Friday, 4 March 2011

Celebrity! Celebrity?

Malcolm says he must be like David Beckham – or does he mean Posh Spice?

He’s never been any good at football, and doesn’t have the figure of a pop star (not a female one anyway). However, as a ‘celebrity’, wherever he went earlier this week all he could hear was children shouting ‘Mzungu, Mzungu’, waving and chasing after him!!

Before he gets too big headed we ought to say that he went by car to some of the remoter parts of the area to meet with some of the church treasurers to audit their financial records. The roads were some of the worst we have seen here, and it takes a very brave, skilled (or foolish) driver to arrive safely. Fortunately the Bishop’s driver, George, was driving. He is the only Ugandan driver we have seen so far who is so safety conscious he stops the car to answer his mobile phone!!!!!! Even motor cyclists here think it’s OK to answer their phone whilst driving over rough roads.


The area is so isolated it means white people are a bit of an oddity. Whenever the car passed children on the road, there would be surprised shouts of ‘Mzungu, Mzungu’ even from children in fields over 100yards away.


When Malcolm and George arrived at Rutaka, a remote village in the mountains, they had to walk up the steep, muddy path to the church. Malcolm noticed children coming out from the primary school to cluster around the car. ‘They must be car spotters’ he thought. He then realised, when they started to climb the hill after him, that their main interest was to have a closer look at the strange, white man. Celebrity? Or oddity? We’ll let you decide.

There are several new ‘Mzungus’ in Kisoro. Last week two new volunteers from England, Ruth and Ellie, arrived to help at Potter’s Village for a few months. Also, two ‘old timers’, Chris and Polly, have also stopped for a break. They worked for several years in the hospital in Kabale training dentists and have come back to Rwanda and Uganda for 3 weeks to see how things are going. Part of their tour is 3 days for a break in Kisoro.


It is just as well there are more workers at Potters Village as every week more babies are admitted. This week two 3 day old twins were brought to the Village. Unfortunately their mother died giving birth and with 5 other young children her husband andthe family are unable to care for the new borns. They are so young that they have not yet been giving names, and so are called ‘Squeak’ and ‘Grunt’, being the sounds they make when they try to cry.


Post script from last week.
Concerning the ‘wedding anniversary present’ that Malcolm said he had ordered for Irene, the ironing board has arrived. For those readers that have made comments we would like to make it clear that it wasn’t really a present for Irene – Malcolm had previously ordered a kitchen sink and chain for that!

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