Grandma & Grandad Visit
This month has been an emotional rollercoaster. We were extremely excited by the arrival of Tim’s parents three weeks ago. Tim enjoyed taking his Mum and Dad along to the hospital to share his work there with them. Being a doctor, his Mum was pleased to join in some of the teaching. The kids were very excited to have the attention of their beloved Grandma and Grandad and made full use of it. And we were all relieved to discover as the first days passed that a gluten-free diet is actually easier here than in Australia.
A Special Anniversary
On the 11/11/11 Tim and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary. We went out for dinner alone for the first time since leaving Australia, which made it memorable enough, but it was even more so after a bat dropped from the ceiling onto my arm and lay on the floor beside my chair throughout the evening. Other dinner guests popped by our table to have a look.
Adventure In Uganda
In the second week we all squeezed into the car to go on an adventure in Uganda. It was a long way on relatively difficult roads, but the scenery was stunning. Rwanda is truly the land of a thousand hills – lush, green and busy with people walking. We stayed three nights on a small island in Lake Bunyonyi, then had three nights seeing wild animals on safari in Queen Elizabeth National Park. Hannah in particular loved this. She chased a family of mongoose around, alarmed me by confidently running up to and trying to pat a warthog, and excitedly called out, ‘Ears! Ears!’ whenever we saw an elephant. We were even privileged to see a pride of lions on the prowl amongst a very uneasy herd of antelope and a leopard 100m away from our dinner table. It was a very special holiday.
Below: pictures taken at Lake Bunyonyi, Uganda
The guide informed us the small barren island (above right) is Punishment Island, for obvious reasons. Hannah was quite stuck on the idea of ‘Naughty Island’ and talked about it for the rest of the day.
Below: Pictures taken while on safari at Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda
On the way home we were grateful for God’s help when our muffler fell off on a particularly big bump. It could have happened in some very remote places, but happened in a small town that had a repair shop. God even sent an angel in the form of a catholic brother, who stopped immediately on his motorbike to offer help, directed us to the repair shop 100m back, negotiated the price for us in $US even though the man did not want to take them (we were out of Ugandan shillings with no money exchange close by), and made sure all was well before saying farewell. We were a tad glad we had prayed for His help in our day’s travel.
Baby Rabbits
We arrived home to discover that our rabbit had died that afternoon, leaving behind four two week old babies. I was touched that my friend Mama Bishop, who happened to have found out, rang to offer Nepo help not knowing we were home. Tim researched how to care for them on the net, and we began to hand-rear them. They’re very cute and, we’re happy to report, have doubled in size since the event and even begun to munch on greens. Hannah loves to cuddle them.
Good News For Nepo
A few days later we told Nepo the wonderful news that some friends in the UK had offered to pay off his house debt. You may remember his story from some months ago. We refinanced his debt a while back so that the bank did not turn the family out on the street, but he has been unable most months to repay any of it, for good reasons like mandatory health insurance, secondary school fees and food (this is the hardest month for those who live off their own crops). This has been such a burden for him over a number of years, and he couldn’t contain his joy at the news. He began to praise God and obviously couldn’t wait to return home and tell his family. I have a strong image of him walking quietly out into the garden after the excitement had died down, and pouring over the letter and photo I had given him to explain.
A Grieving Family Returns
Last night was Bill and Genny’s final evening with us. Our neighbours (a doctor couple whose older son plays a lot with William) came to visit. We ran into them the day before at the little supermarket in town, but this was our first proper catch-up since their return from Europe where their younger son died suddenly (aged 10 months) some weeks ago. My friend shared with me some of the details of her son’s death and her own grief. Her son died while in her care in France, early one morning, and the ambulance officers were unable to resuscitate him. Her husband and older son were in Belgium at the time. They buried the baby boy in France, with siblings and friends who live in Europe in attendance. In the midst of this discussion Hannah came and put her arms around my neck; she was full of living warmth and I felt overwhelmed with thankfulness that I still had her and awareness that my friend sitting next to me was watching and must be missing her son even more. Speed the day when Jesus returns to wipe away every tear and there will be no more death.
A Warm Community
We have loved sharing our community here with our family. We love them all even more for welcoming Bill and Genny so warmly. A colleague of Tim’s generously took us and the other senior doctors out to dinner one night to honour them. There have been lots of cups of tea and dinners shared, and this morning a neighbour popped in to say a final goodbye before they left for the airport.
Kids from our neighbourhood in the sand pit
Walking down the Butare aerodrome runway with our friends ‘The French Family’
Above right: watching a movie with Will’s special friend G and his brothers
Mama Bishop and Bishop Nathan, who had dinner at Tim’s parents’ house many years ago and invited us for our first visit to Rwanda
Bill and Genny are now in Kigali with Tim, about to board the plane. The kids and I have been grieving already (it’s much harder being left behind than doing the leaving), and William sensibly suggested we invite ourselves over to a friend’s house to distract ourselves. He’s a clever boy. When we walked in they had just finished decorating their Christmas tree, and I sat around the table with all five kids making Christmas decorations while my friend cooked lunch. Ahhhh, community. I love it.
