WUNDERLI WANDERINGS

We wish you all a great time over this special Christmas season. We are looking forward to spending some time off this coming week to enjoy the celebrations and to have some family time. We hope in the new year to be in better communication due to the arrival of a new computer. Blessings to you all.

Joshua's school class support a school for orphans. A few weeks back they went on a school trip to take some toys etc to the children. They were able to interact with some of the children at the school.

This week has been extremely busy for us due to the outbreak of the deadly virus Ebola. Thankfully, if the newspapers are telling us the truth, there has been a drop in the number of cases which is a huge answer to prayer. Simon and some of the other pilots have been doing numerous trips into Bundibugyo, the epicentre of the disease, to take Dr's as well as food for the missionaries that remain there. On their return flight they have been bringing back blood samples to be tested. World Harvest Mission who work in Bundibugyo had several missionaries come out with their children whilst they still could. They are now being housed in MAF's main guesthouse. It was a bit of a mad dash to get things ready and organised but we made it. Although then I had the challenge of taking care of future bookings that had been made. One family were due to stay in the Guesthouse two days after we let WHM use our main guesthouse. Where was I going to put them??? We eventually opened up th...

Sorry for not writing for a while. We are, again, having problems with our internet/email connection. We are able to get on for a few seconds then we lose the connection again. As you can imagine it is quite frustrating as our inbox is growing at a fairly fast rate. Apologies to all of you who have written to us recently and not had replies. I promise we will get to it eventually. As I write I have just lost connection again. Hopefully it comes back so I can upload this post. :) I am also writing in the dark as the power is off. I guess thing are back to normal now that the Queen is gone :) This week I have been attending a MAF training forum. It has been a hectic week but we are coming to the end. Hopefully I will have time to process all that I have learned over the next weeks. Simon and the rest of the pilots have been busy this week with flying. Just last week there was a confirmed outbreak of the deadly ebola virus in Western Uganda. It has claimed a number of lives a...

Well CHOGM week has come and gone along with the Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. Then there were 53 Heads of State and 5000 delegates who all returned to their homelands this past weekend. Simon along with another pilot did a VIP flight last Friday for Sir Trevor McDonald who was reporting on the Queen and Prince Philips visit. Simon was able to see Prince Philip on a couple of occasions and get a glimpse of what a day in the life of a Prince looks like. By the end of the day Simon was more convinced than ever that being Royalty isn’t all that its cracked up to be. After that we were invited to join some friends who were holidaying about 2 hours east of Kampala in Jinja. We took off for the weekend to visit them and met up with a few of Joshua’s school friends who were also escaping the chaos of Kampala. It was a relaxing weekend and we enjoyed it a lot. We left Saturday afternoon to go to Jinja and that afternoon Prince Charles and his wife Camil...

The acronym has many variations (some quite funny) but the true one is Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. This meeting is taking place this week and it is no ordinary meeting. HRH Queen Elizabeth II will be arriving tomorrow. There are also 53 other Heads of State and 5000 delegates arriving during this week too. For most countries it would be a bit of a logistical challenge to host such an event and for Uganda we would say that it has been a bit more than that. Having said that we have seen roads re-surfaced and some roads even seeing tar for the first time in their lives, hotels springing out of nowhere, rubbish bins being placed around town and various other amenities that we didn’t think we would ever see in Uganda. Most Mzungus (white foreigners) are seeking refuge in various other parts of Uganda or neighbouring countries to avoid the impending chaos. For us, we decided to stay and “enjoy” the event. School children are especially happy for CHOGM as they have no sch...

Sam and I have had a difficult time over the last couple of months trying to find time to sit together to put stories together for the MAF space. Our schedules have been quite hectic but thankfully last week we managed it. You can check on the JFM link at the side of our blog for some new stories. I hope to be able to update the JFM space on a regular basis just as before. Enjoy reading again of what God is doing in Uganda and Sudan through JFM.

It was a sad day on Wednesday when we had to say goodbye to a good friend of mine from home, Sharon Brown. Sharon came over to visit from Scotland for two and a half weeks. We had a lot of fun together and Joshua and Zara were thoroughly spoiled. We were able to take a couple of days holiday and visit a game park. After a very long game drive (5 hours) we finally managed to see lions. 5 to be exact. We also saw a baby elephant which had to be helped up an embankment by its rather large mummy and also witness the first few steps of a Ugandan Kob (deer like animal) which had just been born 5 minutes before we arrived. It doesn't seem to matter how often you go on safari you always see something new. More pictures will follow in the future as Sharon took a lot more than us :)

John McKinnon (Pastor of Calderwood Baptist) Group from Calderwood Baptist Church A few weeks ago Simon flew a team back from Yei in Southern Sudan to Kampala. You might be wondering what was so special about this team that I would write about them. Well they were all from Scotland. It was a wee touch of heaven having a bunch of Scots all together at one time (as you can see I am not biased at all). They were a great bunch of guys and we were able to have them over for a barbecue and enjoy some Scots fellowship. Joshua and Zara loved all the additional attention and even got to stay up late that night so that was an extra bonus.

