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.

We arrive - the Squatter leaves!!!

We’re back!!!!

After a 4 month break in England we have returned to Kisoro. And we have come laden with many gifts from our church and friends for those here – for students at the Vocational Training Centre and staff and babies at Potter’s Village Crisis Centre for babies.

Having unpacked our first job was to try and clear out the squatters! We knew we had a mouse in the house as we had glimpses of him (or her) before Christmas. This time we are fully armed with a ‘humane’ mouse trap from our son and daughter in law. In England we understand that chocolate is a good bait – nothing so wimpish for an African mouse. Having failed with that we tried Scottish Porridge Oats and bingo!!!! An immediate success. And now our unwelcome guest has been relocated to the field about 400 yards behind our house.

We hope he is not a homing mouse.

We also hope that he was a male mouse and not a lady mouse – or we may find a further 20 or so remaining!!!!

There have been several changes during our absence.

At Potters Village one is a new goat shed complete with goats. These will provide milk which can be fed to babies as a healthier alternative to formula milk.

'God bless us, Every One'

 This is just a few photos taken over the Christmas festivities.

We had a wonderful time with Stephen and Lara in Plymouth, with several other members of our family

It was our first Christmas with our eldest grandson, Jonah



We wish you all a very happy new year

Around and about

We’ve been spending our time touring Cyprus in the last week.

Some of the highlights are:

-         visiting North Cyprus, illegally occupied by Turkey since 1974. This included the Monastery on the site said to be the burial place of one of the first Missionaries to Cyprus, Barnabus.

-         Malcolm visited the ‘Baths of Aphrodite’, where myth has it the Goddess used to bathe during her love affair with Adonis

-         Visits to the sites which were central to the life of the first President of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios – his birth place (Panagia), where he was first trained as a priest (Kykkos Monastery), where he was Archbishop (Nicosia) and his grave, which has become a national shrine

And, just to remind us of winter, even though the temperatures have been about 20 deg C, up in the mountains there has been snow, and the ski slopes should open in January. (What? Ski slopes in the Mediterranean!)

Doing our bit to solve the Eurozone Crisis?

Having done a lot of travelling since our return to Britain, we have now flown to Cyprus for a two week holiday, and to find some warmer weather.

We are staying in Paphos on the west coast, and doing lots of touristy things.

For Irene it’s a pleasure to have a break from cooking and cleaning. For both of us it’s a chance to visit the country for the first time. So far we have visited:

-         the remains of Roman Villas with remarkable preserved mosaic floors.

 

-         catacombs used by early Christian Churches

-         where, it is said, St Paul was tied to a stone pillar to be flogged

-         the last local craftsman making chairs with seats made from rushes

Throwing parties, stones and leaves

As we get closer to Christmas, we are deep in the birthday season.

And on Sunday there were 2 for the price of one!!!

And they covered two extremes.

At one end it was Mark’s first birthday. Because he is so young he probably won't remember too much about it!! However, he did enjoy opening his presents, and eating some cake

At the other extreme it was Malcolm's 60th. Because he is so old he can't remember much about his previous birthdays, and seems to think he is only 25!!! Bless!

He (and Irene) thought he was being taken out for a quiet lunch with Rachel and family - to discover that the restaurant was full of a host of familiar faces. If Irene had known she would have made sure he was smartly dressed - just as well one gift was a new tee-shirt!!

Because Irene had to go out for the day on Tuesday, TJ kindly offered to look after grandad. They went for a nice walk to see the trains and go along the river, where TJ cleaned up the footpath by throwing stones, leaves and branches into the water.