Saturday 30th June 2007

Birthday party time at Bonyonyi Lake.  I was Eddie’s birthday so we took the Wards to the Lake  It was a great chance for all to just relax and enjoy a break.  Here is a picture of Eddie trying to not show his age, but I don’t think it payed off:

Here is one of the Siddans just relaxing while we were there:

Here is one of Amelia, trying to tell me she had enough photos for the day:

And here is yet another one of the Lake:

Phil stayed home to organise a few things with the house, trying to get it ready for us to move in.  The landlord had organised for some people to come in and fix a few things, there are extra locks now that were missing and a few other minor things. Kathryn & I went to music practice again, and it was decided that I would play drums at a dedication Sunday, for Akanyijuka, on the 8^th July.  This is a bit nerve racking and I have never played in church before and I have not played on a kit for over two months now.  I am sure I’ll be ok though, the songs are not too complex, so I should be able to play nice and simply and make it sound passable. After dinner Phil cooked up a nice pudding and custard for Eddie’s birthday, we have started eating a few more deserts and stuff lately, which we will have to cut out.

Friday 29th June 2007

Today was a good day.  We managed to finally meet with the Probation Officer, who set us in the right direction.  We also employed our first staff member.  Prossy Namaya (who I had previously written about as Pruce) is our administrator, who will later take on the role of Nursery Teacher also.  This is Prossy: 

Prossy is going this afternoon to arrange employment contracts with our first two matrons, as well as gaining approval from the children’s guardians and local councillors (LC1 Chairmen).  It was good to have someone else that is able to do the leg work especially now that things are getting busier. We also had breakthroughs with the house side of things also. 

Action man Phil, went with Henry and now electricity and water are connected, refrigerator purchased, the house is being overhauled/cleaned tomorrow, the grounds/gatekeeper is hired and the night watchman is in the process of being hired.  So perhaps tomorrow afternoon, if we get time, we may move in.  We will see though, as we are going in the morning to the lake with the Ward’s as it is Eddie’s birthday, so we are shouting them lunch there.  If we do not get in tomorrow afternoon, we may have to wait until Monday or Tuesday, as we are busy with church and Akanyijuka stuff all day Sunday and Monday at least.  Phil also went with Henry to see the Town Clerk, and reported that it was the quickest meeting he had ever had – the Clerk did not even read the letter, just said ok, you start!  Praise God!!

Thursday 28th June 2007

Today we checked on the progress of the building for Akanyijuka, and delivered the first batch of furniture to the site. We also tried once again, unsuccessfully to see the Probation Officer. We went and visited the Inspector of Schools to set up as a Nursery school, and we were advised to send a letter to the Town Clerk to obtain permission, and then he would consult the Inspector of Schools. This was to our advantage, as Henry is really good friends with the Town Clerk, so we drafted a letter and gave it to Henry to look after.

When I returned home, I found Amelia helping with the Siddans’ washing:

 

We met again with those available from VCCS board to continue drafting policies and procedures, which went well. It was good for me as Quinton was willing to draft the final copy for submission and approval. After this we had guitar and piano lessons. Kathryn is doing really well, I usually finish in half an hour, but she almost went for an hour today.

Wednesday 27th June 2007

Today was another shopping day, but today we went for ourselves, buying all except perishable items. I thought I would show a photo of the local Target/Kmart – ours is called Beverly’s though:

Here’s a snippet of the Ward’s garage after we literally packed it full of stuff, and Quinton and I sorting a few things:

I think that Silver, the Ward’s groundsman, is a little bit concerned about us continually bringing more and more things. He does not speak English but always gives us a funny look when we bring things. Not sure exactly what he is thinking. Also today while Edward was out of town, and he left his motorcycle with us, I had my first solo ride on a bike, even if it is only 125 cc. There was a local boda boda rider nearby and he saw me riding. When I stopped he came over and said are the brakes working (I must not have looked to capable to him). So Edwards’s bike ended up getting a free brakes tightening.

Tuesday 26th June 2007

We headed down town in the morning to go to the internet café and bumped into Edward on the way. He was heading to the RDC’s office to try and see if he was finished with the NGO application. It turned out that he was and so he headed to Kampala to hand in the application with the NGO’s office there. We sent him with some money so he could get us a printer and some hair clippers for the orphanage.

