Now is the time, the big adventure is
beginning. We are five weeks away from returning to Uganda for a month, the land has
been purchased, the house is well on its way and the foundations for the school
are being dug. It is real, there is an incredible sense of excitement,
anticipation and of course nervousness.
As I watch the Olympics I see men and women
prepared to give up their ‘lives’ for their sport. To put everything into
something that they believe they can achieve. In some ways I suppose I can
emphasize with them in a way I never imagined would be me. We do have a goal,
we have set aside almost everything for it, our family is sacrificing for what
we are doing and our energies need to be directed this way.
It is such a strange thing when you find
yourself in a position that you never believed or thought would happen. The
reality that in just a few more months we will be jobless (no more leave
without pay) and truly our focus will be our work in Uganda. Yet, we know we are not alone. It is amazing the people that God has put in our path, the opportunities to talk about it and that money is coming from different places. We know this is much bigger than us and fortunately that God is in control not us.
Since returning to Australia we have been
busy doing things that needed to be done, relating to selling houses, buying
some land to build a smaller place, moving out into a ‘studio apartment room’
in our fantastic, generous friends’
house. We have been teaching, recognising the extreme differences in education
opportunities, methodology and resources between Uganda
and Australia;
not that we had to teach here to realise that.We really appreciate the support from MECS, keeping my job, providing a job for Ron. We don't take it for granted and hope that we have been able to make valuable contributions this year.
The best thing about being back in Australia has
been that we have been able to be here for the birth of our first two
grandchildren. Two of our children (and their spouses) have had children, one a
girl and one a boy. Such a special thing being grandparents and we certainly
are enjoying it very much. In fact it is of course the thing that we are going
to miss most by going back to Uganda.
So, where are we now and what planning have
we done for the new school? The land was bought 
before we left and the house is nearly complete. It will be ‘our house’ at this stage, will
be used for accommodation for us, administrative purposes as needed and then
when the school is fully functioning it will become the home of the ‘head
teacher’ of the school. The excavations
are underway as shown in the picture. The school foundations for the first
classrooms will be happening in the next few weeks.
We will be heading over to Uganda on the
15th September and will be aiming at dealing with the registration
process, checking on building progress and the most significant thing is to
start the employment process for the school. We want to have some teachers
ready so that they can start preparing for teaching and be involved in the
processes.
Another challenge at the moment is to do
two main things. Firstly, we want to get people together that are interested in
being part of the ‘team’ for the project and secondly have a get together for
people interested in what we are doing and providing opportunities for people
to support the project. We of course would love to hear from anyone wanting to be involved.
Footnote: Gold for Uganda!!!!
