Ready for the off?

 It has been our last week in Kisoro, and a last chance to experience the way of live here for 3 months.

People are very relaxed. We cant think of many places in England where you can be walking through town for Sunday lunch when you meet a young woman in curlers – reminds us of Ena Sharples in Coronation Street about 50 years ago – but she didn't look so good.

Very few people have cars and cant afford taxis, so a popular way to move about is to hire a boda-boda – a motor-cycle taxi. And here seems no limit to the number of passengers you can squeeze on board. It is common to see 3 adults with a baby, such as on the way back from church. We think the law requires crash helmets, but...............

Of course, there was still plenty of room for more, as it is common to see a young child sat in front of the driver on the petrol tank – so he at least has the handle bars to hold onto,

Unfortunately we understand there are a lot of injuries on boda-bodas. You know why when you see the state of most of the roads!!!!

As matter of policy we have never hired a boda- boda!!!!!

Wednesday we had our last lunch or the year at the Coffee Pot cafe. We were able to say goodbye to Doris who returns to Canada after working for over 30 years in Africa (see blog of 14 October) and a farewell to Val from Germany who owns the cafe and has lived in Uganda a long time since she married a Ugandan.

And then its time to pack up!!! We fly today and arrive at Heathrow tomorrow for our month UK Christmas Tour.

Bon Voyage

Closing down - growing up

 With less than a week to go before our return to the UK, we need to 'close down' a few matters.

Malcolm has spent most of the week at Potters Village Home for Vulnerable children. He has been helping to 'close down' the accounts for the past few years, and to carry out an audit (actually an 'Independent Examination') of the Financial Statements.

The Village project began in 2005/6. In the past 6 years a significant cluster of buildings has been built with finances raised mainly by a UK Trust created for the purpose. The Village cares for more than 30 children under 2 years old , with a further 60 supported in the community. Many of the children would not have survived without the Village as most of their mothers had died giving birth.

One such baby is Doree (not Doreen!!!), who we mentioned in our blog of 1st July. Sadly both her mother and twin sister died at the birth and with no other female in the family able to care for her she was immediately brought into the Village. She is now almost 4 months old and doing very well, and is being sponsored by our son and daughter in law so he future is bright. Hopefully she will return to her family to be cared for when she is about 2 years old

The latest project is to build a new Babies Unit so that their current 'home' can revert to its original purpose of a Medical centre to care for premature babies and sick children. The structure of the new unit is close to completion with interior plumbing and fitting out in progress.

Another youngster you is growing up is the guard dog, Otis. He is only a few months old – he will welcome you during the daytime, but at night, if anyone comes into the Village site, he will do his job and start barking.

To findout more about Potters Village go to:
http://www.pottersvillage.org.uk/

And what now - time to start packing up

No. This is Not a war-zone!!!!

A friend of ours, Doris has worked in Africa as a language teacher for over 30 years. However, when she left the previous two countries she worked in, Ivory Coast and Liberia, each time she had to do so in a bit of a hurry as war had broken out, and she needed to abandon all her possessions. This time she (and we) hopes to be more lucky!!!

She is now retiring and returning to her native Canada next month. However, last weekend was the last occasion when many of us will be around to say farewell, so we had a little get together in the Coffee Pot Cafe. It was a 'Bring your Own and Share' (and help yourself!!!!!) food event!!!!!

Coincidentally, and keeping to the military theme,  Sunday was the 49th anniversary celebration for the Independence of Uganda. We went to enjoy a celebratory parade at the local sports ground, attended by thousands of residents .

In addition to soldiers and police, most of the schools joined in.

There were  displays put on by local dance groups.

We are beginning to think about packing up to return to England in two weeks time for our Christmas break. And who knows, we might return next year, when the 50th Independence Anniversary should be even more spectacular and celebrated!!!!

Time for a Ball?

Last weekend the students at the Diocese Vocational Training Centre arranged their conference at the Cathedral. It was themed 'Come let us reason together' based on a verse from Isaiah chapter 1,

As is usual with such events in Africa the opening, though planned for 8.30 am, took place just before 11. Because the Bishop had a prior commitment. (See note at bottom) he asked Irene to open the conference.

The conference went very well.

Lunch was served late in the afternoon. The Centre's kitchen is in one of the out- buildings. All the cooking is done using firewood or charcoal and can be a bit of a smokey experience.

When ready the food was served in one of the classrooms.

One of the activities enjoyed by the students is volley ball.

Many children here enjoy football but cant afford to buy a ball. Most seem to make their own footballs from string and plastic bags. In case this is of interest to anyone else the following is a item from last weeks newspapers explaining how to make a ball. You may struggle to find banana fibre in England, though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note about weddings

One of the problems here is that there is a culture that when you get married you have to:

- pay a large sum of money to the brides family to compensate them for their daughter

- put on an expensive 'Going Away' party just before the wedding at the brides house, inviting lots of friends

 -arrange a lavish reception and invite 100's of people to the wedding

The costs of these matters is just too much for poor peasants and they usually get themselves into serious debt. To avoid this many don't actually get married despite this being contrary to their religious beliefs. In order to try and address this the Bishop, when preaching at a remote village church in Mwumba some weeks ago, challenged the congregation by saying he would return to marry anyone without charge. 9 couples took up the offer, including one couple who decided to do so at the start of the wedding service. The Bishop's wife took with them two wedding cakes for the congregation to enjoy

Free Gifts????