Due to being silent for a couple of weeks there is a lot to tell. Don't worry I won't give you a detailed account of all that has happened but an overview :). If my memory serves me well you will remember that Jacqueline (Partner in crime for the guesthouse) and I were busy getting ready to move to the new guesthouse. Well it has happened. We had some very long days in order to make it work along with a few willing helpers. We had one day to move, get everything set up before more guests arrived. If that wasn't enough of a challenge there was no power. So it was a race against the clock to get everything done before 7pm. Of course it didn't happen but thanks to my husband and a few helpful souls we managed to get one light on in the house using our car, our invertor and a few wires connected in the right places. The whole move looked like one of those TV shows back home where a team have one week to remodel a house. The only difference was that we didn't ...

Sorry about the silence from this side of the world. It looks like we may be able to borrow a computer from friends of ours on Friday which is an answer to prayer. I will do a proper update then. The computer I am using in the office is working at a snail pace even by African standards and is a wee bit frustrating to use to say the least. Looking forward to giving an update on Friday.

Unfortunately our email/internet connection is still down due to some problems in the office. This is not our only challenge as our computer has crashed. Thankfully it turned on once more so we could get some of our files off of it. We are looking to purchase one from the States and hope to have it brought over sometime in January all going well. I am currently doing this post in the office and has taken me at least double the time than normal due to a very slow computer. Bear with us in the next couple of months if you don't hear from us as regularly.

We are currently having problems again with our internet/email connection. This means I need to come down to the office to check emails and/or write blog updates. Now for anyone who has visited us that is not a big deal as we are living opposite the office but when you are used to having access in the comfort of your own home it takes a bit more planning. We have a cable that runs from our house through a tree, over a wall, across the road, over another wall and then down into the MAF office where it is connected into the server. Somewhere between our connection at home and the connection in the office the world of cyberspace has gone dark. Hopefully we will be able to get it up and running again next week so we can be back in regular communication again with you all.

Since Joshua started at Rainbow International School it has been a steep learning curve for us all. I need to get to grips with whether its a PE day or normal day and then dress Joshua and Zara accordingly (just to make it more confusing they don't have PE on the same day). Then there is their reading books, library books and also homework to be done at the end of the day. Phew its tough being a 4 year old! Zara even comes back with homework - learning nursery rhymes and her library book. Sometimes it feels like a military operation in the morning getting them ready for 7:30am to leave for school. Once I get back home I feel like it should be lunch time :) Having said all that Joshua and Zara are loving their new school and are doing really well. Joshua is being challenged which is what he needs and is loving his new teacher, Miss Lunt who is from the UK. I had his first parent/teacher conference last week. He got a glowing report which is always good for the first one. She did say...

Last Saturday Simon was flying up some freight (salt, soap and mosquito nets) to Morulem which was requested by a Japanese Doctor working in the area for a short time. This doctor is a nerve specialist working in one of the main hospitals here in Kampala. He committed to working for a year in Uganda whilst his family remained back in Japan. Simon thought this would be a good opportunity for Joshua to go along with him as it wasn't a long flight plus the second flight wouldn't have any other passengers just freight. Joshua, Zara and I drove out to Kajjansi to meet Simon for his second flight. Joshua was really excited about flying with his Dad. Before I knew it Zara was all excited too and wanted to join her big brother. So it ended up that we all went on the flight. It was supposed to be an hour long but ended up being a lot more than that due to a strong head wind. Joshua was up front with Simon acting as co-pilot while Zara and I were behind playing games. One of th...

Our recent guest, Kami Rice, left us in the early hours of Saturday morning. Her next destination is Zimbabwe. Pray for a productive time there for her and a safe time. Zara used to visit Kami early in the morning with dolly and her bear Pinky. She was a bit surprised when she went into the room and found Kami gone. At breakfast Zara informed me that Kami had gone flying like it was the most sensible solution to her disappearance.

