Week 21 (10 - 16 December 2006)
We forgot to bring our newspaper to church this morning! Most other people had theirs – or something similar. No it wasn’t to read during the sermon so don’t get any ideas about African traditions which can be transferred to the UK! As school is not in session the staff go to Kuluva Hospital Chapel or elsewhere. We walked with John and Brenda (neighbours) leaving at 7.30am for the 30 min walk. It was a beautiful sunny morning with dew on the leaves – next time I will take the camera. The chapel doesn’t have any pews as we know them – there made from mud, hence the need for the newspaper to sit on! Other had cloths etc but Andrea just sat on my hat! I managed without. Either the hat or a cloth etc and just wiped the affected area as unobtrusively as I could. It was odd hearing a German Canon preaching in an African service. The offering was going towards the new chapel which is due to be dedicated by the Bishop in Dec 22nd with the first service on the 25th Dec. But there’s no roof on it yet! What fun! We had a pleasant, though warmer walk back along the road that hardly resembles a road. It was interesting to see the potholes and ravines close up rather than from the car and try to work out the best way through them. But the views – which I hadn’t really noticed before – are stunning. The rest of the afternoon was restful and very very quiet without the students.
One would think that the first Monday of the long break would be uneventful. Not so! We had two firsts. In preparation for Christmas, Andrea had asked Mary to get us a chicken. Mary arrived with a big bunch of bananas and mangos but there was no sign of the chicken. Just as Andrea was about to ask there was a cluck from the bag. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve never met a clucking bag. Books with animal noises, yes. But not bags. There was indeed a live chicken which was underneath the fruit. I suppose there was no point in bruising the fruit. Fortunately, Mary had agreed to ‘prepare’ the chicken up to the point where we would recognise it – in pieces, without the bones and wrapped in plastic. Andrea took over from this point and we had a delicious lunch with probably the freshest chicken we have (knowingly) eaten. Our second first happened just after lunch and also involved animals, beef this time. Or live cows. So alive that they were eating our clothes which were hanging on the washing line! I was sitting near the door and heard a crack (a hangar breaking) and moved swiftly outside to chase the three cows which had articles of clothing in their mouths. Others around saw what had happened and chased the cows away by throwing stones at them. No lasting damage was done but several of the items had to be washed again. We found out later that the ‘farmers’ give cows salt and/or soap to make them drink more so our visitors were probably attracted by the smell of the soap. It is also likely that the local counsellor (LC1) who is elected from and lives in the locality would be informed and be required to take action so that it doesn’t happen again. The cows could eat or damage the only set of clothes someone has and they should be watched more carefully. The rest of the day was a bit quieter. I tried to help John to start up one of the school computers (Pentium II circa 1995) but there wasn’t enough power to run the monitor! Then we were asked to assist with some overdue homework. By the teachers! Two of them are doing their degree course locally, at the Christian University in Ringili. Every course there has two compulsory modules – basic computing and an overview of the Bible. We discussed answers to their questions for a couple of hours, interrupted only by a very noisy cockerel that kept crowing and annoying the hens.
Tuesday was uneventful. Apart from the hairy caterpillars we found outside the back door and along the wall of the house and on the toilet block. They are in the pupae stage. I don’t like hairy caterpillars. There’re not dangerous, just extremely irritating. I was suffering from the itchy hairs for about a week at the end of August so we’ve been a bit itchy today, but think it’s probably psychological rather than from the caterpillars. After this excitement we worked and read quietly all morning and rested, chatted with the neighbours and drank tea in the afternoon and evening.
Following our theological discussions yesterday i.e. today is Wednesday, we’ve lent some of our books to our neighbours so I can’t do my usual morning reading – yet. But I managed to find some other useful things to do until they were returned. We spent some time this afternoon entering exam data on a spreadsheet with a view to doing some analysis and projections in due course. It will be a long project but hopefully will be of use in the future. Targets will be set for primary schools soon which means it’s likely to follow for secondary schools. We spend the rest of the afternoon chatting to some of the neighbours we don’t usually see. Some of the children joined us so things got a bit noisy. We sat indoors as it was ‘colder’ today. I was still wearing shorts and t-shirt but our neighbour had his overcoat on this morning! Andrea is planning a women’s Bible Study group next term which may meet in the evenings and go around different homes each week.