We bought a few large buckets to put the beans, rice and flour in to keep the rats out of them. Tonight we had a meeting that Edward had called so we could piece together some policies and procedures. He had given Henry some sheets and left him in charge, but it was evident that he had not explained anything to him as it took about half and hour to get it across what we were there for. We started a 6 pm and when we had been going for and hour and a half they were keen to call it a night. Luckily the follow up meeting to try and finish it of starts at 3 pm – hopefully we can spend some more time on it.

Monday 25th June 2007

We tried to visit the Child Probation Officer today as she was due back from holidays today, but we were informed that she will not be back until Thursday. So we went to the police, ‘special department’ to see them as they deal with the same area. They told us that we need to see the Probation Officer, before they drilled us for about one hour. I think they were just trying to test us out to see if we were genuine, but it was not really a fun experience.

After this we decided to get the remaining things we needed to get started. The only things we now need are fresh food items. Today we bought a range of things, including 100kg’s of beans, rice and maze flour each. On our travels we met two ladies that were interested in be matrons. So we sent them to VCCS to meet Erica and Quinton for an interview. It turn out that one had previously worked with another church looking after children in and orphanage for ten years. Also she is an interpreter at her church so she speaks very good English. I am glad we held of and waited for the right persons to come along as her experience will be invaluable for training future matrons.

I haven’t posted photos for a while, so here is one of you know who:

Sunday 24th June 2007

This morning I was preaching at Church and with the notes that I had, I thought I would last about twenty minutes or so, but ended up speaking for 50 minutes. Apparently it was a good message. We also met with Jackson after church, as he is getting us to help with structuring and possibly improving the effectiveness of his church. This afternoon, Quinton and Phil went down to one of the local hotels to get a motor racing fix. I have been a bit busy this week so the posts are both short and late – sorry.

Saturday 23rd June 2007

Today we sat down and tried putting some policies and procedure heading together so that we can sit down with Edward and others to put some things in concrete before we start. We also visited Edward to talk about a few things concerning the matrons and the children. We are set for a busy week next week, with tying together the last few things required for Akanyijuka to get going and the possibility of moving into our house.

Friday 22nd June 2007

This morning I started out with trying to finish of a sermon that I had been trying to get done in between all this weeks activities, ready for Sunday. I managed to finish it of, but did not get to go over it at all. In the afternoon I was praying a bit and felt God wanted for me to share about something else. So instead of taking my ten pages of note, I will most likely just go with a few notes and scriptures scribbled in my diary. A good lesson I have learnt is to not agree to do extra things when I am already busy.

Phil and the team went out to the village again today and it was great to hear Phil’s excitement in the report of how things went.

Also Erica went today to interview three possible candidates for becoming matrons. We discussed the options when she returned and two of the three had their own children and were going to send their children to live with their grandparents if they got the job. And we felt strongly that this is not a good situation as it would put their children into the situation that we are trying to prevent. So we are going to wait and trust God to bring the right ones along. We though that it would be best to wait for the right ones to come and perhaps not take in as many children, then it would be to compromise and end up with the wrong situation and many possible future complications.

Thursday 21st June 2007

Today Phil headed out with Pastor Frank and Ben and a few others to go to a village about an hour away, to start a two day conference. It ended up not being that there were many people there at all, and they almost did not talk at all. But Phil got to preach for about 20 minutes, and reports are that he went very well. Pastor Edward rang and said that previous appointments that he had were now cancelled and we went out together with Pruce to verify that the children that we selected to first take in were in genuine need. It was lucky that we did as some had out right lied about the situation. It was a long day and we travelled on Edwards bike, three of us – Edward, then me and then Pruce on the back, sitting sideways – it must have looked quite funny to the locals, a Muzungu sandwich. We also did a lot of walking up hills and down pathways, and I even managed to trip over in someone’s potato patch. But we did however have a good day. We started with six children, and two of them were not genuine, and we ended up finding another 6 possible candidates to take their place. So we are praying about it to see which ones that God feels for us to take at this stage.