We received an email this morning alerting us to the fact that the peace accord in Sudan could disintegrate very quickly over the next coming days and weeks. The peace accord was signed two years ago but is now in a fragile state. MAF has been asked to prepare for possible evacuations of NGO's and missions if things get too bad in Southern Sudan. To read the full BBC story of the situation you can click on the following link.. http://news.bbc.co..uk/2/hi/africa/7039616.stm Please pray for peace to come to Sudan and that the Northern and Southern governments can find a solution to the issues that remain - mainly oil and where to cite the border between north and south.

Today is Eid Ul -Fitr which is a holiday in the Muslim faith which signals the end of Ramadan -the month of fasting. Eid is an Arabic term meaning "festivity" or "celebration" while Fiṭr means "to break the fast". Now you might be wondering why I am mentioning this in our blog seen as we don't hold to the Islamic faith. Well the reason is that up until last night we didn't know if Joshua or Zara would be at school today. The day does not come about on a specific date but depends on the sighting of the new moon which is checked for after sunset. This can be a bit of a problem on a cloudy night when you can't see the moon. Plus some Muslims disagree with this notion of "Moonsighting" since it does not appear in the Quran. Anyway not long after sunset the sounds from the valley made it quite clear that Ramadan had finished. The calls to prayer all mingled together as each mosque started their celebrations and we awoke this morning to fer...

Last Saturday Zara was invited to a party of one of her friends at school (Naomi, the birthday girl, is also a MAF Kid). Joshua was invited by default as Simon wasn't going to be at home to look after him. Joshua was more excited about it than Zara. They were to dress in their favourite outfits. For Zara this means anything pink and for Joshua he picked his Swiss cow t-shirt. As you can see from the photos above there were a lot of fairies and cinderella type outfits. Zara hasn't gone down that road yet but I am waiting on the moment. How long it would stay remotely fairy like on Zara is another question entirely. They played the usual party games including pass the parcel which Zara never really got the hang of. Although I have to say pass the parcel has come a long way since my childhood. Inside each wrapper is a sweetie so you never go home empty handed even if you don't get the big prize at the end. There is also enough wrappers on each parcel so each particpant gets t...

Many of you have been asking about the flooding in Uganda. If you follow this BBC link http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7014227.stm you will see pictures and read the extent to which people are suffering at the moment. There are more rains expected this month but we hope to see a drier November.

Kami Rice has been staying with us during her time in Uganda. MAF has kept her extremely busy. As I write Simon, Kami and Layton (Photographer) are flying to Bundibugyo (western Uganda) to do a story on World Harvest Mission. They will be gone until tomorrow. One of the nights that Kami was here she got cornered by Joshua and Zara to read the bedtime story. Simon and I normally limit the number of books to be read to one otherwise we would be there all night. I think Kami had gone through quite a plethora of books by the time we called it quits. Joshua and Zara enjoy having guests especially the ones that spend time with them playing or reading stories to them. As you can see from the photos above they were having a ball.

The other night we heard Chewy barking incessantly. This meant that there was something or someone bothering her. If its at the gate we don't think too much about it as its usually just someone who has got to close to the gate for her liking. This time she was barking underneath Joshua and Zara's slide. When Simon went to investigate with his rather heavy torch, which also acts as a good defence weapon, he notice a rather large lizard of a colour we hadn't seen before. We gave it plenty of room although Chewy was not for letting it roam around "her" garden so we had to literally drag her away from it until it felt safe to move on to another abode. The delights of living in Africa. You never know what you are going to see next. :)

It has been a while since I have posted anything. It has been difficult to find time to sit down at the computer and write anything. Apologies if this post is rather long :) Everyone is healthy in the family again so we give thanks for that. It was a bit of a rough week last week with Simon and Zara not feeling too well but they are both doing great now. Thanks to all who prayed for them. Zara is back at school twice a week and having a lot of fun with her friends which is encouraging to see. Joshua just seems to be thriving at school. When I ask him how his day went he tells me "...great and lovely.." long may that continue. His teacher was telling me this morning that he knows 18 sounds and will be moving onto books with words this week. It is amazing how much he has learnt in such a short period of time. He is definately being challenged which is what he has been needing. He has such a hunger for learning new things and his teacher is doing a good job of making sure he g...

Thanks to all of you who have been praying for our health this week. We have turned a corner and seem to be on our way to good health again. Zara is doing much better today. The fevers have gone and she is more like herself. The doctor put it down to a virus which caused her tonsils to enlarge and said we should see a difference in her within 6 days. 6 days is a long time when your wee girl is not well. Thankfully we have seen a difference in her in less than 6 days. Simon wasn't well this week either as he had a suspected sinus infection and general cold symptons. This grounded him for the rest of the week but he seems to be on the up and up the last two days. Joshua and I seemed to have escaped the worst of it all which is a blessing. Long may that continue.

