A Wedding, Umpteen Baptisms and a Funeral

The Royal Wedding has not passed us by completely here. It has been rather nice not having all the palaver that has been in England. Malcolm for one did not miss any of that (although he can still remember what he was doing and wearing when Charles and Diana got married – and it wasn’t watching it!!) Sadly there was one of our regular power cuts during the ceremony. But as soon as the power was restored the computer at Potters Village was turned on so that the English women (Ruth and Ellie) could catch up on most important matters, such as the wedding dress Kate was wearing, and what the bridesmaids looked like. Malcolm concentrated on doing the month’s accounts.

Easter in Uganda is a traditional time for baptising children. On Monday the Rev Victor invited us to the baptism of one of his grandchildren at the Cathedral. Malcolm went (as Irene was continuing her computer training course). The service was in Rufumbira which meant Malcolm did not really understand what was going on (so he spent time ‘entertaining’ a young child, who also did not seem to know what was happening). There were at least 15 babies being baptised, as well as several older children and some adults, so he is still not sure which one was Victor’s grandson. After the ceremony we were invited with about 60 others to a meal in Victor’s pleasant and picturesque garden, which is like a little bit of England.

Unfortunately there has been another murder in Kisoro – the second since we have been here. The Chairman of the Village Council was killed one evening. Apparently he was known as a bit of a drinker and it must have happened while he was out ‘on the Town’. From what we understand he had received threats on his life previously and the police have arrested a number of people for what sounds like a ritualistic killing. The Funeral was held in the Cathedral on Thursday and was well attended (to overflowing), and seemed to last for about 4 hours with many speeches.

The week began and ended with special meals. On Easter Monday the German / Dutch couple working at a local Secondary school, Dieter and Bea, invited us for a special breakfast with home baked bread, jam and cheese – plus some chocolate Easter eggs which went down particularly well with Irene, Ruth and Ellie.

And because there are visitors from High Wycombe the Diocese arranged a special welcome meal. On Saturday Andrew arrived to do some building work at Potters Village for the next 3 weeks. On Thursday his vicar, Simon arrived with Matt to run some training courses for priests for 8 days. As hospitality is very important here they were welcomed with a traditional Ugandan meal on Thursday night with Diocese staff, including us.

So that’s one wedding, umpteen baptisms, a funeral – and 3 special meals. Not bad for a weeks work!

It's a steal - in fact it's a piece of cake!

‘I don’t believe it’ (Victor Meldrew)




In Britain we’d heard of people stealing items of ‘intimate’ clothing from washing lines. This week, it happened to Malcolm. He’d only hung up a pair of socks and some underwear, and when he came back at lunch-time, someone had taken the socks! They had kindly left the clothes pegs. Irene thought that Malcolm had sensibly thrown the socks away as they had holes in. To some people here even old socks are worth taking (but clearly, not an old pair of Malcolm’s pants – surprise, surprise)

Last Sunday was Palm Sunday and the tradition here is that people take a branch of some sort to church to celebrate Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem. Most managed to find a palm leaf or banana tree leaf – all Malcolm could find were some large leaves from some sort of weed. At the correct point in the service the congregation stood to wave their branches (or in Irene’s case, weed).





Because of Easter it’s been a short working week for Malcolm. Irene however, was asked by the Diocese Secretary (the chief Administrator in the office) to arrange on the mornings of Thursday, Saturday and Easter Monday a basic computer skills course for some of the office staff. So, with the assistance of Ruth, one of the short term Volunteers currently at Potters Village, the short course began on Thursday. It went well (which means the almost daily power cut here happened in the afternoon once the training finished).




Malcolm continues to try and bake cakes. Readers may recall his previous failed attempts at coffee cake (see blog of 17th September 2010). This week he was a lot more successful, although it’s amazing what icing will cover up. The only problem is it was good enough to share, which means this time we only had one slice each rather than half a cake. Maybe in future he shouldn’t try so hard!

Riotous Living

On Thursday, the Riot Police came to the Cathedral. About 15 police complete with helmets, shields and batons lined up outside our offices. What had we done? Are Irene’s students revolting? Has Malcolm become violent over a missing paper clip? There has been violence in Kampala. Because of problems in Egypt, Yemen, Libya etc the Government has banned groups of people forming to protest. This has angered the opposition parties. They therefore arranged, on Monday and Thursday, a ‘Walk to Work’ day to protest about rising prices, such as petrol. The argument being that they are not breaking the law as they are not meeting but moving. However, the police have taken a firm line, including the use of rubber bullets, managing to ‘shoot’ the main opposition leader, Dr Besigye, in the hand. (Photo from Daily Monitor,Uganda).

So why Riot Police in Kisoro? Our guess is that because young people tend to support the opposition to the Government, the Police wanted to show the neighbouring (all girl) secondary school that they are prepared to take serious action if necessary.




