Queen of 63 years

Posted on February 9, 2015 by Fiona Schneider

7th February 2015

Yesterday the Queen of the Commonwealth and head of state of the UK commemorated 63 years on the throne. By necessity as a hereditary monach, also remembering a parental death.
The last one to hold the head of state office for so long was also an Empress and oversaw an era of adventure and discovery. Exploration of the Nile and it’s headwaters was a race against rainforest, disease, men and a passion of some of Queen Victoria’s subjects.

Strolling around a tiny part of this great lake with a balmy dust free breeze is a lot easier in this Elizabethan era.But worth the contemplation that some of this water makes it through jungle and rainforest desert and city to the Mediterranean

Slaughter of the Innocents

Posted on February 9, 2015 by Fiona Schneider

My host here,laughs a lot. And likes to understand people.He’s seen a lot and laughed a lot and been perplexed by people at times.I think he got it that loose rats might make me scream. Anyway, he’s kind.So he locked the school rats in a cupboard. Just for me. So it was I agreed to take the dissection class.A Rat and I.
The class mentioned before are a great group and we had a lot of fun and overstayed the lesson time.
So.
Mrs Ratty… No,I cannot say I liked you .But you were skinny and much smaller than the giant rats of my imagination. Alas, a skinny expectant one.

Mrs.Ratty

Four fetuses

So we learnt a lot.Four amniotic sacs to open,four fetuses to handlens. Limbs, eyes, umbilical cords and placentae with a 1cm crown rump length.
And the class did so much work on the five. We saw kidneys,liver, lungs pancreas,heart and then the budding neurosurgeon stepped in and explored spine and brain

Oh! Mrs Ratty. You will not be forgotten. And neither will your babies. Six young scientists learning and questioning and curious. A high in their academia will be kept for you five.
Nevertheless, Mrs Ratty did raise a paradoxical emotion. Five less rats in the world = good. Killing before the very first breath of such intimately developed fetuses = bad. And the city of York came to mind….in a land with free contraception we abort the fetuses that could populate a city the size of York, every year.Nearly 200,000.Remember the city of York as an annual memorial for those not with us and may we strive harder for wanted and loved pregnancies.

Youth is wasted in the inequality.

Posted on February 6, 2015 by Fiona Schneider

I took up the challenge to join the sixth formers. They are a lively group,hungry for education, for success at exams and seeking a bright future. This group all want to study medicine and they want to be my friends on Facebook. They want to write e mails to me and they want to know how to find funding grants for higher education.They are bright and they deserve a great future. Who knows? Will inequality rob them? rob their families, rob their communities, rob Uganda? or will the cuddle of inequality and dependency slacken into the orgasm of empowerment?

Here they are ( with permission) with self made Dorcas who can pump fluid around her circulation

Pet dislike

Posted on February 6, 2015 by Fiona Schneider

I dislike mice. Hate them even. I scream very loudly too. The mixture of mice and me can be a loud rapid departure.But who put a hole in some medical equipment. There is a confusing tipping point where tease and truth liquidise in the same pot.Rat? RAT? Rapider rapid running. If I can get away of course. Sometimes you just have to stay.

Funnels and Pyramids

Posted on February 4, 2015 by Fiona Schneider

February 3rd 2015

Grey grey highlights bald blond grey grey coloured highlights coloured grey grey.Or black black black bald bald greying black bald black black extensions bald.
The first applying to the typical hairstyles down a typical local street.The second sentence; hairstyles typically, here, children often shaved bald for hygienic reasons.
At home, at the Christmas period you can see the return of an 18-30 generation. In between we are pensioner lopsided and Clark Foley, the over 50s centre, open to a fair few of our town. For rest and refreshment and University of the third age.
Come south to the Equator,zero degrees north and south, and zero is a very common age. Us European northerners match our latitude too where over 50 is the boom.
Lots of little children everywhere, here

Exploring languages as they call to me, ” Bye…see you ” “how are you Muzungu?” It’s a pyramidal demographic that is vibrant, engaging, energising and hungry for a great future.
Our funnel demographic may be pensioner rich and pension payer poor but wisdom of experience is a treasure.Our elders have stories to tell.Wisdom to share and experience we know nothing about. Generational fracture is common place in Europe allowing us to dismiss and forget the value of our greyheads.

The pyramidal society need to know wise stories and our funnel society would do well to listen to them and give them voice before they are lost. A cylindrical demographic would help.
Respect for elders here is engrained so that children and young people kneel to elders in their family. Can I feel my western audience cringe? Why?

