Run the School Gauntlet

The last couple of weeks have been a bit of a challenge when taking Joshua and Zara to school. Nearly every morning we have had heavy rain. My heart sinks when I hear the torrential rain battering against our window in the early hours of the morning as this means a rough ride to school. Thankfully our 1991 Landcruiser has new tyres which has helped me a lot. Also 4WD and differential locking on the tyres is a definate need. You never know what you are going to encounter on the way. On my way home I took a back route thinking it might not be so slippy since not so many cars go that way. Well it wasn't very successful as I met a matatu (mini bus taxi) which was half on the road and half in the ditch and then I had to squeeze past it without going in the ditch too. After that the road got worse and it was like driving on ice as I slid sideways along the road. I should actually film the road to school one day so you can experience it too. :0) Never a dull day in Africa!!

Ceiling damage

Tiles off the roof above Joshua's room with a not-so-attached tarpaulin :)

Part of the damage to Joshua's bedroom ceiling

Difficult to see but this is the start of the water coming through the bathroom ceiling

Part of the ceiling in the bathroom that was damaged

As mentioned earlier we have had trouble with water damage. Here are a few pictures of the leaking ceilings. Thankfully things are moving along and the men are finished with one side of the roof. The rains are still heavy in the morning so we are praying for no wind so the tarpaulins don't come off and cause the water to do more damage.

What is that on my shoulder...

Since we have had power for almost a week now it has been a novelty to blow dry my hair each morning. One morning when I went to dry my hair the hairdryer failed to work. I checked to see that the power was on and realised that it had just gone off. Ah bad timing. Anyway five minutes hadn't passed when the lights came back on. Yippee I could dry my hair. I picked up the hairdryer and turned to the mirror to do my hair. Well I got the fright of my life. There on my shoulder, looking at me, with its long antennae was a mother of all cockroaches. The hairdryer was launched into the air as I tried to get it off. It fell from my shoulder to my elbow and then descended to the floor. By this time I was doing some sort of highland fling making sure it wasn't on me anymore. I was also making a bit of a noice as Joshua and Zara came running from the living room to see what was the matter. I told them that the cockroach on the floor had been on Mummy's shoulder and that I got a bit of a fright. Joshua, bless him, replied that I should have kept it on my shoulder a bit longer so he could have taken a photograph. There was no way, even for my lovable son, that that cockroach was going back on my shoulder just so he could take a picture. :) Looking back I must have looked quite funny but it sure wasn't funny at the time!!!

Roof issues

Our house roof has been leaking for sometime and has been getting steadily worse. Last week the landlord arranged for workmen to come and take all the tiles off our roof and put new beams in and metal strips to prevent more leakage. The broken tiles will be replaced by the ones from the garage and the garage will have a tin roof put on. The house was built in the 1960's so the tiles we have are not made anymore. Anyway it hasn't gone as smooth as we would have liked (does anything in Africa - ha ha) The workman didn't show up when they were supposed to but eventually came the next day. That evening they didn't put the tarpaulin properly over the tileless part of the roof. After I came back from dropping Joshua off at school I was met with water coming through his bedroom ceiling and the light fitting..Yikes. The bathroom next door was exactly the same. The damage was enough that now Joshua is sleeping in the guest bedroom until we get a new ceiling put in for him. The last two nights Simon and I have woken to drips in our bedroom ceiling so far it hasn't come through yet. If the rains continue we might all end up in one room! Just pray that the work the men are doing will be done well and that the rains will hold off until the majority of the work is done. Never a dull moment in Africa! There will be photos to follow soon.

MAF's Fellowship Day

Thank you to all of you who prayed for Ilonka (MAF Colleague) and I on Monday. We were running a cultural awareness course for all MAF Uganda staff both national and international. It was quite an undertaking but the day went well. We had no problems with power for the presentation and everyone got very involved in the events we had planned. The feedback, thus far, has been positive and people said it was a beneficial time. Just lets hope the things learned will be used in the workplace.

A last minute weekend away

This past weekend we sped off to Jinja. We had booked to go to Jinja a couple of weekends before but had to cancel due to work commitments. Anyway at the end of last week we realised that we could go off for a couple of days while Joshua and Zara were still on school holiday. Joshua and Zara love going to Jinja and spend almost all day in the pool. It was very relaxing for Mum and Dad and we were able to read books and enjoy the lovely hot weather.

Joshua and Zara loved collecting the bugs/beasties that sat on the bushes outside the room where we were staying. The colours are quite amazing. Zara had trouble with her wee bugs/beasties as they kept flying away! Thankfully there were plenty around to keep her happy.

Dressing up

Joshua dressing up in Zara's pyjamas. Hopefully he grows out of that :)

Zara enjoys playing "Princesses". Not quite sure who she gets that from :)

Thanks to Pip, Richard, Katie and Oliver for the dressing up clothes. Joshua and Zara were a bit disappointed when I said after two days the clothes had to go in the wash!!