After the usual working quietly on Thursday morning we set off for the Kuluva Nursing School carol service. We had been assured several times that it would start at 2pm. When we arrived at 2.10pm only three others were present – and they were setting up the sound equipment. We did try to be late. Honestly. But we couldn’t manage more than 10 minutes. When we were given a copy of the programme we then saw that the opening prayer was scheduled for 2.45pm and actually happened at 2.55pm. The first hour was for arrivals! We didn’t ask the right question. It’s not “When does the programme start?” or even “When do you expect the programme to start?” but “What time is the Opening Prayer scheduled to happen?” We live and learn, if slowly. The seats were just as hard as usual – they’re made of hard wood rather than soft wood. And I forgot my cushion. As usual there was some singing, followed by some more singing but the Master of Ceremonies did try to keep things to time and cut it short. He also gave the two preachers 5 minute warnings! Yes, two sermons. Or one sermon and one Christmas message. But they weren’t too long and the second was one of the better preachers we’ve heard. He even suggested that as it was a carol service it might be a good idea to sing some carols! As he had the loudest guitar and considerable influence we have at last sung several of the traditional carols. But I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so hot while singing them! The programme ended with a meal at about 6.15pm so we’re a bit tired after the 4h marathon. We celebrated our release with some bananas and custard!
We took Anne Houghton to town on Friday for our shopping spree on condition that she gave us a drink of cold juice when we took her back to Ringili! She did better than that and gave us lunch as well. Anne is from England and has been with AIM at the theological college in Arua for many years. It was good to catch up with news and make arrangements for Christmas. We received some cards from friends in the UK and they are on display in our lounge. It’s always good to have messages from folk at home and reminders of what they are doing. People here don’t exchange cards.
We had our Friday on Saturday instead. That means our normal weekday quiet morning routine was today and there were no early morning preparations for the trip to town. We relaxed in the afternoon – it’s hot and quiet here so difficult to do anything more strenuous than get another drink during the hotter hours. The mornings are comfortable and the evenings warm so it is bearable. The shade makes an incredible difference to the comfort levels. There is a minor clitch with the internet / e-mail access. The radio phone became disconnected from the power supply so its battery is flat. It takes a while to re-charge again so assuming that is the problem we’ll be without a connection for a day or two.
One would think that the first Monday of the long break would be uneventful. Not so! We had two firsts. In preparation for Christmas, Andrea had asked Mary to get us a chicken. Mary arrived with a big bunch of bananas and mangos but there was no sign of the chicken. Just as Andrea was about to ask there was a cluck from the bag. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve never met a clucking bag. Books with animal noises, yes. But not bags. There was indeed a live chicken which was underneath the fruit. I suppose there was no point in bruising the fruit. Fortunately, Mary had agreed to ‘prepare’ the chicken up to the point where we would recognise it – in pieces, without the bones and wrapped in plastic. Andrea took over from this point and we had a delicious lunch with probably the freshest chicken we have (knowingly) eaten. Our second first happened just after lunch and also involved animals, beef this time. Or live cows. So alive that they were eating our clothes which were hanging on the washing line! I was sitting near the door and heard a crack (a hangar breaking) and moved swiftly outside to chase the three cows which had articles of clothing in their mouths. Others around saw what had happened and chased the cows away by throwing stones at them. No lasting damage was done but several of the items had to be washed again. We found out later that the ‘farmers’ give cows salt and/or soap to make them drink more so our visitors were probably attracted by the smell of the soap. It is also likely that the local counsellor (LC1) who is elected from and lives in the locality would be informed and be required to take action so that it doesn’t happen again. The cows could eat or damage the only set of clothes someone has and they should be watched more carefully. The rest of the day was a bit quieter. I tried to help John to start up one of the school computers (Pentium II circa 1995) but there wasn’t enough power to run the monitor! Then we were asked to assist with some overdue homework. By the teachers! Two of them are doing their degree course locally, at the Christian University in Ringili. Every course there has two compulsory modules – basic computing and an overview of the Bible. We discussed answers to their questions for a couple of hours, interrupted only by a very noisy cockerel that kept crowing and annoying the hens.
