A Beautiful Compromise!

A lot has been happening at the Baby Unit recently, and one of the exciting developments is that finally we have a space to accommodate babies born outside the hospital, without high risk of cross-infection.  It’s been a compromise, as instead of an “extension”, it’s more of a “partition”, but it’s been beautifully decorated by some willing volunteers, including Shauna visiting from the UK, Katie, our splendid gap yearer, and from the White Eagle Project, both Aunt Sarah and Catherine who recently finished her primary school P7 exams. 

This is great news for all of us at the Baby Unit, as we’re really eager to help as many babies as we possibly can to thrive!  Below is a picture of our head nurse Cathy, with two of our preterm babies and their proud maamas. 

Synergy Begin their Big League Campaign

The Synergy Senior Team have now played their 4 opening matches in their first season in Uganda's second tier - Big League. Compared to their exploits in the Buganda Regional League last season it has indeed been a 'Big' step up, and there is need to work hard to push up the table after 1 win, 2 draws and 1 loss so far. If you are interested in our progress you can now visit our Synergy FC website at:

synergyfc.leaguerepublic.com

We will soon be entering the very busy holiday period of December and January. This is always a challenge with only 3 staff members (Brian, Abbey and myself) training, visiting mentoring and discipling well over 100 players from the ages of 7 to 25. We will also have 5 Big League fixtures in December, so we have a busy time ahead!

A Pox (Pocks) on our House…. 

Whilst those of you in exotic locations such as the USA or Europe may be mulling over the risk of Ebola virus, we too have been plagued by a virus – albeit a slightly more mundane one.  Yes, Noah (along with most of the kids that he knows at the Danish Kindergarten that he goes to once a week) has been afflicted by chickenpox.  It had to happen sometime, and he mostly took it with good humour, albeit stopping every now and then to furiously scratch. 

That said, on a more tropical note, he has allegedly since been diagnosed with malaria, though this doesn’t seem to have phased him in the slightest (and his cynical maama is not particularly convinced that the blood slide was correct).

Farewell to a Fabulous Man!

As well as a month of exciting developments here in Uganda, October was also a month of sadness for Sarah’s American family, including the loss of her beloved and fantastic grandpa, Dama (Oliver Crosby).  Words are probably insufficient to explain properly how amazing he was, but anyone who met him knows that he was one of a kind, a tremendously warm, humorous and intelligent man.  He will be massively missed by so many.

Oh Uganda, how we've missed you....!

One thing you learn when living in Uganda is to expect the unexpected, especially when returning after a few months away! Returning this time has been no different, namely that you would not expect someone to have the audacity to break into your vehicle in broad daylight and steal a bag whilst you were sitting just 20 metres away in full view having breakfast! But this is Uganda, and as such we therefore spent 2 hours of our first morning at Entebbe police station giving details of various valuable items that some cheeky felon is probably bootlegging as we write!

You also would not expect the arrival of 2 puppies when the last thing you did before leaving was inject your dog to ensure she would not get pregnant. To be fair, Sierra our dog was not in fact the bearer of these new additions, but rather felt the need to adopt the poor mutts. Whilst one was taken by a neighbour, we just had enough time to start getting attached to the other little beast before a mysterious incident early one morning raised us from bed to find it half dead with one of its eyes hanging out. Much as it fought for the next few days to hang on, we in the end decided the most humane act was to have it put down by a local vet and thus our animal woes continue.

Another of our chickens, Omudongo, has also bitten the dust (perhaps in hindsight giving her a name which translates as “Good for nothing” meant such a demise was inevitable!). We find ourselves wishing it had instead been our cockerel Mr. Loverman who had met such an end as we are awoken each morning at 4am by his strangulated crowing! It’s great to be back!!!

Speaking of noisy fat birds.... it is only fitting that we officially share the news that Sarah is pregnant with our second child. She is due in mid April, so we will be returning to UK in March, just over 5 months from now!

Sarah was delighted to find that all was well in the Baby Unit on her return – Cathy has done a fantastic job of keeping things in line, and juggling nurses to ensure good cover in the face of shortages of staff.  Before we went home for the summer, we saw some familiar faces return to greet us.  The lovely thing was that when Sarah said “Thank you so much for coming back, it really encourages us to see babies doing well”, one of the mothers said “I know – that’s why I come back”.  

Some of these little babies have been so doted upon that their mothers even need to be encouraged to cut down on the “topping up” of milk, for fear they remain Michelin babies!  And whilst we were in the UK, the staff were all invited to celebrate the christening of Baby Babirye (the tiniest graduate so far of the Baby Unit).  It’s really wonderful to see good relationships forming between staff and mothers, all of whom often need a lot of encouragement and support!

Baby Hajarah before and after

Baby Hadijah before and after

Baby Allene before and after

Frustrations and Jubilations!

Totally surrounded!!

We’ve now been in the UK for over a month, but we Just wanted to update you about the Sango Bay Refugee camp that Sarah has been working at...  we are delighted to report that *finally* their water source has been sorted out.  Just as well, really, considering the men were refusing to use the water purification tablets for fear that they might affect their “potency”.  I would argue that bloody diarrhoea might have a negative impact on your potency too, but who am I to say?

