EASTER GREETINGS

We send you all our warm Easter greetings from Kampala.

I have just watched the Queen's first ever Easter Message to the nation. Her message of hope is inspiring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMMSo4PB5Qk

I'll leave the Queen to be the voice for this blog post, but here are a few photos of our isolated Easter in Kampala.

We woke up to find some of our garden roses had bloomed in time for Easter!

Our MAF neighbours had a wonderful idea for Easter day! They put up a wooden cross on the hill at the end of our road and anyone passing or any of us who received a message about it could walk up and post a flower into one of the many drilled holes in the cross. A beautiful symbol of Easter LIFE and HOPE.

We did a short home-church Bible reading, followed by a short Easter egg hunt for some mini-eggs I received in a package from friends in Norway.

The children each wrote up a verse they liked from the readings we did. I'll leave you with their verses, colourfully portraying the Easter message and the HOPE it gives us in these difficult days of isolation and covid-19 around the globe.

Hope in Troubled Times

  For the past two and a half years, I have had the immense honour of teaching English to some of the refugee community here in Kampala. Once or two days a week, I have been able to spend a few hours using my TEFL training.

   This has been through the inspiring "Centre of Refuge and Hope". With a huge mural displaying the following verse from Psalm 46, the centre seeks to provide a place where refugees can find exactly those two attributes: a refuge from pressing challenges and hope to move forward as they learn new skills. These skills can in turn assist them in finding work, helping them provide for their families and be self-sufficient.

The welcome on the wall near the Reception desk of the Education Centre speaks loud and clear:

               "God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble."

  The atmosphere at the centre is joyful. If I have been away on holiday, the first thing I notice and love about my return is seeing the broad smiles, the friendly welcome of students and staff alike. Their warmth reflects the sunshine and climate of the countries they come from. These are a community of resilient people, getting up on their feet, taking steps forward out of hardship to learn English and better their employment opportunities.

  I have had the joy of teaching children and adults alike. Their stories inspire me. Their hard work motivates me. Their diversity and cultures fascinate me.

  I have taught smaller classes of children. My reward is their smile of achievement when they succeed in conquering the next stage of English; when they learn how to write that first sentence in English or discover the confidence to try out a new concept. I love seeing their finished work:

  I have also been teaching classes of adults, working alongside the regular teacher to cover his classes once a week. Some classes boast over 50 students. These lessons have pushed me to develop new skills as a teacher, where I have learnt to be more creative in engaging larger groups of adult learners. I have learnt much from the full-time teachers and am humbled by their kindness and passion to serve others. These past two and a half years have been challenging at times, fun and rewarding!

Most of all, it has been inspiring to see the progress and determination of students. Students who have overcome unimaginable obstacles, yet now sit ready to learn, perched on their plastic chairs in front of me and their whiteboard.

At the whiteboard:

Today, the centre lies silent. No laughter in the classrooms. No buzz of learning. Like most education centres across the globe, the doors remain shut: teachers and students alike are encouraged to stay in their homes.

With the coronavirus crisis and the ensuing restrictions, many students have suddenly lost their jobs or even the ability to go to find work - and therefore to earn an income for their families. There is no safety net, no scheme to assist. If you have no income, you have no money- and no food.

These are tough times. When I hear stories of how the students are struggling- of how the mothers cannot feed their children, I am heartbroken. It is hard to know how to respond, with the restrictions on movement and food distribution.

We are all in these difficult times together. It is hard for everyone. However, not many of us reading this will go seriously hungry as we wait in our homes for the virus to be overcome.

How does it feel to be in crowded accommodation, where houses are shacks, a jumbled tangle where it is hard to say where one home ends and the next one begins? What does "self-isolating" mean in this context?

What is it like, when you share a latrine with several other families and there is no way you can afford soap to wipe down doors or handles, to protect your children from the virus?
Where you have maybe only one or two rooms, so if someone is sick, you cannot separate them from everyone else?
When going to the doctor means being asked to pay money that you don't have?
When you can't afford food, so how would you buy soap?
When washing your hands means using water that has to be fetched in jerry-cans from a shared tap at the other end of your dusty street?

These are the added challenges of this time. It is hard to think of people I have worked with and know facing these additional troubles in these already-difficult times.

None of us know what the future holds. None of us can predict how this crisis can be brought to an end, nor what our world will look like when it does.

What I do know is that I have met, through "Refuge and Hope", people who have survived great difficulties, but inspire me with their resilience. That gives me hope as we face uncertainty now.

I have met people who have gone on to find strength, encouragement and hope through this incredible centre. A centre which exists to bring healing and point its students, as well as its staff, to look to the ultimate source of our comfort. A centre that I want to see continue and thrive.

Will you join me in praying for the students and their families through these days of trouble?
That they can find refuge, strength and practical help as they look to God?
That the Centre of Refuge and Hope will be able to continue its fantastic work in the future?

