Friday 30th November 2007

Phil and I headed down to the Drop-in centre with Aurelia.  It was good to see the boys get excited about Phil being back in town.  We hung around for a while until Erica came and picked up Aurelia to take her to the local clothes markets that only operate on Mondays and Fridays.  Phil and I went to Edirisa and caught up a bit.  It was good to hear how things in Jinja went.

When I was in Kampala I picked up a couple of books about Africa, one which I was already half way through was about the Lord’s Resistance Army in Northern Uganda and the response by the International Criminal Court.  It is amazing to think that I used to live the comfortable life that I did in Australia and did not even know the smallest things that actually went on in the rest of the world.  And being here in Kabale the reality of some of these things is really starting to hit me.  The visit to the refugee camp a few weeks ago is still in my mind.  While at Edirisa I got a chance to read the local paper with this front page heading:

This is in the same region that Quinton took his parents to visit George, the Ugandan doctor that they met in Caboolture.   Quinton had mentioned that there were a couple of cases that where suspected to be Ebola, but that the W.H.O. had taken one week to come and get samples for testing as they did not know how to transport the samples and that they did not want to go to the villages that the cases came from because they were concerned for themselves.  This is meant to be the ‘world’s’ governing authority on these sorts of things.  I am sure if it happened in a western environment then the rest of the world would know about it before the 6 o’clock news.  At least one month later it finally makes it to the local papers.  Phil commented he had a thought while at the babies home about how in the west a life is valued so much more.  If someones baby was born with complications then hundreds of thousands of dollars could be spent on them.  Which is only natural to do.  But to bring it to perspective that money spent on one life could possibly save many, many more lives if spent differently.  Not saying that we would not look after the child in the west, but how much money gets wasted in other ways.  Phil was saying about how many of the children that are born with complications are just abandoned as death seemed just a matter of time to the parents.   Each child at the babies home would have a heart wrenching story as to how they arrived there.

Edirisa also gets the ‘Economist’ magazine which is always good to read.  The latest copy said about things that were happening just over the border from us in DRC.  One UN person said that what is happening right now in the East of DRC is worse than Darfur.  Though this is one person’s opinion, it must be pretty bad for someone to think this.  In the last two months alone 160,000 people have been displaced, many seeking refuge in Uganda or Tanzania. This is also happening after the government claimed that the civil war had ended and that the country was at peace, so one can only imagine what it might have been like before it finished.  To say these things is easy but to actually think what it would be like to be a displaced person is another.  To choose to leave your home, your town and country is a big enough thing in itself, but to do it because perhaps you saw everyone else around you being senselessly slaughtered and running for fear of your own life.  Perhaps even seeing relatives and friends being killed before your own eyes.  On top of that you have no idea exactly where you are going or how your arrival there will be received.  How easy it is for us in the west to get upset when we run late for a train and are going to be late for work or something life shattering like that.

Thursday 29th November 2007

It was actually good to be back to life in Kabale again, just being in town, getting daily groceries or seeing other daily sights.  Aurelia seems to have injected a good mood into the house and appears to be enjoying things herself.  Today was not too busy for me, I just headed down to Akanyijuka in the afternoon to meet Edward and Don.  Edward had asked for me to come and show Don around and talk about what we are doing and the future.  I was also on for cooking dinner and took the advantage to cook a dish form a 101 One Pot Dishes book that I picked up in Kampala.

Monday 26th November 2007

Today we say good-bye to Paul and Pauline, say hello to Aurelia and hopefully, if all goes well pick up some boxes.  We started by going to meet Phil at Garden City Shopping Centre, while we were there we did a bit of shopping and the Senior Siddans’ did a lot of tourist shopping while they had the chance.  After this we headed straight for the airport for the exchange.  It was not good to see Paul and Pauline go, we enjoyed them being here and it almost felt like we were in holiday mode with them around.  Being with them to take them to the airport gave Kathryn & I a chance to get to know them a bit and really enjoyed talking about things, we got a bit of a different perspective from what the impression Quinton had been giving us before they arrived!! (just kidding guys, he didn’t say too many bad things about you).  On the way to the airport we got stuck in the hectic post-CHOGM traffic.  What strikes me about the traffic in Kampala is that, even though there are a lot of cars, if people were civilised in their driving it could actually not be too bad.  But I did say if, and it’s each for their own and if you try to be nice to others you end up getting nowhere.  Add the extra traffic caused by CHOGM and it’s not fun at all.  But once we were out of the city it was not too bad, though there were police or army personnel lining the roads all the way to the airport, probably to prevent people from stealing the flags on the sides of the road.

You could see that someone was trying to make a good effort to make things nice for CHOGM, but I did notice that many projects were still being finished, notably two hotels that were being built for CHOGM, which had signs now open, but were nowhere near being finished and the zebra crossing on the actual ramp for the airport, the one right outside the VIP lounge where the delegates were to be coming from.  I must say though if I was flying into the airport I would definitely not think I was coming to Uganda that’s for sure.

