Last Monday evening our Canadian friend Heather Lennox was en route from Uganda to London, Ontario, and caught a bus from Heathrow to Oxford to meet us for dinner - Oxford being a good mid-way point to meet, but still involving quite a bit of travelling for both parties (sorry Heather!) But it was definitely worth it. We had to talk really fast to cover as much as we could, and we did pretty well. She brought some notes and gifts from friends in Uganda, and two bags of groundnuts which was a special request for Alex who adores them. We don't know when we'll see Heather again... but we really hope we will. She is a great person and a lovely friend. It reminded me again of the catch 22 of living the ex-pat life - you make wonderful friendships and then go and live on opposite sides of the world from so many of them. But with skype and email at least these friendships are more meaningfully sustainable than they used to be.
And today we had some Ugandan visitors, Bishop Cranmer Mugisha and his wife Mama Hope. Cranmer was one of our very first students at UCU. The first term we lectured there was the January 2004 semester, and Cranmer was in a small group of students I taught NT Greek. At that time the number of classes and students at UCU was exploding, and classes outnumbered the classrooms - so I taught this group outside under a tree, carrying a large whiteboard and wooden stand out onto the grass. Felt like a real Africa missionary. (It was pretty hilarious because the whiteboard had been used by a teacher, presumably in some health class, who had mistakenly written with permanent marker, so all our Greek lessons were adorned with the words "pubic lice" across the bottom of the board. We all studiously ignored them.)
Anyway, Cranmer was made Bishop of Muhabura about five years ago. He and his wife are here for six weeks visiting various friends and churches, and happened to be coming to Gloucester, so we were able to host them here for the afternoon. It was so lovely to see them. Bp Cranmer is one of those warm people whom you are just glad to know. We enjoyed hearing the latest news from the church, and having a taste of Uganda, and having a Mama sitting on our sofa again.
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