'Tis the Season for Festivities

Last Sunday Malcolm was invited, as Guest of Honour, to a fund raising event at Kiruli church. (The building is incomplete and the next stage is to raise money for windows). Malcolm was flattered even though he discovered he was at least 3^rd choice behind Rory and Denise Wilson.

In addition to fund raising there was also:

-          - a Baptism service for several children and adults

-          - a Harvest thanksgiving service

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   - and  an auction of harvest produce.

Feeling peckish, Malcolm was invited round to Rory and Denise’s for a pancake lunch. We are not saying Malcolm liked the food, but he wouldn’t even stop eating to pose for a photo!

 

 Their son, Gideon, is taught at home by Lisa. This week the theme at school was trains so the decorations included a steam train in the colours of  Gordon, Thomas and Percy.

To learn about light and dark Gideon had a cave built at the foot of some book shelves.

The work of the hospital continues to develop. The Medical Records Office has moved and there was an opening ceremony.

Finally there was a visitor to Malcolm’s office. Unseasonally early, but' tis the time to produce the hospital’s Christmas card. This year to raise funds to replace our broken auto-clave which sterilises medical tools.

This week’s African Proverb from the BBC’s website is from Uganda: “It is better to eat a mushroom in freedom than to eat meat in slavery”

All that glitters

Each Sunday morning there is a Sunday School for staff children. Last week they were learning about Queen Esther. The craft session was to make and decorate crowns.

These are a selection of photos – did more glitter get on the children than the crowns?

 

 

This week’s African Proverb from the BBC’s website is from the local Bugandan kingdom: “Patience puts a crown on the head..”. 

Out on a Limb

Dr Corrie has a visitor, her sister, Agaata from Holland is staying for 3 weeks. On Sunday we went for a walk around the village.

 On the way Malcolm heard a tree say “Mzungu, Mzungu. Picture”. Looking closely he saw 5 boys high up in one of the trees. (It is common for children to climb trees to pick fruit – and almost as common for them to end up in hospital when they come down too fast!!!!).

Later in the week one of Malcolm’s workers, JB, visited. He runs a coffee shop and Malcolm is one of his regular customers on his home visits.

This week’s African Proverb from the BBC’s website is: “You cannot climb a tree from the top.”. 

The Drums! The Drums are Calling.

There have been some additions at St John’s Church since we left in July. A new set of drums have been bought, together with a local stringed instrument and a wooden xylophone. This is a great addition to the music team as drums are traditional instruments which resonate with local people.

 

This week it also seemed that many people had been called to Malcolm’s office as a queue of people were seen outside all day. 

However, rather than wanting to see Malcolm, everyone was queuing to see Suzanne so that they could collect their monthly salary.

On Friday Suzanne had many more visitors at her house. Friday Night is Film Night, so many of us met there to watch a movie, complete with pop and popcorn. And in keeping with the musical theme we watched “The Red Violin”.

This week’s African Proverb from the BBC’s website is from South Africa: “A wise person adapts to his surroundings but a fool expects his surroundings to adapt to him”.