WELL WE HAVE ARRIVED HOME IN UGANDA
Hezekiah was wonderful again on the plane with two long haul flights again plus a domestic one and two long layovers....... even with cutting two more teeth he was wonderful .
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| CRAWLING AROUND AIRPORT MAKING FRIENDS - CONSTANTLY AMAZED BY HOW PEOPLE ARE DRAWN TO HIM |
He is such a wonderful traveller we are so blessed and he has taken everything in his stride - all the different time zones, food, locations and people.
He is such a joy bringer and attracts people wherever we go.
I love sharing the joy that he is with other people and that people see what a miracle he is when they hear his story.... I pray people always see Jesus through him.
He is such a blessing
ARRIVING BACK IN UGANDA
It was so incredibly awesome to fly back in to Uganda.
As much as Australia will always been apart of me and my home too.... this is home as well and I feel that when we fly in.
I have many homes.... mainly wherever Rob and ziah are or where family is.... but I am blessed to have two countries to now call home.
I am excited that for Hezekiah he gets the blessing of having two countries to call home also. The beauty and culture of both.
There are times of sadness when you have two homes as it means you are always missing someone... or somewhere but I think the beauty outweighs the pain.
Hopefully since he will be doing it from the beginning it may be more natural and not so difficult for him.
I guess home sickness or missing family means you are blessed because at least you have someone or a home to miss in the first place..... many don't have that....
Flying in to Uganda and seeing the sparkle from all the tin roof huts up against the red soil I was filled with excitement and fear for the unknown. Not really fear - just an awareness that now so much has changed being a mother.
We have such big dreams and so much ahead of us.... but at the moment the road is still very unknown.... we didn't even know what sort of place we were staying in that night......
Its all apart of the adventure and making memories.
Rob and I have such wonderful, funny and sometimes scary memories from our first few years married here..... now we get the blessing of adding Hezekiah to those memories.
I thought Ziah may find the airport here very overwhelming. Its very small but crowded.... very very crowded.
He was again handled it very well.... .
We quickly had to strip hezzy down to his nappy as the humidity hit us.
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| FIRST TIME IN CAR WITH NO SEAT BELT JUST LEFT AIRPORT ON WAY HOME |
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| UNCLE GEOF |
After landing we headed straight to the place we had arranged to rent up country in a place called Mityana.
It Is not somewhere I have ever been before but was an area a few hours out of the city where we feel maybe we may be able to find the land to set up our ministry.
My brother in law managed to rent a small unit in a compound for us for a a month or maybe a few months.
We hadn't seen it before until we arrived..... when we arrived in th dark - being that its new...there was no bulbs in the lights ..... that's something you have to do yourself. So we ended up a very basic motel down the road late that night with a very tired baby.
We have no furniture at the moment as we are starting from scratch again as it was too expensive to store our items. We only stored a few bags ...... which bedbugs got in to .....
So our first week was spent washing and boiling and laying things in the sun to kill the bedbugs.
Our house is empty besides our bags...a little gas cooker and our mattress and mosquito net. But it is full of love.
Mityana has a lake near by so we went for a boda boda ride... about twenty minutes to see it.
Rob and I and ziah all sat on the back of the bike together.
It Was Hezekiah's first boda ride and for us both it was very special.... the last time rob and I had been on a boda boda together we were on our way to put me on the airplane back to Australia..... with all the complications the pregnancy was having Rob and I didn't know whether we'd ever have a baby to bring back to Uganda... But God knew.
So instead of rob holding me and my preganant belly here we were holding our miracle baby boy.
I was also more keenly aware of the dangers involved in boda boda traveller so I pray even more when we travel like this now.
The lake was pretty but not much access to it - just a little fishing village that still fish with the traditional nets..... they all looked rather surprised to see a white women and her baby and her Ugandan husband there.... just to have a look.
They offered to take us out in the small tiny boat..... the ones with the water all ready in them and they aren't even out in deep water .... haha
We said we'd come back another day with some friends and pay them to take us in the bigger boat... it looked a bit sturdier .
SOME OF THE PHOTOS FROM OUR HOUSE TO THE LAKE
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| CHILDREN WAVING AND LAUGHING ON SIDE OF THE ROAD |
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| THATS A SMALL MOTORBIKE CARRYING GRASS TWICE THE HEIGHT, WIDTH AND LENGTH OF THE BIKE |
Weve had to spent a fair bit of time in the city since we came going to Immigration and sorting out Hezekiah's citizenship and things with our permits, banks and looking into registering our organisation.
