The Wanderers Return - as Strangers to a Strange Place

So much has happened since we arrived back in England. One thing is we have now got broadband installed so we can access the Internet. just as well as we had been instructed before we left Kiwoko to continue with the blog – so here goes.

Other than attending a CMS Conference, the 2 major events in our first week back in England have been:

Meeting 5 of our 7 grandchilden. Josephine was born whilst we were in Uganda so this was her first chance to meet us.

 ‘Moving’ into our new home in St Neots, Cambridgeshire. ‘Moving’ is a bit of an exaggeration as most of our possessions are still in an attic in Lincolnshire and won’t arrive for another week.

 This week’s proverb from the BBC Africa web-site is: “Despise not a snail for its slow and struggling movement; it has a destination and with time it shall arrive”

New Dawn in Kenya

Last week we attended the annual CMS (Church Mission Society) conference in Kenya. There were about 100 delegates from across East Africa – about half from CMS (UK) and half from CMS (Africa).

 

  During the week Malcolm visited a church project near Runda. Runda is one of the wealthiest suburbs of Nairobi with large houses and embassies built on former coffee plantations. Beside the luxury is a crowded slum village, Huruma, where many of the gardeners and other staff that work on the estates live. This is a squalid slum with no sanitation or health facilities. Although the Government provide free Primary Schooling, fees are charged for Secondary Education which means most poor families are unable to send their children to secondary school.

In 2004 local Christians opened New Dawn Educational Centre – a secondary school for 160 pupils. Here nominal fees are about £150 per year which is about a quarter of the running costs. However many students cannot even afford to pay this. Many of these are orphans of parents who died of AIDS.

Because the Government does not allow permanent structures to be built in slum areas the 3 storey school  is constructed from old cargo containers.

Although the shool is crammed on a site of less than 2 acres it includes an agricultural project, and cares for 2 cows which provide milk for the pupils.

Malcolm was told about a 35 year old man who applied to the school to start his secondary education, as he had never done more than primary education. At first his application was treated as a joke. However when he persisted and the teachers realised how serious he was, having sorted out the practical difficulties (e.g.ensuring he had a uniform that fitted), he was accepted.

Since completing his studies he is now at higher education, having joined a local Theology College to train as a pastor.

For more details about the work of the Educational Centre: http://www.africanleadershipinc.org/new-dawn-educational-centre-clinic/

In addition to a range of workshops the Conference ended with some home grown emtertainment, which included Irene and Corrie.

This week’s Proverb from the BBC Africa web-site is from Nigeria: “When the mouse laughs at the cat, there is a hole nearby”

Trouble in the City!

On our journey back from Entebbe last weekend we stopped off in Kampala to meet Chris Foster. We first met Chris when she came to Potters Village in Kisoro a couple of years ago.  She now supports a project run by Francis in the slum area in central Kampala.

The project works particularly with children growing up in the slums. Chris is a nurse so she came out for a couple of weeks to advise the health workers in running the clinic.

 

Later in the week Malcolm had to go back to Kampala to sort out some issues with one of the ministries. He naively thought it would take a couple of hours. Five hours later, having had a battle with the ministry’s ‘user friendly’ (not) computer system some progress was made, he thinks (naively?)

 

Next week we, and Dr Corrie, are going to Nairobi for a CMS Conference. It looks like the flight arrived early for Dr. C.

 

This week’s Proverb from the BBC Africa web-site is from Nigeria: “The sky is too big for two birds to clash”

Simply Batty!

Its been a bit of a batty week.

 

It started of with a bar b q with Rory last Saturday. It started well enough with Rory skilfully lighting the fire to cook the beef burgers. However it all got a bit soggy when the rain soaked the crisp burgers, as well as Rory.

 

And then there was the birthday party for Susan, the Chief Executive of one of the Hospital main funders, Isis. Malcolm was a bit surprised when she appeared to have taken exception to the birthday card he presented to her. Fortunately no lasting damage was done.

 

And as for our other visitors!!! Sarah from Chesham decided she needed to imitate the stars of a 1969 cult movie by riding pillion. as she toured the local countryside. With a bit of imagination, and with your eyes closed, Bosco, an HIV counsellor working at the hospital, could almost be mistaken for Peter Fonda.

 

We had thought Steve Burgess, our boss from the Church Mission Society, had come to check up that everything was OK with us. However, he soon took the opportunity of scoring a rounder’s home run – against a team of children who attend the hospital’s HIV clinic.

 

The local animal wildlife was also acting a bit batty. This included a goat. He had clearly decided to go climbing to read a hospital poster (only kidding).

 

Sadly not all the wildlife is so endearing. Bats are a menace as they spread diseases and rabies, so from time to time the hospital has to take steps to remove them. This week it was a bit like a bat cemetery around our house. Not something that would be permitted in the UK?

 

Another practice which would be frowned upon in the UK appeared quite happily in a national newspaper here. What is this? A business awards ceremony in Uganda where a white business man is carried in by what appears to be 4 black male slaves…………. Surely not. Is it Uganda, or the UK which is going a bit batty over being ‘PC’?

 

This week’s African proverb from the BBC Africa web-site is from Nigeria:  “Don't befriend a goat if your cover cloth is made from plantain leaves”