Kampala

Yesterday we all came to Kampala. We stopped off at Red Chilli, where we will be staying, to drop of bags then came to see Maddy and Leanne. They have been staying with a wonderful lady called Judith. Looking at her visitors book she is a common stop-off point for many a British visitor. In fact my parents have stayed with her a number of times. Her help has been invaluable. Not only in offering the use of her fantastic house, but also because she seems to always know someone who can sort what needs sorting.

Last night Maddy and I went shopping for some souvenirs and for a take away for the team altogether at Judith's house. Other than some terrible traffic delaying the food, it was a great evening and it was so great to have the team back together. Clearly the girls had missed each other, and it brought a smile to my face to see everyone excitedly bring Leanne up to speed so she didn't feel like she had missed out too much.

There was a tearful goodbye when it was time for them to return to Red Chilli. The Norridges stayed and Judith's house and I am now sitting at her computer.

Maddy has just called from the BA business lounge at the airport - we finally got confirmation last night that they were booked on the BA flight home this morning. They get a nice business class seat home and a chauffeur-driven car back to the house. [boy are we glad we took out good insurance!!].

Once Judith gets back from the airport, we'll [the remaining Norridges] head over to Red Chilli ourselves. Judith flys a fair bit and so knows the BA staff. She is planning stay with Maddy and Leanne as long as she can.

Today we will shop and bit and relax a bit, and generally get ready for our flight with leaves Friday afternoon. Maddy and Leanne fly at 8 this morning and get in around 4 this afternoon. We leave around 4 on Friday afternoon and get in around midday on Saturday!!

There are loads of other really great stuff to blog and tell about. But there has been so much going on on both fronts that there hasn't been chance!! Sorry! I will try to encourage more blogging and some post trip reflections, so there is life in the old blog yet!

Prayers would be appreciated

The last couple of days have been a little challenging. Leanne has had some health problems. The hospital down the road from here were great, but sent her on to a specialist in Kampala [he's Japanese!]. Maddy, Katherine Brown and her are there now, and have stayed there over night [the journey is only 60 miles but there are so many potholes it is not a pleasant journey and can take over 2 hours]. The medical support has been brilliant, a good number of tests have been done, which have all come back negative. Ugandans first reaction to any illness is that it is Malaria [you have a cut on your toe? better test for malaria!] - so you will be pleased to know she doesn't she definitely doesn't have that! Still she is not fully fit and we all would appreciate prayers. We are not sure how it will affect the end of the trip, as we may have to adjust plans for returning Leanne. Not quite the end of the trip we had planned!

Leanne spoke to her parents last night, and that cheered her up a fair bit :o).

Sorry this is really vague, but i am not really the medical one! As you can imagine Maddy has come into her element and she has been impressed with the care they have received [Leanne think its beats the General!].

UPDATE:

Rather than transport Leanne back up here in order to go back down again the next day or so, we have decided to leave Maddy and Leanne in Kampala for another night, and for the team to leave New Hope a day early to be with them. Katherine is not back yet because her and Maddy have been working hard to communicate with the insurance company to ensure all costs are covered. For some reason emails and faxes have not been working!? Part of the insurance company enquiry is to consider the doctors suggestion that our laborious journey home with 8 hours at Dubai airport would not be the best for Leanne. There is a direct BA flight on certain days of the week. The policy says it covers her flight back plus a companion. Will update more later. Mark.

A quickie from Reuben

Hi everybody!

Hey! It's Reuben!

Hope you are all having a great time. we've just been to devotions and Emily did a game ["challenge Emily"] where you have to move around the room blindfolded and get to the end pick up a pen out of flour [and then go outside and wash your mouth!]. Then the girls taught a song to them, and that was really fun [i was up there with them]. Then daddy did a talk. The team are doing 3 of these devotions, and this was the second one.

We're all having a good time!

Bye!

Back by popular demand...

I have heard that people appreciated the techie blog on the internet provision, so I thought I would add to the series by describing the water provision.

In our understanding of the word I guess there is not really running water here. There are two places where water is supplied from. The first is for the the site as a whole. Water is pumped from a bore hole down into the valley to the highest point on the site. Here it is stored in a water house where it is processed and treated. There is a constant flow of kids to and from this water house with the ubiquitous Ugandan yellow containers [many which leak!] taking the clean water back to their family groups. This water is also used by the Browns [although they feed into the local economy by getting someone to collect it for them!]. They use it for drinking and cooking with - although not as it is. They poor it into a chalk based filter system before they drink it. This is a little annoying as the tape on the filter keeps breaking and the replacement have to come from Kampala - a challenging drive away. I think 3 have broken since I have been here.

