Water shortages & work permits

We understand that many people in the UK woke to a blanket (of varying tog) of snow this morning - which people will have had very different reactions to. Nothing like that in Kampala, but we did wake to a range of emotions.

Last night we had a lovely, lovely evening with Chrs & Christine Leach who left Uganda a year ago having been part of the BMS team here for six years. They are visiting a number of friends in an all too fleeting fortnight visit. It was so good to spend time together. Although we haven't known them long they have been such a great support and encouragement to us. We are so grateful for their friendship. They also brought us some goodies from the UK - including a Christmas pudding and some very good chocolate! Our lovely time was tinged with sadness knowing that we would be saying good bye this morning.

We woke to find that we still had no water - it had gone off 24 hours before and not returned. How great to have ex-missionary houseguests who understood! We all managed to have swift showers from what was in the tank. If it doesn't come back within the day it'll be bird baths in the morning! How blessed are we that we have a number of jerry cans we keep filled for such incidences. We are able to flush the loo and can heat jerry water for washing up. We have a 5 litre water filter which we have kept topped up and then store the water in bottles in the 'fridge. We are also so aware that we are in the priviliged position of being able to buy bottles of drinking water. How great that inbetween the daily power cuts last week and the water cuts this week, we managed to get  washing done.

We also woke to an email informing us that our work permits have been agreed. What a blessing, we only had to purchase one special pass extending our tourist visa before being granted our official status. No more slow queues waiting around at immigration (well not for another two years when we have to reapply). A wonderful reassurance.

To accompany the stabilising effect of getting our work permits, this morning we were also given formal job titles. We have gone from being 'part of the Children's Department' to now being 'Children's Development Officers' - business cards and ID cards have been ordered. We are really part of the BUU team now.