How was your sabbatical?
As I return to Belfast and Fitzroy this week, I am thinking that I might get asked this question a time or two. So, how was it? Well, the quick response is… awesome!
The official sabbatical was six weeks in Uganda. The last four weeks have been holiday. There were many times in many places during those six weeks in Uganda when I sat back and gave God thanks for the ridiculously lavish privilege of spending six weeks in Africa. Imagine that. Now, back in the day, I have spent more than six weeks in Cape Town, when we were taking three teams a summer of Chaplaincy Students. Uganda, though, is different. It is real Africa. Right in there. Murram roads. Mud huts with thatched roofs. Bod Bodas. Very few muzungus!
I felt that we settled in, particularly in Kampala. We were able to have coffee and lunch with people, walk on our own to shop and go for meals out. Now to be fair, that was all about our little patch of Muyenga. We had the privilege of staying in both the Fields of Life apartments, on the Shalom compound where their offices are. Indeed, for the last two weeks, through the kindness of Scott and Anne Brown, we walked up past all three floors of the Fields of Life offices to get to our apartment. I loved looking in and saying hi, and getting distracted with conversations with some member of staff. It was also a rest from all those stairs! We cannot thank Ednar Nyakaisiki and her team enough for how they welcomed us in!
As I shaped Fields Of Life founder Trevor Stevenson’s memoir, I sat in Shalom typing about when he and his wife Ruth first drove through the gates. They both felt a peace, hence Shalom. How right they were. Our time here was the proof of that feeling and the name - Shalom!
Within a few hundred yards of the gates of Shalom there is everything you needed. Cafes, restaurants and a grocery store. Finding Holy Crepe in the last couple of days was a bonus, sadly better late than never! If we’d walked a little further, my girls could have bought fashion and fabric. For that they would call Bosco who became our driver and took us wherever we needed. My two frustrations, one that came from the other, was that not feeling confident to drive in the mad traffic of Kampala which resulted in the vast majority of city remaining estranged to us. If we were going to live there longer we would have needed to learn how to drive!
Living above the Fields of Life offices was such a joy. We got to know the staff better, though when the women change their hairstyles they throw me and with one or two of the men are still a struggle to put name and face together! My girls got to do a little work in the office and on the field. We became a little part of the everyday running of the NGO and that helped us all to feel more orientated to what Fields of Life is all about.
So too with Fitzroy’s work in Onialeku, Arua. Janice, Jasmine and I got an extra week before our Fitzroy team arrived. That helped solidify friendships and gave us a chance to have almost ordinary days on the school site as opposed to the mad festive time we have with a team in. Janice and I got to think about what we do and why and how to develop it. We also got down time in Uganda after the team left. Reflecting in the environment of the Fields Of Life offices about the team’s impact, which was again very helpful.
Of course I got to be a writer for six weeks. Though on my last sabbatical in 2005 I had the spectacular title of Writer In Residence at Regent College Vancouver, this time I felt like a writer. I think it was The Times that used to have a little weekend series called How Do You Write? I loved reading about the places and routines of famous writers. For six weeks in Africa I was a writer. Oh my. I loved every minute. Let us hope the book is worthy.
As always on vacation, but perhaps more in ten weeks away, the Holy Spirit gave me a hard time. In that kind of space where there is intensity of family together, and also the space to reflect, the Spirit loves to expose my foibles, quirks and weaknesses and failings. I am not sure whether any healing was done but various dark sides have been pointed out!
The best thing of all is having that kind of time with my wife and daughters. Africa is the one place that we can all go together and all be in our happy place at the same time. Where everyone’s a winner is a great place to enjoy one another’s gifts.
As the real world beckons, I am a little fearful. I have emptied the hood. Emptied it! I haven’t thought about what I do in Belfast and Fitzroy since mid June. I have been relieved to have been out of the deep rooted divisions and rifts across our society. I have not missed the vicious debate. I have enjoyed being outside the shallow judgments.
As I return I do not know what to think. I am prepared for reverse culture shock. I am starting to pray that maybe I will find my place in it all, if that is still God’s 10:10 for me. I hope I am fresher for the fight, more wise as the serpent and more gentle as the dove. That verse has been lingering around my soul the entire time (there is always one!). How it will be made flesh… I will wait and see… still not sure that I am ready for what it might look like!
Thank you who followed the trip on the blog or other social media. I appreciate it. In answer to the question. It was a privileged sabbatical. I don’t take it for granted. I am grateful… and I miss Shalom!
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