Saturday 20 May 2017

Back in Uganda

Hello everyone.

I know it has been a very long time since my last blog. I guess I have just been enjoying my time away.

As you may know I am back in Uganda after a few weeks in Melbourne and one week in Dubai.
Australia was wonderful, as always. It is always very refreshing to be able to relax! Especially because I had been quite sick and so was Ethan. It was certainly a time of resting up our bodies and our minds, due to all the sickness and stress we had been having over here in Uganda.
I had got malaria and typhoid just before coming to Australia, and Ethan had the same as well. Ethan was so sick the day before we were supposed to leave that we had to end up changing our flights … because Ethan was on an IV drip.

The flight over to Australia was great because Emirates really looked after us, giving us four seats with lots of leg room to share between Agnes Ethan and myself.
Ethan slept most of the way which was helpful for us. And I was even able to watch two great films about faith. Hacksaw ridge and Silence …. Both films are worth seeing, and both are important .. one dealing with the victories of faith and one dealing with the issues of doubt and suffering.
Anyway, I thought it quite an accomplishment that I managed to get some movie time in while we had Ethan!

It was a blessing to watch interact with his Australian family as well. His grandparents and aunties love him so much and Ethan took them very easily.
It was amazing to see Ethan’s development over the month as well. He has learnt new words and actions, and is running around everywhere.
But with the development comes new challenges, because Ethan has well and truly learnt how to throw a tantrum when he does not get what he wants.

It was also a blessing to see many friends and supporters.












The wedding of my sister and now brother in law which we come back for was also a wonderful experience.
I was quite busy for the day being film man, doing the prayer and bible reading, driving the brides maids around and taking care of Ethan. Aggie was a brides maid and Ethan was a page boy.
He made it halfway down the aisle before having to be carried by his JaJa (my mum)
My favorite part of the wedding was my sisters very moving speech, I wish her and Patrick many blessings in their future together.





I also got to spend a lot of time with an old friend of mine. Micky is someone I have not seen in a while, and we have spent a lot of time exploring bass coast together. We came up with a little two part film project together of our time over the last month, one showing each of our perspectives of what that particular coast gives us.



You can check out part one here: https://vimeo.com/216268132

And part two here: https://vimeo.com/217634695

I was having trouble in Australia though, I found myself getting very strong vertigo. Every time I would change position I would feel so dizzy like the world was spinning.
After seeing two different doctors we worked out where it was coming from. It was suspected that it was a sort of hangover from malaria, but after getting a blood test it was shown that I was quite normal and healthy, except for a small infection. The doctor wanted to look in my ears and then went on to say “Ahh, Luke do you happen to be a surfer?”
It seems I have a bad case of surfers ear .. where over the years in the ocean the salt water helps create these boney growths in the ear.
Because of the time in the cold cold water over the last month the growths had become inflamed, which was throwing my balance off.
A few antibiotics and I am back to normal.

Time in dubai with my parents was nice .. lots of eating and drinking and swimming and liesuring!! Before heading back here to Uganda.

Now that we are back we hope to see us moved down to the new YSU property and have the new youth center running.
We want to work on the YSU leadership team, and develop a strong team that can put the YSU vision forward and not have to rely on myself.
So moving into the new youth center, working on leadership structures, obtaining my new working permit, plus getting a few projects up and running, will all be our aims for the rest of the year.

Again I want to thank those who have stood by us and supported us. For those who have contributed finances and prayers … we love you and appreciate all that you have done.


God bless.