Lots to carry

 There were visitors from England to the Diocese this week. Four have come from Cambridge and Ely as part of a tour of projects that they support. Following a bible study by Rosemary with a group of Priest’s wives on Monday the women gave them a gift each.

Irene was also invited and was given a gift as a thank you for helping to distribute sewing machines, given by the UK charity, ‘Tools with a Mission’ to women in the diocese. (See http://www.twam.co.uk/) What Malcolm didn’t understand was why he was given a gift…… other than for being Malcolm (which is not a good reason) and Irene’s husband. And what was the gift? Find out next week, maybe.

At the end of the presentations several of the women began an impromptu dance in the local style – a real ‘carry-on’.

One woman had brought her grand-daughter. Irene had a knitted doll which had been used as packing for one of the sewing machines. This was immediately tied to the girls back by her granny. The local people do not have push-chairs so a girl has to learn early how to carry a baby. In a couple of year’s time she may be doing the real thing if she needs to help care for a younger brother or sister.

There are other ways of carrying items. If you need a bundle of firewood, you go and find some, and then……..use your head.

It's Mother's Day ..... and the kids come to visit

On Mother’s Day you need:

- a nice cup of tea in bed ….. done

- some cards and greetings from your children ….. done

- the kids to visit ….. done, well sort of

Irene did have a couple of kids to come and visit her, but not the human kind. These were a couple of young goats which wandered in from the neighbour’s house. They took the opportunity to say hello to Irene, but then seemed more interested in the coffee cake that had been made. They didn’t get any and were soon sent home to their own mother.

There were more children visiting Potter’s Village Crisis Centre for Children this week. It was time for a team of Doctors from Mbarara to visit as part of the ‘Ours’ outreach work (Organised Useful Rehabilitation Services). This is their third visit and they saw between 20 and 30 children from the area with a variety of disabilities, including cerebral palsy, spina bifida and heart defects. Some of the medical conditions would have been routinely picked up and treated at an early stage in England but treatment is very difficult to get here. Even if available the parents don’t have the money needed t take the child to hospital 100 miles away.

The garden at Potter’s Village was also being prepared for planting – to the fascination of at least one of the residents! 

You wait for 10 days to catch a mouse, and then......

 It was Malcolm’s turn for a bit of adventure this week. Someone had to drive 50 miles to Kabale to pick up 6 gas bottles, and it was his turn.

Although most of the main road has now been tarmacced, there is still a section of about 50 miles still being built. This basically means the contractors, in order to widen the previous track to 2 lanes, have to demolish part of the mountain to the side of the road. Here normal traffic is not separated from the construction vehicles, and Malcolm had to weave around large diggers and earth moving vehicles as they carried out their work. At one point, 100 foot above the road and almost above his head, a large digger was busy pushing sections of the mountainside down onto the road, to be cleared by other diggers and lorries as he waited to pass. You don’t have so much excitement as that on the M25!!!!!

He has also been recording some video and taking photos of children at Potter’s Village Crisis Centre for children for Jenny to use when she returns to the UK for 3 months in June.



Irene has been helping some women who have been given sewing machines donated by Tools with a Mission. This week it was to show one lady, who is fortunate to have electricity at her house, how to use an electric machine.



She was not the only visitor to Kisoro. On the outskirts of the town is a site used by the UN as a transit camp for refugees. In the past it has been used by those escaping the genocide in Rwanda and fighting in the Congo as we are only about 5 miles from both borders. Since last November a growing number of Congolese have been fleeing to Uganda following Presidential elections last year. They stop for a while in Kisoro before moving on to more permanent camps inland.

And as for the mice, we have moved on 2 more unwelcome visitors, both caught in the same night. 3 weeks ago we mentioned the first ‘eviction’ and expressed concern that there may be more. At least now there are 2 less.

No smoke without fire?

 Despite being almost on the equator, some days it can get very chilly here.

Last Sunday was such a day. Fortunately we were able to find what is probably one of the few fire-places in Kisoro, at the Travellers Rest Hotel, where we enjoyed lunch.

Talking of Fire, earlier in the week we noticed the atmosphere was very grey – so much so that we couldn’t see the nearby extinct volcano, Muhabura. It wasn’t caused by grey clouds, but the whole air seemed to be grey. Someone commented that this was unusual, and usually meant that one of the volcanoes further down the ‘Muhabura’ chain was erupting. A quick check on the Internet proved them correct. One of the volcanoes in the Congo has been erupting since last November, described as’ ‘monstrous’ and ‘the worst for 100 years’ by the National Geographic Magazine and Guardian Newspaper. However, it is erupting from a fissure low down on the slopes and is not visible from here. The papers report that no people or villages are at risk, the protected mountain gorillas are safe and probably have a good view, but that a family of chimpanzees are at risk! Poor chimpanzees!

Not to be outdone Malcolm lit one of his regular bonfires to burn household waste, which produced so much smoke he thought he might compete with the volcano. It reminded us that whilst in UK we watched on daytime tv ‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrels’ which focussed on thoughtless individuals causing environmental damage by lighting bonfires in their gardens. We had better watch out for the Environment Inspectors.

Malcolm has spent most of the week at Potter’s Village Crisis Centre for children trying to sort out their computers – he managed to ‘destroy’ one laptop. He also met some of the babies, such as Doree.

Irene has been sorting out the tailoring materials and equipment donated by our friends at Emmanuel Church, Chesham. The tailoring school at the Diocese Vocational Training Centre has few resources, the students usually making clothes out of paper sacks due to the lack of materials. 3 of the 4 suitcases we brought on the flight from Britain contained items donated to the Training Centre, and some of these were in packages of ribbons, needles, zips etc wrapped for individual students. They were thrilled to receive them.

A Sharing Week

There is nothing like a romantic candle-light meal to celebrate your wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, when we went for an evening meal at the Travellers Rest Hotel we had no choice. There was another one of the routine, daily power cuts which meant that for some of the meal we were peering lovingly at each other across the gloom.

 What made it worse for the hotel is that because of a shortage of water the Water Company has been cutting off users on a cyclical basis to share what is available, and it was Kisoro’s turn to be cut off on Friday. O well, we’ll just have to stick to the sodas.

Malcolm has been spending most of the week at Potters Village Crisis Centre for Babies. One of his tasks has been to set up a wireless network so that the various laptops can share the printer and access shared folders.

He also has a chance to examine the various building projects completed in our absence.

Otis, the guard dog, has a new home.

And the new building, which includes a new babies’unit, offices and staff flat has been completed.

 

Irene has been helping with the distribution of sewing equipment donated by the UK charity ‘Tools with a Mission’ to women in the Diocese, some of whom are pastor’s wifes. The hand sewing machines had been distributed in our absence. This time there was a selection of accessories to be given out including bobbins, zips, needles etc. It was noted that some of the women sent their husbands to pick the accessories up.

The machines had been packed with knitted children’s clothes which were also given out, including a rather smart red jumper and blue woollen hat to one girl.