A visit to Annette's House

Annette and Edward take very good care of us in our compound of flats in Ntinda, Kampala - Edward is the caretaker and Annette, his partner, helps us with washing and cleaning. They have two children, Joshua and Joy - Joshua's four and Joy is coming up for two. Annette has been really keen for us to visit her Mum and Dad at her home in 'the village' 75 kilometres south west of Kampala. So a couple of weeks ago we set off with gifts of rice, paraffin and a framed photograph of Annette, Edward and the children which Ian took. Edward could not come with us as he has yet to be formally 'introduced' to Annette's parents - a serious custom that must be properly honoured. So one day, when Annette and Edward have the money there'll be an introduction party - and then he can go and visit!This is the picture that was framed for a present for Annette's Mum and Dad
It was a real privilege to meet Annette's family and they really went to town to entertain us - wrapping a chicken in banana leaves and putting it on to steam at 7.00 am - by the time we sat down at 2.30 pm it was tender, sweet and delicious. Annette's dad grows three different kinds of bananas - green one's for steaming, small sweet one's for eating straight after being peeled, and a kind that is more bitter that is used for making beer which, by all accounts, is quite lethal. He also tends coffee 'trees' and he struggles when the international price for coffee goes down a lot. Annette's dad is also really worried about climate change - during this rainy season which 'officially' started in September, there's only been two good days of rain at his land - this was at the end of October.
Annette's Mum and Dad, for all that their life is hard work, still make sure that they take care of each other and indeed of several other children who have been abandoned.
Here are some photographs taken on the visit.
Here's the family group with Annette's Mum and Dad standing between Renate and Annette. Joshua is in the front with the red shirt and Joy is in Brenda's arms on the right of the picture (she's the eldest at home)
Annette's got the children dancing in a groups and then . . .. . . all fall down!Annette joins in the dancing with Joy and Joshua - not sure they were too keen though!Renate admires a coffee tree

Sorry about the silence

It's been six weeks since our last post on the blog. Three reasons:
(1) Ian managed to catch a really nasty cold which laid him low - even had to have a week off work - when he did recover he's been busy catching up
(2) Things are coming to a head with fund-raising in Ian's placement and three key documents have had to be completed by Ian and Dr Geoffrey Mujisha (Ian's boss)- these are (i) a report of a nationwide consultation carried out with organizations working with most at-risk populations (in terms of HIV infection); (ii) a business plan for the MARPs Network; and (iii) a general funding proposal aimed at international donors
Finally (3) Renate and Ian set off on holiday today with first stop at Entebbe to meet their good friends David and Gina Hawkins who are coming to stay for two weeks in Uganda - so we've been rushing to get everything finished in time for holiday jollies.
This post is being written - after a swim and lovely dinner at the wonderful Boma Guest House in Entebbe (check it out - www.boma.co.ug) - we're bringing David and Gina back here tomorrow from their flight from Manchester.
Over the next two weeks we'll be visiting Kibale Forest in Western Uganda and will do chimp tracking and 'swamp walking' - then on to the Queen Elizabeth National Park where we'll have a game drive and a river safari - we'll be rounding the holiday off at a favourite haunt of ours - the source of the Nile at Jinja. We'll try and post piccies during the coming weeks.