Festival Folk

Malcolm has quickly got back into British ‘culture’. Last week he went with his sister and friends to the Cambridge Folk Festival, which was conveniently located in the Park behind our daughter Rachel’s house.

It was Malcolm’s first Festival. It was 4 (tiring) days of music loosely ‘folk’ from professional musicians plus those from local folk clubs.

After the Festival Malcolm managed to stick an underground map to the bedroom wall of his grandson, TJ.

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”

Row, Row, Row the Boat, Gently to the Shore

If you see a Lion, Don’t Forget to Roar.

 It was an exciting last week in Uganda. With our friends Corrie and John we became tourists, and visited Murchison Falls Reserve and the Rhino Centre.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, it was time to return to England and begin to meet our grandchildren again

 

 

 

This week’s proverb from the BBC Africa web-site is from Malawi:  ”Until the lion tells his side of the story, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter”

Moving to a close

The farewells continue.

Last week we mentioned how the Finance staff teased Malcolm when presenting a gift. This week we wore the gifts – a matching dress and shirt.

 

Because we are going away next week for a few days it was our last Sunday at St John’s church. At the end of the service we were invited to the front by Dan, the vicar.

When we worked in Mvumi, Tanzania we met John Clark, who at the time was headmaster at the local comprehensive school. We were pleased this week that he came to visit us and Corrie.

This week’s proverb from the BBC Africa web-site is from Ethiopia: “A person who walks wisely can travel a long distance”  

A Reptile too Many

The farewells have begun.

This week there was a farewell ‘do’ for us, with mainly the hospital’s management team and Malcolm’s staff. We hadn’t wanted too much fuss so there was a meal, some speeches and gifts. Malcolm had to explain it was all a bit premature as he plans to return for 2 months in September.

The highlight of the evening was a bit of a song and dance put on by the Finance staff, which included teasing us with a present.

The other excitement this week was reptilian. Irene was sorting out some clothes when she discovered a small white ball.

Not sure what it was she put it on a table, to see what would happen.

 It quickly hatched.

 

The real excitement, though, was when she was moving some things stored in our outside cupboard.

Fortunately she did not get close enough to get bitten. She found out that it was a type of cobra – the seventh most poisonous snake in Africa

This week’s proverb from the BBC Africa web-site is from Liberia: “A snake will always give birth to something long”

Laboratorys and Kitchens

Last Saturday the new Laboratory opened. There was no formal opening ceremony. However it was important that there was no interruption to the service given to patients. 

Although there was still some construction work going on it was remarkable that the service never closed.

The old Lab was a cramped, single room where different types of testing were carried out and there was no separate area to take blood samples from patients. The new laboratory, which so far has cost little more than £18,000 has separate rooms to see patients, and carry out the different types of tests.

 

We were invited to a meal at the home of Sarah, the woman who cleans for us. Sarah has for Uganda a reasonably sized house with a lounge and a bedroom for herself and her son. This is an improvement on her previous home which just had one small room and no cooking area.

Cooking is done in a small, outside room.

And if you think (wrongly) this method of cooking is inefficient, go to the following linK

http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2014/06/thermal-efficiency-cooking-stoves.html
 
This week we saw an enormous caterpillar.

This week’s proverb from the BBC Africa web-site is from Kenya: “No matter how hot your anger is, it cannot cook yam”