A visit from a friend - Sharon

Daddy and his little princess - enjoying the fact that the storm passed and its not raining anymore

Have we discovered the Loch Ness monster - no just a salamander enjoying the rain.

The first time we have seen chimps so active. Due to the storm it was a lot cooler and the fact they had been sheltering in the trees for an hour waiting on the rain to pass they had a lot of energy to expel.

Auntie Sharon and Zara outside the ostrich enclosure

Auntie Sharon and Joshua

Sharon returned with us from furlough and stayed with us for a couple of weeks. Despite being grounded for a couple of days due to the riots and getting rained on during a day out at the zoo we had a lot of fun together. Enjoy the photo highlights.

Route checks

Simon is now back with us in Kampala after having a successful Safety Officer course in Nairobi last week. He had his route check today with another pilot. Every six months each pilot has to do certain checks on all the types of aircraft we have plus do a route check. Today was his day for a route check. This took him to Bunia, Congo as this was where the flight was booked to go. Thankfully the weather was kind to him and he had no trouble passing the check.

Last week pilots had quite a bit of trouble with the weather as rainy season is now upon us. One pilot flying into Bunia last week had to turn around and head back to Entebbe due to a storm that covered a 60 mile radius. Thankfully the weather was kind the next day so they were able to complete their journey.

Please pray for the pilots as they deal with difficult weather situations and also for all of us driving on the roads during this rainy season. It can be quite challenging.

Chief Safety Officer Course

Simon is in Nairobi this week doing a Chief Safety Officer course. Simon has been Chief Safety Officer in the MAF Uganda programme for almost a year now and was doing on the job learning. Now he had this opportunity to go on this course and solidfy some of the things he has been doing. Pray for him that he will enjoy the course and that it would be helpful for him and the MAF Uganda programme. He is not used to sitting down all day so that will probably be one of his biggest challenges ;)

Meanwhile back at home we had another answer to pray in that some mains water came through last night so we were very excited about that. Thanks for praying with us.

Last night I had an undesirable guest in my bed - a cockroach. I didn't realise at the time what was disturbing my sleep but it must have been the cockroach crawling over me. It has now been well disposed of :)

Calm has returned to Kampala

Thankfully we are experiencing peace around Kampala again and are not restricted with our movements anymore. Thank you for praying for us.

During last weeks troubles we also had a lot of power cuts. This has continued into this week and now we are getting no mains water either. Nothing like a challenge to keep you going. However, after dropping a guest off at their lodgings Joshua, Zara and I got into a conversation about hearing God's voice. Well one thing led to another and I said we really need to ask God to turn on our power again as we were running out of water and needed to pump some up from the bottom tank. We were also talking about how God answers prayer. Well we drove into our compound to find that our power was indeed on again and so that produced a few Praise the Lord shouts from Joshua and Zara. It was definately a time of exceeding joy! I told them now we need to pray that the water returns! We will see what happens in the morning.

Riots in Kampala

Some of you are now beginning to see reports of violence in Kampala on your news reports. For the last two days there have been riots in downtown Kampala which has spread to other areas. Thankfully we are all well and appear to be free to move around again.

On Thursday we were told not to go downtown as there were violent clashes between the police and supporters of the Kabaka (King). Rather than me try to explain it all I will post the BBC version of it for your interest http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8252043.stm On Friday I drove down to the MAF Guesthouse with a friend, Sharon Brown, who is visiting from home. We could see the evidence of where burning tyres had been but all seemed calm. Just to put you in the picture we hadn't had power for about three days and for some people it is a lot longer than that. The guesthouse remains without power and will probably not be fixed until next week. Due to the lack of power the freezer had defrosted so we asked Shiella to cook all the meat and then I could come down later to put it in our freezer. However, it was not to be as Shiella called me later that afternoon to say that there were gunshots very close to the guesthouse and that it wasn't safe to be out.


On Friday morning I had a call from a MAF colleague to say that Rainbow School was closing because of the violence. Sharon and I raced to school only to find the main road to school was blocked by burning tyres, a tree and also gun shots could be heard. We took the backroad into school and were able to pick up Joshua and Zara along with some other children who lived close by whose parents were still on their way to school. We drove out in convoy and arrived home safely. Gun shots could be heard throughout the day some far away and some close. We remained at home and waited it out. Today, Saturday, there has been calm and we were able to go out again. We drove to Entebbe and went to the Zoo. All was quiet and life seems to have returned to normal. We pray that the Kabaka and the Government will be able to come to a peaceful resolution regarding the issue at hand.


We would value your prayers for this situation and that we have no further problems. Thanks to all of you who pray for us regularly including praying for our safety. It makes a difference!

Furlough statistics

Along with all the fun things that we were able to do whilst on furlough we also did some work too.

Thanks to Simon's parents for giving Joshua and Zara some fun outings whilst we were involved in speaking at Church or visiting supporters and friends.

Thanks to my Mum and Auntie Anne and Uncle Jimmy for the times that you helped us out in looking after Joshua and Zara whilst Simon and I were travelling to various parts of Scotland. We managed to do 2,000 miles of driving whilst in Scotland, visited and spoke at 6 churchs, visited many friends and supporters along the way and also got to see some family.

In hindsight our furlough seems a bit like a whirlwind tour but it was fantastic to see so many of you, reacquaint with old friends and also make some new friends.

God willing we will be doing it all again in two years time.

Part 2 of furlough in Scotland - Friends

Sorry this photo is so small but wanted to share it anyway. Great friends from back home and we were all able to be together for a evening which was a real treat.

At Lills birthday get together. We had some fun games on the Wii. It definately wasn't my gift!

Zara doing her princess poses

Joshua doing his "I'm tough" pose.

Family photo - easier said than done ;) - Thanks Cydil and Nathan- !

Cydil and Nathan - good friends of ours from the States who celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary in Scotland which they kindly coincided with our furlough. It was great to catch up with them as it has been a while since we were together. Thanks guys for the time and for all the photos..

Photo highlights from our furlough in Scotland (Part 1)

My Mum was able to get Military Tattoo tickets for us while we were home in Edinburgh. What a treat it was.

Zara and my cousins little girl, Abby. This was our first meeting with our little second cousin. It was a lot of fun.

We were able to go to an airshow while we were at home. The sights we saw were slightly different to the Cessna's we are used to in MAF

Joshua and Zara Go-Karting. They did a great job going round the circuit!

The Wunderli's have stopped wandering....

Highlights from our furlough in Switzerland

Dog carting with Auntie Therese

Joshua and Grossvati looking at the baby peregrine falcons in the bird box

Grossmueti and Zara enjoying the view in the mountains

Yeah! we found some snow in the mountains in July.

We had a good snowball fight and all felt pretty cold afterwards.

Whilst in the mountains we came across some alp horn players.

What an amazing sight and sound.

Stopping for a snack along the way on a cloudy walk it the mountains

We are now back in Uganda after being 9 weeks away. I had hoped to keep up with blogging whilst on furlough but failed miserably. Anyway I have decided to give you a photo update which will convey a thousand words. Enjoy!