A Few Days Away

Last week we went away for a few days to visit friends and family in the South West before we fly out to Uganda. We also made good use of our National Trust membership! We visited Stourhead in Wiltshire on Sunday and Coleton Fishacre in Devon on Monday. We were particularly impressed with Coleton Fishacre with it's beautiful gardens and human scale Art Deco style house.

Gardens at Stourhead

House and Garden at Coleton Fishacre

View of the sea from the garden of Coleton Fishacre

With thanks to everyone who gave us a bed or a meal. It was lovely to see you all and we'll keep in touch. I hope you enjoy following our adventures in Uganda!

Music, dancing, fun and fundraising

Yesterday evening was our fundraising ceilidh in aid of VSO. Everyone seems to have had a good time and I think the band managed to get most people up and dancing. We had a raffle to boost the total and a short game with a bottle of champagne for a prize. We wanted to let people know a bit more about VSO so we each did a short presentation about what we will be doing when we go out to Africa and had a display about the various VSO programmes.

A bonus was to have both of our sons around for the weekend helping to set up, run and clear up after the ceilidh. They also joined in the dancing and helped out with the buffet! It was really lovely to have the whole family together again working to organise a successful event.

SKWID

Over the weekend 23 enthusiastic VSO volunteers and 3 trainers descended on the VSO training centre in Birmingham for the SKWID course. Pronounced 'squid' this is the Skills for Working in International Development course, which runs over 3 days. We discussed how to demonstrate the impact of our placements, practised our facilitation skills, built bridges and tried to trade carefully cut paper shapes. The weekend finished with a very helpful and eye opening health and security briefing.

We all learnt so much and it was great to meet other people going through the same journey. Good luck to you all on your placements.  

Yorkshire Day

Yesterday (1st August) was Yorkshire Day and also exactly 2 months before I fly out to Kampala.

I cycled into work alongside the river and listened to the steam train building up a head of steam in the railway museum next door to the path. It was a beautiful sunny morning, by the river, in a beautiful city. I thought about how much I'm going to miss living in York for two years and all the very good friends we have here. Then I thought about the wonderful opportunity we have got to live in Uganda for two years.

There's an article in the Local Link for July about living in York:
You know you're from York when:

• You pass the minster and don't look up
• You use the medieval city walls as a short cut without looking away from your phone
• At some point you've uttered, 'Oh, another royal visit?'
• You walk past a Viking, a Roman and a completely purple man - and don't bat an eyelid.
• There is no question in your mind where Richard III should be buried.

Yesterday evening our son came over to see us and we went out for a drink in the Morris Minor he and Glen have fixed and got on the road. It was a balmy summer evening, we only needed shorts and T shirts even at 10pm. Uganda weather!