Week 43 (13 – 19 May 2007)
We didn’t have a very good night’s sleep as we were both suffering from stomach pains – probably just getting used to the water here again. The pump has been fixed so it’s much quieter and only the S4 (final year) students are around. I could go into the details of my decision making at 2am which was influenced by the rain. It’s bad enough having to get up at that time, but getting dressed, finding waterproofs and unlocking the door before squelching to the small room down the hill while balancing the need to walk safely and the urgency of arriving was not easy. However, the room in question was dry and warm – at least when I arrived! It was a bit noisy though – due to the rain on the tin roof, of course. By the way, on our car journey to Nairobi and back we discovered that people who have lived in fairly remote and primitive conditions do develop a certain basic sense humour. Laura would fit in well!!!
Anyway, we decided to sleep in rather than venture even to the school service. Due to the time it was taking to mark papers we both did a little to try to get ahead. Something amazing happened tonight. We received an e-mail from our son, Richard! Great to hear from you Richard and hope you still enjoy or at least tolerate reading the blog. We wish you well with the cooking in the new kitchen and the new housemate. I don’t mean that you’re thinking of cooking the housemate – but by now ……!
Mary, our first home help returned to work on Monday with the assistance of Joyce who will do the heavier work such as carrying water and washing. Our lunch was a treat – we have really missed Mary’s cooking! She brought her newborn son, Jonathan with her so Andrea didn’t get much marking done as she spent quite a bit of time either holding or watching him or both. Lillian, our neighbour and Andrea’s language teacher has been unwell while we have been away. As she was too weak to walk to the hospital we took her in the afternoon thinking that it would be quieter. When we got their we realised why so few people are around – many of the staff go home early so are not around to see the patients, even if there are people waiting for them! So don’t complain about NHS queues too much! We spent some of the time catching up with our friends Molly and Isobel who teach at the nursing school. Late in the evening we got a phone call to say that James’ Dad had been taken into hospital in Southampton.
On Molly & Isobel’s advice, we returned to the hospital with Lillian as early on Tuesday morning as possible – but she was sent to the wrong clinic and didn’t see the doctor as we had arranged. Instead, she was given some strong antibiotics. We quickly discovered that this was not good news, and Andrea warned Lillian not to continue with them. Later, we took a book delivery from the VanderMeers, a Canadian family who are leaving their house for an extended furlough. We will be looking after, and reading their books, some of which will eventually go to the school library. They also lent us a large bookcase to store them. I started to catalogue the books – as a record of what we are holding and to help with the deciding which of them will go to the library. I also prepared some spreadsheets for recording the exam marks and calculating the grades.
Andrea finally finished her marking on Wednesday – after four long days of doing little else. We need to evaluate the usefulness of such extended examinations at this stage of the academic year. The other main event of the day was the torrential rain from 2 to 5pm. It was so heavy that it was coming off the staff room roof in a single sheet – like a really good waterfall. It also wet almost everything in the staffroom, including the centre table, because the windows were open and it was a battle to close them. Andrea was trying to stem the flood coming in through our back door – even though the door was closed properly! It was HEAVY rain.
Andrea spent most of Thursday entering her exam marks on the report cards. I had a quieter morning trying to sort out some of our paper work and avoiding preparing any lessons. I achieved the second part with relatively little difficulty. I spent some time in the afternoon entering exam data on the laptop. But only two (of 12) other subjects have been completed. In the evening, I made a call to find out how Dad was – the news was not good so we began to think about making a trip home.
We took Lillian to hospital again on Friday morning where she saw the German Gynaecologist – a fellow missionary. It was decided that Lillian be admitted but she had to return home to collect belongings and prepare for a three night stay for observation and medication. So we returned to Ushindi then set off for Arua. While at the hospital I contacted Lyn in Kampala to enquire about flights home. We had several conversations, both from the hospital and later in town while doing the shopping and found some possibilities. They hinged on when we could get a flight from Arua to Entebbe – so our priority was to go to Eagle Air. We discovered a Sunday morning flight but did not confirm this until we had spoken to Brian and Libby in Winchester. It’s hard to believe, that with Lyn’s help, we were able to book flights while doing our shopping in Arua! The mobile phone came into it’s own today! We returned to Ushindi only to leave a short time later for Kuluva Hospital with Lillian. Four times over the rough road in one day is now my record. I know every bump and trough intimately and I think the car only fights me because it seems to know the best route through them!
