Fornightus Horribilus...

Most unfairly, it’s not always fun and games in Casa del Crow, and this past 2-3 weeks have been unusually tough.  Firstly there’s been sadness in spades, with the loss of one dear colleague’s eldest son in a road traffic accident, followed soon after by the sudden death (after being unwell for 3 weeks, but then seemingly being on the mend) of another dear colleague. 

In addition, it has been a time of transition regarding the staff here at our church in Uganda, and some good friends and colleagues have disappointed us and saddened us in their behaviour.

We’ve also had some health issues to deal with, which necessitated a trip to Kampala (never our favourite place to visit) to get a scan of Sarah’s breast.  Luckily all seems to be well, although we may need to carry out some further tests (which may require Sarah to be brave – always a tall order!). 

The Baby Unit has been going through quite a bit of turmoil recently, but we had a good meeting this week and came to some agreements, one of which is assigning a new Head Nurse for the Baby Unit, Cathy.  Having a good head nurse will be crucial in ensuring that things are done well, so we feel very blessed to have Cathy on our team.

New Baby Unit Head Nurse Cathy

We know that the Unit is saving lives, and even just this last week, we successfully resuscitated a baby who refused to start breathing for the first 15 minutes after being born.  This confirms to me that the Baby Unit MUST continue to work, and to work well. 

On a lighter note, after much deliberation, and much enjoyment at reading all your wonderful suggestions, we have decided on two rather splendid names for our rather splendid chickens.  For all you 90s music fans.... come on, there must be at least 3 or 4 of you???.... we are delighted to introduce you to the two newest members of the Crow clan.... MR LOVER MAN and SHABBA.  We hope that choosing non-female names will not influence these chickens to emulate the unfortunately transformation to masculinity experienced by Texas Pete, but if it does.... well, you all know what will happen (chicken and chips!  Yum yum!)

ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE!

A return to our previous series of seeing the silver linings...

(1) Someone kindly offers to bless you by cleaning your car.  However, he neglects to mention that in doing so he will crash your car into the side of the garage, wrenching and snapping the bull bar, and prompting a trip to see the mechanic!!  However, on the bright side.... it means we discovered that our rear brakes and shock absorbers were in dangerous condition and needed to be replaced  – handy since we were about to embark on a long journey to Kampala!

(2) You arrive at the doctor’s after a 3 ½ hour road journey, only to be told that the radiologist is off all week.  However, on the bright side... a scan was performed quickly by a technician, and was given to us for free... leaving us with extra money to buy a nice burger lunch and enabling us to escape Kampala that day rather than staying for the night.

(3) You are informed that the power will be off every Friday, Saturday and Sunday all day for the next NINE months!!  However, on the bright side, it may mean that our bills (ludicrously high, since the thrice weekly washing of copious amounts of stinky reusable nappies) may be a little less!  And hey, the power comes back each night, enabling us to do the “wahey, the power’s back” dance many more times than previously.

(4) You return to Uganda to find that the internet, previously quite quick, is now madness-inducingly slow.  However, on the bright side.... on the bright side.... sigh..... nope, I got nothin’!