These last months have been so busy with the school show. Peter Pan was a great success and the students demonstrated and amazing display of talent including back flips across the stage! We even managed to get some of the cast to "fly" with the use of purpose built see-saws! The week after the show ended I had an International music festival where eight different international school choirs from around Kampala sang individually and then all of 240 kids sang and played instruments together. I had the task of arranging the music and conducting them all on the day - phew! No sooner had this finished, it was time for the secondary music concert. Unfortunately I had the flu and spent a week in bed and the concert had to be postponed for a few more days. Now it is exam time and I have been busy preparing and modifying exams for the 80 secondary students I teach. Exams started today and will run for a week alongside the marking and grading. I am slowly finding my desk and classroom again after the business of life and I need to hurry to get all the show props and costumes stored as 80 students are returning all their band instruments to me for the summer holidays to be stored. I am never bored as you can imagine!
Over these last few months a few milestones have been reached. Teeth have fallen out and Matthew turned 8 years old in April - where has the time gone!? We celebrated with a bat-man cake and a trip to a reptile museum.
It's only a few weeks till we will be flying back to Scotland for our furlough trip and yet there is still so much to do. Leaving the house here in Uganda for a month means making sure there are enough supplies for the night guard to eat and drink, plenty of dog food left, freezer switched off, staff employed to watch the house and keep on top of unwanted visitors - two legged kind as well as the six legged variety. Salaries counted and left as well as money for emergency supplies like possible vets bills etc - that's just the Ugandan side! Preparing presentations for churches, organising eye appointments and dentist trips, and transport in between Andy's hospital appointments, and Abi's Grade 1 piano exam which she will be sitting in the UK in June. Meanwhile I am busy getting the school order together for band music and instruments that will need to be purchased very soon in order to bring them back. I have yet to go through the children's clothes and shoes and write the lists of things they will need for the next school year. My kids haven't had their feet measured for a year and Eilidh doesn't even own a fitting pair of closed shoes so Clarks will be one of the first shops to be visited. So much to do yet somehow with God's help it will all get done and on the 4th of June we will be sitting on the plane breathing a sigh of relief that we managed to get everything done - I hope!
Things in the hanger have been especially busy over the last few months as the MAF chad plane has been undergoing an avionic upgrade here. Andy really enjoys working on big projects like these and will no doubt be filling in the details during our furlough trip. There are more good byes to be said within MAF as another family is leaving in a few weeks after serving for 11 years.
It has been a challenging few weeks around our house. Rainy season has meant lovely cool temperatures however there has been a lot of sickness around including malaria. A daughter of a British teacher at school was recently very sick with malaria in her liver and thankfully has now recovered. I am still very tired after the flu and Eilidh is coping with flu and fever at the moment. Matthew had been off school for nearly a week with sore tummy and chesty cough and Abi was up through the night with croup as she continues to struggle with sore throat and cough! Andy is also not feeling great so the Swanson's may soon be having a family outing to the doctors to check for any underlying parasitic action happening as is often the case here. In Uganda you can expect this to be a three to four hour long trip on a saturday morning. Emmanuel who we employ part time for security, the garden and walking the dog, has a very sick toddler at present. . The doctors have told him its the flu and malaria so please pray for his son. I am sure we will all be fine and healthy when we arrive back in the UK so please don't feel you have to keep your distance - lol! I haven't even mentioned the dog and her skin issues that are involving a lot of extra time and energy as I daily have to bath her "hot spot" sores and give her antibiotics etc I can't deny these last few weeks have felt a little overwhelming at times however God is faithfully sustaining us throughout.
Joyce our nanny has been such a blessing especially through this time. There are very few people your sick children would be happy to be left all day with but Joyce is one of them and the kids have not complained once about being home with her. Joyce's son Darius is growing very well and he is sitting up himself for short periods. We are pretty sure he has nystagmus in his eyes which means he can see, however his eyes will rarely stay still enough for him to focus. His eyes will follow a very bright light such as my ipod torch. We are still unsure if he can hear anything. One of the other MAF wives is taking Darius for a hearing screening test next week as she has some time to do this. Another friend of Joyce has volunteered to take her to the eye clinic at a local hospital here sometime in the next few weeks as I have no more days off work before furlough to take her. Hopefully that will happen soon and we can then decide where to go from there. A friend from Scotland kindly donated a baby chair and baby nest for Darius and our MAF friends brought it back from Scotland a few weeks ago. Darius is enjoying his chair and Eilidh is enjoying being able to bounce him and have him more nearer her eye level.Here are some of our dates and where we will be so hopefully we can catch up with you. We can not reinforce enough how much your support and encouragement means to us. Knowing that you are praying for us and supporting us really keeps us going especially when it gets tough. We are looking forward to catching up with many of you and especially a few new baby's this year including my neice Zara, and my best friend's baby Aaron who I have not had a chance to cuddle yet.
Arrive in Scotland 5th June 8.30am
Dunoon Baptist Church Sunday Morning 12th June
Kirkintilloch Baptist Church Sunday Morning 18th June
Pitlochry Baptist Church Sunday Morning 26th June
Leave Scotland on 9th of July to return to Uganda.
See you soon
love from the Swanson's.
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