I want to go home!!!

So as you might have guessed, we didn't go to Scotland thanks to the weather. I mean, here where we are is fine but there was a good chance of being stuck there coming back.
So we decided not to take the risk.
As from tomorrow we'll be with some dear friends in Banbury, who kindly offered to come and get us all the way from Banbury to here. 
They're a lovely couple we met in Mbarara 2 years ago and they're from the same town where Chris grew up. So it was a nice coincidence. 
Since then we have always been in contact and they are so kind to put us up every year when we come home.
So I'm looking forward to stay with them and then go home next Friday.
I'm sure we'll have a wonderful time with them.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And here we are with the pictures of the weather in Banbury.


At the bottom here you can Stratford-upon-Avon which is the birthplace of Shakespeare. The building you see is where he was born. Cool eh? By the way, this village is really nice with a contrast between the new and dear old England. 

Stay put Uganda....we're coming!!!!

Winter Sky

"Way up high in the winter sky, Two little snowflakes caught my eye. (Point 2 fingers to sky)

Down to the ground they fell without a sound. (Twist around)

And before very long, It was snowing all around. (Hold arms out)"

........

What???? It's just a preschool snow song! So...WHAT? I have plenty of these...

"Snow is falling all around,

Falling, falling, to the ground.

I catch snowflakes on my tongue.

Building snowmen is such fun.

Snow is falling all around

Falling, falling, to the ground."

....

OK, ok. I'll stop it. Anyway...the point is. IT SNOWED LAST NIGHT!!!! And it never snows here! At least not on this side of UK.

It's nice, I like the snow. But it's getting cold now. We had 2 beautiful weeks with sunny days and 7/8 C. So now that the temperature is around 0/-1 C we're feeling it.

So we took my parents to the airport last monday and picked up some friends from Italy after a couple of hours. Obviously we had a fab time!

We enjoyed English breakfast, Fish & Chips, Cornish pasty, KFC, proper Steak night, English curry (yes you read correctly, English curry Tikka Masala...) etc etc. We're probably some few kilos heavier than when we arrived. But that was nice.

We walked for hours for shopping as the prices here are cheaper than Italy, so they took advantage of it.

We had a nice drive through the Moors. The landscape is amazing. You go from the green green English typical grass to the brown fern called bracken. It's a bit like Uganda the way it quickly changes landscape. We drove for three hours in narrow (but tarmac) roads, passed through many little stone bridges and saw many wild ponies, sheep and a big falcon which was on a wooden fence in front of us, staring at the camera while I was taking his picture. 

One evening we had a couple from Torquay over for dinner. We played the game we always play in Uganda with weird scriptures trying to adapt them for the field with a weird object to give out (do you remember? I uploaded some videos). Well I must say they were really good. They pulled it off easily... We were also lucky as this past week they had the  CO visit so we got a nice treat. 

We went to the beach many times and every time, although is freezing, I'm left speechless staring at the beauty of the sea.

We're back at Chris' parents now which is also nice as we can relax a bit. 

We're supposed to leave for Scotland on Tuesday but weather wise (it's snowing in the south of UK, imagine what the weather is like in Scotland) we don't know if we'll be able to go as we don't want to get stuck there for snow. So let's see.  

In the meantime thank you for reading. I know UK is not as exciting as Uganda. So I know is not as exciting to read about food and shopping as it would be reading about studies and meeting attendance etc etc. 

Updates

Hi guys...

I just updated with videos the post "Time for a break". Go and have a look how we have fun around Fort Portal...

Brr..... it's freezing!

