update: uganda round two

In the midst of the rainy season, the first few days back in Uganda felt cooler than the weather we had left in Canada!

It's been awhile since my last blog post. We had a great summer back home in Canada! Isaac worked quite a bit, and somehow I had a relaxing summer that was at the same time very full. Of course there's always things that you think you'll have time for, that you actually don't, but all in all we were pretty happy with how the summer went.

Flooding on the way tot the airport in Toronto.

On August 4 we boarded the plane back to Uganda. From start to finish, it was one heck of a journey. Driving to the airport, the highway was flooded. Upon arrival we were told that we needed to purchase round trip tickets before British Airways would allow us to get on our flight. Baggage was shoved around, trying to meet the weight requirements. Somewhere amidst the stress we had the emotional good-bye to our parents (except Isaac's dad, who couldn't be there). In London we missed our connecting flight by minutes and had to re-book a Kenya Airways flights for that evening. And then, upon arrival, Isaac had issues at the Ugandan border with his visa due to a paperwork error last year on his student visa. (I was standing in the luggage area peering in through the glass, wondering what I would do if they didn't let him in the country!)

Finally ... we arrived back home! We were exhausted and battered by doubts about why we had committed to a second year. Within minutes of arriving we were welcomed by our friends and pets, and suddenly we remembered how Kampala came to feel like home. Many of us are returning teachers, and last year at this time we were just trying to survive and figure things out. This year we settled in easily on the practical level. On another level, many of us had done a lot of thinking over the summer and we found ourselves in deeper discussions about how to live for Christ in Uganda, how to truly make a difference -- even if that means asking yourself some hard questions.

Teacher orientation started the day after we arrived, and we got to connect with old teachers and meet some of the new staff as well. School kicked off on the 14th, and all of a sudden here we are back in the swing of things. I have a new crop of grade 6 students, who right now look like deer caught in headlights, and have had to say good-bye to my old grade 8 class as they've moved on to high school. Working at an international school with many missionary children, there's always some change in the students -- a few familiar faces disappear, a few new students come in. And, of course, being a middle school teacher, there are some students who have changed so much over the summer that they seem like new students!

Some things that are different about our lives this year:

1. Isaac is no longer in school. He's finished his degree in International Development! Yay! Now he's on the market for jobs/internships.

2. Our neighbours have switched. The Reynolds, with their small son, no longer live on the other side of the duplex -- now they're in the house next door. Our friends Jander and Tiffany -- fellow Canadians -- are now living in the duplex with us. We're looking forward to a great year in "the tripod," as we call our 3 housing units, because we all get along very well. We've started a garden on our compound, dug compost holes, and hope to get a chicken coop soon so that all three couples can have fresh eggs with yellow yolks (for some reason the eggs here have white, tasteless yolks).

3. Ms. Eunice, our day guard last year, is no longer with us -- but she is still nearby, at the house next door! This year Ms. Agnes is our day guard and she is actually going to live on the compound. She has a two-year-old daughter named Molly, who often wanders in and out of our house. She is adorable and enjoys controlling the dogs -- today she was pulling Wally by the ear! I was very impressed that he didn't fuss at all, just walked obediently beside her.

We've only been back for a week and a half, but Canada already feels like a world away. We have no idea what the future holds for us, so we are thankful to have had such a long visit home.

Isaac giving Wally a bath, which Molly found quite entertaining! 

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