1.Sewing machines from 'Tools with a Mission'


A batch of about 30 sewing machines and kitchen equipment have been received from England through 'Tools with a Mission”. This is a charity which collects tools, sewing machines and similar items that are no longer needed in the UK but are highly valued in Africa. Most of the sewing machines were donated for a woman's project organised by the Bishop's wife so that women in rural villages can set up a small business. Some of the machines will be used by students at the Training Centre, especially the electric ones as there is no electricity in village. Irene helped the Mother's Union Coordinator, Zeridah, to check through the machines 9and Malcolm was persuaded into mend one or two of the broken cases).

2.Choccies from England


Post from the UK can take anything from 3 weeks to 3 months to arrive here. This is a bit of a problem, but can also be a benefit!!! David and Sarah were desperately waiting in vain for 3 parcels of treats to arrive. The first came as soon as they left. We would of course have taken the contents back to England for David and Sarah, but we don't think they would survive the journey!!!!!! Not wanting to see the goodies go to waste we opened the packet (which came from our other daughter in law) and shared the sweets with Jenny, Rosie, Jojo and Kristen.

3.??????

There was an article in this weeks national newspaper in the Health and Beauty section, which we think you may have missed in England. Are you concerned about the high cost of cosmetics and health products? The answer is a regular dose of Urine!! Apparently this cures a range of ailments including acne, eczema, allergies, heart disease, arthritis etc. and is generally good for the skin. It is apparently best to drink it in the morning when it is still fresh and warm or to apply it to your face. And its totally Free!!! (Though we are not too sure if the perfume is to everyone's taste). And we're really not taking the p**s!

"We have a small challenge"

Ugandans never seem to have a problem. We have never heard them use the word 'problem' – but instead they often mention 'small challenges'

On Saturday morning Irene feared the worse when Malcolm said she had a 'small challenge'. As it turned out she was probably right to be worried! In this case the challenge was that she had 45 minutes to get packed ready for a taxi to take us away for 2 nights to celebrate her birthday.

We enjoyed the weekend at Nkuringo Safari Lodge on the far shore of Lake Mutanda.

The Lodge is about 10 miles away accessed by an unmade road which winds its way around the mountains and along the shore of the lake. The driver warned that the road is 'bad' but other than avoiding one or two piles of earth and a few rut-holes we arrived safely.

The Lodge is situated on a promontory jutting out into the lake, and has stunning views of the Virunga mountains beyond Kisoro. The accommodation was in luxury tent style 'bandas' which are common in such sites, and the food was excellent. When we arrived the Lake was as still as a 'mill-pond'.

And than the rains came. After all, it is the rainy season.

After dinner one of the German guests came into the dining room, absolutely sodden and covered in mud. He has been out in a hired car during the day, and on the way back had been stopped by a landslide covering the road. When the car tried to turn around, a second land-slide had blocked it in.

The next morning, on Irene's birthday, we woke to find we had been cut-off as many land-slides had blocked the road back to Kisoro. As we were staying a second night this would not have mattered too much to us, except it stopped our son, daughter in law and friends joining us for a birthday lunch. The sadness was that several off the houses built in the banana plantations on the hill above the road had been washed away and we were told about 13 people had been killed.

And then the 'small challenge' of how do we get back to Kisoro on Monday?

Answer – we cross the Lake to the Kisoro side by boat. A much more relaxing way to travel, and a much more reliable option than waiting in the hope that a tractor from Kisoro would clear the road.

We also celebrated Irene's birthday with a buffet 'help yourself' meal at Traveller's Rest Hotel. The Hotel should have been full, but it too had been affected by the land-slides as no guests had travelled to Kisoro. Still – that meant more food for us!!!!!

Sadly (for us) , on Thursday, David and Sarah flew back to England having spent 3 months volunteering at Potter's Village home for Vulnerable Children. They had a safe journey – except for the 'small challenge' of a puncture on the way to the airport.

As for Malcolm..... he went to the border crossing to Rwanda to see David and Sarah off. After they had crossed the border and were transferring their luggage to the Rwandan taxi he stood at the barrier chatting to the armed guards. Naturally, he leant across the barrier to give David a fatherly hug goodbye, and was a bit confused when a guard came across to say something. As the taxi moved away he found out that it is a criminal offence to touch someone across the barrier, and that he would have been arrested if he was Ugandan.

Now that would have been a big challenge!!

Spot the Progress - Onwards and Upwards

Last week Rosie Brown, a nurse from Homer Green, Buckinghamshire, came to work at Potter's Village for about 2 years. Its not her first time in Uganda. As well as visiting Kisoro before she has also worked at Kisiizi Hospital for 4 months. So we have helped to introduce her to the sights in Kisoro.




On Sunday we went to the service at the Cathedral – where David and Sarah stand head and shoulders above everybody else!!!! It was the first week of term so the service was packed with children from several surrounding schools. This makes it a bit of a challenge for the Sunday school teachers. The two teachers normally have about 25 church children who go out part way through the service for their lessons. On this Sunday there must have been about 200 children joining them. It makes lessons difficult to plan!!!




After that we took Rosie for lunch at the Travellers Rest Hotel, The manager has two dogs, one of which is little more than a puppy, called Sushi (on the basis that the older dog, Simba, sometimes looks as if he fancies a bit of a snack).




The new babies unit at Potters Village Home for Vulnerable Children is progressing. The roof has been finished and the builders have started to render. This will be the new flat for Rosie. The new babies unit will mean that their current bedroom can become the medical suite that Rosie has come to help set up. This means that any premature babies, or those who become ill, can be cared for at the Home rather than being transferred to the local hospital.




And, after a year in Kisoro, Irene has at last found some more of her drawers!!!!!

Some weeks ago we mentioned we had got our first drawer in the kitchen unit we bought. This week Irene got 4 more!!! This means that at long last she can put her clothes away.

That is progress!!!!