Three months back in Uganda

Leaving the UK

So after 5 months, a second child and thousands of miles up and down the UK, we flew back to Uganda at the beginning of April. Armed with 11 bags, 2 car seats, a buggy and 2 children this was no mean feat but when we landed back 'home' it was all worth it. It was hard saying goodbye, especially to Abby's family, but we had had a great time in the UK and were ready for the next stepping-stone on our long road to Chad.

Our primary focus for our time back here was to learn French. So, since April we have been having lessons everyday which has been hard work and at times completely confusing, but we now feel that we at least have the basic tools we need to try and be able to communicate once we get to Chad.

Alongside the French Sam has been providing some support to the MAF Uganda programme.

One of the great things about being back in Uganda has been seeing life from Rachel's point of view. Before we left Uganda Rachel was still small and just accepted all she saw. We had also been here too long to notice any of the extremely different things that occur constantly around us! Now she is a very vocal two and a half year old and so it has been great to see daily life from her perspective! Here are a few examples...

• Cows blocking the road is not an inconvenience, its the highlight of the day! 

Cows blocking the road!

•  Driving down a dirt road and Rachel announces 'Daddy this car is not very good, the car is a bit too bumpy'
•  Mango's are amazing and she can eat a whole one for lunch (everyday if she had her way!)
•  We were walking through a shopping centre and ahead was a muslim gentleman in his full long white thobe with a long beard. Because of recent alerts and insecurities I immediately gave a wide birth, while Rachel walked passed, stopped, waved and said 'hello man'! To which he smiled and replied with a really lovely greeting to her. It’s great that my innocent two year old can challenge my inbuilt prejudices/ fears! 
•  She is also getting the hang of Kampala traffic...her new saying is 'slowly but surely'!

In order for us to learn French we needed Rachel to be occupied and so she has completed a term at a pre school called Swan Academy. This has been both good and hard for her as she has loved the painting, singing, playing, story telling, trampolining etc. but has found being away from Mummy and Daddy very hard. All part of growing up but not an easy stage! At least now though she has had some time to get used to a pre school set up before being put in a French speaking one! That’s going to be a whole new experience for her (and us!).

Support raising with a two year old!

Travelling up and down and across the UK was both great fun and immensely stressful with a two year old in toe!! Sleeping in different peoples homes, eating different food at different times of the day, having to sit through another different church service being admired by many different people is tiring enough for anyone but when you are 2 years old it can all be a bit to much at times! But, Rachel did cope remarkably well and due to her great outgoing social personality she pretty much took it all in her stride.

Now having done the rounds of churches we thought we would share a few of our top tips for surviving the annual church hop with a little ones.

1. Travel when they are sick!! OK that doesn't sound so great but believe me, it is! Unfortunately Rachel went down with a virus days before we were due to do our longest journey from Kent to Kendal. 7 hours in the car was not looking like a happy prospect but remarkably, due to her being unwell she slept most of the journey. It ended up being so uneventful and very peaceful!

2. Always take them to the loo before you start to speak at the front of church. Okay this was a major error. As we were mid flow in our presentation speaking at St Paul's Church in Bolton, Rachel who was just pottering around our feet suddenly declared right next to the microphone "Daddy I need a poo poo!" Fortunately it wasn't too loud and fortunately it was my sisters church and so Aunty Esther ran to the rescue and whisked her off the toilets!!

3. Jammy dodgers. Hooray for mini snack packs of Jammy dodgers. Yes they were used the whole way round as bribery to ensure our darling 2 year old did exactly what she was supposed to do!!!! We are now mourning the lack of jammy dodgers in Uganda!!

4. Sticker books. Hooray another perfectly great invention for a two year old. They saved the day on many occasions where we just needed a little person to sit quietly for just 5 minutes!

5. Family time. On a more serious note we realised how important it was for Rachel to have a few days of family down time with familiar routines in between all the busy visiting days. This just allowed her to be herself and helped her to refuel in order to cope with yet another church service!!

Preparing for the big move

So after accepting the post in Chad we starting making plans of how we were going to get there and when. Sam was still the Finance Manager in Uganda, we needed to learn French (!) and we were required to start raising our own support for our role. So with all that in mind the departure date was tentatively set for August 2014! At the time it seemed an age away and we couldn't work out why it would all take so long, now we realise why and have been grateful to MAF for such great preparation time.

