There are some things that you can do without, and some you can’t!

Easter Sunday is always a special day in the Christian calendar. And this year we had a really special outdoor service we didn't want to miss at a nearby farm with the Iringa Christian Fellowship.

  

Irene offered to sing a song……..

 

….. and some puppets told, and sang the Easter story.

  

Compared with our other the other times we worked in East Africa there have been very few power cuts….. until this week. On Friday the power went off at ab9.30 and returned at 5.30. For most of the staff this made no difference to their work. They didn't miss the power as they continued working by hand or using treadle machines.  For us it was a problem – no power = no computers!

 

We were also invited to a ‘Pizza party’ by a couple of American Missionaries, who happen to have their own pizza oven. Malcolm did not take many photos as they all looked like this.

 

When he used a flash it ruined the atmosphere, and he almost ended up in the oven having blinded everybody else. They could have done without that!

 

One of the Missionaries had built their own house on the hillside. The geography of the area is such that the landscape is covered with massive boulders. It is hard work to try and remove them to clear the site, so what better way of dealing with one than to build the house around it and make it a feature. Not a furnishing you will pick up at IKEA!.

Finally, it was one of our cafe staff's birthday. Oneof the customs is that the person feeds cake to their friends. Malcolm couldn't do without that!

No Need to Stand on Ceremony

It’s been a series of ceremonies.

Last week a team of staff from the main funders of the Hospital’s Maternity and Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit, Aspen Insurance and ISIS, visited. They came from America, London, Singapore and Australia and spent time visiting the wards, meeting the staff and experiencing life in Kiwoko. On their last day we had a farewell meal where there was a bit of excitement when it came to cut the cake.

 

 Also one of the doctors, Mushin, was baptised at our church. He had come from a Muslim family but had become a Christian and baptised when at school. However, his father had destroyed his baptism certificate. Because he wants to be married in church he needed to prove he had been baptised, so repeated the ceremony.

On Sunday the Bishop of Luweero came to hold a combined confirmation and wedding service at our local church. When he was introduced to Irene there seemed to be some friendly rivalry about who has the strongest grip.

 

The wedding was for a couple who had been married traditionally, by local ceremony, several years earlier but now wished to be formally married in church. They took the opportunity of the Bishop’s visit to be wed by him.

 

Irene enjoyed her birthday this week. She woke to find that their was no chance of keeping her age a secret, and made the most of the occasion.

 

On Friday the staff arranged a surprise birthday Bar-B-Que.

 

 

The night included fun and games and lots of food.

 

Our fellowship group gave Irene a large shopping bag as a present

 

And as we started the week with a cake, we can end it with one too.

 

This week’s proverb from the BBC Africa web-site is “When a cock invites a cockroach for a birthday party, he has prepared dinner for himself”.

Gone, but she's not forgotten!

You ay have noticed last wee that the blog was posted several days late. Malcolm had written it on time, but forgot to ‘Publish’. The problem was that Irene wasn’t around to keep an eye on him. She had gone with Jenny and Jojo to Kampala for a week and had to point out when she returned that the blog hadn’t been published.

The road to Kampala crosses the equator as we travel from south to north. There is no great ceremony at the crossing, but there is a marker so you can tell when you become ‘northerners’ again.



The road to Kampala has some other interesting sights. There doesn’t seem to be any law on weight limits, so lorries can be loaded up, and then you pile people on top and charge them a fare. 'Room for one more on top!'



It was also Irene’s birthday. As 'usual' she was abroad on her birthday again. However, she wasn’t forgotten and received presents from several friends and family.





That evening we went to celebrate at Traveller’s Rest Hotel. ‘Conveniently’ there was another regular power cut which meant we dined by candle light – very romantic.



On the Kampala road, Irene did see a sign which she particularly enjoyed. The sign writer clearly forgot his dictionary.



This week’s proverb from the BBC Africa web-site is from Ghana:

"When your grandmother tells you something, don’t run to your mother to ask if it's the truth”