Week 77 (6 – 12 Jan 2008)
Having done most of the packing on Saturday, we were able to go to the United Church service in Winchester on Sunday then on to Libby & Brian for lunch with Mum and Aunt Mary. However, when we returned to Mum’s for the last part of the packing we found that we couldn’t get everything in and the cases were well over our 23kg limit. Then one lock didn’t seem to be holding. Two of Dad’s belts came to the rescue. Libby & Brian took us to the airport and as we had our boarding passes already printed, did not have to join a queue. One of the cases was 34.6kg so I had to remove 600g and put it in hand luggage. The second case was 30kg so we feared that we would have to pay excess. It was only when we arrived that we discovered that we could have had TWO 23kg cases EACH. Pity, as we did leave some toys etc behind – toys for the Uganda children, not me. I made sure I packed my toys! The flight was OK but we didn’t get much sleep.
On Monday morning we arrived at Entebbe about 20 minutes ahead of schedule - 8.10am Uganda time but 5.10am stomach time. We travelled to Matoke Inn with a couple of new short-termers from the US who were even more zonked that us. Jake had crossed 11 time zones in coming from California. We were able to meet some of our friends at the AIM office before going on to Lyn’s new flat. It’s further from Matoke than the last one but in a much better situation and four other flats are occupied by other AIM folk. After unpacking a little we slept and weren’t able to concentrate on much else the rest of the day.
We were still very tired on Tuesday so stayed in and did some preparation for the Conference.
After packing on Wednesday we made our way to Matoke Inn for lunch and met up with many others waiting to go to the conference. Being on the Conference Committee, we were involved in registration and collection of money (James) and music (Andrea). I was chairing and giving the notices for the first session and Andrea led the worship. Steve Wolcott, the Director of the Central Region gave an overview of a few of the AIM (Africa Inland Mission) projects, challenges and opportunities in Southern Sudan, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Rwanda and Uganda. Sometimes it is so easy to focus only on your role that you forget the wider picture and the variety of other situations – and how huge Africa is. And we were only thinking about a small part of it! Steve’s theme was about Monuments to the past and Moving to the future, breaking traditions to accomplish a bigger vision and about rekindling ripples in a large pond.
The conference continued on Thursday, with more talks and conversations. The timetable had fewer organised sessions and completely free time for most the afternoon. This gave time to arrange informal meetings or just to chat without being rushed and seemed to be appreciated. It was also Richard’s 25th birthday and we were able to speak to him in the evening. Earlier in the week his promotion was confirmed and he was given tangible recognition of the extra hours he had worked covering for others. He also went to see the Spice Girls in concert. A good show, if not his choice of music!
On Friday I discovered some new phrases. I think I’m both “climatically challenged” and “linguistically challenged”. I suppose it comes from spending time with the Americans! We had our Unit meetings in the afternoon but we have an identity crisis and are not sure if we are in either the West Nile Unit or the North West Unit. It’s the same group and very diverse, covering Congo and north west Uganda as well as one from north central Uganda. And we all do very different jobs too.
On Saturday the main difference for me was a pleasant swim in the outdoor pool – a great chance to get cool, and the water wasn’t freezing. I sat in the shade to dry off trying to get my head around the idea that this is January and a week ago we were “enjoying” the dull and damp UK winter. I began my job of collating the finances; one of those things that should be relatively easy in theory but gets very difficult in practice when so many people seem to spend money here and there and others pay to different people in different places and in four currencies! Andrea has been leading the worship in the main sessions, integrating the songs and prayers with the theme and reports from the units. She had tried to use well known songs, but it has been surprising how few the American folk know. On the other had, we’ve not known all the songs when an American or Ugandan leads the singing.
On Monday morning we arrived at Entebbe about 20 minutes ahead of schedule - 8.10am Uganda time but 5.10am stomach time. We travelled to Matoke Inn with a couple of new short-termers from the US who were even more zonked that us. Jake had crossed 11 time zones in coming from California. We were able to meet some of our friends at the AIM office before going on to Lyn’s new flat. It’s further from Matoke than the last one but in a much better situation and four other flats are occupied by other AIM folk. After unpacking a little we slept and weren’t able to concentrate on much else the rest of the day.
We were still very tired on Tuesday so stayed in and did some preparation for the Conference.
After packing on Wednesday we made our way to Matoke Inn for lunch and met up with many others waiting to go to the conference. Being on the Conference Committee, we were involved in registration and collection of money (James) and music (Andrea). I was chairing and giving the notices for the first session and Andrea led the worship. Steve Wolcott, the Director of the Central Region gave an overview of a few of the AIM (Africa Inland Mission) projects, challenges and opportunities in Southern Sudan, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Rwanda and Uganda. Sometimes it is so easy to focus only on your role that you forget the wider picture and the variety of other situations – and how huge Africa is. And we were only thinking about a small part of it! Steve’s theme was about Monuments to the past and Moving to the future, breaking traditions to accomplish a bigger vision and about rekindling ripples in a large pond.
The conference continued on Thursday, with more talks and conversations. The timetable had fewer organised sessions and completely free time for most the afternoon. This gave time to arrange informal meetings or just to chat without being rushed and seemed to be appreciated. It was also Richard’s 25th birthday and we were able to speak to him in the evening. Earlier in the week his promotion was confirmed and he was given tangible recognition of the extra hours he had worked covering for others. He also went to see the Spice Girls in concert. A good show, if not his choice of music!
On Friday I discovered some new phrases. I think I’m both “climatically challenged” and “linguistically challenged”. I suppose it comes from spending time with the Americans! We had our Unit meetings in the afternoon but we have an identity crisis and are not sure if we are in either the West Nile Unit or the North West Unit. It’s the same group and very diverse, covering Congo and north west Uganda as well as one from north central Uganda. And we all do very different jobs too.
On Saturday the main difference for me was a pleasant swim in the outdoor pool – a great chance to get cool, and the water wasn’t freezing. I sat in the shade to dry off trying to get my head around the idea that this is January and a week ago we were “enjoying” the dull and damp UK winter. I began my job of collating the finances; one of those things that should be relatively easy in theory but gets very difficult in practice when so many people seem to spend money here and there and others pay to different people in different places and in four currencies! Andrea has been leading the worship in the main sessions, integrating the songs and prayers with the theme and reports from the units. She had tried to use well known songs, but it has been surprising how few the American folk know. On the other had, we’ve not known all the songs when an American or Ugandan leads the singing.
posted by J & A McAdam at 12:53 PM
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