Wow.... we just came back from a couple of hours of walking around shops and I must say IT'S FREEEEZING!!!! I mean, we knew it was going to be like this but we're not used to it anymore. When we got on the plane it was 30C in Kampala and when we got off the plane in London it was -4C.... just imagine the shock. We didn't even have proper coats...
Where we are, in Devon, the temperature is the best in UK, but it's still 1C - 2C top. Fortunately we had left proper coats here and jumpers and and boots but as soon as we arrived we bought hats, gloves and scarf's.
So we're looking around for things to bring back home like shoes, t-shirts, etc. but it's difficult to find summer clothes in December!!! So Chris found already a really nice pair of branded shoes with a 70% discount. I still haven't found shoes for me but my number is not easy to find as I have a teeny tiny foot. But today I'm so proud because I manage to find 2 pair of original Crocs (2 different colours, MY SIZE!!!!!) at 2£ each instead of 25 each, saving a total of 48£... Isn't that amazing?
We've been to the local congregation and they've been very welcoming and they actually remembered us from last year (they organized a party for us before we left to go to Uganda last year although they knew us only for a month...so they're really nice). But we're not used to go to the meeting at night anymore as our meetings are on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning...

I know... we get excited for small things. But this is what happens when you live in Africa for so long... It's like when we get excited after a day without electricity and it comes back just before dark and we all shout in applause. Anyway, my parents are coming tomorrow to stay for 10 days. I hope it won't snow so we can have a nice time on the seaside. If it does, I'll post some pictures.

TTFN

Post soon...

Ready for a break...

So, yes, we're ready for a break! We're in Bethel right now and I must say that it's always nice to see the brothers here and see how Jehovah is a God of organization. 
We're going to have a busy 5 weeks as we're meeting in UK my parents who are coming from Italy (so they spare us another flight), another Italian couple we met when we used to attend the English congregation in Verona, then obviously we're going to spend some time with Chris's parents, then catch a short flight to Edinburgh to meet a sister we met here in Uganda, then we're going to stay with a couple in Banbury we met always here in Uganda... then catch an 8 hours flight to come back here.
In the meantime many things are happening here.
For example, our congregation organized to do a Public talk and Watchtower not far from here and the first meeting had 35 in attendance! Imagine that.... So that was a success and we're going to do it every last Sunday of the month. But the problem now is that we're trying to find a place where to hold the monthly meetings so Jonathan went there last Saturday to find something decent that can accommodate more people. He found one for the equivalent of 12£. The owner is from Fort Portal so Jonathan came back to meet him and agree on the days and on the price. In the meantime though, someone must have called the owner and told him that the person looking to rent the place is a mzungo (foreigner). So when Jonathan got there, the price went from 12£ to 80£, which is crazy. So again we need your prayers to find a place to hold the meetings in this small village 40km from Fort Portal.
Then, a new brother from Alaska arrived. His name is Trevor and he's quite young but very adventurous. We were in contact for a long time and honestly although from his emails we knew he was a really nice and spiritual brother, we didn't know what to expect. You know, Africa is not for everyone. We were scared that maybe it would be difficult to adjust for him, being single in the midst of 3 married couples. We kind of expected someone like  ... you know what I mean. Instead he's . So that was a nice surprise. Especially because I suppose you need to be like that to cope with a bunch of nutters like us.
But I must say he's adjusting perfectly and he's loving it here (well at least I hope so). He lives with Brian and Rowena (the new couple from Kampala, remember?), which I suppose is nice for him as it can be a little scary to live on your own in a house in the middle of Africa...especially at night...
We're having a great time together, as we spend many evenings either at our  place or at Brian's place, so we take it in turn cooking for each other and Trevor is always willing to learn to cook new things which one day can come handy. We also call him "dishwasher" because he doesn't even give you the time to finish that he's already at the sink washing and drying and no discussion with him if you want to help him. His mum did an excellent job in raising him.
While he was here, we had the District overseer and his wife as guest. They're long time friend, but we hadn't seen them for 2 years (since we left Kampala basically). They're crazier than us honestly, but that is what is the truth all about, especially for need greater. You need to be a bit crazy so that you see life from a different perspective. 
As we often play a game which involves using a very unusual scripture to introduce a presentation and a very unusual object instead of a magazine to support that scripture, we decided to introduce the D.O. to this game. 


It's a bit complicated to explain so let me show you....

This was the D.O. and obviously he came out of it with style. But now, I know he'll probably kill me for this, let us have a look at how Trevor did. First of all let me tell you that we were mean in choosing the scripture but it wasn't done on purpose. Generally the scripture get chosen before the publisher, so it's not completely our fault.

