Turning Eight, Easter fun and Ancient Egypt- in Uganda!

So look who is now eight years old....

Joel celebrated with water games in the garden with a group of friends a few days before his birthday.... We are very grateful for Uganda's year-round sunshine to make these kinds of parties possible!

On the actual birthday, we took him fishing with his brother on the shores of beautiful Lake Victoria...

They didn't catch any fish, but they did practise their fishing skills and had a fun time doing so!

In the evening, one of our MAF pilots, who is from India, cooked us the most amazing Indian curry - which we then followed with an ice-cream birthday cake for Joel!

A lovely way to celebrate Joel's 8th birthday! So far, he has celebrated his first two brithdays in Tanzania, his third in Kenya, his fourth and fifth in South Sudan and his sixth, seventh and eighth birthdays in Uganda :-)

EASTER 2019

To celebrate Easter, we hosted a MAF gathering in our home on the Saturday before the Easter weekend.

Esther and Joel got to work early Saturday morning to make an Easter cake:

We had a few special events planned for the kids (and adults who wanted to get involved!). One of these was an Easter Bonnet competition!

I am not afraid to admit that I am not gifted in artistic skills! I have imagination, but I am no artist- so I asked a friend to help me create our entry for the Easter bonnet competition!

 Even with her help, our offering was a little eccentric! Although we could safely host the competition knowing that we had at least made an effort to compete!!

Thankfully the other participants had some beautiful entries! We had a "catwalk" for the competitors...

Winners took away 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes. The prizes were chocolate bunnies brought over from the Netherlands by a generous giver!   Unsurprisingly we did not get a prize- but we did get given  chocolate by a kind friend for hosting. That was a bonus! :-)

The children also had an Easter egg hunt around the garden, again with mini, chocolate Easter eggs donated by a kind benefactor from the Netherlands.

After the Easter egg hunt, the children used pre-boiled eggs to create pretty patterns, using wax crayons and food dye. Fun for all!

Just to add to the sugar over-dose, the children made the cornflake-crunchie cakes below, with mini Easter eggs from South Africa to decorate!

Personally, the local chocolate tasted bitter to me and the imported South African Easter eggs just aren't as nice as Cadbury's mini-eggs! Maybe I'm just too English? 

However, since our children have never really tasted a "real" English Easter egg, they know no different. They enjoyed every mouthful that they gobbled up!

Ancient Egypt

Just before Easter, Joel's class finished their history unit at school on Ancient Egypt. To mark the end of this topic, Joel's wonderful, creative teacher organised a themed day. On that day, I sent a Mummy to school, instead of my little boy.

His brother and sister were an integral part of the fun, as they put the costume on Joel:

Imagine Joel's delight when we went out to Kampala's Speke Resort with some friends over the Easter weekend and found a real, live camel! 

Who needs to go to Egypt to find a camel, when the camel came to us in Kampala?

And finally...

Over the actual Easter weekend, we met a MAF family who are new to us and have just moved to Kampala from Chad. They came to eat lunch with us- and we had a new fruit for dessert that day:

It was a bizarre, unknown fruit to all of us. But if you can discover its name and origin, feel free to let me know! 

Our children were unafraid to try it (unlike their mother- I'm just getting over a 6-week stomach bug and have no desire to risk strange foods right now!). 

That was almost 2 weeks ago and they have suffered no ill effects, so it seems it is safe- despite its weird appearance! :-)

A few weeks in East Africa

Our children are so used to living in Eastern Africa that they cannot imagine a different life. When we try to explain that living in a more developed country is not the same, they struggle to comprehend.

I was trying to find examples for our children to illustrate what can be different in Uganda from life in England.

As I reflected on this, several examples sprung to mind- and this is just from the last few weeks in Kampala...

Electricity

 Power cuts are a fact of life in many developing cities.

Amazingly, in Kampala, the local electricty company has a What's App number that you can contact when the power goes off. This is great news, because it allows me to contact them and find out when the power might be coming back on - and it also gives me a record of how often it goes off!

It generally goes off every time it rains but also goes off randomly at other times. 

Last week it was off on 4 different days, but Thursday was the longest power cut, of around 11 hours, starting before 9am.

Just when power came back for Friday, we discovered a fault on our water pump which needed to be fixed. We had to ask our MAF housing manager to contact our landlady, to get permission to contact the electrician! Permission was granted and the electrician came. :-)

After he left on Friday evening, we discovered another fault- and this time, it was our outdoor security lights which were not working. Not a pleasant state of affairs in a city as riddled with crime as Kampala.

