Rain

Our new friends in the IT department were telling us some interesting things about rain.

Apparently, when it rains, everybody sleeps in. When they were in primary school, they would be caned for being the tiniest bit late, but when it rained, they could come two hours late, tell the teacher "It rained" and get off scott free! Mothers might say to their children, "Where are you going? It rained!" Sometimes, bosses don't even show up at work because it rained the night before.

They also said that the people in the villages use firewood to cook their food, so if the wood is wet, it seriously disrupts their eating. It makes sense, then, that if rain during the night causes you to skip breakfast, you won't want to go anywhere, but we can't think of any reason why everyone else would find it so disruptive. It gave us a good laugh.

Here is a better picture of the humongous birds. Good ol' 12x optical zoom.

Welcome Home

Driving from the airport to the Watoto guest house revealed a mixed landscape of greenery, dirt roads, and tarmac roads which are so dusty they look like dirt roads!

Most things have a layer of red dust on them.

We stopped at our local 'supermarket' on the way in. We would call it a very cluttered superette. Anyway, we were able to find the basic supplies, and went on to our new home.

The below, or at least one room of it, is our home. It is a nice big solid place, located in relatively well-to-do spot in an elevated area (but still a mixture of nice houses and slum). It is all gated and barred so we feel pretty safe in there.

It is one of two main houses in Kampala hosting a number of Watoto volunteers. There were 3 other volunteers in the house when we arrived, two Ozzies and a Chinese student from the States.

These were great people to meet, but in the last few days they have all left. Another girl (an American Missionary Kid from Italy) arrived yesterday and apparently there are more guests incoming. There is also a grounds keeper who lives on the property and keeps an eye on the place.

Because of power rationing, electricity is only on half of the time. On any particular day you never know if you will have power for all, half or none of the day. It makes things like using the washing machine a gamble. Thankfully, there is a gas stove.

Apparently we are about 20 minutes walk from lake Victoria where there is a market, but we have yet to explore that far. The occasional roosters we can hear in the neighbourhood are completely redundant for wake-up calls. There are huge, ugly, loud, wild birds with dangly necks which hurtle from place to place in the morning. They sound like geese with megaphones being attacked by pigs!

This is the best picture we have got of the birds so far, taken from a distance with a cellphone.

We have started IT work now, and seen the Babies' Home. More on them later.

Prayer points:

• Thank God it looks like we will fit right in to our roles.
• Pray for our health as the in the last 24 hours we have had the unwelcome interruption of some travel-belly.

Dubai Layover

Our first few days in Uganda have been exciting and tiring and we have had minimal chances for reflection and photo-taking. We will take some more photos, get our bearings and post more Uganda news soon. Meanwhile, here are some photos from our stop-over.

The cheapest flights available to Uganda included a transfer through Dubai. We decided to extend our trip to accommodate a 3-day layover. Holiday pay from our previous jobs allowed for some much-needed R&R before the mission began.

Because it was Ramadan (the Muslim month of fasting), eating in public before evening was frowned upon. We had to laugh as we snuck around looking for hidden corners and stairwells to eat in like it was illegal (in some places, like the mall, it was)!

It is summer in Dubai, which means temperatures were in the 40's (celcius) and very humid. Stepping outside felt like taking a hot bath. The moment the camera went outside from an air-conditioned building or car, the lens fogged up.

Dubai city and mall displayed such wealth. It was as disturbing as it was magnificent. Julie found the cuddly toy she always wanted but never knew existed!

Touchdown

Well, we made it to Uganda! We arrived yesterday and had our orientation today. We met with the head of the I.T. Department, our new work colleagues (the development guy, the technician and the Mac guy) and a bunch of other Watoto Church staff members. Apparently, there are about 600 church staff and many people we met couldn't wait to get us to come look at their computers. It looks like the work we will be doing is mostly in coding languages and operating systems that we like and are used to, so hurray for that! Other opportunities include teaching regular classes to the older children from the children's villages, about computer stuff and where it can take them.

The place where we are staying is about 1/2 – 1 hour's drive (depending on how much "jam there is on the road" lol) to Watoto Church where we will be working. It is pretty spacious (which is very nice for us, especially considering how crowded this city/office is) and clean. We even have a shower head with hot water coming out of it (though it doesn't fit in the holder)!

We still have a few more stages of orientation to do, but we will probably make a start at the work set for us tomorrow.

We are very tired and busy getting settled in at the moment, so more updates/photos will have to follow shortly.

Thank you so much for your support and prayers. We really appreciate you!

Bits and Bobs

We just spent a week packing, moving stuff into storage and cleaning our house. It was a very big job. Most nights, we went to bed after midnight. The last day, we were up for 22 hours. It was hard, but we made it with God's help and a few well-timed, helping hands.

On Sunday, Massey Presbyterian Church presented us with Woolly, a sheep puppet which is meant to be the 'ambassador' from our church's children. It will be coming with us to 'see what life is like in Uganda' (and get lots of photos with the children in Africa, etc. to send back to church!). Then the pastor prayed for us to send us off.

We are now 'homeless', with all our worldly possessions (aside from those we are taking with us) locked away in a storage facility. We are staying at Jordan's parents' house until we fly off on Friday afternoon.

Here's one of the turkeys we are currently living with!