I think he did well, don't you think? Anyway we were laughing our heads off. Especially when Christopher decided to play the part of the "lady" as a householder with Jonathan as a publisher.

I decided to play the part of the proper Italian householder and Brian didn't have an easy time with that. You know, in Italy we're often abused in the field so I tried to gave them a taste of that. And I must say that is not easy to be mean, it requires effort, so I don't know how the people cope with such anger in their every day life. 

Anyway... were was I? Oh yeah! Did I mention that we're having Rutoro lesson from a lovely sister? No? Well, now you know. So, every Wednesday afternoon me, Chris, Trevor and Rowena take the car and go to this sister, who by the way is the older sister around here and she never misses a meeting even if it means taking a bodaboda, and spend one hour with her trying to learn how and why verbs and subjects get incorporated in a sentence. 

I didn't expect it to be so difficult. I mean, Italian is not easy and I probably wouldn't be able to explain how it works, but at least a verb is a verb and a subject is a subject. In rutoro that doesn't work. Well, I suppose that slowly slowly (mpora mpora) we'll get there. What was really funny is that at the end of the lesson, we asked the sister how to say "Please leave me alone" or "Please go away" (sometime some people become insistent and annoying and they follow you everywhere). It's interesting that in Rutoro the word "Please" doesn't exist so your tone determines if you're asking politely or not. So at the end, after giving us a couple of phrases to learn, we were laughing our heads off because what came out was "Stop following me and go home or I'll beat you" or something like that. We will never use it of course, but still...it was very funny.

As for the field (and this blog should be about that right?), Chris lately found a mother with her son, Nora and Akim, that are incredibly interested. They already come to the meetings and they 

Anything else? Let me see... well yeah, Trevor is house sitting for us so he has 5 weeks all alone. I'm sure he'll enjoy it. And Soda, my cat, can make you feel at home no matter who or where you are. 

So as for now, we're in the stinking cold in UK, enjoying food and shopping and the sales obviously. I'll update soon. And please be patient...I'll put the video in as soon as I can.

We're growing fast!

So here we are, a bit late I know, but we've been so busy lately. Were can I start?

I think we posted just before the District convention in Kampala. Kampala is not our Convention, but we took the opportunity to have a full program as we had to take to the airport the couple from Alaska, Joel and Naomi. The program was amazing and it was wonderful to see again the brothers from our former congregations. They all welcomed us and some of them were surprised as they didn't know we were back. We also saw all our "children" and to see them all together again was really heartwarming. 

The Sunday program was really nice and we were looking forward to see the drama as in our assigned convention in Mbarara is a short program of 2 days and we don't have the Drama. A terrible storm came straight after the brothers started acting the Drama. The storm lasted more than one hour and the Drama had to stop obviously. The wind was so strong and blowing sideways that all the brothers moved to the center of the extensible Kingdom Hall and tried to use their umbrellas to protect themselves from the rain. 
Finally the storm stopped and the Drama started again. That night we had an invitation from a couple in Bethel and we had a lovely evening with special pioneers from Greece, bethelites, need greaters and Matts (see Yearbook 2010).

