Tuesday 31st July 2007

A relaxing day was had by all today, except Phil – we dropped him at Akanyijuka to finish the painting in Kathryn’s class room, putting up the alphabet and numbers.  Then we had Pastor Jackson and Annette over for dinner.  We had a good long conversation with them, which really helped build relationship with them.

Monday 30th July 2007

Today started with dropping Kathryn at Akanyijuka for school and it was good to see Prossy and Moses both appearing well and in good spirits, Moses was his cheeky self again.  Here are some school photos of Kathryn’s class.  We are looking into school uniforms soon so they don’t wear out their other clothes.  We then headed to the local Caltex to get a punctured tyre fixed.  The price was through the roof – 3,000 shillings – that’s AUD$2.10 and included putting the tyre back on and the spare away, I imagine they would charge that much back home to just change a tyre. This afternoon we met with VCCS to put together a board specifically for Akanyijuka as we thought it would be best to put a structure and policies in place before we move on more.  It will be easier to do that now that we are small rather then later when we are bigger and we thought it best to get a board in place to do those things.  We have started them but a board should be in place to approve them.  The board ended up being Pastor Edward, Robert (a secondary school teacher), Erica and myself. But the highlight of the day came at 9 pm in the evening when we were all relaxing after a bible study just talking and thinking of the future etc, and Kathryn said I can hear dripping water.  When we went to investigate what was happening we found that water was dripping, probably faster than the hot water in our shower (which is pretty slow), from the ceiling in our bedroom.  When we investigated, a join in the piping in the ceiling had started leaking.  It is no wonder why as the rubber that they had used to seal the two pipes that butted up against each other had come off.  So we used the only means we had to fix it – electrical tape.  This seems a bit dodging indeed, but when you see what else is up in the ceiling then it does not seem too bad at all.

Sunday 29th July 2007

Today Phil went out preaching again, this time he went to Edward’s church.  The Siddans’ went with him and said that he is getting better all the time.  Edward reported to me at a later date that he was superb.  Today at church I told Jackson that I would like to partner with him, sort of in a joint mentoring role, where we help each other grow and also specifically to find God’s direction with where to go with his church.  He was very accepting in this, and said that he had been praying for someone to help direct and build him.  So hopefully there will be big changes coming for the church in the future. In the afternoon I went with Jackson to another secondary school.  This time we had been invited to speak with a group of students (30+) about starting a school choir/band.  This went well and Jackson is to be a ‘patron’ that will be there to help when they need it.  I may have a role with helping to teach instruments or ‘machines’ as they call them.  The biggest problem for this is that I have run out of instruments to use to teach people.  Jackson was saying that the school ‘Kabale Secondary School’ was one of the best in Kabale town and they do not have even one single instrument to use as a school.  I said to Jackson that this school was worse than the best we have at home, I dare say that it would be demolished if it was in Australia.

Saturday 28th July 2007

Today I had a pretty slow day, just two drum lessons.  But I did have a long talk with one student, Fred, as we had to walk up to our house from town.  I enjoyed talking as it gave me a better idea of what life for local middle class Ugandans is really like.  Fred is in a family of nine children, with three children in secondary, three in primary and three in nursery.  The children in Nursery are not too bad as they cost around 15000 shillings to school, but when a child starts secondary the fees go up to at least 70, 000 shillings and keep going up as the years go by.  (i.e. S1 is 70,000 and S2 may be 90,000)  He was saying that to go to university, after completing S6, the cheapest course would be in excess of 1 Million shillings.  To bring this into perspective these figures are per term and our employee’s wages range form 60,000 to 100,000 a month.  After paying for food and rent and other essentials there is not much left over for schooling.  Fred said that it is mainly children whose parents work for the government that get to go to university or even higher grades in secondary.

Friday 27th July 2007

Today we headed to Akanyijuka to remove some left over seconds of wood that were used to build a fence.  This took most of the morning after doing several loads, with many people shouting out to us ‘overload’.  They say this because that is about all that the police pull people over for on the roads, as they want bribes.   We also took Prossy to the doctors for a check up.

Thursday 26th July 2007

We had a low key day today.  Good news was that Moses is getting much better.  He is eating again and seems to be getting some more life to him.  Unfortunately Prossy was feeling a bit down today, possibly having Malaria herself.  She is going for a test in the morning to see.

Wednesday 25th July 2007

Today was Kathryn’s second day at Nursery School, and unfortunately we found Moses not any better and still vomiting, so we took him back to the doctors.  He appeared to be fine while we were there, but he has not been taking food and vomiting a lot.  The doctor gave something for the vomiting and said that it was normal for this to happen, but if he does not get better in a few days or gets worse bring him back.  After arriving back at Akanyijuka we showed the Matrons how to give the syrup medicine, but unfortunately Moses threw it straight back up.  Then we decided to try some dry biscuits, which he managed to keep down five of, as well as the Malaria medication. So after this Kathryn had only a few hours left for class..  Pamela said that Alex had been crying as he was ready for school earlier but Kathryn had gone again to take Moses to the doctors.  So if nothing else they are enjoying school.  Moses joined in on Kathryn’s class for the rest of the afternoon, and he seemed to be in high spirits.

Tuesday 24th July 2007

Today’s highlight is that we now have internet at home, no more running around trying to use café’s.  We also had Pam and Eddie over for dinner and I whipped up (half a day actually) a couple of Indian dishes.  I think they were well received, but I think they could go with a bit of tweaking.  Today also it was decided that Moses should be put in with Kathryn, as he was not even able to hold a pencil yet – she’ll get him into shape pretty quickly I think.

Monday 23rd July 2007

Today we opened Akanyijuka Nursery School.  Five children are with Prossy, with two or three of them most likely to start primary one next year.  The remaining two are with Kathryn in a early childhood type program.   Here is the older ones with Prossy:  And here is Kathryn with two in her class: And here they are at work:

 

Unfortunately Moses had been sick today, and after taking him to the doctors it was discovered he had Malaria.

Sorry

To all that have been waiting for some posts I am sorry.  The website I have been using has had a few problems, but now is ok.