The second source of water is what Steve likes to call 'harvesting rainwater'. The water that comes down the drainpipes is directed into a cistern under the veranda. The cistern is around 25,000 litres [we think]. All the family groups have one of these, but only a small proportion of them work. This is what Community Church Northampton gave money to fix when the Browns first moved out here. Those family groups with a working cistern access the water by dropping a bucket down through an access hatch. The Browns are have it a little more sophisticated. They have an electric pump that pumps the water to a tank on a tower by the side of the house. The taps, shower and toilet in the house are fed by this tank. Hence the water is only 'hot' if the sun has been particularly strong that day!! The other complication here however is that electric power is intermittent. Hence we have had a number of times in our stay the situation where the tank on the tower is empty and there is no power for the electric pump to refill it. Hence then no shower, no toilet flushing, nothing in the taps. Added to this [and this one is for Mark Hill to sort] when this happens the shower refuses to work for a while because of an airlock in the system somewhere!!

So there you are, does that class as 'running water'?

A day with Jack

[this is me and a Jack Fruit! I am holding about a half of a third (a sixth, dad says)]

Hi everybody

It’s me jack

This morning when we woke up we had toast with jam and butter – it didn’t come out of a toaster, but it came out of the frying pan! This is because there was no electricity at the time, and the grill runs on electricity, so we have to run on gas.

Then I went on my bike with Joel, that was fun, and then we stopped at the church and did some jumps off the ramp, where you come in with pushchairs. Then we dodged the benches, then came home!

When we came back, we played with the chameleon, and the colours were black, orange and yellow.

After having rice and beans for lunch (which was made by Gertrude, who works for Steve and Kathryn), we went outside and watched the chameleon climb, and Jeremiah came to play and we played on the Tarzan swings! Then we played a ‘cops and robbers’ sort of game – I was the robber! (And I nicked Jeremiah’s bike!!!) Ibra, Stuart, another Jeremiah, Mugabe and Kisa (pronounced cheesah) played volleyball, and played on the bikes.

For dinner, we had sausage casserole (“which was awesome” – Steve), cooked by Steve... it was Absolutely Excellenté! We just listened to Percy the Park-keeper, and people have been having baths which are in washing up tubs. But I am going to have a shower.

That’s all from me! Goodbye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Roar, Prrump, Munch.

Alriiiight. Safari was brill-yant. And we even saw a lion! Hunington (our driver) was craaazy and drove OFF-ROAD so that I (sat on the back roof grill thing) was literally no more than 10 feet away!!! It was mad good. She was only resting though, and didn't seem to be 'bovered' by our shrill shrieks of wonder and excitement when we saw her, or by the roar of our van's tired engine!

One of the most beautiful, gentle looking creatures we saw were the elephants, the sheer size of them was quite overwhelming, though they looked so peaceful we weren't scared! Bit disappointed we didn't get to hear them trumpet (and i mean with their trunks, not the other end...) though!

Funniest animals were, without doubt the knobbly-kneed giraffes! We saw quite a lot, but one time we drove past a herd (is that the right word when referring to giraffes?) right near the road, and one of the younger ones ran right in front of the van (most of us were still dangling from the roof) and almost fell over itself in a desperate attempt to get to the rest of the group before we passed. Smashing!

A few illnesses occurred during the few days - Em suffered the most (undoubtedly, poor thing), with sickness starting the first night, though Mica also suffered considering she stayed up all night with her. I think she still managed to see most of the animals though, only from the front seat in between drifts of sleep! Reuben also woke up the second night with sickness, though we're pretty sure it was just sun-stroke, because, thankfully, it didn't last long.

We arrived home on Saturday, late afternoon, to the joyful choruses of the Ugandan church choir practicing for church this morning, but I got the impression that I was really the only one in the mood for dancing after the 6-and-a-bit-hour journey! But you know me... always in the mood for dancing :)

I'll let Meesh tell you about today....
Auf Wiedersehen mon amie... 6 days mum.. I bet you're WELL excited (underberstandably).

We're back!

Hi everybody

We have just come back from our safari. We saw an amazing elephant that walked right in front of our car! It was REALLY cool! We also saw a really cool giraffe that was running. It looked funny! The best bit was when we saw a lion. We got really close, it was lying down in the shade.

I stayed in a Banda with Catherine and Anna. Jack and Leanne stayed in a tent. On the last night I was sick and so I moved to mum and dad’s tent.

Uganda is a really fun place to stay. Amazing things happen, like Robert found a Chameleon for me today for when I got back and now it is sitting on my top turning orange.

Bye!

Reuben

Uganda makes my lips dry...

We're off on Safari!!!