Tuesday was uneventful. Apart from the hairy caterpillars we found outside the back door and along the wall of the house and on the toilet block. They are in the pupae stage. I don’t like hairy caterpillars. There’re not dangerous, just extremely irritating. I was suffering from the itchy hairs for about a week at the end of August so we’ve been a bit itchy today, but think it’s probably psychological rather than from the caterpillars. After this excitement we worked and read quietly all morning and rested, chatted with the neighbours and drank tea in the afternoon and evening.
Following our theological discussions yesterday i.e. today is Wednesday, we’ve lent some of our books to our neighbours so I can’t do my usual morning reading – yet. But I managed to find some other useful things to do until they were returned. We spent some time this afternoon entering exam data on a spreadsheet with a view to doing some analysis and projections in due course. It will be a long project but hopefully will be of use in the future. Targets will be set for primary schools soon which means it’s likely to follow for secondary schools. We spend the rest of the afternoon chatting to some of the neighbours we don’t usually see. Some of the children joined us so things got a bit noisy. We sat indoors as it was ‘colder’ today. I was still wearing shorts and t-shirt but our neighbour had his overcoat on this morning! Andrea is planning a women’s Bible Study group next term which may meet in the evenings and go around different homes each week.
After the usual working quietly on Thursday morning we set off for the Kuluva Nursing School carol service. We had been assured several times that it would start at 2pm. When we arrived at 2.10pm only three others were present – and they were setting up the sound equipment. We did try to be late. Honestly. But we couldn’t manage more than 10 minutes. When we were given a copy of the programme we then saw that the opening prayer was scheduled for 2.45pm and actually happened at 2.55pm. The first hour was for arrivals! We didn’t ask the right question. It’s not “When does the programme start?” or even “When do you expect the programme to start?” but “What time is the Opening Prayer scheduled to happen?” We live and learn, if slowly. The seats were just as hard as usual – they’re made of hard wood rather than soft wood. And I forgot my cushion. As usual there was some singing, followed by some more singing but the Master of Ceremonies did try to keep things to time and cut it short. He also gave the two preachers 5 minute warnings! Yes, two sermons. Or one sermon and one Christmas message. But they weren’t too long and the second was one of the better preachers we’ve heard. He even suggested that as it was a carol service it might be a good idea to sing some carols! As he had the loudest guitar and considerable influence we have at last sung several of the traditional carols. But I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so hot while singing them! The programme ended with a meal at about 6.15pm so we’re a bit tired after the 4h marathon. We celebrated our release with some bananas and custard!
We took Anne Houghton to town on Friday for our shopping spree on condition that she gave us a drink of cold juice when we took her back to Ringili! She did better than that and gave us lunch as well. Anne is from England and has been with AIM at the theological college in Arua for many years. It was good to catch up with news and make arrangements for Christmas. We received some cards from friends in the UK and they are on display in our lounge. It’s always good to have messages from folk at home and reminders of what they are doing. People here don’t exchange cards.
We had our Friday on Saturday instead. That means our normal weekday quiet morning routine was today and there were no early morning preparations for the trip to town. We relaxed in the afternoon – it’s hot and quiet here so difficult to do anything more strenuous than get another drink during the hotter hours. The mornings are comfortable and the evenings warm so it is bearable. The shade makes an incredible difference to the comfort levels. There is a minor clitch with the internet / e-mail access. The radio phone became disconnected from the power supply so its battery is flat. It takes a while to re-charge again so assuming that is the problem we’ll be without a connection for a day or two.
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