POLICE SUNDAY AND THE MOUNTAIN OF FIRE

A selfie showing me on my
newly borrowed  exercise mat
(from the PE dept)  trying
to keep my back in order

Lots of words today, but only a few pictures - sorry but the camera was not to hand for much of what I want to share with you.

This has been a very interesting weekend.  It began with an almost spontaneous decanting of the staff room into the Red Chilly backpackers lodge next door for an 'end-of-a-long-week-beer-or-two'.  As is often the case in these circumstances this ended up with my getting to know a few of my colleagues a little better as they relaxed more and shared their hopes and fears.  I personally left after my two beers, but I gather that it went on well beyond that, and may even have ended with some serious damage being done to Red Chilly's stocks of 'Squadron' - the local Ugandan rum.  However, I can only report that as hearsay as I was tucked up in bed well before 11pm.

Saturday night involved yet another social occasion, but this time as far up the other end of the sophistication scale as you can imagine.  The school held a first birthday party and invited all of the parents and staff to attend.  Everyone dressed up spectacularly for the occasion (as only the Africans can), and the whole function was free and involved food provided by Kampala's grandest hotel (the Serena), excellent wine, a live band, a superb African contemporary and traditional dance band and a fantastic Master of Ceremonies to make the whole affair run smoothly.  Well, almost all of that is true - all apart form the last bit in fact.  The truth is that they decided it was too expensive to hire a professional MC and that a member of staff could do it - and muggins was the only one asked who hadn't got the sense to say no.  Anyway, it meant that I spent the entire night sweating profusely in my white DJ trying to cope with the constant changes to an already under-planned programme.  Suffice to say we got through it and I think all our parents were impressed and enjoyed themselves.  As I left our Principal was being interviewed for Ugandan TV so I imagine the school considered it a success too.  Most of my colleagues moved next door to Red Chilly for an after party party, but I was too exhausted to do anything other than drag myself into bed again.  I think I must be getting old :-(

Church this morning was another extraordinary event, for completely different reasons.  On a normal Sunday there are four back-to-back services at the Cathedral, each lasting 2 hours and each catering for a slightly different style of worship.  They are all well attended by between 300 to 400 people (at a best guess - there may be more as I can never see how many are outside in the tents).  One problem that occurs is that as one service finishes there is a bit of a 'bun fight' at the main entrance as the first arrivals for the next service jostle for the best seats in the house.  This happens at the same time as the official procession from the earlier service is leaving, and occasionally there is a less than entirely gracious football crowd tussle as they try to get out whilst still looking serene and dignified, whilst everyone else pushes past to get in. Today, however, was Police Sunday.  This meant two things were different.  The first was that there were many more people attending both the 7-30 service (outgoing formal procession) and the 9-30 service (incoming ruffians - including me).  The second was that the police had so many prayers and talks going on that the 7-30 service overran by 15 minutes and the crowd gathering outside was both larger and more boisterous than usual.  This resulted in what was (to me at least) the hilarious scenario of about a hundred very smartly dressed football hooligans blocking the entrance to the Cathedral entirely, whilst the robed procession, led by the Cathedral cross-bearer, attempted to force an exit.  All this was accompanied by a badly out of tune police silver band playing Onward Christian Soldiers.  The sight of the cross-bearer preparing to make a final charge for freedom whilst the strains of 'Onward, Christian soldiers, Marching as to war, With the cross of Jesus, Going on before' had tears rolling down my eyes.  Fortunately she was a large woman, with a determined spirit and a large crowd of choristers behind her, and as they sang 'Like a mighty army, Moves the Church of God' they finally burst forth and we surged into the gap, eventually taking our seats with only minor casualties on both sides (mainly wounded pride, and slightly ruffled dignity).  I am sorry if all of this offends any of my more traditional church going readers, but all I can say is that you had to be there to see it to really appreciate the humour of it.