Sam handed the finance role over to Margaret in June 2013 after a year in the role. He then became acting programme manager for the Uganda programme in order to help out the current programme manager who was juggling multiple roles at the time as well as to gain vital experience for his new role in Chad. We also started learning French at this time and attempted to have 2.5hrs a day of lessons. For Abby, who had given up her job in February and was busy being pregnant with daughter number 2, this wasn't to hard to manage but for Sam who was working full time plus was on a number of boards and leadership teams this was quite hectic.

But we tried and by October we had some basic understanding of how hard learning French was going to be, how involved and complex Sam's new role would be and how completely exhausting it was to try and pack up a whole house with an almost two year old and a baby on the way. At this point we were grateful that we still had time!

So by November 2013 we had sold or packed all our belongings in Uganda, moved to the UK temporarily and baby number 2 was on her way. As Rebecca made her grand "spinning breach upside down wrong way round emergency caesarean" entrance on 19th November we were again grateful that we were together, in the UK with amazing loving helpful family and friends around us and that we still had time!

Once the shock of a new baby settled into some sort of semi conscious routine, we headed for the road to continue our training and support raising. So armed with a 2 year old and a 10 week old we began our travels; first stop a Holiday Inn in Ashford for two weeks of learning how to live in Africa (aka MAF pre field orientation). Great time meeting other new (or not so new) MAF families, learning more about MAF, understanding the theology behind mission, and learning more about what life would be like in Chad. Although at the end of the two weeks I think the stress alone of coping with a new-born and a beautifully independent toddler in a hotel was enough of a preparation for life in Africa!!!

Once this was completed we then hit the road on our grand tour of the UK visiting churches, potential supporters and friends and family along the way. We spent a great week in the lakes speaking at two different churches in Kendal, St Thomas and Parr Street, and having some special time with special friends. We also had a great lunch with the relatives of one of the current pilots in Chad.

From there we headed across the seas (literally) to the Isle of Man and had a great time seeing a bit of the island and meeting some local Christian friends of a very good friend of ours. Back on British soil we headed for Bolton where we spent some great time with Abby's sister and established an exciting link with her church, St Pauls. After Bolton it was time to head back to Abby's parents in Tunbridge Wells and from there we continued with day visits to churches and friends and many days of role related inductions and training for Sam.

We enjoyed a beautiful sunny day in Staines speaking at Staines congregational church and established a really interesting link with the church. The following Sunday we again enjoyed a beautiful sunny day but this time in Weald, Sevenoaks with St Georges Church.

Alongside the church visit we also had some great days out with friends and family visiting Berkhamsted, Oxford and London. At the end of our time in the UK we then spent a few days in Biddeford, Devon before visiting Bristol, Sam's old home town!

In all our travels and visits to the various churches, friends, families and individuals, we were overwhelmed by the warm welcome, the amazing hospitality, the generosity of so many and the commitment of so many to support us in mission with MAF. 

Welcome to our Blog!!

Time is flying, we are now in July and its only 3 weeks till we fly to Chad. It only seems a few weeks back that we were packing up our house in Uganda, 8 months pregnant preparing for 6 months in UK. That has now come and gone and Chad really is just around the corner.

We daily spin through a mixture of emotions as we complete our final preparations, from excitement, to worry, to confusion to great expectations and everything in between. So what have we been up to, to get to this point?

The decision to go...
Here is a quick brief plotted history as to how we got here...

July 2011 - after finishing his work with CURE International and a year of short-term consultancies, Sam started working for MAF Uganda as their interim Finance Manager. It was just an eight month post as one international staff member left and they waited for the next finance manager to arrive, but it was also the start of a new journey for us as a family. During that period we spent great amount of time was spent searching and seeking to find what the right next step might be for us as a family. Starting with MAF felt like a great opportunity for a change but only God knew what was really in store.

For many years we had talked about going into mission and we knew that our previous work within the commercial sector, with mission agencies and with NGO's travelling all over Africa was each for a season as we built up our skill base and our resources to be able to better support ourselves in mission. We thought we had it all worked out and entering the mission field in our minds was still a few years away! God had other ideas! As Sam settled into his role with MAF he felt more and more as though this was the place to be. So then the conversations began about a possible further longer-term role with MAF after the interim finance role with MAF Uganda finished.

February 2012 - we travelled to the UK for interviews with MAF International in Ashford. Although in our minds we were exploring possibilities of becoming an international mission family to continue working in Uganda, it very quickly became evident that MAF had other ideas about location due to greater needs within other country programmes. So after intense interviews and some time enjoying the freezing weather in the UK, we receive the great news that we have been accepted and they would like Sam to be the Country Director in Chad! Yes you read it right, Chad! To be honest we didn't know anything about Chad or even where it was exactly, but on that snowy freezing cold day, our journey to the desert began!