Right now, there's a little bit of questioning over where we're actually going to stay! unfortunately there was a bit of a booking mix-up, so instead of all staying in cottages, there are 2 of them, and 3 tents booked! ARGH! BUT, we have been praying, and Steve is on the phone, and we're hoping for an upgrade. We've all prayed really hard, and have complete faith that God is going to intervene to make this the nicest experience possible.

But anyways, we will be off shortly, our driver is on the way, so the blog will be quiet until about saturday. We will let you all know what happens with the accommodation, and tell you all the animals we've seen and how much fun we are bound to have had! I'm still very excited, even though it might end up being a camping holiday instead of a hotel break ;)

This week has been great so far - there have been emotional moments, and it's all quite hard to take in, but meeting all these people and actually making friends with them and building relationally with them has been fantastic. We dug for kasava (sp?!), which is like a root staple food, yesterday, which was really good fun, even though Reuben hoe'd his toe! oops! he is all good though :)

Right, we will be off now. i'm missing family and friends quite a lot, even though i'm having a great time here, so know that i'm thinking about you all while i'm here, and can't wait to have a chat with you all when i get back.

Much love, Em xxx

PS. we have had an update - there is no change with the accommodation, so as far as we know, most of us will be camping :s
pray that we will be ok, and that we'll be protected from the bugs!
PPS - oh, and Uganda makes my lips dry. dunno why. it just does. Praise God for vaseline...

And They Call it Kiddy Love

Today was a wonderful experience, Catherine and I went to the baby house and the others were gardening…worked out to be the perfect combo as both me and Catherine go attacked by biting ants the morning before whilst helping the Jonathon family do some spreading and slashing.

Whilst at the baby house we helped bathe the children and dry and clothe them. It sounds boring but believe me its not – the children are so funny and have wonderful personalities. Going to the baby house today meant that we had an extra special experience we took seven children to have their HIV tests. The trip to Kiwoko hospital took around 2 hours and with seven children and immense heat it was a very difficult (but enjoyable ) experience. Whilst at the hospital we were given a leaflet which talked about HIV in Uganda and it alos said that 60-70% of people passing through Kiwoko hospital are HIV positive.

The weather today is amazing…it’s mega hot and sunny but it is still thundering! At around 5 o’clock we have devotions with our family groups…luckily we’re not eating with them today as their food is very different and my (and everyone elses) taste buds do not agree with it!

Tonight is our last night with the lovely Clay’s. It’s a bit disappointing but they are going to Kenya so we wish them the very best! I will miss the Clay family but not their resident frog! It has given me nightmares since we first arrived but the fears have lessened as Raych prayed for both me and Mica.

Tomorrow we are setting off for a six hour drive to Murchisson Falls to go on safari.

Just to let everyone know that I am fine, had a bit of a bad day yesterday, but today has been fabulous and I have loved every minute of it.

Love to you all

Leanne xXx

P.S. Late addition news is that all 7 children tested today for HIV were found to be clear. Great, amazing, news!

P.P.S. Sorry this is on Mark's name, it really is from Leanne!

For you techies out there

There may be a couple of you out there wondering how we are managing this blogging business from the middle of nowhere in Uganda. If in doubt of its remoteness see the blog here.


The answer is in the picture above. This is a new addition installed by an American doctor who was so appalled by the communications here. He went away researched what was required and raised the $80000 required to install it. What you can see is a satellite dish, at an angle of 12 degrees (seems low doesn't it!), they had to chop down a few trees to give a clear line of sight. Also you can see two massive solar panels to power the system. What you can't see are the 32 massive batteries in a bunker to keep it all running in any conditions. Nor can you see the equipment in the building to manage it and the network. As you can imagine the actual computer equipment required to keep it running is not that great, it is the power and connection that are the issues. Oh and also you can see half of the wifi mast that sends the signal across the site. We are a few hundred metres away and have a signal strength today of 18Mbps. Normally it is around 5.5Mbps.

So there you go and now you know!! It is not just a matter of calling a broadband company. Nothing is that simple here!!

Gardening with a Vengeance

Okay so here goes. Today has been the most eventful day all round except for Catherine who has spent the whole day having braids. She actually managed to read an entire book whilst chilling out!! Well not quite the whole day, she did have a rather eventful encounter with ants while gardening with the Jonathon family group this morning. Gardening was pretty challenging all round today. Leanne and Mica virtually came face to face with a frog (those of you who know them will have a clear picture of how that went). Both Leanne and Catherine separately encountered more biting black ants than any of you can imagine. Before gardening became traumatic Catherine and I had good fun racing with wheelbarrows loaded high with maize for mulching much to the delight of the children we were working with.