The other bizarre thing about this morning's service (which was as enjoyable and spirit-filled as ever) was listening to the report of our assistant Bishop of Kampala diocese, Bishop Hannington Mutebi, on his recent visit to UK.  Apparently one of the people he met on his trip was a Swindon vicar and honorary Canon of Bristol Cathedral, a certain Reverend Raymond Adams.  I cannot tell you how strange it was to be sitting in the congregation in my church in Kampala and hearing the name of the vicar of the church that Ronnie and I attended over 16 years ago and where we were married.  It's a small world indeed!

From the Cathedral today I then drove across the city to find the church that Beatrice, my teaching assistant at school, attends.  It is called the 'Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries' and is  is committed to "the Revival of Apostolic Signs, Holy Ghost fireworks and the unlimited demonstration of the power of God to deliver to the uttermost".  Beatrice has been tasked by her pastor to start up a drama ministry in the church and she had asked me if I would help her with getting it going.  After being introduced to the pastor and some of her team, we agreed that Beatrice would aim to present a short piece of drama in their service on the 26th of October, and that I would help them prepare.  I then met the twenty or so volunteers who were very eager to learn about using drama in church.  They were a wonderfully enthusiastic and welcoming group aged from 10 to 60 - and that is how I ended up coaching a small, but hugely talented, group of African pentecostal Christians in drama ministry.  Who would have believed that this was what what God had planned for me even a 8 months ago!

Beatrice (in the orange dress) and me with some of the drama group

Running through the script for the first time

The church is a fairly imposing building, but is at the
end of a long dirt road in a very poor district of Kampala

To round off my weekend of unusual pursuits I came back home this afternoon to finalise my planning for the week and to watch Europe triumph over the USA in the Ryder Cup on satellite TV.  It doesn't get much better than this!

THREE CATHEDRALS AND A KABAKA'S TOMB

Levi visiting with Ronnie

First things first, thank you to all of you who have been praying for my back.  After a couple of days of being bent double and in some degree of pain, I woke up on Wednesday and found myself much improved.  It is still a bit sore, but I am much better and able to operate normally again.  A big thank you too, to those of you who have taken time from your busy schedules to send me such fantastic emails; I am only sorry that, for now at least, a brief acknowledgement and an exhortation to 'read the blog' is probably the best you will get back from me.  I do promise to respond properly to all of you at least sometime during this term!

This weekend has been tremendous fun.  I had a parents' evening on Friday night, which was more about sharing my philosophy of teaching with them, rather than discussing individual children.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself and had a variety of very important members of Kampala society leaping around doing badger maths and helping to build (and knock down) three-legged stools.  Then, just after I arrived home at about 8-30pm Ronnie's taxi dropped her off having collected her from Entebbe airport.   If all goes well it will collect her again on Monday morning (at 5-30am!) to take her back to catch her flight to Juba.  In the gap in between we have had a great time together exploring Kampala, and attending worship at my new church, All Saints' Cathedral. 

The 9:30 service at All Saints' this morning was as vibrant as ever, combining as it does a traditional form of liturgy with really upbeat music and prayer sessions.  It lasts for two hours, but feels like half that - unlike some services I have attended in UK which last less than an hour but seem like they're much longer!  Despite their slightly over-the-top, flamboyant robes our worship group 'The Anglican Flames' are amazing, and every time they lead us in worship I feel uplifted.  Couple that with some really focused, Bible-based teaching and the services are impressive.  The only down side is that the church is raising funds to re-order the Cathedral at the moment - something that seems to happen wherever we go! - and today's feedback on the project went on too long!

Me outside All Saints' 

Ronnie browsing a book stall before the service

The title of this week's blog is derived from the fact that we also had an afternoon trip after church visiting various Kampala sights, including St Paul's Anglican Cathedral, Namirembe and the Sacred Heart Catholic Cathedral in Rubaga. 

Moses leading worship

You may ask why there are two Anglican cathedrals in Kampala, and perhaps I will share the story with you another time.  However, for now just accept that there are and that the reason is not one which bathes the Anglican church in any great light!  

