On Tuesday, we all hitched a ride to Ambrosoli School on the south-western side of Kampala. Ambrosoli
is an international kindergarten & primary school of around 200 children. We were shown round by the friendly Australian head teacher, and arranged for Alastair and Tom to join years 2 and 5 in a couple of weeks’ time. They’ll travel in with some university staff children and join classes which have a lovely mix of Ugandan and international children, all following a modified UK curriculum.
After an hour at the school, we travelled across Kampala to the FOCUS Uganda compound in Mulago. Surrounded by a very poor area, with a significant Muslim population, the site accommodates the offices of FOCUS - the umbrella body for the Christian Unions of Uganda’s burgeoning tertiary education sector - and also three staff houses.
One of these is the home of our good friends and St Mary’s mission partners, Vincent and Beatrice Langariti, and their young children Stephen and Zoe. They gave us a wonderfully warm Ugandan welcome - complete with a song, Vincent on the guitar – and a delicious lunch. None of us could quite believe that it was all really happening! It was just wonderful to be with them: to hear and see the details of FOCUS’s ministry both with students and with the severely disadvantaged children of Mulago (more of that in a later blog); to meet many of the impressive if small staff team which Vincent leads as General Secretary; to hear of their life as a family and all the adjustments to life back in Uganda after three years training in the USA; and to deliver the gifts which so many in Wootton had kindly contributed towards and which were received with great delight and surprise!
Over the next couple of months we will see more of Beatrice and Vincent – starting on Sunday 29th April when FOCUS has its annual meeting for supporters in Mulago: Peter has been invited to lead the opening devotions.