We came home from crazy Kampala and resumed our daily life of preaching. In the meantime we moved to a new house that was just finished. We actually entered the house when they were finishing it. So we were without internal doors for a long time. But it wasn't a problem as it was only us living in it. The house is really nice and we can see how Jehovah blessed us.
In the middle of September we went to Mbarara for our District Convention. It was also very nice and I must say that the number in attendance is increasing every year. Two of Chris' studies came and they loved it. And of course we had 3 baptized, one of which is a sister 78 years of age that speaks Kinyarwanda but comes to the meetings although they're in Rutoro. She can only read but not write, but she still prepare for the meetings and engage in the field as much as she can. 
We also spent a nice evening at the Missionary Home in Mbarara together with all the member of the translation office and our new C.O. Cleophas and his wife Jane. 
When we came back we had the privilege to have the C.O. visit and to host them in our house. The only problems was that we still didn't have any doors (but you know, here is not a big deal).
We started panicking as the Friday before the C.O. visit arrived and we still didn't have any door installed. So we asked the Landlady to hurry and after praying to Jehovah several times, we finally had the carpenters bringing the doors and installing them on the Saturday before the visit. 
We had a really nice and encouraging visit. Having the C.O. in your house means hearing all kind of experiences. For example, he told us of a lame sister in Eastern Uganda who never misses a meeting although she lives on a hill some kilometers away from the KH and she can't walk. So, obviously Jehovah never leaves his servants, she bought some chickens that give her eggs to sell. But what's interesting that her chickens produce double the amount of eggs of all the other chickens around that area. So she pays 2 eggs to some boys to push her wheelchair to the KH and to push her back home after 2 hours. The weekend she sleeps inside the KH as she takes active part in the field service and she has bible studies. She never misses assemblies and conventions and sometimes she even pays the transport for other brothers in need... Isn't she a demonstration of how Jehovah blesses our efforts to serve him?
In the meantime we had and addition of other 2 regular pioneers in our congregation and the couple from Kampala that helped us when we moved to Uganda, Brian and Rowena, moved to Fort Portal and are settling here. So we have another experienced elder in the congregation and his wife has a wonderful pioneering spirit and they're incredibly generous toward everyone.
We are also having the joy to have some studies regular to meetings, including a girl (we have 3 sons, we need a daughter now...). I gave her the photocopy of the watchtower of last Sunday and she prepared really well (she prepared so well that made me feel ashamed of myself). 
Do you remember ZamZam? I wrote about her some time ago. She was from 80km away and she started coming to the meeting after reading the God Requires brochure. Well, she disappeared for a while, and we knew it was because she was actively involved in the elections. So we kind of lost hope on her. Then we heard she had a small accident on her heel while moving on a bike. So being in the town center again and the elections being finished, she started coming to the meetings again. One day, I was asking her where was she staying while being in town, and it came out that she was thrown out of the house because the father, being Muslim, didn't accept that she was studying with us and she wouldn't give up studying because she know it's the truth. And she told me that she knew Jehovah would care for her. So she's staying in the center with a friend and she's looking for a job but in the meantime she doesn't miss any meeting. And she's only on the 4th chapter of the Teach book. 
This taught me never to judge on the first appearance. And never underestimate the fact that is Jehovah who makes it grow.
Well, we don't have any other news for now. In about a month we're going home to see family and we're quite excited about that. Thanks for following us... Hope I didn't bore you.
Posting soon...

T.I.A. (This Is Africa)

So, here we are, just moved in a new house and this time we honestly thought that it would be the best place and deal we ever got in Uganda. But, as the title says "T.I.A."... you can't expect the same standard that we have back home. So anyway, the house is really nice! We have 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, nice size kitchen and a big sitting/dining room (i'll put some photos soon). The garden is nice and we're trying to improve it. 
I (Taby) finally had the chance to take out of the suitcase all the things for the house I bought in UK before coming here, so now this place has feels like "home". 
Unfortunately, although the house was supposed to be finished by the beginning of August, it's not. We still miss the internal doors (that will not come before the next month) and we have workers every day coming in finishing something or fixing it (yes...fixing it...some of the "new" stuff is already breaking)... but again, T.I.A.... no stress, no worries.
The field is compensating whatever disappointment we can get from dealing with this system. Our studies are increasing. Chris found a new boy, 19 years old, and after the first study he asked if he could come to the meetings...and he came! 

Our transport

Unfortunately I still haven't had the joy of seeing one of my studies coming regularly to the KH. And when I analyze their situation, is really not their fault. The majority of them have newborn babies and the ones that don't have them is because they're 12 or 13 and the parents don't allow them to come to the meetings. On the other hand, Chris is having at least 3 of his studies coming regularly to the meetings. They prepare, participate and expressed the desire to preach with us. So we're really happy, both of us of course (although I'm a bit jealous considering that we have "3 sons" and no daughter in the truth). 


Ivan, "our firstborn", had the privilege of attending the Pioneer school and we know he had a lot of fun, especially because he was together with Abraham (our youngest and crazy pioneer here in Fort).

