Fond Memories and New Beginnings

April was the month where we packed up our house, prepared it for renting and bid farewell to our home and many friends. It was exhausting and emotional yet beautiful all at the same time. As the move has crept closer and closer, I have come to realise what a wonderful place Bath has been for us and how many meaningful and special friendships we have as a family there.
Our goodbyes started with a lovely (indoor) picnic for the girls and some of their closest friends.

























Many more small and large gatherings followed this and we all felt very loved and valued. The girls did amazingly, saying many goodbyes and leaving their friends in a really positive way.
As I write this in Exeter at my parents, I feel like we are in limbo - we have moved out of our family home, yet we have not yet moved to our new home in Uganda. This is a great opportunity for me to reflect on life, looking back with fond memories on many happy years in Bath and looking forward to our new life in Uganda. A time of goodbyes and new beginnings. A time to ponder on what is really important in life and how I can live life to the max, living wholeheartedly. I have been really inspired by Brene Brown and her book 'The gifts of imperfection' (highly recommend it) and have been pondering on how to cultivate gratitude and joy, play and rest, trusting faith, calm and stillness and many other traits in my life. I am so grateful that I have this little pause before our big move to stop, reflect, be still and be renewed.

A lesson in trust

For those of you who know me well or even those who only know me a little will, I am sure you will recognise in me that I am someone who likes to be in control! Trusting hasn't been easy for me in the past. This whole process has been a huge learning curve for me,  (and of course that is not over, only just beginning!) a huge risky step, a leap of faith into the unknown, uncertainty -  handing in notice to our jobs and finding tenants for our home before having even a penny towards our life in Uganda. Putting our total trust in God that He would finish what he has started and being totally out of control! Sure enough, the money has trickled in and on some days poured in, tenants were found, children excited, dog re-homed and many, many other little things have come together and fitted into place, in fact God seems to have had everything covered. I feel slightly surprised but not sure why - God wouldn't ask us to move to Uganda and then not provide for us!

So, in all of this I'm learning to trust, take a pause and learn to be still more. And I'm sure that's going to be valuable for all of us whilst in Uganda.

Sort, chuck, make-do-and-mend

There's been a bit of a marathon going on in our house at Cameley Green. Nothing particularly energetic and no distance covered, but the amount achieved means that Sue in particular deserves a medal (a giant chocolate one?). She has been through our cupboards, drawers and cubby-holes for many, many weeks. All the bits, bobs and stuff of life that we've accumulated over the years has now been classified as: store, take, recycle, sell or dump.

This kind of process is not my forte, but it really is Sue's. And even with her purge diktat of, 'if it's not been used for a year, get rid', we still had a lot of stuff. In some ways I was shocked. We are not really very consumerist and I like to make things last, so to find so many objects whose fate we had to decide has been like a course in decisiveness - one must be brutal!

It reminded me of the Philip K Dick book that inspired the Bladerunner film, where there is talk of 'kipple' filling the world. The urban dictionary explains:

'Kipple... refers to the sinister type of rubbish which simply builds up without any human intervention. Eventually, one day, the entire world will have moved to a state of kipplization.' Find out more about Kipple here ~> *

I now have a similar fear. Wherever there is some space, it will always be filled. So, may I strongly urge you to have a purge of your own, and deal with your kipple - you'll feel a lot better for it. I now have a great sense of cleansing and release (I know, this sounds like a spa day ad). I feel strangely free of things. Of course, we do have some stuff left and will be taking 11 suitcases as well as my bike, but the act of getting rid of all that kipple has really helped draw a healthy line under sections of my life that I hadn't quite done until now: my father's death; student days; old hobbies, seriously out of date clothes and past loves.

My reflection on kipple as we move on to Uganda is that you don't have to be a big shop-aholic consumerist to be connected to stuff. Objects, can and should have a place in our lives, but it's not until you look in your attic that you realise that you are a bit materialistic after all.

Houses

Here is a picture of our first house in Uganda! This is a lovely 2 bed house, nicely tiled and clean! It is in smallish compound with 2 other houses, one of which homes some guys from Revelation Life. We have been told that there is some grass too! The compound has a wall around it and is conveniently half way between the rev life offices & girls houses and Simon and Nicola's home. We are really grateful for this house and think it will be a great start to our time in Uganda. We may look for somewhere bigger when we are there (more space for visitors, homeschooling etc) or we may stay here for a while.

I am really looking forward to buying a lovely chair for the veranda and sitting there with a book (or kindle) to relax. Can also imagine it being a good spot for breakfast.

Feeling sad to be leaving our home of 7 years but am beginning to imagine our family here and can't wait to put up the butterfly bunting I have bought!

Here's a map of where it is (roughly). Our house is where the yellow balloon is.


View Rev Life in a larger map

Teach a man to...

People power is an amazing thing.

Where there's muck...

Here's an example of what we'd love to get into the Kampala slums.
Not the most appetising of subjects, but the toilet is something we take for granted - I spend a good deal of my life on one. But in slums a loo is not always an option and either a patch of grass or a small plastic bag has to suffice. This obviously causes a lot of problems - no-one wants to dodge turds every day and the health implications are obvious.
So, these guys (Sanergy) have a smart solution. Recruit an entrepreneur from the local community, set up a loo (that blue box above), charge a little to spend a penny, then remove all the poo, process it and turn it into compost... to sell. Smelly, but clever eh?
Apparently people like using it partly because it has a mirror, nice soap and makes them seem 'modern'. I'd go along with that.

Peace

Here is my first ever blog post - I shall nervously begin! Just over a month ago, John and I made the decision to totally uproot our life here and move halfway across the world to Uganda with our 2 small children. These last few months have been a real roller coaster; excitement, nervousness, anxiety, joy, apprehension, happiness etc but the feeling that has been consistent over the last month - is peace. My Mum will tell you that throughout my life I have been a real worrier, so this deep peace is somewhat unnerving and very definitely from God as it is not something I could muster up in my own strength. 

I feel like God has taken me on a very special journey over the past year to bring me to this place. Over many months while considering the move to Uganda I would wake up at night, paralysed with fear about one aspect of the possible move; our safety, the girl's education, money, our house here, finding a job on return, friendships and the list went on and on. This same fear would wake me up for about 3 nights and then I would find peace and move on. A little while later, the same would happen with a new fear. It is like God took me through every possible fear that I could have and brought me to peace, one fear at a time. I am now left with a deep sense of peace and knowing that God is in control. I am learning to trust him. 

"We are going to Ganda"

Here's a little 'educational video' ;~) that the girls made for a church meeting...