It’s quite full-on work when, since, most of the time, you feel like you’re in the centre of the World’s Largest Rugby Scrum, and sometimes you can’t even get out of your chair to select drugs for a patient, since you risk squashing several waiting patients in the process.  No problem, you might say, why not have a number system, a la Mr Bean, but when each patient comes with 4 children, even that system is not fool-proof (if you eventually want to get home in the evening!).  Suggestions on a postcard (airmail!) please….

Sometimes you just need Argos….

…know what I mean?  Well, if you don’t, you will.  We wanted to buy a washing machine that could handle all the stinky nappies that our little man produces, so off we went to Kampala.  Simple task, right?  Yep, it was simple.  Popped in, picked one, packed it into the car, bit of a pain to get it plumbed in, but sorted that out soon enough.  One good load of laundry done. 

And then it started clunking.  A bit like when you have tiny pixies in your pipes with large hammers, working away as if they were coal miners.  No problem, we had to return to Kampala to pick up visitors two weeks later, so off we trotted, to be told that the problem had been our fault – we’d forgotten to undo a bolt.  But never mind, as it’s now fixed.  Great!  Except once we got it safely home (3 hour drive, remember) it wasn’t.  Luckily our visitors needed to be dropped off again 10 days later, so our friend Mukiibi returned the machine again, with a polite but firm note demanding either a new machine or money back.  Sarah thought it wise not to ask about the bolt at the time of exchange, lest they refuse the exchange.  When we finally got through on the phone to them 4 days later, it turns out there IS no bolt.  Sarah was dumbfounded.  Tim wasn’t in the least bit surprised!

Baby Babirye!  

Another week, another heart-warming baby story.  This little poppet is our tiniest ever survivor, born at 820g (1.8 pounds), and 28 weeks gestation.  When she was born, there was another small baby born that same day, so it was rationing time on the Unit (you think you’ve got it bad in the NHS?).  So Sarah deduced that this tiny little creature couldn’t possibly survive, so the one infusion pump was used on another baby.  WELL, Baby Babirye was having none of it – she stuck her tiny nose in the air, clenched her fists, and fought a good fight.  She spent nearly 50 days with us on the Unit, but turned out very well indeed, thriving at home with her devoted maama, as well as returning to the Unit to encourage us periodically. 

 And finally, you know you’re in Uganda when...

You notice your small son is playing with a worm... oh no, on closer look, it’s a baby snake.  Best not eat that, then, boyo!

For Everything there is a Season...

So much of our lives are about seasons. As I sit here in the UK reflecting on this past season for Synergy, it is certainly one of expectations having been exceeded in many ways, yet also it highlights a need to refocus our vision and strategy in order to see our talented young players achieve in every area of their lives.

On the field we have thrived, securing a fourth championship and third straight promotion, to take the one spot available in our region to Uganda’s Big League, one division under the Super League, Uganda’s top tier. This success has in fact left us with the option of registering as a professional football club, complete with professional contracts for all our players.

However, this is where the trappings of success could so easily take us down the wrong road. And I have seen it before, where projects whose beginnings were built upon a strong Christian foundation with a clear gospel message end up being watered down to become success driven ventures that end up doing no more than paying lip-service to their Christian roots.

The Team before our Regional League Play-off Final Victory

That is why at Synergy and River of Life Church, we deliberated and prayed long and hard about what to do next, and whether to even take our senior team forward into Big League.

What we continued to come back to was our vision: To see young people fulfill their potential in sport, and their wider lives, through all the activities that we provide.

To sell the team on to another owner, or simply forego our place in Big League would not fulfill this vision. If anything it would undermine much of the hard work we have done to build relationships with, and invest in, our players. This is work which has seen them change in attitude and character, and has seen a good number take positive steps towards becoming Christians. Equally, we are wary of a professional status which could easily see our focus shift away from our grass-roots ethos and heavily draw upon finances that we don’t even have!

So what to do for the season ahead...

Thankfully Big League does not necessitate professional contracts, enabling us to remain an amateur outfit, but still take the place our lads have worked so hard to win. That means we will continue the journey with our players, hoping that success will not only be seen on the field of play, but also in our players wider lives as we continue to invest in their mentoring, discipleship and educational opportunities.

 

Football-wise, we may not be able to take them much further than where we now stand, but our hope is to see doors of opportunity open for our players to be scouted by bigger clubs as we move through the year.

I have always hoped that some of our players will become professional footballers, but my bigger hope remains to see them changed as individuals by the love of Jesus. As we look to the season ahead, I pray that both of these things may be achieved for at least some of our players. If it is, then we will have accomplished what we set out to do and yet another new season will begin!

In August we will be undertaking a football marathon to raise funds for Synergy. If you would like to take part, please contact me on tim@riveroflifeuganda.org. If you would like to sponsor us please go to this page:
https://www.justgiving.com/synergy-football-marathon-2014
or text SNRG77 £5 (or another value either £2, £3 or £10) to 70070. 

THANK YOU!