We have a new young brother who will start pioneering in September in our congregation and it was a nice surprise to hear the announcement. Another sister is just being appointed and a brother is waiting. We're now 12 pioneers in a congregation of 50 publishers. Not bad eh?
The field service meetings are really supported by our brothers and it's always an encouragement to see them there, in time despite they probably had to walk for more than an hour. 
We're currently preaching in our unassigned territory (or as they call it here "Macedonia") and we were so surprised to find so many interested people. Chris found a girl, Stella, and we now study with the whole family. She is very smart to an exceptional point. I always have difficulties when explaining paragraph 7 to 9 of Chapter 1 of the Teach Book, but she got the point before I even ask the question. She even illustrated the difference between allowing and causing something. And in their language the distinction is not so clear, so I was amazed at the illustration she came out with. 
On Thursday we leave for Kampala to take Naomi and Joel to the airport as they're going home. I will miss her very much as she is an amazing sister, a valid companion in the field, spiritually stronger than many I know, encouraging, understanding...and she is an amazing friend, one of those mentioned in Proverbs 18:24...very rare to find!
I hope she'll miss me as much as I miss her... and I'm honestly praying for them to come back.
As we're going to Kampala we're taking the opportunity to attend the District Convention, the full program, as our program is abbreviated. We'll stay with friends. It's going to be so much fun. And I heard this convention is REALLY good. So we're looking forward to that also because we're going to see all of our "children" at once.
So, ta ta for now... I'll update again once we come back from Kampala.

Time flies!

Every time I decide I will update this blog something comes up so once again I’m writing this entry in bed otherwise I’ll never get round to it again! So much has happend since the first entry so where do I start? A great experience we had and are still having is teaching in a local primary school, we met Mike street witnessing and started studying with him and his wife, it turned out that he is a teacher and asked us if we could share what we were teaching him with the school. This was a great success and consequently were asked back on a weekly bases to teach bible lessons in the school. Another nice experience we are having is with Titus who met also street witnessing he comes to all meetings walking 9km there and 9km back and also walks to is bible study on Wednesday, he’s only 19 but shows such appreciation for Jehovah, we hope he will be another Ivan. Together Taby and I are now studying with more or less 25 people not including the school but we always keep an hour or so free in the morning to go house to house, this way we can still enjoy working with all the brothers and sisters who are regulary attending the field meetings. The meeting attendance has really improved especially since the need greaters have been here, were are now in 3 couples which has had a very possitive effect with the local brothers who have been encouraged to spend more time in the field. We are now 50 publishes and average about 100 in attendance each Sunday.

Regarding Immigration we will enquire at the office in Mbarara when we go to the assembly this weekend, hopefully we will be able to attain a long term visa either buy applying for another work permit or a 3 year multi entry visa if they have started issuing them. 

Finally this is one of those moments of madness we had and decided to take this picture .

What's up in Fort?

As all of you know we have decided to return to Fort Portal as we found the environment was easier for us to support than Kampala and I was sure (Chris) that I wouldn’t get Malaria again only to catch my 5th dose of it after only 3 weeks  of returning! Anyway I got over it within 48 hours as my body seems to be more or less used to it now, just pop a couple of pills and back to normal.

Chris and Joshua

It was wonderful to see the old congregation and get back into things here. We also have a new couple from Alaska here which is a great help. We also had good news from Kamillo (our last study in Kampala to be baptized) that he is now a regular pioneer, that makes all three spirtiual son’s pioneers! Also we had another surprise on our return to the Kingdom Hall in Fort Portal, a study of Taby who had only studied the first five chapters of ” What does the bible really teach” is regularly attending all meetings and making fine progress.

Studies are pouring in as to be expected in Uganda, hopefully we will soon have some nice experiences to write about here. As you should all know by now the year book has a part on Uganda so we are expecting and hoping for more need greaters in Uganda soon. Could that be you?

Taby and Sarah

It is now 00.20 am so it’s time for my bed but we promise to update soon..

This is our home!

So after 3 years and a half trying to decide where to settle, we finally decided for Uganda as by now this is our home. 

Let us go back in time and explain how we got to this decision. Please be patient with me (Tabita) as English is not my mother language so I'll probably make mistakes in this blog.

