A Taste of "Normal"

The loves of my life

       This past weekend was the closest to “normal” that Andrew and I have felt since moving to Uganda.  While the rest of our team took off to Jinga to go white-water rafting, we stayed in Mbarara just the 3 of us.  You see, aside from the obvious differences such as climate, food and culture, we have also struggled through the change from living as one family unit, to living as a family within a tight community.  For those of you that know us, you will agree that we are both communicators and the way we solve issues is by talking it out…perhaps more passionately than some may feel comfortable with ;)  When the only privacy offered is a slim piece of canvas, these communications either do not happen or when they do, someone in camp is within ear shot.  So having a whole weekend with just our family was a huge blessing and gave us time to figure some things out.

       This weekend was also filled with lots of exciting experiences and time with our loved ones back home.  The internet connection in Mbarara is superb in comparison to camp, and thus allows us the possibility to Skype.  It was so nice to see our families’ faces and hear their voices…it felt almost as good as a hug.  On Saturday, we went to Big Fun with Theo and two of the boys from camp.  The facility is pretty great, with two swimming pools, a jungle gym and a restaurant.  The boys (Wedith & Michael) have never been swimming, nor have they ever seen a jungle gym, so we had a blast showing them how to blow bubbles and what a slide is for.  We ate lots of delicious food…butter chicken, pizza, KD…and enjoyed an English service at the big church in Ruharo (yay for Hillsong songs).



Theo with his nanny Winnie

       Our next long weekend will actually be our 2 week Christmas vacation and our team has made plans to travel to Nairobi, Kenya.  Andrew and I budgeted our trip in a way that we could afford to take our nanny Winnie with us as well.  For her, this will be the trip of a lifetime as she has never left Uganda.  I took her to the immigration office to get her a passport and after some pleading we got it, even though she didn’t have the proper documentation.  You see, she has never had a photo printed of her, let alone an ID with her name and picture on it.  In fact, she doesn’t even know the day of her birth, just the month and year.  So thank you God that the immigration officer had a soft spot for Canadian blonde girls ;)

       As for camp, life is great.  We are still in the rainy season and it takes days to dry your clothes, but the rain does cool down the office which is nice.  Andrew has been playing soccer four times a week with his new friends in town and on Wednesday he got the opportunity to represent Nyakera in a game against Ngomba.  With his assistance in setting up plays and playing center, Nyakera won 2 to 1 against an undefeated rival.  He has also made some other friends in town and has gone to visit their homes.  Our engineering team has been working more in the office designing while we await the CIDA money.  Just yesterday we finalized Phase 1 of the Kishororo Project and handed over the reins to the funding NGO, Living Water International.  With any luck, the CIDA money will be there for us when we come back after the Christmas vacation and our Ugandan team will return to begin work on Phase 2.  We are all healthy, but feeling a little sad as one of our team (Beth) will be heading back to Canada this month.  Please pray for her as she flies home and adjusts to life back in New Brunswick.

~M