We dropped off Paul and Pauline at departures so we could go and check on the boxes while we waited for Aurelia to arrive. When I went to check about the boxes that Aurelia sent we discovered that they were not coming until 4:30pm, which would make it too late to get them today, as customs closes at 5:30pm.   The agent we were using took a photocopy of Aurelia’s passport and said that they would organise everything so we just show up tomorrow around 10:30/11 in the morning to pick up the boxes; we’ll see.

This took no where as long as we were expecting so we ended up waiting and having some soggy chips and a lousy sausage roll and samosa for an exhaubedent price in the arrivals lounge, things are the same the world around.  After waiting a couple of hours Aurelia’s plane finally arrived, it was going to be good to catch up with her.  It was good to hear about how things were going with different people from back home, we must have heard about a lot of people though, as she did talk a lot.  When we were at the guest house I commented to Phil that we will be labelled the noisy Australians as Kathryn and Aurelia were quite loud down the hallway.  We headed out for dinner and talked a lot about how things were in Australia, I will just say that I do not know how I will go trying to fit back into the life I had back home again when the time comes.

Wednesday 28th November 2007

Ahh! the Kampala to Kabale trip, you’ve got to love it.  We started with meeting Edward and a friend of his from America, Don, at Garden City.  Don was travelling with us to Kabale, and Edward was going to squeeze in if there was room after we picked up our bags and boxes.  Over 6 hours with four of us squeezed into 3 seats, and lucky me gets to sit half on one seat and half on the other.  It was good to get home!  Don came with us to visit Edward, he had retired from being a missionary in Uganda back in 2002, but looked like he was being slowly drawn back in.

Tuesday 27th November 2007

Today we headed to do a little bit of the shopping and stuff we had to do while in Kampala before having to go to the airport to get the boxes.  We rang at 10am to check to see if we should really come when we were told, and the customs office was actually in a meeting, so it is actually lucky we did ring.  We managed to do most things we had to before we left for the airport, not looking good for a drop in and pick up of the boxes.  We rang again and ended up getting to the airport around midday.  I will leave out all the going ons or it might upset Phil and Kathryn when they read, I will just say we headed back to the guest house straight after leaving the airport and we arrived at almost 7pm.  The only redeeming factors for today was that we went out for dinner again and that we left with all the boxes that Aurelia brought as well as the DHL one that had been caught up in customs for weeks.

Sunday 25th November 2007

Today Kathryn & I drove out of town with Quinton’s parents to take them to the airport on Monday.  We left fairly early and Pastor Edward came with us so that he could meet a friend from the US, who was travelling back with us.  On our way we visited Watoto so that Quinton’s parents could see what we built in 2005.  For me this was a fantastic experience; when we visited last year it was great to see the children that were living in the house then.  I remember thinking how it was great to have saved these children.   But this year the boys had grown so much, and the eldest boy was almost a young man, which had me thinking that we were not just saving children from desperate situations, but giving them a new life, a life that is full of good things and achievements.  A life that would have been without many things we are giving them, or for many, a life that may not have lasted too much longer.  Here are some photos of the boys at House 76, Suubi Village, the house that we built:

For those that came with us in 2005, Mama Millie had a few medical problems and has been replaced by Mama Joyce:

Since today is actually Quinton’s birthday we just had to go to Haandi’s for dinner and order a meal for him, hope he’s having a nice meal back home, because this was absolutely fantastic, sorry Q.

Sorry Sorry Sorry

I have been saying this a bit in the limited number of posts I have done in the last while.  But I am sorry for the lack of posts.  We have been having trouble with power and internet, then Kathryn & I were away in Kampala.  But things seem to be better now.  So I will go back in time to try and remember what was happening.

 I’ll start with Sunday 18th November.  Today was Kathryn’s birthday and I was not able to get her a great present here in Kabale but arranged for Quinton’s parents to bring a box of Roses from Australia.  Also Erica had saved me also and bought her a nice African necklace and bracelet set.  We went out to Edirisa for dinner to celebrate and Pauline (Q’s mum) had made a nice cake.  So we stayed and had coffee and cake.  Kathryn’s parents had sent a box over so that it would be here for Kathryn’s birthday, but unfortunately that is caught up in customs for some reason.  Good old Uganda comes to rain on the parade yet again.

 On Monday 19th November I popped into the drop-in centre, I am feeling very strongly about supporting this more and more in the future.  I will post my thoughts about this in the near future when I get some time on the internet.  Here is a photo of one of the boys who I get on really well with, Godwin:

And here is one of the staff members, Joshua:

Tuesday 20th November, the Siddans went to the lake for the day and I have no idea what we did, Wednesday was the drop-in centre for me again; then Thursday the girls went to the ladies meeting at Akanyijuka.  I tagged along to play with the children.  When I got there however Elizabeth, one of the elder girls thought it would be good to organise the rest to play class and church, and wanted me to play also.  This was ok, except I had absolutely no idea what was going on apart from when they were being told to sit down.

