Still in Kampala: an overdue update from Uganda

 It's been the longest time since starting my blog in 2009 that I have been unable to post updates. Since starting my fulltime teaching post at the beginning of August, life has taken on a new kind of activity level and time for blogging is hard to find!

However, we are still in East Africa and still finding excitement and drama in the everyday occurences of life, right in the midst of the global Covid-19 pandemic.

Just to give you a glimpse into recent life as a MAF family in Uganda, here are a few photographs from the last few months. Enjoy the update! 

AUGUST 2020

Time for a new academic year and a new job for Liz! School in Uganda was still online, right up until the end of half term in mid-October. 

Nevertheless, I prepared my new classroom and was required to be on campus every day, in my class, for normal school hours and for Zoom meetings with my Year 2 students and video lessons.

Happily, Esther, Ben and Joel were allowed to accompany me to school and do their own online schoolwork on campus while I was at work in my classroom. I was relieved that I did not have to leave them at home to fend for themselves with online lessons, but could be close by to help them if needed. 

My classroom has a different kind of classroom set-up, with partitions to ensure social distance for the time when students would eventually return to school:

One morning, Joel helped me by courageously ridding my classroom of an unwelcome visitor, placing him safely outside in the stream that flows through our campus:

There was excitement when a stone from a lawn-mower on campus flew forcefully out of the machine and smashed our car window! Thankfully, insurance covered the cost of repairs and we were able to drive home safely once a handy mechanic arrived and replaced the window.

Driving backwards and forwards between school and home everyday is always a bit of an unknown in Kampala. Most journeys are smooth and uneventful, but sometimes road-works, heavy rain or traffic diversions down narrow, unpaved side-streets create competition for a way through and add a bit of colour to our drive. Then we experience some added tension as we wonder how much longer than the normal 20 minutes our journey may actually take!

SEPTEMBER 2020

September saw Andrew set off on a flight to DR Congo to assist in a medical flight to bring patients from remote corners of the country to a specialist clinic in Panzi. Andrew was gone for 5 days and when he returned, he had to quarantine by himself in a location a few streets away from our home. One evening, we dropped off his dinner and maintained our social distance, with our masks in place.

I also dropped off a bag full of clean clothes for Andrew to wear after his trip. Since I was the one packing his bag, I amused myself by packing a T-shirt for Andrew which I discovered on display outside a second-hand clothes shop when I was driving down a Kampala street one day! I made sure it had pride of place on top of all his other clothes :-) 

OCTOBER 2020

Getting used to filming myself for video lessons in class:

We also drove one day down a newly-paved road and discovered this church. I was so struck by its novel name that I snapped a photograph!

NOVEMBER 2020

The students finally come back to school towards mid-October and in November, I introduced them to some English Celebrations for our Topic work on Celebrations Around the World. They loved learning about Bonfire Night and drew some spectacular firework pictures. It was so wonderful to actually have the children back in class and see their creativity first hand! Here is our display:

November also saw the visit of some cheeky monkeys to my classroom (and no, I don't mean children, I mean actual monkeys!!). Thankfully, they didn't manage to get into the classroom, but it was fun to see their antics as they passed through the playground, leapt over the roof and departed again, disappearing into the leafy treetops.

I was lucky one sunny weekend morning to grab a fruity drink and a pancake with Joel at a quiet cafe in a Kampala side-street:

It was a lovely outing and even more appreciated when violence suddenly broke out on the streets of Kampala on Tuesday 17th. Political tensions overflowed in the lead-up to Uganda's General Election (due to take place next week). School was shut early one afternoon and all students and staff sent home, amidst rising concern about riots in the city centre, protest fires being burnt in the streets, shootings, tear-gas response and general unrest. 

That afternoon, I drove home tentatively, but it was thankfully calm on the streets at the time I drove home with my children. Although there was a clear military presence to maintain order, we only drove past the remains of one very small, smouldering street fire.

The next day, school went back online.

Happily, peace was quickly restored to Kampala and all has remained calm since Friday 20th November. We were pleased to resume classes in school on the following Monday. 

We had a tad of family drama this term, when Esther cut her knee open at school! Since she required stitches, we made our way from school to Kampala's International Hospital, where Esther received wonderfully efficient treatment.

I was grateful that the staff allowed Ben and I to stay nearby, albeit socially distanced, and was impressed by their swift service and careful observation of SOPs as the hospital cares for Covid-19 patients in a different hospital wing. Esther was so inspired, she is now considering nursing as a possible future option!

DECEMBER 2020

December is a month of significant dates for our family. 

Ben has his birthday in December and this December he turned 13. To celebrate, he camped outside with a few friends in our garden, then the next morning, they went paintballing. Ben may have caught a harsh bullet on his unprotected neck, but he didn't seem to mind once he got over the initial pain! It's one way to mark the initial foray into teenage years !!!

Campsite in the garden and moonlight city view from the tent doors!

Muddy paintballing venue after the rain a few days earlier, as noted by Joel:

Paintballing outdoors at the fun Adonai Paintball centre, near Entebbe:

 

OUCH!

Birthday Cake:

Next in December comes our wedding anniversary.  To mark the occasion, Andrew made this beautiful box out of local wood and found a local engraver's who cut the beautiful design, showing the 5 African nations where we have lived and worked together since our marriage in London all those years ago. I had no idea back then of the journey we would travel. Life is full of unexpected events!

After the anniversary comes Christmas. The tree came out, Joel made some Christmas cookies and even Harry the dog got into the Christmas spirit:

The garden produced some pretty Christmas flowers, in grateful response to the rainy season:

To conclude this blog update, we send you our best wishes from Kampala and warm greetings as you look at these lovely flowers, which have bloomed despite the bizarre year and changes we have all known in 2020. Wherever you are as you read this, we hope that, despite the strange events of 2020, that you will know peace and joy in 2021... XXXXX