Saturday was spent trying to sort things out at school to minimise the difficulties caused by our absence just at the report cards were being produced for the start of term – and of course the lessons we would not be teaching, probably for three weeks. There was also the question about whether we had made the right decision – only time would tell. It was a but hard to think about packing and adjust to making such journey at short notice. Although, in the end we took very little so the actual packing was straightforward – if only that nagging feeling of “What have I forgotten?” would go away.
Anyway, we decided to sleep in rather than venture even to the school service. Due to the time it was taking to mark papers we both did a little to try to get ahead. Something amazing happened tonight. We received an e-mail from our son, Richard! Great to hear from you Richard and hope you still enjoy or at least tolerate reading the blog. We wish you well with the cooking in the new kitchen and the new housemate. I don’t mean that you’re thinking of cooking the housemate – but by now ……!
Mary, our first home help returned to work on Monday with the assistance of Joyce who will do the heavier work such as carrying water and washing. Our lunch was a treat – we have really missed Mary’s cooking! She brought her newborn son, Jonathan with her so Andrea didn’t get much marking done as she spent quite a bit of time either holding or watching him or both. Lillian, our neighbour and Andrea’s language teacher has been unwell while we have been away. As she was too weak to walk to the hospital we took her in the afternoon thinking that it would be quieter. When we got their we realised why so few people are around – many of the staff go home early so are not around to see the patients, even if there are people waiting for them! So don’t complain about NHS queues too much! We spent some of the time catching up with our friends Molly and Isobel who teach at the nursing school. Late in the evening we got a phone call to say that James’ Dad had been taken into hospital in Southampton.
On Molly & Isobel’s advice, we returned to the hospital with Lillian as early on Tuesday morning as possible – but she was sent to the wrong clinic and didn’t see the doctor as we had arranged. Instead, she was given some strong antibiotics. We quickly discovered that this was not good news, and Andrea warned Lillian not to continue with them. Later, we took a book delivery from the VanderMeers, a Canadian family who are leaving their house for an extended furlough. We will be looking after, and reading their books, some of which will eventually go to the school library. They also lent us a large bookcase to store them. I started to catalogue the books – as a record of what we are holding and to help with the deciding which of them will go to the library. I also prepared some spreadsheets for recording the exam marks and calculating the grades.
Andrea finally finished her marking on Wednesday – after four long days of doing little else. We need to evaluate the usefulness of such extended examinations at this stage of the academic year. The other main event of the day was the torrential rain from 2 to 5pm. It was so heavy that it was coming off the staff room roof in a single sheet – like a really good waterfall. It also wet almost everything in the staffroom, including the centre table, because the windows were open and it was a battle to close them. Andrea was trying to stem the flood coming in through our back door – even though the door was closed properly! It was HEAVY rain.
Andrea spent most of Thursday entering her exam marks on the report cards. I had a quieter morning trying to sort out some of our paper work and avoiding preparing any lessons. I achieved the second part with relatively little difficulty. I spent some time in the afternoon entering exam data on the laptop. But only two (of 12) other subjects have been completed. In the evening, I made a call to find out how Dad was – the news was not good so we began to think about making a trip home.
We took Lillian to hospital again on Friday morning where she saw the German Gynaecologist – a fellow missionary. It was decided that Lillian be admitted but she had to return home to collect belongings and prepare for a three night stay for observation and medication. So we returned to Ushindi then set off for Arua. While at the hospital I contacted Lyn in Kampala to enquire about flights home. We had several conversations, both from the hospital and later in town while doing the shopping and found some possibilities. They hinged on when we could get a flight from Arua to Entebbe – so our priority was to go to Eagle Air. We discovered a Sunday morning flight but did not confirm this until we had spoken to Brian and Libby in Winchester. It’s hard to believe, that with Lyn’s help, we were able to book flights while doing our shopping in Arua! The mobile phone came into it’s own today! We returned to Ushindi only to leave a short time later for Kuluva Hospital with Lillian. Four times over the rough road in one day is now my record. I know every bump and trough intimately and I think the car only fights me because it seems to know the best route through them!
Saturday was spent trying to sort things out at school to minimise the difficulties caused by our absence just at the report cards were being produced for the start of term – and of course the lessons we would not be teaching, probably for three weeks. There was also the question about whether we had made the right decision – only time would tell. It was a but hard to think about packing and adjust to making such journey at short notice. Although, in the end we took very little so the actual packing was straightforward – if only that nagging feeling of “What have I forgotten?” would go away.
posted by J & A McAdam at 9:12 PM
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