'God bless us, Every One'

 This is just a few photos taken over the Christmas festivities.

We had a wonderful time with Stephen and Lara in Plymouth, with several other members of our family

It was our first Christmas with our eldest grandson, Jonah



We wish you all a very happy new year

Around and about

We’ve been spending our time touring Cyprus in the last week.

Some of the highlights are:

-         visiting North Cyprus, illegally occupied by Turkey since 1974. This included the Monastery on the site said to be the burial place of one of the first Missionaries to Cyprus, Barnabus.

-         Malcolm visited the ‘Baths of Aphrodite’, where myth has it the Goddess used to bathe during her love affair with Adonis

-         Visits to the sites which were central to the life of the first President of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios – his birth place (Panagia), where he was first trained as a priest (Kykkos Monastery), where he was Archbishop (Nicosia) and his grave, which has become a national shrine

And, just to remind us of winter, even though the temperatures have been about 20 deg C, up in the mountains there has been snow, and the ski slopes should open in January. (What? Ski slopes in the Mediterranean!)

Doing our bit to solve the Eurozone Crisis?

Having done a lot of travelling since our return to Britain, we have now flown to Cyprus for a two week holiday, and to find some warmer weather.

We are staying in Paphos on the west coast, and doing lots of touristy things.

For Irene it’s a pleasure to have a break from cooking and cleaning. For both of us it’s a chance to visit the country for the first time. So far we have visited:

-         the remains of Roman Villas with remarkable preserved mosaic floors.

 

-         catacombs used by early Christian Churches

-         where, it is said, St Paul was tied to a stone pillar to be flogged

-         the last local craftsman making chairs with seats made from rushes

Throwing parties, stones and leaves

As we get closer to Christmas, we are deep in the birthday season.

And on Sunday there were 2 for the price of one!!!

And they covered two extremes.

At one end it was Mark’s first birthday. Because he is so young he probably won't remember too much about it!! However, he did enjoy opening his presents, and eating some cake

At the other extreme it was Malcolm's 60th. Because he is so old he can't remember much about his previous birthdays, and seems to think he is only 25!!! Bless!

He (and Irene) thought he was being taken out for a quiet lunch with Rachel and family - to discover that the restaurant was full of a host of familiar faces. If Irene had known she would have made sure he was smartly dressed - just as well one gift was a new tee-shirt!!

Because Irene had to go out for the day on Tuesday, TJ kindly offered to look after grandad. They went for a nice walk to see the trains and go along the river, where TJ cleaned up the footpath by throwing stones, leaves and branches into the water.

From Three to Tree

The Birthday theme continues.

This week it was our second grandson’s turn. Thomas (or TJ) was 3 on Thursday, though he seems to have decided that now every day is his birthday. This may be because last Sunday he had a joint ‘Soft-play’ ‘official birthday’ party with two friends, inviting about 35 guests and eating lots of food.

The birthday theme continued on Thursday (real birthday) with a day out in Cambridge, more cake and more presents.

And why shouldn’t we celebrate our birthdays every day????

It is also the official start of Christmas in Ely this week, with the ceremony to turn on the town’s lights. Of course, as far as the shops are concerned Christmas started about 3 months ago!!! This is a stark contrast with our experience last year in Kisoro when the only Christmas tree was put up in the Diocese offices on Christmas Eve!!!

Watch your wait!!!

One of the problems we have returning from Africa is that any weight we may have lost is quickly regained!!!!!

 Having ate far too much food with our son, David and his wife, Sarah we are now visiting our daughter Rachel’s family. Before leaving Milton Keynes we went to their local Vineyard church where we picked up about 20 knitted dolls that Marilyn has made for the babies at Potters Village. Each comes with a free cuddle!!!!

In Ely we have been enjoying more food!!!

However, we have to find time to catch up with our ‘grand parenting’ duties. Thomas (TJ) is almost 3 and full of energy.  He has been taking grand-dad out for walks to show him the river, the play areas and especially the trains, which there are lots!!!! It is particularly exciting to have to wait at a railway crossing especially when 3 trains come!.

This has left time for Irene to catch up with his almost 1 year old brother, Mark.

In the meantime Malcolm has been catching up with culture. Having gone the previous week to the New Vic Theatre in Newcastle under Lyme to see the play about the Bronte sisters (We are Three Sisters) this week in Cambridge he went to a concert by the singer / song writer Martyn Joseph. Not that Malcolm is a fan - he's only been going to martyn's concerts for the last 25 years, and gets regular newsletters from the supporters' club!!!!!

Winter Tour 2011/12 - a lot of 'young' and some older ladies

In the past week we have travelled from:
- Plymouth to Newcastle under Lyme
- to Birmingham
- to Milton Keynes

with Malcolm taking a couple of diversions to Amersham in order to get the car's brakes repaired.

In Newcastle we went to the sunday service at our old church. Malcolm already knew tht one church member had done her 'elective' year at Mvumi Hospital in Tanzanis where we worked in 2008 and 2009, but we then discovered that another member had done his elective at Kisiizi Hospital in Uganda, where Malcolm had done some work in July and August - a small world indeed. Andy had been a bit bolder as he had gone to Uganda during Idi Amin's dictatorship of terror, and we have heard abouthow soldiers had visited the Hosital to try and intimidate the staff into not holding services in the hospital chapel.

