Freight, Vehicles and life in Kampala.

We are glad to be able to say that we now have all our belongings here in Kampala.  This followed one trip down to Entebbe to meet Henry, a freight agent, at 3pm – which turned out to be 5pm, to sign some customs forms and handover my passport.  The following day (Friday), I had to meet the same official at 9am outside Kampala central police station to give him the keys to the trunks (which he hadn’t asked for the day before), and he turned up at 9.30.  We then had a meeting with all the staff at the Baptist Union of Uganda (BUU) office in Kampala – but not the President and General Secretary because their clutch blew up.  We did enjoy meeting the other staff however, who were all very friendly.  Alex and I then started heading towards Entebbe to meet Henry at 2pm.  Having discovered that the freight wouldn’t be ready by then we detoured to a tyre dealer to replace the front tyres on the Landcruiser.  We got to Entebbe at 3.30 and then spent another two hours in the airport waiting for various other customs forms and checks to be completed before finally collecting all our freight at 6pm and then driving back to get back into Kampala before dark.  Of course we didn’t make it before dark and had the joy of fighting our way back through night-time traffic across the city – jostling through heavily laden bicycles, kamikaze motor-bike taxis, swarming mini-bus taxis (Matatus), police trucks, beeping cars and wandering pedestrians.  We even followed a guy on roller-blades who was hanging off the wheel-arch of a Toyota as it pulled him around roundabouts and over potholes!  Driving in Africa is an art which we are rapidly re-acquiring.

On Saturday we had a day to ourselves and the opportunity to meet up with old friends in Kampala, so we strapped Samuel into his car-seat and turned the key to a deafening silence – a flat battery in the Landcruiser!  Luckily we were able to borrow our colleagues RAV4 and made it into town where we enjoyed meeting two old friends and doing some shopping in “Garden City” – where you can buy just about anything.  That afternoon I had a lesson in how to use jump-leads as we jump-started the Landcruiser off the RAV4 – which we had to do again on Sunday.  We will be getting new batteries before the long journey to Kasese next week.

We went to a local Baptist Church on Sunday which had services in English which “only” last 2 hours.  After 1.5 hours Sam was fed up so I took him outside where he enjoyed meeting two young Ugandan babies sitting with their mothers outside the church.  This afternoon we enjoyed a fantastic BBQ with the couple and two other families who are the BMS team in Uganda, and Sam enjoyed playing with their children.  We’ve really enjoyed getting to know them this week – as well as being very friendly and good fun, they are all older than us and have valuable experiences of parenthood in Uganda with older children which we can learn from.

Thanks again for all your prayers and best wishes - especially that everything turned up in one piece!

The Kampala City Orchestra

At dusk Kampala’s conductor tunes up his orchestra.  Cockerels: slightly out of tune but in good voice.  Stray dogs: perfectly in pitch although not always together.  The neighbour’s radio: overwhelming the entire orchestra and also not quite in tune.  The music begins in earnest at about 8pm. It is not a concert I would pay money for – for starters they don’t seem to be on the same page let alone playing from the same symphony.  The dogs hardly seem aware of the cockerels and the radio can’t decide which piece he is playing.  The climax comes at about 10pm when the conductor begins the second movement. The composer seems to have chosen the strategy of involving many choirs in his masterpiece as the first Pentecostal church begins with a repetitive chord sequence on his Casio keyboard and a little wailing down a distorted microphone.  The church round the corner joins in at full volume at 12 midnight but may have missed their cue, since the others all started an hour ago.  However they do seem to have the same keyboard and overly-loud distorted sound system, so they fit in nicely.  The conductor pulls and drags the orchestra in such an accomplished way that we are pulled into his ups and downs, at times believing the symphony will end and at other times believing it would go on forever.  I must admit I dozed off at around 1am, so I missed the third movement, but if the fourth movement at 6am was anything to go by, it was all pretty much the same except the dogs had finally sung their piece and gone to bed and the radio had been retired.  The final few bars were captivating, with wailing and fervent praying over the super-sonic sound system.  Finally, 12 hours after it started, the conductor drew his weary orchestra to a close with a Muslim call to prayer from a local Mosque and the symphony faded out into peace.  At 7am the city was calm and still.  Little Samuel stirred and began chattering, having slept peacefully through the entire performance.  Unlike his mum and dad!

Arrival in Uganda!

We arrived in Entebbe this morning at about 8am and were met by one of the BMS team in what will become our Toyota Landcruiser (a big 4x4).  The flight itself went smoothly, Sam didn't like all the check in and taxi-ing much, but once the plane was airborne he slept well and with minimum fuss, and we were well looked after by the cabin crew.

It took some effort to compress our 5 bags, 2 massive parcels, guitar, handluggage and 4 people into the Landcruiser but we did it and enjoyed the short journey on the beautiful road from Entebbe up to Kampala, passing along the shores of Lake Victoria.  Uganda is as beautiful and colourful as we remember it.  Temperatures are in the high 20s and fairly humid but we'll soon get used to that.

We are staying with Deb and Dug a lovely BMS couple in their flat in the north of Kampala.  Today they took us to "Garden City" where we bought a fantastic internet "Dongle" (with which I am writing this, courtesy of Orange Broadband), and went to register at "The Surgery", where we have already arranged Sam's next injections and purchased Malaria testing and treatment kits and various anti-biotics for common traveller's ailments - so we are well prepared.

Saying goodbye to all our loved ones was really tough, but we're glad to be here and looking forward to getting to know lots of key people here in Kampala before we head west to Kasese next Wednesday.

Thanks for all your prayers and best wishes - especially those who prayed that Sam would sleep on the plane!

For those who prefer paper letters to all this IT stuff, our postal address will be:

Bethan and Gareth Shrubsole
P.O. Box 91
Kasese
UGANDA.

Ready to Go!

Today three trunks and a box were collected with some 130kg of our prized possessions in them - to be air-freighted to Kampala - which I guess means we have to follow them!

Yes we fly one week today!  We are excited and daunted, probably in equal measure.  We have been touched and inspired by the events of recent weeks: a challenging but affirming Commissioning Service at our home church of St Andrew's St Baptist Church Cambridge (see pictures in gallery), a barndance with the Lee family, a house/garden party with the Shrubsole family, speaking at my old church in Wing, and some lovely cards and letters from our link churches and family and friends.  So many people are encouraging us, praying for us and supporting us in so many ways - we cannot write to you all individually to express our thanks, but please know that it is all gratefully appreciated. We feel very blessed and loved.

Our next post will probably be from sunny Kampala, where we will be spending our first few days on arrival.  As for now, back to the Inland Revenue forms.......

Baptist Assembly 2011.

We were overwhelmed by the support and encouragement we received at the Baptist Assembly in Blackpool.  The challenge of trying to keep Samuel still and quiet whilst holding him on a stage in front of 2000 people for 25 minutes under bright spotlights and well past his bedtime made the actual Valediction ceremony pass by in a bit of a blur.  However, we were moved by the number of people who came and spoke to us after the event, on the BMS stands the following day, or after the "BMS in Africa" seminar.  We are truly grateful for all the support, love, encouragement and prayer we have and are receiving.  As we prepare for our imminent departure (5 weeks today), we do so in the knowledge that the Baptist Church really is a global family, and one in which we feel well cared for.

We also really enjoyed making sandcastles in the sun on Blackpool beach and hanging out with all our friends from IMC for the last time together before we all spread to different corners of the earth!