The picture above was what faced me the other morning as I walked into the kitchen to make breakfast. I guess something else was feeling a tad hungry too. How the gecko caught the cockroach was one thing but how the gecko was going to eat it was, to me, quite another issue. The gecko didn't hang around on the wall too long and suddenly disappeared to enjoy his rather large breakfast.

Zara sleeping off her cold and fever If the start to this week could be described as a race it would be definately be classified as a 100m sprint with a few hurdles thrown in for good measure. My job with the guesthouse has started at a fast pace with much to be done but never enough hours in the day to get it finished. There is a possible new property to rent which would be better than our current facility, new beds to buy, things to restore and bugs to beat. If that wasn't enough there are staffing issues to be dealt with which are slightly of a delicate nature. Our guest, Kami Rice, arrived last Friday night. Kami is a freelance journalist and has hooked up with MAF UK to write some stories for them on the work of MAF Uganda. We know Kami as she was a roommate of a good friend of ours in the States. She is on a tour of various countries of Africa. She started in Ghana then onto Kenya. She is now in Uganda and from here onto Zimbabwe where she will finish up in South Africa. As...

Last week I officially took over the management of the MAF Guesthouse. This is going to be an exciting challenge and I am looking forward to getting started. (our holidays end tomorrow :)) The housekeeper at the guesthouse has just gone on sick leave this week for at least a month so pray that I find the right person to replace her temporarily. Hopefully she didn't take sick leave because she found out I was going to be her new Manager. Ooops!!! Our time in Fort Portal was a blessing in disguise as we were able to meet up with friends of ours who also use MAF services. They were able to highlight some of the things they would like to see in the guesthouse and what would benefit them when they come to Kampala for a rest. We hope to put some of these things into place over the next weeks.

A bit out of sequence but Zara enjoying the open space at Mountains of the Moon Hotel On our way to Ndali Lodge....it was quite the road. We didn't stay there just visited. At $250.00 a night it was cheaper just to visit. :) A view of one of the crater lakes from Ndali Lodge Zara relaxing at Ndali Lodge. She is waiting on her apple juice :) Joshua with the crater lake in the background Joshua enjoying the freedom to run around at Mountains of the Moon Hotel (we didn't stay there either although maybe we will next time. The hotel was reopened in April after a major renovation project) Zara sitting on a pot that made up one of the garden features at the hotel It is difficult to see in this photo but a rare sighting of the glacier on top of the Rwenzori Mountains (Mountains of the Moon). On the other side of these mountains is the Congo. We just returned from our couple of days holidays to the West of Uganda. Instead of it being a 3 day holiday it turned into a 5 day holiday. As ...

Sam from Jesus Film Ministries has been looking for some land to purchase out in Lake Victoria for an Island base for JFM. This is an exciting project and a big one at that. The plan would be that Sam could set up a conference centre on this land as well as guest facilities and also an airstrip. This means he could better serve the Islanders with medical/dentist clinics, Pastors Conferences, counselling services and the list goes on. Simon and I are really excited about this opportunity and ask that you pray with us that God would provide financially for this project. Sam and I will be putting a project proposal together outlining the whole project. If you would like a copy of it please let me know and I will forward one onto you. Your prayers are vital as we seek God's will in this plan.

For the next week and a half we are on holiday. It is quite a strange feeling not to do any work. Our email and internet service has not been working for the last few days so that has helped to slow us down. God works in mysterious ways :) Due to Joshua and Zara being at school we didn't plan on going anywhere but to use the time to do some things around the house. Of course there will be the odd trip to the coffee shop with some friends in between all the work :) Having said that at the last minute on Friday I booked for us to go to Fort Portal for two nights this coming Friday. It is about a 3hr road trip from Kampala heading west. The road has greatly improved hence the reason we are going. We also have some friends who started a church out there so it will be good to catch up with them. We haven't told Joshua and Zara yet otherwise they get too excited. We will pick Joshua up early from School on Friday and head out. This means both him and Zara might sleep a bit ...

Last week our nightguard, Moses and his wife Robinah celebrated the birth of their first daughter. We are happy to say that all went well with the birth and both baby and Mum are doing well. Moses is on Paternity leave at the moment but we hope to go down to visit the little one soon. Moses and Robinah gave us the great privilege of naming their little girl. We also got to name one of their sons whom we called Andrew. To name another family member was truly a honour. I asked Moses to give me a day to come up with a name. I didn't tell him that it took us 9 months to come up with a name for Joshua!!!! Of course Simon enjoyed coming up with some really crazy names but we eventually agreed on Ruth Joy (Ruth meaning "Friend of God" in some name books)

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 scho...