Thankfully, we got permission to have the electrican back again on Tuesday-and now the faults are fixed!

And today our power is on! Horray!


Water

For drinking water, we never use tap water, for risk of getting sick. This concept is so natural to our children that they find it such a novelty to drink water straight from a tap on our UK visits!

Our trusty "Katadyn" filter has kept us cholera-free and no doubt saved us from many other bugs too, from Tanzania, to Kenya, to South Sudan, to Uganda over almost 10 years in East Africa.

Last week, I realised it needed a bit of a clean. As  began cleaning it, I was appalled at just how dirty city water is - and incredibly grateful to have such a great filter system to use.

Look at the filth- after 5 minutes of cleaning and still quite a bit of cleaning to do...

City water is piped into our kitchen, but for the rest of the house, we are dependent on water pumped from a huge water tank that fills up with rainfall.

 The tank had become so dirty and the pipes so damaged that water pressure in our house had drastically dropped. Instead of taking a shower, we had to take a dribble! This is not great for a pilot, after a long, hot day of work in equator temperatures!

Water that came through was sometimes filthy because of the damaged state of the pipes coming into our house:

Plumbers came on Tuesday to try to resolve the problem, but instead the problem confounded. Sometimes when you try to fix one thing, it unearths a heap of new problems!

 From Tuesday to Friday we only had cold water coming into the kitchen tap. Toilets could not be flushed. Showers had to be taken at friends' houses. Brave Ones among us took a bucket shower, using the cold water!

Thankfully, on Friday, the plumbers were able to come back and fix the problem.

It is incredible how much more you value water after living just a couple of days in a house without it. Ben's comment summed it up. "It makes me really appreciate water now and be thnakful for it".

Sadly, the reality for so many of our neighbours here is that they do NOT have access to clean, running water in their homes.

Daily, we see children carting heavy jerry cans or buckets of water up the street from a local tap or water source, back to their homes. It is hard work having to bring water to your house. It makes you very careful how you use it too.

We are sorely aware of the challenge our neighbours face...

Public services

There is a police force in Uganda - but no emergency access by dialling 999.

Although the police are there for law and order, it is sometimes hard to know how best to contact them. Sometimes it is hard to know the channels to work through, or to trust a system I don't understand as a foreigner.

This can make it disturbing when we face difficult incidents.

Last Sunday morning, we saw a dishevelled man sitting on a muddy bank at the side of the road. He was bleeding from a head wound. Blood was splattered all over his naked chest and drying on his dark skin. He looked disorientated and also helpless as he sat, alone and yet many people passed by without so much as a glance in his direction.

The children were worried for him. I was upset to see him in that state- and yet we didn't know what to do. There are no services available to call for help.

If we stopped, would he be intoxicated and hurt our children? Was it dangerous to tend someone with open blood wounds?

Shamefully, we continued to church, feeling like hypocrites, feeling like cowards and yet not knowing what to do or who to ask for help for the man in this sorry state...

Then on Friday morning, I happened to drive past a crowd in the street that had gathered to spectate and to jeer at a woman and 2 men who were in the throes of a violent domestic brawl. The men were pushing, the woman was screaming and grabbing at one of the men, bits of hair were flying as these threee adults fought and shouted in the street. Boda drivers stopped their motorbikes and paused to watch, welling the already growing crowd.

It was most upsetting.

I wasn't sure who I could call, so I decided to drive to a nearby education centre where I know there are security guards.

I asked the guard to take his truncheon and run down the street to help break up the fight. He was willing to help.

Ten minutes later the fighting adults had been separated and the crowd dispersed. Such a relief.

However, as I drove home, I found I was shaking. I couldn't get the scene out of my mind and was worried for the lady. She was on my mind and in my prayers all day.

I also felt so angry with the way people were standing about to watch. It felt like people treated the scene as a TV show to entertain, rather than a disturbing and dangerous event that hurt real-life people. This is no better than England a few generations ago, where people went to watch hangings as a form of twisted entertainment. However, it was not the England I grew up in. It was hard to witness it in modern day Kampala.


Weather

We love Kampala weather. It is generally predictable- warm and dry, with occasional, dramatic downpours.

