August 23rd - We have arrived in lovely warm conditions - 24 dgrees average - and are resting at one the school administrators home - a very nice house set in tropical bush behind high walls!! it is only a short walk to my new school. Our plane trip to Sydney, Dubai, Addis Ababa, then Entebbe went really well - getting off into 45 degrees at Dubai was an experience after rainy old tauranga! We are trying to rest - Moses wants to throw rugby balls and play soccer - he had some sleep on the plane - not like the adults who are walking around like zombies - today we will look at my new school and go and buy some nice cool cotton clothing - I took only one pair of clothing so i am getting a bit smelly - used up all the expensive deodorant on the big plane!!! Driving through Kampala on our first day was interesting - we were stopped for speeding - first we new of it - the policeman had a handheld radar which they reckon has been showing the same reading for most white facesd people!!! Nicci our host/driver was the perfect negotiator and had the fine reduced from 100,000 shillings to 20,000 ($9us) - I never saw the policeman writing out a fine!!! Welcome to Africa!! We drove through mud soaked streets and rubbish to reach our nice neighbourhood and crashed out asleep at 6.30 pm after 30 hours travel including airport stop overs. We are sitting in a lovely tropical backgarden eating pineapple (real pineapple) and avocado watching Steve the tortoise (a coincidence!!!) and playing with scruffy the dog - Moses likes him. Please pray for our accommodation and physical safety and health - that we can find someting close to the school so we can walk and avoid taxis and motorbike travel.
August 27th - The school is I teach at is awesome - there are families of monkeys roaming the roofs - you can't play with them they could have rabies!!! Life is crazy here - such extreme poverty - large families living in tiny one room huts sometimes flooded by water. Our water was turned off for 3 days so we used water from the water tank outside to wash in - and this is in the capital! Moses is very happy making new friends - the other day he ended up with two girls playing Barby bingo!!.
August 28th
Oh boy our dreams are comming true - Paulina the little girl we have trying to adopt is now living with us - What a joy - she will attend the school I am teaching at - she is a bundle of energy and wow she is strong - comes from looking after herself for 3 years.
August 29th
Today we went to Owino market the biggest outdoor indoor market you will ever see in your life - thousands of little shops crammed with millions of people - Moses was scared. There were many poor people sitting on the streets trying sell apples or anything - even supermarket bags.
August 31
WOW I had to take Sharron and Paulina to the doctors - I drove the principals SRV - it is like an extreme version of stockcars except twice as many cars, trucks, and motorbikes - there are no road rules except don't crash into anyone - you don't drive fast but you must avoid the pot holes otherwise your car would brake an axle - sometimes you are on the other side of road trying to avoid taxis and people walking. When you stop at the lights you are accosted by hundreds of sellers forcing there way through the window - one of them tried to open Moses door - you have to be very firm!! We need a big land cruiser with bull bars but they cost the earth over here.
Wednesday Sept 1
Yesterday was dramatic to say the least - first day back at school and at 1.30 we were hit by a rain storm that would have wiped Tauranga off the map - the roads were windscreen high and many people and cars submerged. Unfortunately the angle of the storm did not suit my classroom and it took the full force of it filling my big classroom with water. I had to rip up the carpet mat area rapidly and move all the furniture into the middle while the water lapped at my ankles - great start to the year!! Fortunately Sharron was at home in our little flat to stop water from entering the bedrooms - it filled the hall and kitchen - so we are all tired from mopping and drying - welcome to a one hour Ugandan rain storm!!! I cannot imagine what the squatter shanty towns are like - the gardener told Sharron that entire neighbourhoods vanish under water!
Sept 2
Paulina doing well but needs some fine tuning on social skills - bit of a bush girl!! - Moses is top of his class by miles so we may have to move him up a level - they both sit down to delicious Uganda cooked lunches every day - school day starts at 8.00am and finishes at 2.00pm. It is a full on day!
Sept 4
Went to the bank and it took 4 hours of waiting to get service. We had a sausage roll for lunch and it was a literal red sausage wrapped in pastry. Pauline has a half of chicken we were to scared to risk it. Pauline is gorgeous she loves Moses she has alot of courage and we are growing in our love for her. We are Mama and Dad.
Sept 5
Found a nice little church then took Pauline and Moses for a swim in a local Motel pool. Paulines first real swim and boy did she love it- had to drag her out of it. She is doing really well at school - her Englsh is improving. Sharron is teaching English at school voluntarily and helping me n class with 3 ESOL learners, keeping house, shopping at markets and eating chaptis with the local food vendors!!! they are very poor vendors selling every vege and fruit you can think of.
Sept 6-13
The power has just gone down for the third time - imagine a capital city in darkness - I can understand why most have 3 metre walls with barbed wire. We are all well trying to adjust to a bizzare environment where every effort is made to rip off the white face, where Large charity organisation leaders (NGOs) live in extreme wealth, servants, monster homes, guards and fancy cars while the peopel they are mean't to be helping live over their fence in abject poverty and disease. I am very happy to have our little trust sending money direct to the cause!!
We are going to have to buy a vehicle - probably something Toyota, very tough and big, 4 wheel drive with huge bumber bars and more than 3 litres to handle the pot holes and keep the children safe from marauding bands of sellers who reach through the windows uninvited - any ideas on a vehicle - Pajeros are cheaper here but I have never trusted Mitsi.
My job is great - just getting to used to 6 nationalities in class including 3 non english learners - half my class are picked up by their own drivers!! The school is an expensive school but it has a lovely atmosphere, an experienced vibrant leader and a number of christian teachers - ALL TEACHERS have a Ugandan teaching assistant - thats cool - gives them a good job, good pay and training.
The markets here are interesting - the biggest - Owino - we went to yesterday and it was very dangerous - small alleyways packed with 2-3 million people - Moses and Paulina were nearly run over by heavily laden rice carriers and motorbikes. I was harrassed by eight men wanting to sell sports shoes that were all second hand.
We have met with a local lawyer and begun the process leading to adoption of paulina. She is living with us and attending school and absolutely thriving, learning english fast, fighting with Moses and becoming a little more refined. We had to get her to the doctor and onto medication for all sorts of skin and health issues but she has responded really well - a healthy vibrant girl who has discovered a new hope and life. She spends a lot of time at the tap and toilet - quite new to her - we took her to a pizzeria yesterday and she had the biggest smile as a waiter served her - something totally out of her realm of experience.
Please pray for our safety in all areas - we are riding boda bodas - motorbikes to get around and it is very dangerous - there are no road rules - only get there no matter what - first in first served. Please also pray for our accommodation - we have not found a place yet that is within our budget and in a reasonable safe place.
I have met with Joseph the director of Kyazanga and we are preparing a business plan to help the orphanage and school become more financially independent through small cash enterprises such as a piggery and tourist craft shop - these are ideas that we will thrash out and may need a little cash injection/donation to get things rolling. First project is to finish the mosquito net purchase and this will happen in the next month. We never sleep without a net - the slimy beasts are hovering for the kill every night.
