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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Home & Away!


Well it has been an eventful week, both home and away.
On the home front, we have hosted a number of new friends, including multiple cockroaches and excitingly some bin-invading maggots, as well as a rat and a number of bats (which fly down the chimney).  Just like his mum, Timmo does not like rats – as you can see, in his courageous attempts to coax the rat from his lair...

In addition, we have had no water for the past week, and when the water did finally flow... here is how it looked:

Fortunately, it cleared up soon enough, as we don’t think Sarah’s parents (who are arriving tonight!) would much like bathing in that.
 
On the work front...
For Sarah, it has been a very sad week at the hospital, with many babies dying of preventable conditions, but when she arrived at work on Monday to discover that three babies had died over the weekend due to anaemia, and a fourth then died in front of her eyes, she called up River of Life Church for help.  Valiantly, they arrived en masse, all willing to donate, but the funniest moment came when Rob (one of the directors) tried to do his part.  A small voice said “Sarah?”.... “Yes?” .... “I’m going to faint!”...  And this was only after the finger prick.  But all credit to him, he then went ahead and blood was dutifully squeezed from him.  Consent has been obtained for publishing this photo of the brave soul!

The last few weeks for Tim have been taken up with organising this year’s football tournament - The Synergy Cup! There have been some eventful matches, but none more so than yesterday’s semi final, which involved a pitch invasion and near riot, after the referee and his assistant disallowed what would have been an equaliser at the end of extra time. The supporters even barred the entrance to the ground, as Tim tried to escort the refs off to safety. Thankfully we managed to get them away before anyone was injured. Even Brian, Tim’s right hand man in Synergy Sports, was nearly beaten by an angry mob of mechanics! It has caused us to hire a police presence for Saturday’s final, which we hope will be an altogether more peaceful affair!

Friday, January 06, 2012

Twas the season to be Jolly!


Happy New Year to one and all!  We hope that the festive season treated you all well, and that you have had a good start to 2012. 
As the Christmas trees come down, and you start to work off those Christmas pounds we thought we would give you our highlights of the festive season:

  • Spotting two boys riding along the main road between Masaka and Nyendo on a camel (whilst common in some African countries, this is the first Ugandan camel we have encountered);
  • Watching “Elf” with the White Eagles – and seeing good old Buddy save Christmas;

 
  •          Christmas carols with mulled wine, mince pies and some rather unconventional “carols” including “Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer” by Destiny’s Child!!
  •         Enjoying a slap-up Christmas dinner with friends –including BBQ pork, stuffing, roast spuds, veg, gravy, homemade mincepies and custard;
  •          Wolfing down delicious New Year beans and chapattis with our friend, Alison Gill (visiting from Burundi), and others, followed by a drive around Masaka to take in the New Year excitement, including a very enthusiastic mob of people waving chairs in the air in the name of Jesus!
  •         Meeting a friendly chameleon called Collin and finding our personal space invaded by a very precocious chicken called Charlie, who seems to have taken up residence in our garage (quite uninvited, and now even more so, since he has developed a habit of pooing on Tim’s football equipment... Tim is therefore threatening to take definitive action, in inviting him for a roast chicken dinner, as the guest of honour!)

We are so grateful for all the support that we have received from all our friends and family, and really hope that you will keep telling us your news.  For any of you who haven’t yet checked out our Christmas serenade to you, go to:



AND FINALLY…..

 BARMY BODAS (continued)! 

Probably the only Ugandan to actually make use of a rear view mirror!