Most of our meals we can eat outside on our patio area:

Painting projects for school can be done outside- happily, this means less mess inside! :-) Joel was completing his science project here, making a model of Jupiter:

A couple of weeks ago we had the school Fun/ Sports Day. There was no need to worry about it being rained off. Instead, we just had to ensure the children could all keep cool and didn't get sunburnt!

Sunrises at this time of year are gorgeous and a real treat to observe from our window:

When we get rain and storms, the weather changes dramatically! Fierce winds, assertive clouds, booming thunder and crazy lightening provide an energetic show to watch from our patio:

In all honesty, I do not miss British weather. When we see photos of ice and snow, my children find the concept hard to grasp, since they have never really experienced them!


Shopping

What do we do when we need new furniture?

We pay a visit to the carpenter's yard, of course!

A few weeks ago, Andrew and I went to see carpenter Vincent. Instead of gifts this year, we pooled our Christmas money and invested in 8 new chairs to sit around the dining table which Andrew made.

Just a couple of weeks ago, the chairs were ready! We went to fetch them- and I have to say, Vincent has done a great job!

Transport

Where else but Kampala do we take our UK guests around town on motorbike taxis? I think our UK visitor Oliver quite enjoyed the ride!

If I am driving in this capital city, I have to remember to watch out for pedestrians --- and animals! You never know when a stray cow or goat may want to cross the road!

And if a friend needs a short ride down the road, but my car is full of kids, she and her daughter can just hop onto our foot board and hitch a lift! No pesky health and safety regulations to stop the ride!

Garden creatures

No need to comment!

Celebrations- with rich international flavour!

Last Friday the children's school had their annual International Dinner. Every nation represented at the school sets up a table decorated with national symbols and provides food samples for the 600 plus guests to try.

There are musical and dancing shows from many nationalities, from the teachers, students and parents at the school. It is great fun and such a fantastic cultural experience for our children!

Here are Finland, South Sudan and Uganda with their fabulous displays:

The British table, which we manned, boasted donations of cucumber sandwiches, coronation chicken, shepherd's pie- and these wonderful marmite fingers! What's a British culinary show without marmite?? 

 A little taste of England to bridge the gap between the differences between living in Uganda and life in Britain...

Update

When you don't get the news you were anxious about possibly receiving.... it is such a relief!

Last week I visited Kenya's Aga Khan hospital for my second ENT consultation. I flew early Thursday morning, this time without any cancelled flight or stress!

I was wondering whether the diagnosis would be that I should have the operation on February 5th:  which is today.

However, the specialist could hear straight away that I was speaking more clearly, breathing more easily. He could see on further examination that the steroids he prescribed have done a great job in shrinking the pesky polyps!

I can even smell again! The doctor was pleased with my progress.

There is no current need for an operation!

HORRAY!

So it was with a thankful heart that I left the hospital last week! 😃😃😃😃😃😃

 I need a further check up in 6 weeks, once the effect of the steroids has worn off, but if I take my medicine, we are hoping that the swelling and complications I have had over the past few months will not be allowed to recur.

Thank you to all of you who have been praying for us- we so appreciate it!

I climbed back on board my Kenya Airways flight the very next day- but not before visiting the Duty Free shop and taking time to smell EVERY single scent in the perfume department!

Do you know how WONDERFUL it is to get back one of my five senses that has been mostly absent in my life over the past few years? AMAZING! 

On Health in a Foreign Land

In late October, I had a nasty experience.

My airways shut down and breathing became laborious. My nose was completely blocked on both sides. Breathing at night-time through my mouth meant that I woke several times, desperately thirsty in the warm Uganda night and gasping for air. A frightening feeling.

This followed a bout of dystenery, when I was forced to my bed for a few days to fight fever and shivers- although proxomity to the loo was a must for frequent visits!

Now here is an admission:  I hate being ill. I'm the world's worst patient. I hate being forced to stop what I want to do. I hate feeling like I'm wasting time in bed during day-light hours! I hate not being able to go where I want when I want. I don't like inconveniecing others to fetch my kids from school.

This means that my family suffer my moaning and complaining when I'm unwell- so a double bout of illness did not reflect the joy I ought to show in this life we have been given! Poor Andrew and kids!

I had two visits to Kampala's doctor's surgery that week. The first for that charming process of giving samples (those of us living in developing countries are very familiar with these kinds of doctor visits!) and then receiving anitbioitics for dysentery. The next visit was a few days later when I felt so afraid about not being able to breathe properly.
On my second visit the doctor could not help and sent me to see the ENT specialist at his clinic in Kampala's International Hospital.
He in turn sent me to the radiologist for a CT scan.

