Hi everyone,
Our family motto “We Went’s Wobble, but we don’t fall down” has been fulfilled yet again, and we are back in Uganda. Not yet home – we have the supermarket and one of the most dangerous (traffic accident wise) roads in the world to brave yet. I dread the road – Alan dreads the supermarket.
So before we reach home we are adjusting to the heat and the way of life here. First, as we are still in Entebbe, let me tell you about the lake flies – I remember on my first visit putting up the hood on my coat and sweltering as I peeped out on myriads of Lake flies. Whilst they are harmless – at the time I thought they were mosquitoes – they are so plentiful they can stop you speaking lest you inhale them. Like a novice smoker you are left coughing and spluttering as you try to avoid the tiny cloud. Away from the lights of the airport they are fewer, and we renewed our acquaintance with them at the guest house, as they tried to gain entrance with us. The landlady vigorously used a broom to sweep them away.
Have I ever told you that as we are on the equator dawn here arrives at a civilised hour all through the year – 6.30am? The dawn chorus is breath-taking. We either have open windows or a single pane of glass and so the sound penetrates the deepest of dreams. Today it is was awesome. Not so yesterday. Exhausted from the journey we would have overslept save for the sound of a bird complaining about unrequited love a few inches from our ears. Most birds have beautiful voices, but this one was at the back of the queue when our Creator gave them out. This bird – I have no idea what he looks like – I imagine it as an emu-sized creature with an enormous orange beak. The noise was as if a giant teddy bear with a rattle was trying to convey something with its batteries on their last legs. His object of desire was on the far fence and sounded none too healthy either – but at least she was several hundred decibels quieter. None of the folk here in the guest house could identify it for us, perhaps it was just as well because we might have lobbed something at it.
Here is a snatch of a calmer, quieter cousin of his which Alan captured on the phone this morning http://loveinaction-int.com/files/Bird%20Song.m4a. Think longer, LOUDER and love-lorn and you will have a little idea of the one we heard yesterday.
We had heard that several of the large supermarkets had closed in Kampala, but we were unprepared yesterday when we visited one from a different chain in Entebbe. Wanting to buy a few staples we bought nothing – the shelves were almost bare. Competition or the economy have wreaked havoc – I fear for the many jobs that will be lost if that supermarket closes too.
So today we will try again, hopefully on our route if the 2nd choice supermarket is ok, if not we will have to detour into the city. Ugh.
This morning we had breakfast on the guest-house veranda, and watched baby monkeys play in the trees. They are seen as vermin because they eat crops, so better in their garden than ours. Entertainment over we are on our way “wobbling back to happiness” in the words of the old song by Helen Shapiro.
Actually it is another song from my youth that is going through my mind these days
“The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delighteth in his way. Though he fall, though he fall, he shall not be cast down for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand.”
Though I am neither good, nor a man, I do believe that the Lord upholds us with His hand. All of his creation – the quiet, the squawky, the love-lorn, the cast down, and the monkeys playing in the trees.
See you soon
Beryl (and Alan)
PS – This was written at the beginning of last week, been so busy we forgot to send it out!