Bed Friends

Zara has, in the past, had a tendency to wander through to the guest bedroom and crawl into bed beside my Mum when she has come to visit. Thankfully she hasn't done that with any of our other guests. Anyway last night Joshua and Zara went to bed, as usual, in their own beds. About an hour later I had this feeling that something wasn't right down the hallway. I went to investigate. I went into Zara's room to find an empty bed. No Zara and no dolly. I then headed to Joshua's room. As you will see from the above picture she was in beside Joshua with both of them fast asleep. Joshua and Zara get on well together most of the time but this was taking it to a deeper level - sharing the same bed!!! Just as Simon lifted Zara out of Joshua's bed Joshua fell out of bed. Thankfully he didn't hurt himself but just crawled back in again. What a couple of monkeys we have!!

Bad day to be a rat....

The other day Simon decided it was time the garage was cleaned out. We ended up all getting involved in the process. We still had many of our packing boxes from when we first arrived in Uganda over 6 years ago. However, due to a leaky garage roof and rats many of the boxes were ruined and had to be thrown out. We carried all the boxes down to the corner of the garden where we usually burn rubbish. Joshua and Zara enjoyed watching the fire and playing with the bubble wrap that was still in some of the boxes.

As one of the boxes was thrown onto the fire there was a high pitched squeak and something came flying through the air. Yikes it was a rat. I guess it was feeling a bit too hot. Well the poor thing probably didn't know which was worse. Being thrown into the fire in a box or jumping out and facing chewy our dog. Chewy was after it in a second and then Joshua joined in with a stick. Zara and I watched on to see who was going to win. Rats are not high on our favourite list so one less in the world is a bonus. They make such a mess when they get in the house not to mention the diseases they carry. Anyway before we knew it Simon got in on the action too. The rat didn't stand a chance. Thankfully its death came quick after Simon beat it with Joshua's stick and then he threw it back in the fire. It was definately a bad day to be a rat in the Wunderli garden!!!

Haircut Challenge

Today I had an interesting culture experience. I went for an haircut. Now that might not sound like much of an experience but today was one of those moments. I quite like going to new hairdressers as they always do something a bit different. If you go to your "regular" hairdresser they usually become complacent after a while as they tend to think that they know whats best for your hair even if you ask for something quite different.

I usually go between two hairdressers here in Kampala. One salon is run by a South African lady. She is really nice and does a good job. For the past couple of months she hasn't been answering her phone and I was getting desperate. The other salon is run by a Serbian lady but I need to be in the mood to visit her. To put it in a nice way she is a bit harsh on her staff which I find difficult to swallow sometimes.

Anyway today I decided to go all out and try a third salon. Now I thought I was pretty safe as I had enquired as to whether they cut Mzungu's (white foreigner) hair and they said yes. So off I went this morning looking forward to a wee trim.

I got into the salon and was led to the back of it where I was greeted by a young Ugandan man who was going to be in charge of my hair for the next while. He asked me what I wanted and I told him in no certain terms that this was going to be a trim. He led me to the sinks to have my hair washed. Well this was some wash. It lasted about 20 minutes. All that time there was another worker sitting in another chair having his morning snooze. Eventually I made it back to the "haircutting" chair. Then he started cutting. It took about 1 hour. We had a brief conversation during that time...I was too busy concentrating on his every scissor move! We finally got to the end of the cutting stage and then he said we need to go back to the sink for another wash! Halfway through my second 20 minute wash more and more salon workers were congregating in the "sink" area for a snooze. One guy plonked right next to me, put a towel against the sink, and fell asleep. Good job I didn't have control of the hose as it would have been far to tempting to turn the water on him :) Well once my second wash was finished we headed back to the "haircutting" chair. He proceeded to dry my hair STRAIGHT. If any of you know me even slightly well you will know I have curly hair and it is even more so since Zara was born and since living in Africa. I didn't believe it was possible for me to have such straight hair. Anyway once he was finished (2 hours later!!!) I politely said thank you and headed out the door straight to the car. I had planned to do a bit shopping before going home but there was no way I could do that now. It scared me to look at myself. Kampala is a fairly big city but you inevitably always bump into somebody you know. However I did risk going to the bread shop, dodging a MAF colleague who was exiting the car park as I was driving in. I finally made it home only to have Simon look at me as if I had just come from outer space. Thankfully after a run in with another water hose the curls came back and I looked like Pam again.

Sorry I don't have a photograph to show you...well I'm not too sorry :)

Another year older and a bike :)

Last Saturday I aged another year. Joshua and Zara gave an excellent rendition of Happy Birthday. Zara had a difficult time not leading me to the freezer where Simon had made me a birthday cake. She was told to keep it a secret but she was just bursting to tell me. She was, however, glad to be able to help me blow out the candles and get stuck into the chocolate icing.

I got a bike for my birthday which is supposed to help me stay fit. After going out on the roads near our house (dirt roads) I feel the bumps and holes are instead going to shake the life out of me.

On Sunday we went down to Kajjansi (MAF's airfield). The kids had their bikes too so we all had fun zooming up and down the airstrip. Although Zara was more keen to ride on the back of mine until she got distracted and joined Simon in jumping on the newly constructed termite hills.

Pens, paper and an old fashioned filing cabinet is the way to go....

We are overjoyed to have our new computer and it is working beautifully. However, the handover from our old computer hasn't been so smooth. Simon backed up all our email addresses and snail mail addresses so we could transfer them to our new computer but for some reason the back up didn't work and so we have lost them all. Yikes!!! If you would like to be in contact with us please could you send us an email so we can rebuild our database again. If you have written us an email this past week you are on our new computer. We do have a paper copy of some of our contacts but it is pretty old now. Ah the days of only paper and no computers. I'm sure it was a lot easier!

Photo catch up

Hopefully this pilot figures out how it works :)

A pretty big lizard which popped out of the bushes to say hello :)

Grosi and Grossvati beside Lake Victoria in Jinja

Joshua learning to fly the new plane he got for Christmas - thank you Monika and Dani!

Don't I look cool!!

Our little sleeping beauty with her friends, Dolly (Emily), Belle and Pinky

Having a reliable computer and a reliable internet connection all at the same time has been scarce lately. Today, however, is one of those rare occasions where both are working in unison. Hallelujah. This posting is showing an array of photos in no particular order but just to fill you in on what has been happening.