Joshua's first day at School and Zara's first day at Kindergarten at Rainbow International School

Today was the big day for Joshua and Zara. They had been talking about it for weeks how they were going to the big school and now the day had finally arrived. Joshua walked into his classroom and hardly said goodbye when we left. His teacher is Miss Lunt and she is a Mzungu (white foreigner). That is what Ugandans call all white people. This is the first time she has taught in Uganda as she is from England. She seems very nice and Joshua seemed to take to her. It will be a bit strange for Joshua as all his previous teachers at Little Swans were Ugandan. It seems also that his class is all boys - well that is what Joshua told me. I will need to check tomorrow :) When I went to pick him up this afternoon the teacher said that she only had 11 children and that it had been a good number to start with.

Zara took a little more time to settle but once she got engrossed in playing on the computer that was it. There was no looking back. Simon and I were laughing when we looked back on our school days as we didn't get introduced to computers until High School and here is our little 2 year old playing on one at Kindergarten....YIKES.

Joshua and Zara are both exhausted now so I think it will be early to bed tonight including Mum and Dad!!! What an eventful day.

Another Daddy creation...

LOOK WHAT MY DADDY HAS MADE....A ZIP LINE

Chicken run

Joshua and Zara helping to herd the chickens back into the coop

These are the three rebel chickens. The took a bit more persuading to return to the chicken coop.

This is stumpy the chicken as he doesn't have a tail

We were just about to sit down to have breakfast when Joshua and Zara started shouting that the chickens were out. All thoughts of breakfast were abandoned as we headed outside to round up the chickens. If our neighbours could see us they would have had quite the sight. Not only were we chasing the chickens back into the coop but we were all in our pyjamas!!!

As I write this post the chickens are out again. Zara came in crying to tell me. I thought she had fallen or she had touched a prickly caterpillar but no she was just so upset that the chickens got out again. Simon is now clipping their wings so their escape will not be so easy. They need to put their energy into laying eggs not escaping their coop. At the moment only 2 out of 10 are laying and making a great noise when they are doing it too! What its going to be like when all 10 start laying I hate to think. Having said that its great to have fresh eggs every day.

Work and Family Update

The summer holidays are officially over as most of the MAF families that were gone for the summer are back. This has definately lessened our workload and Simon has enjoyed a quieter time of flying. Yesterday he had his base check on the Caravan and passed it...yippee! Another exam done!

We have been working together with the Operations Department to put together a schedule for a friend we have visiting in September. Kami Rice is a freelance journalist. (hope I got that right Kami!) She has been doing some travelling round Africa. She will be making a stop in Uganda for a month to do some work for MAF UK. We have planned for her to visit an IDP camp in Northern Uganda as well as some other partner organisations in the same area. She will travel out west and visit some partners working on the border between Uganda and Congo. We have plans for her to go with Sam from Jesus Film Ministries out to the Islands in Lake Victoria and hopefully we can plan a trip up to Southern Sudan to visit the work of Far Reaching Ministries. We are excited about her trip here and just hope that all the planning goes according to plan. Anything can happen in Africa!!!

Simon and I also had our annual reviews this week with our Programme Manager. It was a good time to touch base with our "boss" and it was a beneficial time for all of us.

I have also been doing the MAF Uganda weekly news report while one of the other wives had been on furlough. It has been fun collecting all the stories and news from each of the departments and gives me a good excuse to find out how folks are doing. I will do this for one more week and then hand it back.

Joshua and Zara have also kept us busy during their school holidays. They start their new school, Rainbow, next Wednesday. At this school they need to wear a uniform which Joshua is excited about. Hopefully it will last. :) Zara also needs to wear a uniform for kindergarten. Thankfully it is a dress so she should be quite excited about it. She loves dresses at the moment. Who knows where she got that love from???

This week we did a family trip to the dentist. Thankfully I had been a couple of months ago so didn't have to go this time (I have quite an aversion to dentists). We had talked about going to the dentist so it wasn't too much of a surprise for Joshua and Zara. Joshua was very excited because the staff always remembers him and gives him a toy. We had practiced before they went that they need to open their mouths as wide as a lion. Joshua had it down pat. He got onto the chair and opened his mouth so wide it almost looked like he had lockjaw. Zara on the other hand was having none of it. I got into the seat and then had her lie down on me but as soon as the dentist came anywhere near her she took off. She had some innoculations at the doctor as well as stitches to her head a couple of months ago and I think she thought there was going to be a repeat of it at the dentist. Hopefully next time it will go better for her. Thankfully we are all healthy in this department and came out smiling especially Zara :)

Bedtime fun

Last night Joshua and Zara were having some fun before bedtime. Also Zara decided she wasn't interested in the Bible Story about David or the Good Samaritan and decided to go off and read her own story......Winnie the Pooh!!!

We can fix it!!!

Apologies for the lack of communication but we have been having problems again with our email/internet service. Hopefully it will be better this week :).

Last week Simon had a couple of days off which was really nice. The list of fix it jobs around the house was growing so the days off came at a perfect time. He also had two willing helpers to help him. J and Z had a lot of fun playing with screwdrivers and goodness knows what else. I was out that morning so didn't see all that went on. Probably a good thing :)

Leopard sighting

A couple of weeks ago two MAF pilots were down at Kajjansi airfield getting ready to go flying. While they were doing all their pre-flight checks they noticed a leopard walking across the airstrip. According to some of the guards at the airstrip there are two leopards that make this area their home.

Today we were down at Kajjansi for a walk and also to give Joshua and Zara an opportunity to play on their bikes. We didn't see any leopards but we did see their paw prints in the mud. It seems like we have our own wee safari park right on our doorstep. Although we didn't seen any leopards we did see some monkeys but as soon as they saw Chewy they are off into the bush.

Water Fun!!!

Since we have had mains water the last couple of days we took advantage and washed the car. The kids love to wash the car because they know its a good excuse to get Mum wet. Since the weather has been cool of late the water in the pipes wasn't that warm at all so it was a bit of a shock to the system when the first bucket came heading my way. Thankfully I was in charge of the hose so I got my own back as you can see in the photos. :)

Back in communication

It seems like the problem with emails bouncing back has been solved. We are now back in the world of communication.

Communication problems

Due to some problems with our server all emails being sent to us are being bounced back. Hopefully the problem will be solved tomorrow. Sorry for any inconvience :(

Need an idea for Christmas presents....

A lady in our church had to give up her job last year due to some health issues. She has a family that she has to support through school and so decided that she would make her own jewellery. She has sold some of her creations but would like to sell a lot more to sustain her living costs and also pay for school fees. For those of you in my home church in Scotland you have already had a taster of some of her work when we brought some home last year. If anybody would like to purchase any of these items (there are many :)) please let me know. Each bracelet or necklace is $6.00 or £3.00 each.