This doesn't give a true picture of the size of the cathedral.
There are about 300 people inside and another 100+ outside at the 9:30 service!

Bishop Hannington's grave at Namirembe Cathedral. 
He was the first Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, 
but was tragically speared to death by the locals 
within a week or so of arriving in the country.  
He is much revered by the Church of Uganda.

Our fleeting visit to the Sacred Heart Catholic Cathedral

Ronnie in her latest fashion accessory

We also visited the World Heritage Site of the Kasubi Tombs, where a number of past Kabakas or 'kings' of Buganda are buried.  Sadly this took place in one of the regular heavy downpours that we get at this time of year, but it didn't dampen our enthusiasm too much.  The best bit (for me) was when Ronnie was asked to don a wrap-around skirt for the tour, presumably as a mark of respect (no one actually explained why!).  There was some terrific art work for sale, and although we didn't buy anything this time I think we definitely will return and do so in the future.

Levi making the most of his weekend away from Juba and 
enjoying a view of Kampala from Namirembe Cathedral

Generally speaking traffic in Kampala on a Sunday is quite bearable (compared to the rest of the week when it is definitely intolerable).  However, what we hadn't appreciated was that the central taxi park area is a nightmare at any time and we found ourselves caught in the middle of a total jam of literally hundreds of minibus taxis.  The photo does not really show a true picture of the chaos, but it gives a vague idea I guess.

Downtown Kampala just before the traffic came to a standstill

We got back home about 4pm to discover the power had been off all day and the washing was still sat in the washing machine doing nothing.  Unfortunately this is becoming a regular feature on a Sunday and we were just becoming resigned to an evening in the dark (and no blogging) when the power came back on.  

So the weekend is nearly over and Ronnie will fly back to Juba tomorrow morning to what looks like an even more depressing political and military situation there.  Do please pray that, despite the gloomy outlook, something can happen that brings a peaceful outcome and not a further increase in the violence that we have seen recently.  School life is a mixed bag.  I love my class and am warming to them more and more as I get to know them. On the other hand the lack of proper procedures and management direction is getting all the teaching staff down.  Again, prayer please that this improves soon. 

THE MIGHTY NILE

I know that I keep coming up with excuses for not writing much, but today's is the best of all.  Sadly I woke up this morning barely able to stand upright as my back has 'gone' once again.  I managed to make it to the Cathedral for church this morning, but had to leave after half an hour as it was so painful.  So, having already spent most of this afternoon at the computer preparing next week's lessons I really can't sit here for long now as it is the worst possible posture for my back.  The really upsetting thing is that yesterday I had one of the best days I have had so far in Uganda, travelling a couple of hours North to the Kalagala and Hypoxia falls on the Nile, and then today I have had the worst.  Hopefully, tomorrow I will be upright again.

Jacintha and myself at Kalagala Falls.
You can just see the Wild Waters Resort
accommodation in the background (we didn't know
that's what they were when this photo was taken)

Anyway, to cut down my time typing I am going to give you yet another photographic description of my trip to the Nile.  I set off in the still unamed Landcruiser (come on we can do better than 'Levi' I'm sure - not that Levi is a bad name, it's just that the badger Ronnie has with her in Juba is called Levi so it might get a bit confusing) at about 9:30, picking up two of my colleagues Jacintha (newly arrived) and Sherrie (arrived March last year).  The plan was just to visit the Kalagala falls and find somewhere for lunch.  We did not expect to stumble on what must be one of the most amazing resorts in East Africa - the Wild Waters Lodge.


Having driven around for a while trying unsuccessfully to find the falls we eventually paid a boda boda driver UGX 5,000 (about a pound) to lead us there!   We were then guided down to a viewing point where a number of locals were swimming, canoeing (the men) and doing the washing (the women).  

The falls were a spectacular sight, and to be honest we would have been content with just that.  

However, when we asked for directions to somewhere to get something to eat, we were pointed towards the Wild Waters Lodge about a Km further back along the track.  In fact we had passed the entrance earlier and not noticed it for what it was.