While in Newcastle we:
- took our youngest daughter, Pamela, out for a meal.
- had lunch with malcolm's 'old' Management Team from the Borough Council.

Then off to Birmingham to see Irene's mother and sister Betty.

Next stop - Milton Keynes, and pick up the car from Amersham

Winter Tour 2011/12 - A bunch of pirates?

24 hours flight, 24 hours driving, 1 birthday party, 3 different beds and a brokn car!!!!!

It seems more than a week since we arrived back in the UK. the flight was not as bad as expected despite a 5 hour stop-over in Addis Ababa and we spent a pleasant weekend recovering in Chesham and meeting friends from our church. And then more travelling.

Briefly:

- we had Sunday lunch with our son, David with his wife Sarah and her parents in Smallford, Herts

- we spent 6 nights in Plymouth with our other son, Staphen, wife Lara and grandson Jonah where we celebrated Jonah's 4th birthday, and witnessed Stephen dressing up as a pirate for a Halloween day at the Infant School he is teacher training at

- we have arrived in Newcastle under Lyme to see our youngest daughter Pamela and meet friends from Malcolm's work here.

The one drama is that within 5 miles of leaving Plymouth the brakes on our car seized up with clouds of smoke coming from our front wheel (despite a new brake caliper being fitted 23 months ago) so a 5 hour journey became 10 hours - thank goodness for Recovery services. The silver lining was that because of a major accident on the M5 no-one could tow as on to Newcastle so we have been given a courtesy car.

After couple off days here, Birmingaham, Amersham (to get brakes repaired) and Milto Keynes!!!

Ready for the off?

 It has been our last week in Kisoro, and a last chance to experience the way of live here for 3 months.

People are very relaxed. We cant think of many places in England where you can be walking through town for Sunday lunch when you meet a young woman in curlers – reminds us of Ena Sharples in Coronation Street about 50 years ago – but she didn't look so good.

Very few people have cars and cant afford taxis, so a popular way to move about is to hire a boda-boda – a motor-cycle taxi. And here seems no limit to the number of passengers you can squeeze on board. It is common to see 3 adults with a baby, such as on the way back from church. We think the law requires crash helmets, but...............

Of course, there was still plenty of room for more, as it is common to see a young child sat in front of the driver on the petrol tank – so he at least has the handle bars to hold onto,

Unfortunately we understand there are a lot of injuries on boda-bodas. You know why when you see the state of most of the roads!!!!

As matter of policy we have never hired a boda- boda!!!!!

Wednesday we had our last lunch or the year at the Coffee Pot cafe. We were able to say goodbye to Doris who returns to Canada after working for over 30 years in Africa (see blog of 14 October) and a farewell to Val from Germany who owns the cafe and has lived in Uganda a long time since she married a Ugandan.

And then its time to pack up!!! We fly today and arrive at Heathrow tomorrow for our month UK Christmas Tour.

Bon Voyage

Closing down - growing up

 With less than a week to go before our return to the UK, we need to 'close down' a few matters.

Malcolm has spent most of the week at Potters Village Home for Vulnerable children. He has been helping to 'close down' the accounts for the past few years, and to carry out an audit (actually an 'Independent Examination') of the Financial Statements.

The Village project began in 2005/6. In the past 6 years a significant cluster of buildings has been built with finances raised mainly by a UK Trust created for the purpose. The Village cares for more than 30 children under 2 years old , with a further 60 supported in the community. Many of the children would not have survived without the Village as most of their mothers had died giving birth.

One such baby is Doree (not Doreen!!!), who we mentioned in our blog of 1st July. Sadly both her mother and twin sister died at the birth and with no other female in the family able to care for her she was immediately brought into the Village. She is now almost 4 months old and doing very well, and is being sponsored by our son and daughter in law so he future is bright. Hopefully she will return to her family to be cared for when she is about 2 years old

The latest project is to build a new Babies Unit so that their current 'home' can revert to its original purpose of a Medical centre to care for premature babies and sick children. The structure of the new unit is close to completion with interior plumbing and fitting out in progress.

Another youngster you is growing up is the guard dog, Otis. He is only a few months old – he will welcome you during the daytime, but at night, if anyone comes into the Village site, he will do his job and start barking.

To findout more about Potters Village go to:
http://www.pottersvillage.org.uk/

And what now - time to start packing up

No. This is Not a war-zone!!!!

A friend of ours, Doris has worked in Africa as a language teacher for over 30 years. However, when she left the previous two countries she worked in, Ivory Coast and Liberia, each time she had to do so in a bit of a hurry as war had broken out, and she needed to abandon all her possessions. This time she (and we) hopes to be more lucky!!!

She is now retiring and returning to her native Canada next month. However, last weekend was the last occasion when many of us will be around to say farewell, so we had a little get together in the Coffee Pot Cafe. It was a 'Bring your Own and Share' (and help yourself!!!!!) food event!!!!!

Coincidentally, and keeping to the military theme,  Sunday was the 49th anniversary celebration for the Independence of Uganda. We went to enjoy a celebratory parade at the local sports ground, attended by thousands of residents .

In addition to soldiers and police, most of the schools joined in.

There were  displays put on by local dance groups.

We are beginning to think about packing up to return to England in two weeks time for our Christmas break. And who knows, we might return next year, when the 50th Independence Anniversary should be even more spectacular and celebrated!!!!