All is revealed!

after all the suspense here is the mystery animal....

I saw this moth on the wall of the School of Nursing and was stunned by the patterns, colours and detail including the antennae with their spiral structure that looks very like the horns of a gazelle!  The extraordinary spectrum of creation is staggering, and when I think that these animals, and our own bodies, are all coded on 4 base pairs in the genetic code it is breath-taking.

Settling back home...

Home sweet home... but can we remember where we left things 11 or so weeks ago in the rush to get ready to go to Kisiizi after the hectic time with the course in London, the church weekend in Derbyshire and then my mum's wedding on the south coast [giving her away, giving the sermon, giving the "son of the bride" speech and making a video of the day!] before rushing back here overnight... happily mum is sounding very well, the house is still standing, and our neighbours have kindly looked after the garden.

coffee time...

Had a warm welcome back at our church [TFW] on Sunday and now catching up on the practicalities of life having to get the car MOT and tax disc sorted etc etc.

The main challenge now is to edit some of the hours of video we have taken ready for Friends Day next Saturday.  Then I hope to do a more leisurely edit to produce dvd's for promotional use to support the work of Kisiizi.

We are encouraged by all the kind feedback re the blog which has proved quite popular and we will continue it a bit longer so come back and see...

meanwhile, for those of you losing sleep over the quiz animal, here is a bit more revealed...


We would value your prayers for Kisiizi and for Friends Day next Saturday

many thanks
Ian and Hanna

Flying home...

lake in the wilderness

After getting up at 2.30am on Friday, we reached the airport about 3.40am and left for Nairobi on a Kenya airways plane at 5.10am.  Lovely dawn sky as we arrived.

only joking!

Then on the Amsterdam bound plane and treated to a sequence of spectacular scenery, initially with hills in Kenya, then the Nile in Sudan, then the Sahara desert and wilderness areas before reaching the Mediterranean.  On over Crete and up to southern Greece, then over the old Dalmation coast of former Yugoslavia before going on over the eastern Alps, Germany and down over the polders of reclaimed land in Holland.

 Great rejoicing at Schipol airport as we enjoyed meeting up with many of our Dutch family and sharing a meal and lots of stories.

Hanna with her 3 sisters, Elly, Dorothee and Noor

Hanna's dad

Then after about 5 hours on the last plane back to Manchester where we were very happy to see Ruth - she had come back specially from Leeds as a surprise to collect us with a big bunch of flowers so we felt spoilt.

So safely home after an intense few weeks in Kisiizi [I am 4 kg lighter!] - a mix of challenges and joys, buffetings and blessings  but it was clearly the right time for us to go and now we need to digest the experiences and pray about the future.  Next Saturday is Friends of Kisiizi day in Reading so it will be really good to meet up with friends there and be able to share some of our experiences.

Meanwhile tuning back into home life here and enjoying hearing from family and friends.  Keep watching the blog for while as we will update a few things and feedback from Friends day...  Thanks again for all the support we have experienced which has encouraged us greatly.

magnificent...

the "Crocodile tree" with the interesting roots

On Thursday we found ourselves a little unexpectedly with a couple of hours spare having travelled down to Entebbe earlier than originally planned. 

Having settled into our motel [ummm...] we hopped onto a couple of bodas [motor cycle taxis - just climb on the back and hang on tight!] and went to the famous Entebbe Botanical Gardens.  They had been established under the British administration a hundred years or so ago and the site is idyllic on the shores of Lake Victoria [a 180 mile wide fresh water lake] with trees brought from different continents now at a magnificent state of maturity. 

Add some monkeys and beautiful birds and it was spectacular so a real breath of fresh air.
 

Lake Victoria shore