We thought we’d brought all the important things. Clothes that are easy to wash; a computer for communications and entertainment; a basic set of tools; some packets of soup, our bank debit cards. But we had forgotten (especially as the shells are thin) that if we want to buy eggs, and have a good chance of getting them home safely then we would need to bring an egg box. Carrying 6 eggs home in a plastic bag is bound to end in disaster – anyone for instant omelette?
We’re also having trouble getting money. Even though our main bank, the Nationwide, worked well in Tanzania and had reassured us that we didn’t need to tell them we were going abroad. Despite several attempts at the town’s only ATM we have always been refused money. The UK call centre thought it was first the Ugandan network (until we were able to withdraw funds from our ‘fall back’ bank with the Halifax) and now think it is a faulty magnetic strip on the card (even though both cards have the same problem, but are able to access the account to tell us the balance). To us it is seems the account is simply being blocked somewhere in their systems. As their ‘solution’ is to send a new card to our UK address in effect the account is dead and we will need to transfer to our ‘fall back’ account. In the meantime we have borrowed about £100 (or 300,000 Ugandan shillings) from Jenny, who has suggested a repayment of $1 to 1 shilling – I hope that’s a joke. We are considering alternative sources of finance but I don’t think Kisoro is yet ready to see white people (bazungu) begging on the streets..
Apart from that all is well. The weather has been overcast with the occasional shower – typically English for somewhere so close to the Equator. The Diocese has been preparing for the Convention which started on Friday and we did some work helping to clean one of the large houses for the 1,000 or so delegates to sleep in. (However Malcolm was seen playing most of the time with Jenny’s young son, Joseph, justifying this by saying it kept them both out of the ladies’ feet).
Malcolm has spent some time at the Potter’s Village Orphanage using the Internet (to try and sort out the Bank Accounts). The Orphanage cares for babies up to about 2 years old who have been orphaned or whose parents can’t look after them. This week a 14 year old girl came with a 2 week old baby (Favour). The girl, who had been at a Primary School in Kampala, had been raped and returned to her home town to give birth. Being too young to care for the baby, and needing to return to school if she was to have any prospect of a career, the orphanage accepted the baby, and prayed with the mother and baby.
Next week we expect
- a couple of thousand people at the Convention
- to start buying some essentials
- to find out more about our work
and hopefully no more money problems.
PS. Sorry about the bad puns that started this blog. We hope you didn’t get to ‘egg’cited by them
We’re also having trouble getting money. Even though our main bank, the Nationwide, worked well in Tanzania and had reassured us that we didn’t need to tell them we were going abroad. Despite several attempts at the town’s only ATM we have always been refused money. The UK call centre thought it was first the Ugandan network (until we were able to withdraw funds from our ‘fall back’ bank with the Halifax) and now think it is a faulty magnetic strip on the card (even though both cards have the same problem, but are able to access the account to tell us the balance). To us it is seems the account is simply being blocked somewhere in their systems. As their ‘solution’ is to send a new card to our UK address in effect the account is dead and we will need to transfer to our ‘fall back’ account. In the meantime we have borrowed about £100 (or 300,000 Ugandan shillings) from Jenny, who has suggested a repayment of $1 to 1 shilling – I hope that’s a joke. We are considering alternative sources of finance but I don’t think Kisoro is yet ready to see white people (bazungu) begging on the streets..
Apart from that all is well. The weather has been overcast with the occasional shower – typically English for somewhere so close to the Equator. The Diocese has been preparing for the Convention which started on Friday and we did some work helping to clean one of the large houses for the 1,000 or so delegates to sleep in. (However Malcolm was seen playing most of the time with Jenny’s young son, Joseph, justifying this by saying it kept them both out of the ladies’ feet).
Malcolm has spent some time at the Potter’s Village Orphanage using the Internet (to try and sort out the Bank Accounts). The Orphanage cares for babies up to about 2 years old who have been orphaned or whose parents can’t look after them. This week a 14 year old girl came with a 2 week old baby (Favour). The girl, who had been at a Primary School in Kampala, had been raped and returned to her home town to give birth. Being too young to care for the baby, and needing to return to school if she was to have any prospect of a career, the orphanage accepted the baby, and prayed with the mother and baby.
Next week we expect
- a couple of thousand people at the Convention
- to start buying some essentials
- to find out more about our work
and hopefully no more money problems.
PS. Sorry about the bad puns that started this blog. We hope you didn’t get to ‘egg’cited by them
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