After 2 years of marriage and 1 year of pioneering in Italy, we realized that we wanted to try to do something more, like serving where there is more need. So we started looking at the World wide report inside the Yearbook 2006. We were looking for an English speaking country (as Christopher is British) where the cost of life was reasonable (as we didn't know if we were able to find work and we had little savings). It is a fact that it's easier to find an English speaking country with need in Africa then in all the other continents. So we looked at the countries where English was the official language and Uganda was the one with the more need at the time (1 publisher every 6.000 people or more) so we settled our mind on that and we started planning for it. We decided we would leave after the pioneer school so we gave ourselves 6 months to plan everything. We got in touch with the Branch in Uganda and of course the brothers were more than happy to hear that we wanted to move there. They kindly gave us the number of other need greaters in Uganda at the time so that they could give us information about cost of life, visas, work, etc. At first it seemed that Uganda was expensive for a third world country but it also seemed that we could get work, if not employed as self-employed being both in IT.Of course our parents at first thought that we were mad, but they eventually understood that our motives were the right ones and then they supported us in our decision. So then we asked the Circuit Overseer what he thought of our decision to move where the need is great and his answer was: "Why are you still here? If I was you I would have gone yesterday..." and then helped us to get the right attitude toward this new experience. 

We then attended the Pioneer School with the same C.O. and all our "classmates" were so supportive that we felt that Jehovah had answered our many prayers: It was the right decision to make! 

December 2006 arrives and we prepare to leave. The brothers in the congregation organized a big party for us and made us cry when they gave us a big photo album with a photo and a personal thought of every family in the congregation.

The day we are supposed to leave we have to go around to say goodbye to the family and again seeing them crying brought us to tears and to wondering if we were doing the right thing. We didn't sleep that night at the hotel near the airport and we were silent during the whole flight.

Uganda Branch

When we arrived it was night time in Kampala and between hundreds of unfamiliar faces we finally saw a brother holding a Watchtower magazine up high. Two brothers and a sister came from Bethel to pick us up and although they'd never met us, they hugged us and gave us a lovely welcome. We arrived in Bethel at 1 am and we tried to sleep but the feeling of being 11.000 km from home and in the middle of Africa was overwhelming. 

Muyenga: Our first congregation in Uganda

We got up at 6.30 am to attend morning worship but it was the first time for both of us and we didn't know what to wear or where to sit. So we arrived in the dining room late, tired, I was wearing a denim skirt and Chris didn't shave or wear a tie. But they were understanding and didn't tell us anything. We still laugh about that with the brothers when we go to Bethel. 

We went back to the room and we waited for a couple of need greaters to come to pick us up and take us to the place we rented at first. 

They kindly showed us around during the following days, driving us everywhere trying to find a decent car for a decent price. 

My Father in the field

After 3 weeks my parents came from Italy to make sure we were fine and that their daughter (me) was happy. They also arrived at night and going there to pick them up the car started heating so we had to stop several times to let it cool down. We arrived at the airport 30 minutes later and my father was already preaching to the taxi drivers along the airport car park.

With my parents in Muyenga

Going back to the house of course the car was still heating so we had to stop and looking around me and Chris realized that we had stopped in the middle of nowhere, with no street lights and there was no one around. We looked at each other and exploded in a loud laugh... my parents must have been terrorized. The next day they admitted that they immediately thought of going back and taking me with them. 
They stayed 3 weeks and enjoyed the field and the congregation. They went back and then we started our real experience.

It was difficult for me at first because I didn't speak any English before I came here, so I was trying to pick presentations from other sisters and of course with Chris' help "slowly slowly" I became more acquainted with 
the language. 

Ivan

During the first 2 weeks we met 14 year old boy named Ivan and a 19 year old boy called Moses. The third week Chris met Kamillo, a 40 year old security guard very enthusiastic about God being raised catholic. 

Moses and Ivan

Ivan was very shy at first so the study was difficult and slow but he was consistent, always prepared and always present on the day scheduled. He started coming to the meeting straight away and we later discovered that he had stopped going to the church he used to go because he realized that they were not teaching the truth. The same church was paying his school fees so by not attending, he also had to stop school. He told us 6 months later because we asked him why he wasn't attending school anymore. In 8 months he was baptized and after 1 year he was a regular pioneer. 