Today has also included a trip to visit Marion to help send letters to those who sponsor children from all across the world. Marion has been here for nearly 9 years now and has no plans to return home at present. It was very interesting to hear about the New Hope that she came to. There was no electricity or running water when she arrived and getting an urgent message home meant driving the arduous route to Kampala taking approximately 3 hours in order to send a fax!!!

This afternoon we visited various family groups. The Norridge family went on mass to the Calvary family devotions. We were able to join in the singing until they sang in Lugandan then it became somewhat tricky. The boys were quite impressed with the drums and there was a loud cheer afterwards when Jack suggested we could give them a football so they could take part in a tournament tomorrow - ahh! There was a very sobering moment when the family father shared with the family that there were no more beans in the store and this would mean that in order not to miss the season they would need to plant the beans they would normally eat. It is very difficult to get past what you are missing from your luxurious life and grasp how life really is here. Please continue to pray for us all as we deal with our responses to different and sometimes difficult situations.

We have been well cared for again by Steve and Kathryn and I think it is very safe to say the girls were greatly relieved to be eating potatoes and meatballs here than pocho and beans with the families.

Monday, 20 August 2007 (yes I know it’s Tues but there were complications…)

We were up today the earliest we have been since the start of the trip. Oh joy. Stevie B had told us the night before that he would be there to pick us up at 6:45am in preparation for our ‘garden’ work… We all rose at around 6:43am… cutting it a little close, but nevertheless, we were ready. Steve, however, didn’t arrive until 7:10am, much to our annoyance… proof that teenagers aren’t so lazy. 

The work in the FIELDS [note: NOT garden… thanks for an accurate description Mark] was, all in all, really good fun. Spent a few hours ‘slashing’ (naturally, we Brits found that amusing) and picking and checking ground nuts, which was… interesting. The Ugandans seem to take the NO FEAR approach with the slashers… and almost chopped Leanne to pieces until she realised in the nick of time that she was, maybe, a ‘little’ too close! Picking the ground nuts was pretty tedious, but it sure made me realise just how much effort and dedication their lives involve. Even for things that we wouldn’t know we were taking for granted, such a buying a packet of nuts (not that I ever buy nuts, cos I don’t like them, but you know what I mean…). I’ve never really given a proper thought to just how much (boring) work it takes to provide it! And also, that at first, we were all a bit give-or-take with how much effort we put into the work, but I thought – “if we don’t do this properly… that means they’re actually going to have less food.” I know it sounds obvious, but to me, I hadn’t really thought about that. Maybe because I’ve never had a task that will have real consequences on people other than myself if I don’t do it as best as I can, but this one reeeeally did. And that made me feel quite ashamed of my attitude towards it, and also towards the tasks I approach when I’m back home. Although I doubt any of those will really make so much of a difference… but you never know.

During the afternoon, we girls got to spend some time with the Clays, which was great. It was lovely to get to know them more, especially Rach and Jed (Rach and Dave’s 4 year old son, who’s a total cheeky tinker, but great). Then we walked back to the Brown’s, to take a trip to Luwero market, which was busy, wet (it had just rained… a lot) and quite funny. Most of our pairs were followed round by bunches of Ugandan children, and referred to as “Muzungu” constantly. Mica even got called over the speaker phone that was running from a big pick-up truck parked in the middle of the market!

Almost as soon as we got back, we were whisked off to family groups (Em and I went to Calvary family, Mica, Leanne and Catherine went to Ebenezer family), to join them for dinner and devotions. Em and I ended up joining a tournament of a game almost identical to ‘Rummy’ (which I LOVE) and I won! Well, the first game… but I don’t feel the need to go into details further than that…! For dinner we all ate (or tried to) posho and beans. Posho is basically their staple food, they eat it with everything, it tastes of nothing, and has a certain texture that is sure to make you want to vomit. Yummy. Em and I were so slow that they eventually asked us if we were finished because they needed to get on with devotions! We were very grateful for that.
‘Uncle’ Jeremy (all adults are referred to either aunt or uncle here at New Hope) lead devotions, which was quite funny, as most of the kids were totally unresponsive, except for Robert (16) who took to answering every one of Uncle Jeremy’s questions with either “God” or “Jesus”. Haha.

A really nice boy called Moses (who has an incredible singing voice) walked us back to the Brown’s, which we thought was really kind of him, as we couldn’t see a thing by this point (when it’s dark… boy, is it dark)… But a few minutes after we returned, Mica, Leanne and Catherine were paraded home by their WHOLE family group, singing and dancing the calypso (or again… trying to)! Quite outdone!

Anyway, I have to get off to the baby house (alllrrriiiiight), so I best be off.

Love to my family (if any of you read this, I’m not sure) and friends (again, I’m not sure who reads this)… I don’t really miss you, but that’s just cos it’s brill here… so be consoled 

God bless you… every one.