The week had its own tragedy here. Sadly another baby died at Potters Village. Last week we mentioned that one of the babies may go for eye surgery in a month’s time. It would have actually been Moses, a 9 month old baby. However, he had been poorly and on Saturday he deteriorated rapidly and was diagnosed with a hole in the heart. He died that night. To make it even more traumatic for Jenny, when she took the body to a distant village for burial alongside his mother, the grandparents wanted to include pagan ritual within a Christian Service, which is not acceptable. As the child was legally in the care of the Potters Village eventually it was agreed that the pagan rituals would not be carried out. Meanwhile, we looked after her children, taking them out for lunch and then teaching Hannah how to play chess.

Malcolm made his last visit to audit Parish churches when he went to Kabindi, at the foot of the tallest nearby volcano, Muhabura (after which the Diocese is named) and next to the local secondary school. Irene set an end of year test for her computer students who have now gone home for Easter to recover.

PS. Readers will realise how deprived we are here in the wilds of darkest Africa, suffering hardships beyond description!!! We have become accustomed to daily eating fresh scones (which Malcolm makes) with clotted cream (which Irene skims from the top of our milk). No chance of losing weight then!!!

PPS We had a bit of excitement on Friday – 3 parcels from England. 2 were posted at the start of March, and 1 on 24th January – so that only took almost 3 months. Irene has received her Mother’s Day cards – and we have some Easter cards!!!!!

The High Life

Charity Ball at the British High Commission? Neil Diamond concert? That’s how some people enjoy themselves in Africa. For us, something a bit simpler (and cheaper).


Last weekend was birthday party weekend. On Saturday Jenny’s youngest, almost adopted, son JoJo had several of his friends round to celebrate his 5th birthday. We decided to arrive for the food (sausage in rolls, popcorn etc) and the candle-blowing out. Their favourite game seemed to be when the guests had a balloon tied to each of their ankles, and then had to try to burst everyone else’s by stamping on them whilst protecting your own. The winner being the last one with a balloon. JoJo quickly worked out that the best way to win was to hide in a bedroom and wait for everyone else to burst each others balloons. Bright these 5 year olds.


On Sunday we went out for lunch to celebrate Eve’s 20th birthday. She is staying at Jenny’s and helps with looking after the children.and babies. It in not usual to receive birthday presents in Uganda so she was even delighted with the bar of Cadbury’s chocolate we gave her.






On Monday Eve went with Jenny to take one of the baby twins born about 6 seeks ago to see a neuro-surgeon at Mbarara Hospital – about 125 miles away. The mother of ‘Squeak’ and ‘Grunt‘ (Emmanuel and Edson – pronounced Edison) died when giving birth about 6 weeks ago. (see blog of 4th March). Although Emmanuel is healthy, Grunt (sorry, Edson) is suffering with hydro encephalitis as his head started swelling, and he seems brain damaged and blind. Unfortunately there are no medical specialists on tap here, and it was only this week that one was visiting Mbarara Hospital, a days journey away. The prognosis was better than feared as the swelling appears to be decreasing of its own accord. Edson will need to go back for a check up in a month's time, when surgery on his eyes will also be considered.






Apart from that its been business as usual. Irene is continuing to give some very basic computer training and is speaking at 2 evening lent meetings at the Cathedral. Malcolm has met with the Treasurers of nearby churches including the cathedral to audit their financial records.

Matron!

It’s been a week of new experiences for Irene. Firstly, she’s begun to sort out the ‘new’ computers for the Vocational Training Centre (VTC). Well, ‘new’ if you regard 15 year old Pentium 2 computers with about 130kb of memory running Windows 98 (does anyone remember Windows 98?) and Microsoft Office 1997 as ‘new’. Still, they are better than no computers at all for a computer course and will at least give the students, who probably have never touched a computer before, a chance to use a ‘mouse’ and to see how a word processor works.

Secondly, she has been asked to be ‘matron’ to the teenage (16 years +) students, especially the 14 female boarders and 4 males. The rules are very strict – for example, the boarders have to be in their unlit dormitories by dusk, (7 pm or after they have been fed) and must not leave the grounds of the VTC at all. She has decided that if she is going to be matron she is going to ‘champion’ her boarders, and has already got agreement that the boys dorm, a tiny room with just enough room for a single bunk bed for 4 boys, is too small, even by African standards, and will need to be changed during the Easter holidays.

Thirdly, she was asked to speak at a quarterly Fellowship meeting at the Cathedral last Saturday on the text Rom 12:2 – a renewed mind. Most of the audience did not speak English so the Cathedral Vicar translated for her. She must have been appreciated because twice the congregation began spontaneously singing their favourite ‘revival’ chorus during her talk, indicating their pleasure at what she was saying.

As for Malcolm, he had another trip to one of the Parish Churches, this time Kabami, to audit the books of 4 of the neighbouring Parishes. One of the treats is that, as is the custom here, he was given a cooked lunch of plantain (green looking savoury bananas cooked like mashed potato), rice, greens, beef and ground nut sauce. This is as honour as normal meals for local people would just be rice and beans since meat is too expensive.