But, it's the wrong sort of rain........

We were told some weeks ago that the dry season would start in May – but it still rains heavily almost every other day. Malcolm told a local that he was surprised that it was still raining, and he replied ‘But, it’s the wrong sort of rain for the rainy season’.

Malcolm looked surprised. Memories came back about the statement given by the senior rail manager when challenged about why the trains had broken down in the first snow of the winter in England some years ago: ‘We were prepared, but it’s the wrong sort of snow!’.

Our friend pointed to the large mountain nearby, Muhabura, which was covered in mist and reminded Malcolm that the clouds around the mountain are different in the rainy season, being at the top of the mountain rather than covering it.

So, when we get soaked in another heavy thunderstorm, we remind ourselves that it’s the dry season, with the wrong sort of rain. It makes all the difference.

Not that Malcolm needs a thunderstorm as the excuse for getting a soaking. Last Saturday was Fund raising day for Faith House hotel the Diocese is building with the purpose of generating income. To provide cover to those attending the fund raising canvas shelters were erected in the grounds of the Diocese Offices. Overnight it had rained and the roofs of the shelters had filled with water. This became obvious when a gust of wind billowed the roof and the collected water came down and drenched some of those waiting. Malcolm then tried to empty all the roofs of water but managed to drench himself (and one or two others), in the process.

The Fund Raising day was a mixture of Children in Need and a charity auction. Representatives of each of the Parishes stood to announce how much they had collected and gave their money. This was followed by an auction of a range of produce and products. As an example 2 hens eggs sold for over £25, about 200 times their local market price.

Rather than run the risk of actually spending money Malcolm accepted the request to sit in a back room to do his favourite thing – count the money. Over 15 million Ugandan shillings was raised on the day (about £4,000).

You don’t often get much notice to preach here. On the way to the Friday evening Fund raising dinner mentioned last week Irene was asked to preach at both the English and Rufimbera services at the cathedral on Sunday. Not only was the time-scale challenging, but the subject was The Trinity – a topic which has split the church on several occasions down the centuries To demonstrate how difficult it is for us to understand how one God can be 3, she called a toddler to the front and told him all about the CPU, RAM and graphics card of her laptop computer. He (and most of the congregation) didn’t understand at all.

On this Friday Jenny returned from the UK and reclaimed her 2 children, returning us to our own home. She brought with her our eldest son, David and his wife Sarah who will be helping at Potter’s Village for the next 3 months. When she arrived at Kigali airport Jenny rang to say they would be delayed to change clothes to something more suitable for Africa, as it is the dry season.

They arrived in a chilly Kisoro to a heavy thunderstorm – but as we all know, it was the wrong sort of rain, again!

Goodbye Ruth

Another sad farewell this week – but more food!!!

Ruth has been working as a volunteer at Potters Village Home for Vulnerable Children for the past 4 months. Unfortunately she had to return to the UK this week with one of her priorities to find a job that will make use of her qualifications in nutrition.

What a good excuse for a meal!!

And as Jenny is away, what a good excuse to use her house (and staff) to cook it!

On the menu:
Ugandan Chinese – Eve cooked stir fry vegetable and chicken with rice
English Ugandan – Malcolm made a banana crumble with custard
Simply British – Ellie baked a cake

Now – what is there next to commiserate - or celebrate – with a meal?

We continue to stay at Jenny’s house to look after her children Hannah and Jojo while she is in the UK – with the help of 4 or 5 other friends and staff. We think they are surviving OK, though they (and we) are looking forward to their mother coming home next week.

We finished the week with a meal as well. The Diocese is part way through building a 20+ room hotel (Faith House) overlooking Kisoro and this weekend are holding a Fund raising event to complete and furnish the ground floor. On Friday tents were erected to protect people at the event from the sun (or despite the dry season, the rain and thunder). Malcolm took the opportunity to take a couple of pictures. Unfortunately one of the contractors thought this was a good time to ask for money for his picture. Following some friendly banter (well, we think it was friendly – its difficult to tell when one person speaks no English and the other almost no local language). Malcolm printed a copy of the photo for him – to his great delight.

To kick off the fund raising a special dinner was held on Friday night. This was a special Ugandan meal.

Ugandans are always careful about hygiene before a meal and the custom is that everyone is helped to have their hands washed before being served.

One of the main reasons for this is that traditionally people eat with their hands. To be honest, we usually try and find a fork from somewhere but on this occasion it was not possible. At least it saves on the washing up. We were pleased to sit next to Amos, the manager of the Vocational Training Centre, and he was able to translate the speeches.