Once we had negotiated a day visitor's fee of $15 each (it normally caters for residents who stay in one of 10 'huts' on what proved to be a paradise island in the middle of the Hypoxia falls) we then parked the Landcruiser and were escorted down to the river.  There we were helped into a wooden canoe which took us across to the island.  

Sherrie and Jacintha enjoy the canoe trip

As do Mark and myself

After a wonderful lunch of local fish (and a few chips!) we spent the rest of the afternoon exploring and chilling out.  The other two swam in the pool and lay on the sunbeds whilst I stayed in the shade, enjoyed the view and I just read a book (oh okay, perhaps I snoozed a bit too!). 

Hypoxia Falls from the resort

Looking back across the pool to the restaurant

And back from the restaurant to the falls

The journey back was great fun too, passing through lots of small villages as we took the back road rather than the main Jinja road which gets very congested, and the sun was setting as we reached Kampala about 7pm.

The ubiquitous Jackfruit

A typical local dwelling - basic but always neat and tidy

All in all it was a terrific day out and I certainly intend to return, perhaps for an overnight stay with Ronnie, as their dinner menu looked impressive! 

Right, I'm afraid the layout is terrible today and the text is probably full of typos, but I must finish before I cannot get out of my seat :-( 
Please pray for my back and for a quick recovery.  Ronnie plans to come down to Kampala for next weekend so prayer that her trip is able to happen would be helpful too.

SCHOOL LIFE

I'm afraid that this must be a very short blog as I have been working all weekend (marking initial assessments, completing profiles, planning next week's lessons for a class with an extraordinary spread of levels hence huge differentiation required) and I have to be up at 0545 tomorrow to meet my new target of being in school by 7am.  If I am to do that then I must be in bed by 10pm - and that means just 15 minutes to blog!  Last week was a good week, but very hectic.  

Mr Ian and some of my Y5 class on their first day

At the moment it looks like my class will consist of 15 students, 9 boys and 6 girls, and has a spread from struggles with sentences and doesn't know any times tables, to very fluent and verging on GCSE maths!   And, as every teacher out there knows, that means two or three times the amount of work as I need to prepare at least three different sets of work.  Couple that with teaching a new year group in a brand new school, with a new Principal and it all leads to this being quite a busy term I fear!

Doreen, the Y4 TA on the left, and Beatrice my wonderful
Y5 TA on the right.  She is a real blessing and I will blog
more about her another time

Recognise anything here Kathy?
This is my behaviour monitoring system
- the idea stolen from Smallwood Y4 last year!

Sammy the maths badger has already been in action -
much to the shock of my African class!

On the positive side I seem to be getting on with my colleagues and have made quite a few good Christian friends.  The children are very easy to work with - they just need a bit of livening up I feel, but even after 3 days they are already starting to move to the rhythm of Mr Ian's slightly unusual style in the classroom!  I have also really fallen on my feet with church and I am loving the services in the Cathedral - my perfect mix of traditional teaching and format, coupled with some amazing worship.  I will do a whole session on church next week or the week after.  I have decided just to randomly spread a few pictures of the first couple of days at school throughout the text to bring it to life - remember you can click on them to make them bigger.

My very bare classroom on day one.  Hopefully it will start to come
 to life over the next few weeks - provided I get some more boards.
We are not allowed to stick anything to the walls!

Ronnie is now back in Juba and is also discovering that her job is a little more challenging than she might at first have thought.  However, she is tackling it with her usual no-nonsense approach and will, I'm sure, soon have the whole South Sudan contretemps sorted out.

Ronnie's front door ,including guard - she assures me he
just happened to be there and actually guards the whole
compound not just her house.

Random bed-maker in Juba.  One of the few pictures
to make it out of South Sudan recently.

Okay, 5 minutes before the deadline so I must go.  My apologies to everyone who has sent me such interesting and chatty emails - I will reply properly when life settles down, but for now this will have to do.