Incidentally, its several years since he did Internal Audit – about time he got his hands dirty again!!!
Irene has been asked to help students at the Vocational Training Centre to set up small businesses, and to assist at the orphanage to teach mothers how to encourage their babies to be inquisitive – a skill they tend to lose when they spend most of their day on their mother’s back whilst she is busy working. Again, the VTC will be a new challenge , though she has been refreshing her baby rearing skills when visiting our two grandsons (and has therefore already got her hands dirty again).
But, returning to the long story, the ‘highlights’ of the last 10 months have been:
- acceptance by CMS as short term mission support ‘thingies’ (as Malcolm calls us)
- the engagement of our eldest son, David, to Sarah
- the birthday parties of our two grandsons Jonah (2) and Thomas (1)
- the news that our daughter is expecting a second child (our 3rd grandchild) in December
- visiting lots of friends and family and burning up the miles in our car
- the wedding of our niece last December during the start of the bad winter weather
What will next year bring?
We understand Kisoro is a town in a beautiful area, nestling high up amongst extinct (we hope!) volcanoes and popular with tourists for the nature reserves (mountain gorillas) and ‘impenetrable forest’ (not much point going there then? Or is there?). In the 1930’s it was in the area where the Rwanda Christian revival occurred, but more recently has suffered from the influx of refugees from conflicts in Rwanda and DR Congo (formerly Zaire). Currently the latter is still a country where visitors are advised not to go. In Rwanda you get Gorillas – in DR Congo you get Guerrillas!!!!
We will be coming back for 2 breaks in 2011 – the first in January for 2 weeks for the wedding of our son, David, and a longer 3 month break over Christmas and to celebrate 4 birthdays!!
And so, we are almost packed with clothes, basic cooking implements, computers and 2 kg (yes, 2kg) of Cadbury’s chocolate. This is not for us, but for the Mission Partner, Jenny Green, to give pieces to the children at the orphanage (though it might be drinking chocolate by the time we arrive)
As ever, tune in next week to find out:
- do we arrive in Kisoro, and is there Internet access to update this blog?
- are our clothes one molten chocolate mess?
- Does our house have plumbing in, and is there plumbing out?
PS Rumours that we are leaving the country simply before our appearance in ‘To Buy or Not to Buy’ on BBC1 are purely coincidental . 
Malcolm has been asked to be the Diocese ‘Estates Manager and Internal Auditor’. This is a bit of a challenge as he has never been an Estate Manager, but is content that his primary concern will be to get best value from the Diocesan property. Incidentally, its several years since he did Internal Audit – about time he got his hands dirty again!!!
Irene has been asked to help students at the Vocational Training Centre to set up small businesses, and to assist at the orphanage to teach mothers how to encourage their babies to be inquisitive – a skill they tend to lose when they spend most of their day on their mother’s back whilst she is busy working. Again, the VTC will be a new challenge , though she has been refreshing her baby rearing skills when visiting our two grandsons (and has therefore already got her hands dirty again).
But, returning to the long story, the ‘highlights’ of the last 10 months have been:
- acceptance by CMS as short term mission support ‘thingies’ (as Malcolm calls us)
- the engagement of our eldest son, David, to Sarah
- the birthday parties of our two grandsons Jonah (2) and Thomas (1)
- the news that our daughter is expecting a second child (our 3rd grandchild) in December
- visiting lots of friends and family and burning up the miles in our car
- the wedding of our niece last December during the start of the bad winter weather
- Irene's mother's 90th birthday
- the death of Malcolm’s mother, sorting out her estate, buying her bungalow
- consolidating from various stores all our belongings, and preparing the bungalow for letting
- the death of Malcolm’s mother, sorting out her estate, buying her bungalow
- consolidating from various stores all our belongings, and preparing the bungalow for letting
What will next year bring?
We understand Kisoro is a town in a beautiful area, nestling high up amongst extinct (we hope!) volcanoes and popular with tourists for the nature reserves (mountain gorillas) and ‘impenetrable forest’ (not much point going there then? Or is there?). In the 1930’s it was in the area where the Rwanda Christian revival occurred, but more recently has suffered from the influx of refugees from conflicts in Rwanda and DR Congo (formerly Zaire). Currently the latter is still a country where visitors are advised not to go. In Rwanda you get Gorillas – in DR Congo you get Guerrillas!!!!
We will be coming back for 2 breaks in 2011 – the first in January for 2 weeks for the wedding of our son, David, and a longer 3 month break over Christmas and to celebrate 4 birthdays!!
And so, we are almost packed with clothes, basic cooking implements, computers and 2 kg (yes, 2kg) of Cadbury’s chocolate. This is not for us, but for the Mission Partner, Jenny Green, to give pieces to the children at the orphanage (though it might be drinking chocolate by the time we arrive)
As ever, tune in next week to find out:
- do we arrive in Kisoro, and is there Internet access to update this blog?
- are our clothes one molten chocolate mess?
- Does our house have plumbing in, and is there plumbing out?
PS Rumours that we are leaving the country simply before our appearance in ‘To Buy or Not to Buy’ on BBC1 are purely coincidental .
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