The highlight of the evening was the specially made cake. At first people were invited to come up to pay the Bishop for a piece of the cake. Trust Malcolm to wait until the remaining pieces were brought round for no payment!!!!! Over £300 was raised from the sale of the cake – which is more than a year’s salary for many people.

Up to our necks in...........

…..Water
As we are looking after Jenny’s children, Hannah and Jojo, we are staying in their house. Fortunately we still pop into our home each day as on Friday we discovered that a flexible water pipe in our shower room had broken and we were in danger of being flooded from a major leak from one end. At least the floor has now been washed and was quickly dried up!!

…..Paint
One of the projects Irene is doing with the children is to make a dolls house and garage out of cardboard boxes. For some reason Jojo thought it would be good to get as much paint on himself as on the box – time for an early bath!!

…..Birthday cake
It was Rev Haberts birthday on Sunday and we were invited by his wife, Immaculate, to a surprise birthday dinner along with Ruth and Ellie from Potter’s Village. The only present we had to give Habert was a birthday card, which he got very excited about because Ugandans don’t normally receive presents or cards or cakes on their birthdays.

…..Bishops
Thursday was another public holiday – this time for ‘Heroes Day’ to celebrate the military overthrow 25 years ago of the previous dictator, Oboto, by the current President Museveni. It was also a visit by a group from Britain led by Bishop Ken Barham. Ken’s father, Reverend Lawrence Barham, was one of the early missionaries to SW Uganda and Rwanda, arriving in 1930. Ken was born and grew up in Uganda and has formed a Trust to raise funds for projects, such as the Christian University in Kabale.

…..Bricks
The new babies unit at Potters Village is growing very quickly and the walls are already above head / window height. If Jenny is not careful the unit will open before she gets back from the UK.

…. Diar***** and Vom**
It has been a demanding week for Ruth and Ellie. They have been collecting Hannah and Jojo from school each day. However, on Monday they rang to ask if someone else could do so because the babies at Potters Village had gone down with a contagious stomach bug, and were leaking at both ends!!! The difficulty here is that local people are not brought up to worry about hygiene and the need to wash your hands after changing a nappy so any infection is easily passed from child to child. Fortunately, the problem ‘dried up’ during the week.

Beating the Changes

The Missions we helped with continued over the weekend. On Saturday we went with teams to visit people’s homes, particularly those unable to get to church, in order to tell them about the Mission and to pray for them. For Malcolm in Busozi this meant climbing up steep, muddy, ‘mountain goat’ paths which would have made a challenging ramble in England. Part way up would be small homesteads where an elderly woman might live with her family. The old ladies, unsteady on their feet, are totally unable to get down or up the hillside and are therefore captive in their own home. There aren’t any facilities, like cars, to take them out and even if there were there are no roads anywhere near their homes.

On Sunday we each spoke at our different churches. Here the tradition is that the congregation is summoned by the beating of drums instead of church bells. Occasionally we have seen a brake drum of a car being used which, when hanging from a tree and struck, makes a fairly reasonable bell sound.

There have been some changes at Potters Village Home for Vulnerable Children. Because the home is designed for babies up to about 2 years old there comes a time when they need to move on. For many this means moving back to their families or to foster parents. However, some need to be transferred to homes for older children. This week five children under the care of the Local Authority, including Pius who is about 3 years old, were driven to their new home for older children at Fort Portal. Unfortunately there are fewer children homes in Uganda than in the UK so the choice is limited. Fort Portal is over 150 miles and a day’s drive away, which means the children are moved away from any family they might have. What is more difficult is that the language spoken in the new area is completely different to the tribal language here so they will need to learn another language.

The landscape in Potters Village is changing as progress is being made to the new babies’ unit. In Uganda there are as many women working on building projects as men, and they often seem to do the heavy lifting and moving of materials around the site.

In order to complete the babies’ unit Jenny Green has gone to the UK for fund raising visits to a number of churches. This means someone has to look after her children, Hannah and Jojo – Guess who!!!!

We have therefore moved up the hill to Jenny’s house. Fortunately we are not the only ones here has Jenny has a number of staff to cook and care for the children and the 2 toddlers who are ‘baby sat’ during the day for a working couple. We are more or less live-in grandparents, trying to relearn how to look after a 5 and 11 year old. So far, so good; 3 days gone – 3 weeks to go!!