Wednesday 30th January to Tuesday 12th February 2008

As I sit down to type this blog all I can think of is what a fortnight it’s been, mostly physically and emotionally draining.  Firstly I need to apologise for the lack of posts, this is due to what seems like non-stop activity and the lack of electricity when I did actually get motivated to write something.  Electricity has been the worst it has been in the whole time we have been here, I think in the last two weeks it’s been off more than on, and then last Sunday afternoon our street alone lost power for two days straight; which made it bad to look out at night time especially and see the rest of the town with power in the comfort of the complete darkness that envelopes our house.  Because of electricity problems and the water supplier’s indifference to using the generators they have to pump water up the hill we also ran out of water twice. 

Rather than give you a blow by blow description I thought I would just summarise what we have done in these two weeks.  Firstly we had recently said goodbye to Phil, who has returned to Australia.  It has been a big blow for the whole team and we all miss him tremendously.  With his departure Quinton was in Kampala for a long time, having a blast it sounded like with Immigration, Customs and general Kampala – Kabale chaos that comes with any trip to Kampala.  With both Phil and Quinton out of town I really learnt to appreciate the team that we came with.  It was an extremely busy time and the whole two weeks has felt like we have been running around doing lots of things while, as it usually seems in Africa, not feeling like much is getting done.  That being said we did actually do a bit. 

The second big event for the fortnight was the arrival of the Roberts from Australia.  They are from our church and have also come to Kabale to work with local churches here, but are not here specifically for working with Akanyijuka, though they will likely become part of the Akanyijuka team with being around and closely tied to the team.  They stayed with us for about a week as we worked with them to set up the final touches to their house, and running around getting all that they needed to live.  From soap to furniture; from a gas cooker to a night guard.  It was great to have visitors and add a different feel to the house, though they could have picked a better time to arrive, no power and running out of water twice in the first week they were here!  Their arrival also helped distract us from the fact that Phil had left, but I am starting to think more about the loss now that the pace is slowing a little.

Early on in the fortnight we were trying our best to get our heads around what it means to have two children that are HIV positive.  What it means for us, the matrons, the other children and the two children themselves.  One already knew they had it and had been on medication, but we discovered the processes of caring for and getting treatment etc for a HIV person.   

Also we now have formally started Primary 1 school on top of the two Nursery classes that we have.  This in itself is still causing us to run around a lot and has one major draw back for me.  The new P1 teacher, who is the headmaster, is fantastic and has helped structure the classes better, which is great, but it makes it harder to just pop in and play with the children.  Most of the times when we visit now the children are in class and although we can distract them for a bit, one feels that they should be left.  Once all this running around finishes we will have to find something else to do.  It is good though as our plans are to hopefully acquire some land to start building a purpose built facility, and this means we will be able to throw energies into that. 

Starting P1 caused a hive of activity, trying to figure out when and how a new curriculum was being introduced.  Then which books were required and recommended by the government and if it was at all possible to get them.  What is actually meant to happen depends on who you talk too. We have however started on a track which we believe will be in line with what is required and will give the children the best.  Then we had more furniture and supplies to track down etc etc.   

Prossy is getting married at the end of February and we knew that she would be away for two months, but one Thursday she told us that she thinks that she should finish earlier as she knew she would not do her job properly and had lots of things to do.  This was fair enough, but she told us that the following Monday she would be unavailable.  So we had to rush about getting a replacement for her.  It has been a blessing for us though as there is a lady called Ruth, the wife of one of the Pastors of VCCS.  She runs a Nursery School of her own but does not teach there, and we were able to get her to fill in for Prossy.  She will be a great asset and together with Rogers they will more than make up for our inexperience in running a school.  Already they are getting us doing this and that. 

We also ordered official uniforms and jumpers for all the children this year.  It will be great to see them all dressed up.  I will take photos and post them after they have been finished, hopefully tomorrow. 

In the midst of this we had the usual things that one has to deal with when in Uganda.  We borrowed a friend’s car while Quinton was away and the second day we had it the front left wheel fell of while we were driving.  That in itself was not too bad, what was bad was that it was in the main street right outside the markets; probably the worst place one could decide to park their car.  The car could not be pushed aside and the tow truck ended up being about four hours away.  We still had things to run around town and do so we left someone with the car so the police did not tow it away.  It was a funny experience coming past it every now and then.  Today was shopping day for Akanyijuka and as I was taking Prossy around the town getting the usual mass quantities of food the tow truck arrives and wants me there straight away. 

We have also had the landlord for our house continually hassling us about if we want to stay on after our lease runs out.  I had told him we were not happy about a lot of things that had gone wrong and we had to fix ourselves, as well as a long list of things that were meant to be fixed or done before we moved in.  For example the tap outside started leaking quite badly and we could not find a washer to replace it in all of Kabale.  Quinton was fortunate enough to find one while in a shop with the Roberts in Kampala, so we thought we had fixed that problem, but then the thread on the tap broke so we ended up having to replace the whole thing. I have meant to do a list up for him and email it, but with the power problems I haven’t, but this has not stopped him from calling just about every day.  Lucky for the Roberts most things were actually sorted before they came. 

We have also been trying to find another boy to fill the last position that we have.  It seems that all the ones we have seen this week are not quite right for some reason, but tomorrow we are travelling 30 kms out of town with Pastor Frank to see a boy he had told us about a while ago. 

One day we hosted a welcome party for the Roberts, Kathryn was lucky she was at work that day.  Erica and I were practically in the kitchen all day, but it was great to have the house full, or overfull, with members of VCCS.  But Kathryn did make a chocolate cake as a contribution. 

I have not managed to get to the drop-in at all during this time, but with the help of a couple of friends from back home and Erica’s family that were here recently, we have secured funds for 5 boys from the drop-in to go to school.  There is a possibility that more may be interested also.  We have put one of them into Akanyijuka school, he is of P1 level and has actually been taken in by one of the Pastors from Edward’s church. 

Sorry if there is not too much structure or detail but it’s been a crazy time and I’ve forgotten most of what has happened, my diary filled but I cannot make much out of what I had written it just seems like a mess.