Friday 23rd November; Quinton’s parents were only here a few more days so we went out for lunch at Little Ritz in Africa.  Kathryn was not at school today as there were two public holidays called for CHOGM. 

Saturday was a busy day, starting as usual with drums, then I got the car serviced as we were heading to Kampala to drop off Quinton’s parents tomorrow.  Straight after this I had another drum lesson and then  it was straight to Akanyijuka for Saturday School.  I was then rushing back to get the rest to head down to Akanyijuka again so that Quinton’s parents could have one last visit with the children.  Unfortunately I was delayed by Pam Ward, who was lucky to run into me as she had a lot of running around in town to do and then had to pick up a child from the Lift Up project who was in hospital.  I thought it was strange that she was a little frantic about how she was going to do everything, until we went to pick up Joan from the hospital and had to take not only Joan and her clothes, but a mattress etc that she needed to bring herself.  This worked out ok as Henry and Harriett had come to visit Paul and Pauline and were still there when I arrived. 

After the Manzis left we went down to Akanyijuka for a last visit and it was a great time for all.  The children and Matrons were happy to pose for family photos and they sang songs and danced.  Not quite Watoto standard, but it was fantastic for having nothing prepared or planned, the children were parading around and having a blast.  Because it was Quinton’s birthday tomorrow and his parents were leaving in the morning we headed out for dinner straight afterwards.  Then when we got home we had a cake and coffee, Pauline had made a lamington cake, which was great, not only because it tasted good, but because it reminded me of home a little.

Tuesday 13th to Saturday 17th

We had a good week.  I have been busy doing this and that, but with power problems I have not kept my blog up to date and have forgotten most things I thought to post about.  Kathryn and I had most of the week to ourselves, as the Siddans went away with Quinton’s parent to visit a Ugandan friend that they met in Australia.  It was enjoyable to relax by ourselves, when we were actually home doing nothing, usually of a night.  We have not lived by ourselves for almost all of the year, so time together was good. 

So no details of the week sorry, but I managed to get some photos of the new children on my photo page as well as two new profiles, one of Joyce and one of Joan.  Check them out at www.davesphotos.destinations.org.au/

Monday 12th November 2007

  

  

A few thumbnails of the new children taken today, three days after they arrived at Akanyijuka.  It is so exciting to see how quickly they are settling in.  I keep pestering Kathryn about going down because I want to see all the children, I can’t stop thinking about how things must seem to them.  Some living with only their grandparents that struggle to provide enough food for them to eat, working with them to help survive, and now they have friends and do not have to work all day to get food to eat.  We took the children to get tested for AIDS and they all came back negative, which is always a relief.

In the morning we went to the drop-in centre, which was good to spend time with the boys there.  Today was especially good as Pastor Edward shares with them about sin and righteousness and then for the first time we went through and prayed for each child individually.  It was good as when we finished praying for one, another would quickly rush to take their place so we could pray for them.  It was exciting for me especially when one particularly loud boy, who is a bit of a local gang leader, rushed into me to get prayed for.  I have seen him a lot, but never actually got to speak to him before and always thought that he might not really like me.  It just shows the influence that we have without even realising.

Saturday 10th & Sunday 11th November 2007

Saturday started without drums, Fred is having exams for school so he is not having lessons while he prepares for his exams.  Instead I headed with Henry to finalise the rental of a house for the Roberts, with the landlord.  This went well, and we arranged for a local pastor to stay in the house until they arrive in January.  After this we were going to go to a local cafe in town for lunch for Erica’s birthday today, but when we arrived there it was packed out.  So we headed back up to a restaurant up near our house and had lunch there, very nice food. 

In the afternoon Kathryn and I went to Akanyijuka to run Saturday Sunday School as Phil is away.  This went relatively well I believe.  It just reinforced to me that the matrons we have are really good quality as they helped me out a lot because of the language barrier. The children were really responsive to the program we had and there were a few more children from the local community that came also.  It is great to see that the new children have really fitted in, I think the current children have grown a lot since they have been there and really made the transition for the new children really easy.  In the past we have put off getting new children to give the current ones time to settle, but the only reason we need to go slow this time is that there are only 8 spots left.

We quickly popped into practice after this before heading with the rest of the team to Pastor Edward and Peace’s place to have dinner, welcoming Quinton’s parents to Kabale.  This was a really good time, the relationships that we have made are starting to grow more and more.  With Henry also coming along we all had a really good time.  The power was on all day today, so some people not too far away thought it was worth celebrating until 4:30 am on Sunday morning!

Sunday was at Jackson’s church again and then Henry came up in the afternoon to talk about various building related things with Paul, Quinton’s father.