Friday 31st August 2007

We headed down to Akanyijuka when we dropped Kathryn off to do a little bit of manual labour for a change.  When I told Henry yesterday that we would shift the truck load of soil ourselves he just laughed at us.  For some reason Ugandans think that all white people are rich and do nothing for themselves.  Now was our chance to fly or burn.  We got going and it was good to get in and do a little bit of work, but when a local (named Rodgers Davis) came along and asked if he could help a bit, I was glad to say if you like you can.  So his little bit turned out to be helping us until we finish.  We gave him a little money so he could buy lunch, which he reluctantly took.  It was nice to have someone help and offer us something instead of being asked for something all the time.

 So we managed to knock over that before lunch and went for what we thought was a well deserved lunch at “Little Ritz In Africa,” a local restaurant.  After lunch Erica was taking the Matrons to the Women’s Conference, and I picked up Kathryn from Akanyijuka, and took the opportunity to get some photos of the children in her class.  You can check them out on my flicker site by clicking on the link on the right, or view just the new ones in a slide show at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/98141030@N00/sets/72157601789036037/show/

While she was at the Women’s Conference Erica also met a perspective new matron also, who she will interview tomorrow.

Thursday 30th August 2007

Today Phil and I talked about going to be involved in Kathryn’s class on Friday and we were just getting excited about it and then we ran into Henry.  We have been trying to track him down so we can organise to get some soil delivered to Akanyijuka to flatten out the front ground a bit so the children can have somewhere flat to play.  After talking with Henry tomorrow was probably the only time in the near future that we could arrange that suited him was tomorrow, so unfortunately we had to put crashing Kathryn’s class back for a bit. 

We had our normal lessons this afternoon, but came home to a little surprise.  A girl named Sarah had shown up at our house and Fred (our night watchman) had asked if she could sleep the night.  The best story we could get out of her was that she was from Kampala and had come to Kabale with here sister on Wednesday, only to have her sister meet her boyfriend and then disappear.  The story is that she spent the night sleeping at the shops.  We were not sure how to handle the situation, and with Edward away in Kampala we called on our next point of contact, the Manzi’s, before we went to the police to help.  After interrogation from Henry and Harriet, as well as a little bit of driving around by Quinton we found out that she was actually from a house not very far from us at all, and that she had run away from home.  She lived with her aunty and we think that she was just not happy with the situation, which quite possibly she may have had reason to not be happy.  As she is a little old for us it is not practical for us to take her into Akanyijuka and she at least has had a good education as she spoke better English than our night watchman.  It made for a very interesting evening though.

Wednesday 29th August 2007

Today started with dropping Kathryn of at Akanyijuka and giving shoes that Phil and I had bought for the new children yesterday to them.  It was great to see the reactions of the children putting on new shoes.  After this I picked up Fred for another drum lesson.  After Fred’s lesson I went to pick up Kathryn to take her for lunch as we didn’t have bread for lunch (due to the only bread that is bearable not being available for a few days).  We went for lunch at a local cafe and we both ordered pancakes, which we ended up going halves in, as Kathryn’s was burnt on both sides and I didn’t want her to not enjoy lunch a little.  Kathryn has a bit of time in the middle of the day while the children have lunch and a sleep (one and a half hours in total) and it we almost did not get back in time as they took so lunch to burn Kathryn’s lunch.  It is funny the things that you get used to here, back home we would complain about a little noise in the neighborhood, but as we were having lunch I realised that we were relaxing with some very loud noise coming from the Women’s Conference down the road.

In the afternoon when we picked up Kathryn we, as usual, stayed another half an hour to an hour to play with the children.  It is great to see how the new ones are starting to fit in and are becoming comfortable with us.  I was saying to Kathryn that the time we have is just not enough that I just wanted to go and be with them all day so that they can all get some attention.  So she said that I could come to class on Friday – can’t wait for that!

Tuesday 28th August 2007

Today it was our turn for cooking and as Kathryn was heading to the Women’s Conference with Erica and Peace Phil and I decided to team up and make some mexican food.  I found a traditional taco recipe on the net and we made that.  I was thinking about taco’s that we would have back home, with the packet mixes that you can get, I should have known better! Mental note, Mexican food is hot.  Although it was not too hot, we had seen Edward in town and invited him and Peace around for dinner, they were fine eating it, but we did not know they were bringing Rachael, one of their daughters.  Unfortunately we had to find something different for her for dinner and desert.  It is funny to think that she probably had not eaten anything like anything we made ever in her life.

During the day I met with Edward to give him some money that was given to us from someone back in Australia to buy a mix/power amp from Kampala as he was heading there for a church conference.  As Phil and I were walking back home I was thinking about how once I was talking with Jackson and he was saying that the big churches in town were only there because someone from the west had come in to partner with those churches.  There is no way that the local churches could ever build anything like these building by themselves, and I was thinking that Jackson’s church would never be able to afford even a PA system on its own.  The church members are struggling to find enough money to survive let alone by anything like this. 

Monday 27th August 2007

Drums! Drums! Drums! Lately I have been wanting to practice the drums a bit myself, but today I could only sit back and listen to others practicing.  Because Fred is on holidays he has been coming up during the weekdays in the mornings, so he was at our place this morning, and then Lawrence came up in the afternoon for his turn.  At least I didn’t bring the drum kit over for nothing, both are a little away from being able to play with others, but they are improving.

