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