Education Sunday

Posted on February 4, 2015 by Fiona Schneider

1st February 2015

It’s Sunday!
In many Christian churches in the UK,today, education is talked
about and schools staff and pupils prayed for. Education Sunday. This is an education Sunday for me, as was last Sunday and as every Sunday can be.

I didn’t like the cockrel this morning.. All that loud flapping of wings before his virile pride burst forth into a dark hot 5 o’clock morning. Shhh and go away!

But education Sunday had begun and out of the darkness came harmonious rich beautiful singing. I’m not able to understand the words but the gentleness of the singing was a much better alarm clock than Mr.Cock.African singing at its best.

Lesson one : the local church can be
deeply devotional and not tied to a Sunday lie in.Jesus comes first.

Lesson two: corperate harmonious worship can enrich a community and it’s ok to let the neighbours hear.

At 7am, still behind the mosquito net snoozing I heard my host, the pastor, leaving for the first service. I didn’t want to get up.Too comfortable. Others of our household were sweeping floors and tending to small children. I didn’t want to get up just then,either.

Lesson 3: There’s a lot of work to be done. Lying in bed doesn’t get it done.

I attended the third church service of the day at 1100. What joy!
Music already in full swing with over two hundred gathered for worship. Singing, drums, dancing and lots of small children everywhere. It’s loud but the amplifier makes it very loud. It’s welcoming and joyful and controlled. It’s a performance only to an observer not to those interested in worship,but it is hard not to feel stiff.Everyone’s smiling and that soon includes me.

Lesson four: don’t be so self conscious. Noone ‘s watching you. Worship.

The photo attaching this post is all about help for shoes punning the good news.

The preacher’s job is to point to real help for souls. I’ve never experienced so much applause in a sermon as this one progressed. Spontaneous congregation participation. Real anguish healing and forgiveness from God is the experience of the congregation here.They know it and are believing and very very grateful.

Lesson five:
Jesus died for you and can heal your soul and bring healing in your life.The cobbler gets it and it’s up to your answer to the question Jesus asked Peter. “Who do you say I am? ” See Matthew ‘s gospel chapter sixteen verses15-19

I’m sort of bilingual.. I can get by.Spontaneous translation is quite another art. They have sermon translation down to a fine art. Fast and fiery at times, the preacher changes language and so must the interpreter. It’s slick and professional.And the occasional untranslatable word or saying

Lesson 6:
Uganda and so much of Africa is a bank full of credit for the world. The world sits staring like a miser at a pile of gold.

Lesson 7 : Man’s inhumanity to man is a worldwide phenomenon not an African one.

Education Sunday… So much to learn, so much to be thankful for and so much to respond to.

My new bicycle

Image

Bicycles

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Fiona Schneider

I’ve just bought another bicycle…
This one is home made and bought from a street seller.It’s a toy.
I like the idea of someone selling crafts and this bike has taken quite a bit of work.Wire work and some cloth work. Design, marketing and selling.
It’s hot for me today,and it’s also hot on the streets for the locals.I’m now sitting in an air conditioned Internet cafe where it’s comfortable and I can rest.Day in and day out the seller of my bicycle is smiling, smiling in his weariness of making a living in the overhead sun.
I’m ashamed to say it crossed my mind to ask to pay less than asked for.Silly western woman being ripped off.But I love this quirky bike for whoever, whenever and I need to pay a fair price..in my exchange rate. And he still cannot afford the air conditioned cafe

Control

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Fiona Schneider

I saw a mouse.
It was big.It wasn’t a rat.
I did not scream.

Disconnected

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Fiona Schneider

28 Jan 2015
Culture shock always sounds so negative. A different culture is expected to bring new experiences,people, sounds, tastes.And new is the force that heightens awareness,stimulates the brain builds the memories and having accomplished these, blends into the familiar. A change in culture whether holiday, work or a visit to another side of our city is energising for the mind.So the shock bit is actually very positive.
Disconnection, when we are so used to digital connection can be a shock. A prepaid bundle of texts failing to operate, no signal,power cuts that took the IT batteries down to dead, exhausted credit and a new phone crashing are the last week’s reasons for disconnection shock.
In a few years our instant connections have become a norm, and the
isolation of disconnection shock has become painful.The intense initial irritation at non functioning or accessible IT can be seen from adults to very small children,so we may expect disconnection to be jolting.But disconnection can be used to heighten awareness,look around for the new and to learn how restless constant IT connection has made our minds. The shock of IT disconnection shock is a positive and one where intuition begins to flourish and the mind can be constructive and restful, prayerful and contemplative.Finding new connections .