10 July 08 - sorry still no photos - 4got card adapter in Loughborough!!

Things with my house are coming along very slowly! We discussed the accommodation before I even left for Uganda, I agreed to go ahead and take it. So, when I arrived they told me that they were waiting to get furniture and to knock a doorway through because they wanted me to agree to take it – which I already had! So, now it seems that it will take them a long time to get furniture and to knock a doorway through – I told them the reason that I decided to come to Uganda 2 months before starting work was so that Nathanial and me could get settled into our new house and that we could ‘bond’ with each other again. I explained to them how difficult Nathanial is finding it in the evenings when we both have to go our separate ways – I don’t think they really understand! Welcome to Uganda – the country where they say things won’t take long but in actual fact they take forever!


I took Nathanial to his nursery class yesterday – he just clung on to me the whole time – another reason why I wanted him to settle with me first – before putting him in nursery! It didn’t help that everyone there called him baby! Even the nursery teacher called him baby – after I had told her his name several times. I must have taken Nathanial to the toilet about 5 times during the whole 1 ½ hours we were there – he still managed to wet himself twice! I sat in my new class for a while – which has now changed from Yr2 to Reception Class which I feel a lot happier about and more comfortable with! I will also be in charge of Early Years and expected to train up the Ugandan lady who is currently with the pre-schoolers!! Most of the kids I will be having don’t meet the expectations they should after leaving pre-school, for example recognising their name, their colours and their numbers and simple things like holding a pencil correctly! This is only because they haven’t worked on it in pre-school! So I am going to have my work cut out for me! They may also expect me to be joint school coordinator!

I have yet to determine how old Nathanial is – his language skills are quite good – although I would say not above 3 years. I guess it wont hurt him to be 3 in December, after all he is behind physically. All the trousers I brought for Nathanial are far too big around the waist – so he has to have a belt on which wraps around him 1 ½ times! However, wearing a belt isn’t useful when he is potty training.

I had my first stomach bug on Friday – I threw up in the night 3 times and had diarrhoea a lot more times! I was absolutely zonked come Saturday and did absolutely nothing all day – I went for a 5 minute walk in the garden – and then slept for 2 hours as it wore me out so much!
I also have this spotty rash on my right arm – very itchy – not sure what’s causing it though!

It is very quiet at the babies home, lots of the older kids have left and a few of the babies too. There are lots of new kids too though, mainly babies.

On Wednesday last week I went to Kampala to register at the British High Commission. We got there at 1.30pm, they close at 1. We explained to her that we had come 2 hours to be here, she didn’t care and sent us on our way. I am going to try and get a passport first for Nathanial before getting legal guardianship as I am told that that is the better way to do it. This also means two more trips to Kampala to get his birth certificate completed. The court cases are now being heard in Kampala as the local ones would always postpone them at the last minute, and for families travelling from far away it was very difficult. So the Kampala judges should be more efficient although we have one family who have now been waiting 2 weeks to hear on their ruling. It all varies from judge to judge and most of them are old and ailing.

Interesting anecdotes:

To get a birth certificate in Uganda it costs for a Ugandan child 5,000 shillings. For a foreign child it costs 80,000 Ushg!! That’s £22.50 more than a Ugandan!!! I’m sure that there are no legal documents certifying that – and if you asked for a receipt they would probably make excuses