And if you feel inspired to read more, or to donate to an organisation that cares and helps the most vulnerable, here is the relevant website address:

https://www.refugeandhope.org/

From Uganda, with love

Dear Family and Friends,

We just want to check in to give you a further update from Uganda during these days of lock-down and social isolation.

First of all: we send our love to you from Uganda, wherever you are!

Please know we pray for you at this time. 

Please do send us your news too- it is good to hear how you are doing so far away and how things have been for you with all the recent lock-downs.

Parkers at home

Here in Uganda, our family is fine. School at home is going smoothly, thanks to the amazing organisation of the childrens' teachers who set their work and grade it online. We are thankful for electricity and for internet.

To help keep me sane with guiding schoolwork and managing housework, I have delegated jobs to the kids and the rotas are working quite well (so far!!).

Washing-up:

Weekly chores:

To manage supplies, I drew up a basic menu to help me stay organised through this lock-down.

To keep fit, we join in with the children’s P.E. sessions online with fitness teacher Joe Wicks, or bounce on the trampoline. The boys have come up with some exciting new bouncing manoeuvers! 

There is even opportunity for water-fights:

I have taken to jogging around the garden, motivated by energetic music on my headphones and by keeping one step ahead of our dog, who can’t believe his luck at having us home all day!

Sweaty Betty (not flattering, but proves that I exercised!):

I am loving the birdsong instead of the buzz of traffic, the gorgeous flowers in our garden and, on days when I wake up in time, the beautiful gift of Ugandan sunrises unhindered by the usual smog of pollution.

Yesterday's sunrise:

From the garden:

Bringing the outside inside: flowers from our garden for Mother's Day:

We are blessed with lovely friends in Kampala and today, Esther, Ben and Andrew enjoyed a walk over the hill with good friends (with suitable social distancing). I went for a shorter early walk with Joel. 

One thoughtful friend dropped off an exciting bag full of DVDs to keep us entertained on weekend evenings and some homemade cheesecake! Another just sent us a DELICIOUS batch of homemade cinnamon rolls!

A departing friend, heading back to the UK on the very last flight before the airport shut, came by to leave me with her collection of escapism material: namely, her old Hello magazines! What a great way to lose reality! 

Yesterday, 3 small parcels from England arrived, each one containing CHOCOLATE!! :-) Need I say more??

Lock-down Restrictions

The President gave a national address on Monday night that brought in tighter restrictions. We already had all school children at home and limited movement, but not as strict as in the UK.  Overnight, this changed.

The hardest of the new rules is that we are not allowed to use our cars, so nobody is allowed to drive anywhere. This is to stop the spread of Covid-19, but it does make things difficult.

At the moment, if we need to get to hospital, we have to phone a local councillor to ask permission to move around to get to the hospital; only vehicles that have special registration are allowed to be on the roads. I am not quite sure, as I type this, how this works.

I pray that we won’t have an emergency or covid situation that would mean a trip to a doctor or hospital. I have printed out the emergency contacts and displayed them on our lounge wall, all the while praying that we won’t need to use them. If I let anxiety creep back in, this is one point that makes me feel afraid. I have to keep going back to the truth of my previous blog...it is a constant battle in this season to focus on God's love and protection rather than the "what ifs?"

For shopping, we can arrange motorbike deliveries from shops, pharmacies and small businesses. The vegetable seller came yesterday to drop off lovely fresh produce and a big bag of dried beans, which I plan to cook today.

I even ordered a large bag of dog-food, which the boda (motorbike) driver secured onto the back of his bike! Since we live in a land where no object is too large to be transported on a motorbike, I'm pretty confident I can order bulky things. Here is a photo I took in the past to prove my point: a motorbike on a motorbike!

 The other new restriction is a strict curfew: no movement between 7pm and 6:30am. We pray that this has an  advantage of helping to curb crime, especially robberies as people start to get desperate for income.

The presidential speech also gave advice and guidelines to try to curb the spread of Covid-19 and reassurance that the government will organise food distributions to help those who have no income at this time. 

With businesses closed and in a city where it is not easy to grow food, no income literally means nothing to eat.  Since children are now all home from school, there are more mouths to feed.  Many Ugandan children go to boarding school and fees are already paid, with the understanding that children would be fed at school- so to have them at home again adds extra strain. We already have friends without income but with children at home. It is becoming increasingly difficult. 

I feel particular concern for the vulnerable refugee students and children I have been teaching for the past 2 and a half years at the Centre of Refuge and Hope. 

Please PRAY for God’s mercy on Uganda and His provision in these hard times. 

Many in Uganda look to God and trust in His help, so my prayer is that we will hear testimony after testimony of God’s help as He answers people’s prayers.

Let me leave you with this beautiful verse from Psalm 46, verse 1:

"God is our refuge and strength,

    an ever-present help in trouble".

Thank you for your prayers, your love and support and this comes with much love from us all. Please look after yourselves and we pray you stay well and safe.

Liz, Andrew, Esther, Ben and Joel XXXX