21/2/21: greetings from Uganda

Welcome to my new website and greetings from Uganda! So pleased to be blogging again with so much to say, so let’s get going!

After three enormously helpful (and challenging!) years working in a school in the UK, I’m delighted to be in Africa again, specifically the Muyenga Distrct of Kampala, Uganda, working for the Acacia International School. I started in August 2020 working remotely, then moved here at the beginning of November with two more weeks working remotely in accordance with self-isolation rules, so have actually been working in the school building since mid November. Lots more to say about school, church (St Stephen’s Kisugu), travel, things I’ve been thinking about – not least orphanages – but decided to keep this first post straightforward and tell you where I’m living.

I’m in what is called the ‘Fourplex’ which is a row of 4 2 bedroom bungalows, all Acacia staff. Here is a picture giving a sense of the whole fourplex:

Mine is the house closest to the camera:

I’m actually sitting outside my house right now typing this post, in the shade with a bit of a breeze, fantastic!

Very pleased to introduce Dennis, one of our askari (security guards) who keeps us all safe and also has kindly been doing guest contributions for my ‘Let’s pray today!’ YouTube channel:

Also keeping us safe are the compound dogs Pass (to rhyme with Gas):

and his young recently arrived friend Rex:

Pass and Rex’s job is to bark very loudly any time of day or night should they hear or see (or smell when it comes to my cooking) anything unusual. This is a job they take very seriously, thanks guys! I describe them as friends, really surprised that we don’t need to get the vet out after they’ve been ‘playing’ together. Particularly, they both like being stroked, Pass can get annoyed with Rex if Pass thinks Rex is getting too much attention. I quickly learnt not to let them into the house, Pass, that is my bathroom, not yours! Pleased to say that Pass seems to have decided that he’s my personal guard dog and quite often sleeps right outside my house, if he wakes up and needs to find a new more comfortable position that can be quite noisy, but that’s fine, know Pass will look after me if any danger comes our way.

Also wanted to show you the bananas growing about 10 metres from where I’m sitting at the moment, look forward to being able to eat them soon:

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I’m easy walking distance from school, church, assorted supermarkets, if I want to go further afield I call Michael who is a boda boda rider (taxi in the form of a motorbike). Hope to introduce you to Michael in a future blog post.

Think I’ll stop there for today, need to set up other aspects of the site. Look forward to being back soon, very pleased to hear from you, particularly if you have ideas of things I can be writing about. Thank you for reading!