Jan - June 2014

Jan - Feb 2014 Kiaora and welcome to our news - it is the dry season here - average 30 plus - so time to write - afternoons are unbearable outside!. As you may know Sharron and I have decided to stay another year to give us breathing space to complete paper heavy adoptions. Lisa Higgins was quite right when in her recent email she talked about how we often get into a trap of feeling that we need to speed up and fit everything in quickly. Perspective is lost and sometimes the joy of living with God - so we are slowing down and stretching our timetable to around August - September 2015. To get one legal or official document completed here requires a lot of patience and time - many processes are still manual so it involves many queues!! Our lawyer is very exact - crosses all the t’s and ensures all documents are in place and all signatures are obtained. We love this place and yet struggle with it - our poor neighbours - the hopelessness of the masses, the terrible condition of the health and education system - yet God sustains us with his peace and purpose above all the distractions - this is his world and he only asks us to enjoy his presence and his world and look after the downtrodden, desperate neighbours he brings across our path!! Moses and Dennis will enter year 6 next school year so they are still at school with Dad and mum. Nicholas and Pauline are being homeschooled which is quite challenging - Pauline is very arty and loves dance but she struggles with reading and writing. Josiah and Ken our home teachers are doing a great job and have advanced their literacy, numeracy and research skills. We spend a lot of time trying to get them thinking beyond simple recall (a huge problem in the Ugandan schooling system). Pauline mainly had very little education in her first 5 years. On top of this she suffered many forms of abuse so she does not know how to respond or feel the right things in many situations - yet she has come a long way in the 3 plus years she has been with us - she only wants to run away twice a month and the dark rebellion/tantrums/anger/jealousy is fading - slowly!! At other times she is a burst of fun and loving energy all in the same package!!! Makes each day interesting!!! Nicholas has settled now after a disturbing patch of rebellion and general deceit. I keep thinking - what was I like as a teenager? The salt water pool at Red Chilli Packbackers only a km from home is a real “getaway” for us - we all had a hilarious time playing water polo with some Indian Peacekeepers based in the Congo last week. The game turned into a real fun scrap - our kids are now all accomplished swimmers ready for NZ beaches!! We know it is important to do “normal” things and take breaks together where we are having fun and “washing” away the week. The burns ward is a traumatic place which is emotionally draining - we visited a friend this mid week to find long queues in the corridors - people camped on the floor waiting for a doctor or ladies pushing and shoving each other trying to get into the maternity ward but stopped by guards!! We have been blessed hugely from NZ for the burns ministry and also from the main provider of bandages here in Uganda. It was so cool giving out bandages 2 weeks ago - 4 patients had not had new bandages for over a week - the smell was insane!!! I was sitting at the District Police commissioners office last Monday waiting for him to receive me into his office - when a few other people wandered up and sat on the rickety form - they had to sit on the end - I was first! My business there (a police report for our final adoption step for Pauline) was soon known by all. When you go to a police station it does not take long for most to be in your issue!! You sit and wait while the officer in charge deals with other people all within hearing!! Two people offered me their orphaned children to adopt but I explained - my hands were full!!! Secretaries present must have got my phone number because after I left the commissioners office empty handed - I was in the wrong place - Interpol now deal with Certificates of conduct!! As I was driving into town to find the central police station (I abandoned the car and got a motorbike taxi) my phone goes - “can you please help me with my orphans”!! I wonder how many orphans are in this country? I was pulled up last year by police - they had one of those handset radars preset at 70 plus km - I was doing 50km in a 50km area - they wanted a “christmas present” - I said no way - so they fined me 200,000 UGX - still waiting with hands out - I refused and took the ticket. So I visited the central police to enquire about fines against my registration plate - none - I have been pulled over more than 15 times in 3 and half years and had several false accusations - one was running a red light - the lights were off because the power was off - another was impeding emergency vehicles sheltering the presidents convoy - a serious offence - we had pulled off the road to let his majesty past unhindered but we did not stop completely!!! There were no other cars on the road!! Sharon and I were on our way to pick up Mary from the airport and they demanded we return to the police station which meant missing Mary’s plane - Sharon got out of the car and boarded the police ute on the back and she demanded they take her and I proceed - well they took huge offence at Sharon but she held on so I used the opportunity to convince the officer trying to get me out of the car to let us proceed - he finally let us go and took our drivers licence forcing us to return to the police station with Mary - great intro for her into Uganda!!! We received a heavy fine which was totally unjustified - but this has not turned up on the police system yet - perhaps in a year or so? I got nabbed for having 6 people in my 8 seater old land cruiser recently (insurance agent wrote only 4 people on the insurance certificate by mistake) - they tried hard to bribe us but in the end I convinced them that since it was only 3rd party insurance what did it matter? We got the wave!! I am glad we had a weeks holiday this week - Sharon and I found Interpol to apply for the police report we needed - a Certificate of Conduct (needed for people leaving the country and for legal proceedings like ours). The first office was housed in a stuffy tent with 30 other people waiting in the tiresome queues - I had to fill in 4 sets of invoices, travel to the central bank to pay them - come back and wait for the fingerprint lady who had gone to lunch. Fumes of impatience began to rise!!! When she returned we had to give a fingerprint of all fingers (not toes) then go to a hot, tin, old army office to fill out anther invoice, pay more money to complete the final step. She told us to come back in 7 days!! What was disturbing was the heated distressed lady behind us trying to find her completed certificate in a cardboard box!!! This was Interpol - the international Criminal agency!!!! This week has been a trial of my patience to the nth degree!! I had been saving Kens airfare back to NZ for over a year and had saved 1.6m (800NZ) - transfers from my school salary. I asked him to set up his own bank account to receive it so he could keep tabs on the balance and learn to manage the account - to cut a long story short - he failed to tell anybody that he had lost his bank card and password - in the same envelop!!!! It was hidden in a book in his room but had actually disappeared 8 months ago - shock - why didn’t he realise it was gone and tell me?. I had repeatedly asked him to verify the balance but he had failed to do so. So I find out that all the money has been withdrawn by some thief - big lesson for him and me - keep checking!! The whole affair has left a bad taste in my mouth and unanswered questions but I need to move on and teach him from the lessons - to be more organised and responsible! Good news - looks like I have found chef job for my friend Emmanuel - the bad leg fixed at Corso man - last year I got him a job cooking at a well known restaurant but he received only a meagre pay and had to pay transport costs leaving him with $70nz a month for 10 hour days 6 days a week - workout the hourly rate after transport - .30 cents an hour!!!! So he has a trial next week in a local top class restaurant (owner is a parent in my class) to see how he goes - please pray for this man - we have supported him and his surgery fees for 2 years so I am praying for a blessing and new door of opportunity to open for him and his entire family network. His mum cooked BBQ kebabs on the side of the road for 25 years and has now lost the use of her legs - walking 10km a day with cooking equipment and heavy chunks of meat!!! Oh to see this man blessed and then his family!!! The anomalies of living here - our boys are off to a birthday party to dine and swim with the super rich - part of having friends through school. They will have a ball - but I pray they come to realise the fantasy castle/house with multiple guards and massive swimming pool with its own swim trainer, outdoor catering and bar in the grounds, rooms with a giant plasma screen - is not the common reality and a mere elite percentage. For right over the 3-4 metre barbed wire electric fence is a huge poverty stricken, poor, mud brick housing lot with thousands unemployed trying to scratch a daily shilling from a tiny wooden stall selling mostly vegetables or second hand clothes! The extremes are more obvious here!