Edward also came up at lunch time and talked about various different things concerning Akanyijuka and other activities.  We are so fortunate to have someone like him to work with; we are really coming to appreciate him more and more, both as a partner in what we are doing, but also as a great friend.

Saturday 25th & Sunday 26th August 2007

A Big Big thank you to Kathryn’s sister, Ruth and Peter McClenaghan!!  We headed down to Akanyijuka on Saturday to give some socks that they had organised for us to give to the children.  And they were all very excited to receive them.  We also gave some musk sticks to the children; at first they thought they were pencils and they were all shouting “Pencils, pencils!”  When they were told that they were not pencils they called them things!  Once Pamelah took one bite of a musk stick they soon discovered that they were actually quite enjoyable. 

Saturday morning was great, we spent most of the morning there just playing with the children.  Then in the afternoon I had a drum lesson with Sam from PAG church, it is great to see him doing well, he has played for around six months, just trying to pick up what he can.  Now everyone says that he is improving with the few lessons that I have given him.

 Sunday morning we were heading to church and both our thermos’ tipped over and smashed – great start to the day.  We were tacking them to have morning tea after church, luckily the local school was still on break so not too many people were there and we managed ok with the two small ones that Jackson and Annie had.  Phil preached a passionate message about what God had been speaking to him about in the last month or so, very encouraging.

Friday 24th August 2007

Today was my big day to go to the conference.  I dropped Kathryn off at Akanyijuka for school and stayed for a while to play with the children and took some photos – check my flickr site for some of them.  After this I went to Jackson’s place to talk and pray as we do every week, and we had a good time.  Then Annie asked for me to stay and have lunch, which was really enjoyable, simple but enjoyable.  After this however it was off to the conference.  I must say it was not enjoyable, but not quite as bad as I had worked myself into thinking it was going to be.  But Jackson and I were in agreeance of many things happening there.  The more I think about how we are to encourage one another and to reach those who are without Jesus, the more I think that we can really only be effective on a personal one to one basis.  I think of how Jackson and I are meeting and people back home that received this and those who did not.

Anyway I am feeling good that my visit to the conference is over and I am very excited that I am walking in God’s will with Akanyijuka.  To impact someone’s life, one or two at a time is such a good feeling, whether it is to help them materially (as with Akanyijuka), emotionally, spiritually or to just encourage them in some other way.  Enough rambling, just check out those photos!!!

Friday 24th August 2007 (Kathryn)

School again today but this was a slightly different day as I had two new students in my class.  Prudence and Junior.  They were a little hesitant at first but then Moses & Emmanuel were explaining to them where they were going (well at least I think that is what they must have been saying) and so Prudence and Junior followed.  I started off the day with just free indoor play to let Prudence and Junior settle in and feel at ease.  I took out the lego blocks and the three boys showed the new students what to do with the blocks.  It was very cute and pleasing to see. After about half an hour, Prudence seemed to start coming out of her shell and was talking to me as she was making something with the blocks.  Junior was still shy but I could see he was quietly enjoying the blocks as he sat on the mat with the other boys.  Moses was very loving and took it upon himself to look after Junior.  He would ask Junior every now and then if he wanted to go to the toilet and if he wanted “such and such” etc.  A bit later in the day it was playdough time and like the three boys did when they first saw the playdough, Prudence and Junior had a taste of the playdough.  I think Prudence must have liked the taste of it as she started to eat one of the little balls of playdough she had made. After seeing my two new students in class today I think they will fit in just fine!

Thursday 23rd August 2007

Today we decided to stay away a little to allow the children to settle in with their new families, except for that Quinton took the new children to the clinic to get medical checkups, and all came back with good reports.  They all tested negative for AIDS.

There is a local church here that is very loud and boisterous who have been running a week long conference (the 8th Annual World Revival Conference) and both Edward and Jackson have been trying to get us to go along to see how excited Africans can get.  Today was Quinton’s turn to go with Pastor Edward.  Quinton’s report was not good, as we were expecting, and it was good that Pastor Edward also agreed with him.  I can’t say that I am looking forward to going with Pastor Jackson tomorrow, but I’ll give it a go anyway.

Wednesday 22nd August 2007

Today we took Peter out to collect some children, so he could see where they live and the difference that will be made in the children’s lives. As always this was a moving day.  I don’t know how to express in words the feelings, seeing where the children come from, seeing them separate from the world they know, seeing them trying to fit (some are nervous others are excited), seeing the guardians expressions as we show them where we are taking the children, seeing the children we already have and how they react, as well as thinking that they were like these children when they first came, and thinking of how their lives are about to be changed and getting to know them as we do the others. Man that was a big sentence, but that’s how the emotions go also.   

Here are a few pictures that Peter took today, he as everyone involved, was very moved by the days events.

Here is Phil with Prudence and Michael (Brother and sister – below is their other brother Junior):

Junior:

Junior with Prossy:

Here is Elizabeth and Joan (her sister) in the background:

And this is Christian:

And one more of Michael also:

That is the next five children who came to Akanyijuka.

The beds did actually come today, around 6pm, so some of us headed down and set up the beds for them and all was good as we left, the matrons were happy, the children were settling in, everyone had all that was needed – it felt like a great day with things running smoothly!