I have been reminded quickly that time is different here and things move slower - not necessarily a bad thing ... sometimes its good ... just something to get use to again.
We are still doing paper work etc for the registration of The Mbuyu Foundation and have already been in contact with some people regarding purchasing land.
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| PLAYING IN THE DIRT INSIDE OUR COMPOUND |
Travelling is much harder now with a child especially as we live up country a little way.
Road safety is not a big thing here.
And Rob certainly understands the risks being a doctor here.
Although travelling on the back of a boda boda or in an overcrowded taxi is apart of the adventure and I would say something that we will always have to do to some extend..... it is certainly not the safest especially in certain places or times of day so this is our prayer at the moment for God to find us the right car.
Traffic has gotten worse here - its beyond crazy... its ten times worse than anything you'd see in Australia.... mixed with everyone going all over the place doing their own thing....
you can imagine what a sight and danger that can be when on the back of a bike.
Hezekiah thankfully loves all these adventures and just snuggles in to mummy or daddy in his wrap and smiles as the wind blows his hair.
One of the challenges of where we are living now is lack of phone and internet reception.
It is much weaker reception than where we lived before although we are closer to capital city - it is a much smaller town.
I will post some photos and info about our town in the next blog.
One of the beautiful things about being back in the city a few times is that we got to fellowship at the salvation army and take Hezekiah to meet everyone there.
There was much celebration at our return and Hezekiah clapped and bopped along to the music.
He Is Ugandan in every way.
He loved getting to play in the dirt with the other children in the afternoon and had a lot of fun making new friends. SOME OF HEZEKIAH'S FIRST THIS WEEK
- TRAVELLED IN CAR WITH NO CARSEAT.... travelled and slept from airport to our new home on daddy's lap
- STARTED HAVING BATHS IN COLD WATER - I boiled water first few times but tried him on a cold one and he has taken to it very quickly
STARTED HAVING BATHS OUTSIDE
- STARTED LEARNING WHAT IT IS TO HANDWASH - mummy has to learn how to hand wash with a baby around... we have discovered its much easier outside when you have a BABY
- EXPERIENCED HAVING TO SLEEP UNDER MOSQUITO NET EVERY NIGHT -
and being lathered in mozzie cream
- TRAVELLED IN HIS FIRST TAXI VAN... THIS IS AN EXPERIENCE - ONE HE HAS DONE MULTIPLE TIMES NOW
- WRITTEN ON BACK OF BODA BODA BIKE... NOW AN EXPERT AT THIS
- EXPERIENCED HIS FIRST POWER OUTAGE.... AT DAY AND NIGHT - HE SCREAMED WHEN WE LOST POWER FIRST NIGHT.... IT IS EXTREMEY DARK HERE WHEN YOU LOSE POWER. There are no street lights or anything and the stars aren't as bright so it is pitch dark.
Amazingly after it happened first few times he has now adapted and as long as he knows your in the room he is quite ok. He has better night vision then me.
Much more like his father - must be his Ugandan genes coming through.
- EXPERIENCED A COMPLETE STRANGER COMING UP AND CARRYING HIM OFF and playing with him and walking around with him... mummy knows this happens but just had to remind herself and get use to the idea again. Children are dearly loved here and raised by the village so people come over and pick him up and play with him a lot.
- HE HEARD DADDY SPEAK ANOTHER LANGUAGE - AND MUMMY TRYING .... or multiple languages..... first time he stared at rob.... now he is completely surrounded by it.
- HE TRIED MANY LOCAL FOODS FOR FIRST TIME.... AND LOVES THEM ALL.
- HE ALSO STARTED USING THE POTTY AS IS THE UGANDAN WAY TO START PUTTING BABIES ON POTTY AS SOON AS THEY CAN SIT.... he is doing great and so far mummy has had to wash a lot less dirty nappies due to learning his habits and using some local teaching on toileting .
- HE ALSO IS STARTING TO LET GO WHEN STANDING AND HAD MORE TEETH COME THROUGH SINCE WE ARRIVED ALL WHILE BEING JETLAGGED .. and coping with the humidity which has been his hardest battle ... especially at night we have no fan and our windows are all stuck shut .... hoping to buy a fan in city asap.
HE HAS HANDLED ALL THE FIRSTS SO WELL ESPECIALLY WITH MUMMY AND DADDY BEING SO BUSY HAND WASHING EVERY SINGLE DAY ALMOST SINCE WE ARRIVED.
WHAT A BLESSING
WHAT A BIG TWO WEEKS FOR SUCH A LITTLE GUY
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| PLAYING WITH UNCLE GEOF AND JOSH |