These were the CT scan results:

All those grey spaces are supposed to be clear transparent and show up black, but the report states "complete opacification" of both sides of my nose. In other words, I had very little space to draw in air. Meanwhile, swelling on the right hand side of my nasal passage had started to extend out into my face, giving me a bloated and lopsided look! It was not attractive!

The ENT suggested antibiotics and possible surgery. It sounded rather scary! A sympathetic American friend suggested that her docotor husband could help. He was very helpful- putting me on steroids and anti-biotics, which really reduced the swelling and allowed my nose to return to its usual size for a bit of relief.

However, this was a short term relief. In the meantime, I was advised to start a conversation with MAF and our medical insurance about a longer term plan to help me with this health issue.

It's been a long journey of emails, paperwork and phone calls. It has been somewhat stressful trying to decide on the best course of action. Praying friends and family, their support and love have been a huge comfort as the issue continues.

I have been strongly advised NOT to operate in Kampala, where there are too many horror stories of operations gone wrong and a lack of experience, resources or remedial facilities when things don't go well. This meant that I cannot get treatment in the place where we live.

This is one of the complications of living in a developing country- trying to get access to medical care we feel can actually help to solve the problem, rather than make it worse.

Thankfully, our health insurance agreed to help!

Last week, I visited a recommended ENT doctor in Nairobi- and I was even able to stay overnight with one of my best friends from Dodoma who now lives in Nairobi! I felt so blessed that God put details into place to smooth the way:

• It was good to be able to see a doctor who inspired me that he knows his field and seems trustworthy in giving sound medical advice. 
• It was good to be able to stay with my good friend Sarah and her family.

I flew commercially to Nairobi last Thursday morning for the appointment on Thursday afternoon. When I got to the airport at Entebbe, they calmly informed me taht my flight was cancelled! CANCELLED!!

Kenya Airways simply said that they had put me on an afternoon flight, leaving around 1:30. But my actual doctor appointment was meant to be at 1:30! 

ARGH!!! No Kenya Airways flight?? So what should I do? 

I did what any reasonable, calm and collected English woman would do... (??!!). I burst into tears. 

Then I phoned Andrew and cried and cried and shouted all my stress down the phone about what on earth was I to do? When your doctor' appointment has been arrranged at great cost and is in another country, a cancelled flight is a big stress! 

Amazingly, the ground staff took pity on me. Or maybe they just wanted to get rid of this embarrassing middle-aged foreign lady who was making a big fuss in the middle of Departures! They arranged for me to travel on another airline that was leaving for Nairobi in just 15 minutes! 

I just made it to that plane minutes before it took off. And I happily made it to the doctor on time! 

The ENT doctor wants to see me again next week. He will then assess whether my current steroid treatment is helping me and will advise a longer term solution OR he will go ahead with an operation to remove my nasty collection of nasal polyps on Tuesday February 5th (the day after Andrew's birthday).

This means that we are in limbo for another week. I will fly again to Kenya next week, making further arrangements for friends to help out with looking after our kids around Andrew's flying schedule.

If the ENT doctor deems that my polyps are reduced enough to be managed better with steroid sprays and occasional steroid pills and anti-biotics, he will discharge me and I will fly back from Kenya next weekend to care for my family.

If the doctor believes that it would be a better long-term plan to remove the polpys once and for all, to provide a longer-term solution to this ongoing problem, I will make plans to stay in Kenya for another week and a half. To be honest, I kind of hope and pray that the opreeation can be carried out, so that I don't have repeat episodes of October's proportions and can put this matter to rest. 

If I do stay for the operation, I will then be calling on our MAF community and friends to help out with caring for Esther, Ben and Joel. So many kind friends have already offered to be on standby. 

This is a great relief to Andrew and I. Andrew has provisionally booked the time off work to fly on a commercial airline to Kenya to be with me overnight for the operation. Then he will return to work the day after to resume his MAF duties and I will remain and be well looked after by my friend Sarah. Since I cannot fly for at least a month after the operation, I will stay one week in Nairobi and then travel by road for the return journey- the 15 hour road trip.

I will keep you posted with the final decision next week. But in the meantime, can we ask for prayers for the doctor to make a wise decision about which health plan is the most suitable long-term solution? And that Esther, Ben and Joel know God's peace in this whole messy process of health and medical care arrangements from a foreign land?!

Thank you!