Our Territory

Moses was the opposite of Ivan. Very straight forward and open minded. He was living with a Russian lady, mother of a school mate, who gave him accommodation in exchange for his work around the house. Of course she started opposing him from the start telling him many "stories" about Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia after the II WW. So from time to time he would come to us and ask us to explain and he would always leave the house relieved that what he had been told wasn't true. She threatened of throwing him out of the house many times but he endured and at the end she left him alone. After 1 year he was baptized and then moved in with Ivan. They still share their room, but Ivan is mostly alone because Moses is always busy with the construction of Kingdom and assembly halls.

Kamillo Baptism

Kamillo instead was slower because of his work. Is not easy to find a decent job in Uganda and jobs as Security Guards are always available, but they imply carrying arms. So we studied with him for more than 1 year, he finished the Teach Book and started the 2nd book. He would attend all the meetings and assemblies but it was difficult for him to leave his job as he had a wife and a child to care for. We had nearly lost hope when coming back from our yearly holiday back home, we found that he resigned and was looking for another job because he wanted to be baptized. The wife left him because he wanted to legalize the marriage and she didn't want to. She took the child with her after confessing that it wasn't his. So after realizing that he was "free" he took a stand for the truth and got baptized after a couple of months. 

Moses, Kamillo, Chris and Ivan

They're all baptized and regular pioneers and 2 of them are ministerial servant. They give us great joy and satisfaction and although we're far from them they often come and visit us in Fort Portal.

Nsambya Congregation

So we spent 2 years and half in the capital Kampala. I won't describe them all but although the preaching work was amazing and we had the privilege to see a small group meeting in a small school becoming 3 congregations meeting in their own Kingdom Hall, we must admit that it wasn't easy. 

The school were we used to have meetings

We got sick with malaria more than once and with other bugs often. I ended up in hospital, Chris had problems with his liver because of the frequency malaria would affect him and we had many problems with landlords, work and immigration. Jehovah always gave us the strength to endure of course but in September 2008 we honestly thought we couldn't handle it anymore and as our ticket back home was already booked, we decided we wouldn't come back. As it was our last month in Uganda and we had never done a Safari, we decided to do a week driving around the western part of Uganda. So we left Kampala early in the morning and as soon as we were outside the city we realized what a beautiful country Uganda is. We drove through Fort Portal but didn't stop. We went straight to the lodge were we'd booked and discovered that it was on the edge of the Queen Elizabeth safari park. The view was breath taking. 

There was a sunset on the Savannah and we could see the sun reflecting on Kazinga channel. The next morning we went for safari and then had lunch at the lodge on the channel waiting to have a boat trip. Each passing day we were feeling more and more sad just thinking of going home. Coming back from the Safari Park, we stopped 2 nights in Fort Portal and realized that it's a lovely place, quiet, green, clean and the weather is much cooler than Kampala. But we didn't know anything about a congregation o if there was any brother. 
So we drove back to Kampala, stayed with friends a couple of nights and then went to bethel the day before our flight. Funny enough many missionaries were at Bethel that day so it was even more heart breaking to say goodbye. We then went to say goodbye to brother Matts who always supported us. What comes up in the conversation is that we've just been in Fort Portal and we like it very much, so Matts says "Why don't you try there? There is a small congregation with only one elder and a lot of need.". We again saw how Jehovah answers our prayer at the right time. It was our answer. So we went home, and left again after 2 months to start again in Fort Portal. 
When we arrived here we loved it straight away. The brothers welcomed us with such love and warmth that we felt at home. They helped us in everything they could. We also realized that pioneering here is much easier than Kampala as it's cheaper, the weather is cooler, and there is plenty of territory that has never been worked. 

So, this is how we came to be in Fort Portal and how we decided that this is our home now! 
We're still here, we love it more each passing day and from now on we'll post monthly or weekly new experiences or anything new that happens. 
I hope that wasn't boring...