Saturday 29th & Sunday 30th September 2007

As usual Saturday started with a drum lesson with Fred, then later in the day at 1pm I headed down to PAG church to give Sam a drum lesson also.  Erica went with Prossy to do the weekly shopping, which is starting to take a bit of time these days.  We had Pastor Frank, Phobice (his wife) and two other Pastors that were in town for a leaders conference that Frank was hosting, over for dinner.  It was encouraging to meet with them and listen to how they were also trying to do their bit to help out.  There are a lot of people that actually do try to help orphans in need, but they are very limited in how they can help. 

Don’t tell Gary, but Kathryn and I decided to stay home this Sunday – we thought a break was in order after last weekend’s marathon.  Sunday night is meant to be a slap together for dinner, but Phil and I had a crack at Rogan Josh and another Paneer dish.  Still haven’t found the right sauce for the Paneer, but I thought the Rogan Josh was pretty good.

Friday 28th September 2007

Yesterday I said that Quinton drew the short straw with picking up the children, but today it was Phil and my turn to draw the short straw.  The last two times Quinton took the children to have AIDS tests and reported that the children did not cry, only Junior complained a little.  Today Phil and I crazily took the children ourselves to the clinic while Prossy stayed to teach her class.  Well things are very different here than back home.  To start with Quinton had a different counsellor than we did, he said they were all told about what was happening etc.  When I was sitting down with our counsellor I thought that this lady is actually quite scary.  At one time she stood up and I thought I was in a movie scene, like the ones where there is a lady that stands up and she is gigantically tall and is about to get angry and beat some dweeby fellow up. 

Then I was told to take the first, Blessed in to get tested, and as soon as we walked into the room she was crying.  This was the first of a long process of holding children to give blood while they were crying out.  It was not a nice experience at all.  Both Blessing and Andrew had snuck out into the yard to get away, and it was almost impossible for me to get them to come back, they were crying in the car park.  Eventually we got them all done and promptly got them out of there so they could get home and feel ok again.  I think they will forgive us; they were laughing as we went over bumps on the way home.

Then Phil and I went to the markets and bought some slip on shoes for the new children.  They all seemed happy to receive their new shoes.  Then we dropped the car back to Erica for her to go down and take Kathryn and the matrons to the markets to buy the new children clothes, some only came in what they had on and some of those were not too good at all. 

 I’ve uploaded some more photos at my flicker site, so check it out if you like and look for my album called “Latest!”.  Also Phil and I are trying to make some turkish pizzas from scratch tonight; hopefully it all turns out!

Thursday 27th September 2007

Excitement was felt by all today as we were getting new children today – but what an exhausting few days it has been.  We started out with going to Akanyijuka and Quinton and Prossy took Vasta, one of the new matrons, to go and collect the children that she was getting to take care of today.  Phil and I were there to get the rest of the rooms ready for the new children and also to move the store; where it was located is going to be two of Vasta’s rooms when we get more children so we have to empty it and get it ready for that.  When we finished this we just sat down with the children and were flat out exhausted that we could hardly keep sitting up.  It was nice though to just relax and be with the children.

Then after what seemed almost all day, actually at twelve, when Quinton finally got back the tiredness instantly wore off with the arrival of three new children.  These are the three children that Vasta is looking after:

Blessing:

Christine:

Max:

After this there was not too much more Phil and I could do to help without a vehicle so we got Quinton to drop us off at the markets to get some supplies for home, while he went for the remaining children, who are to be with Merida.  When Phil and I finished at the markets, we remembered that Pastor Edward was away and that he said we could borrow his motorcycle so we picked that up to avoid walking up the hill home.  On the way home to regather and get some lunch we picked up some packages that Peter and Amie Royle had sent over from London for Kathryn’s class as well as 30+ pairs of socks for the children!!!!  Thanks heaps guys!! 

After lunch Phil and I headed own again to get some more things that the matrons needed.  When we arrived there with some things, Quinton had arrived with three of the four children that will be staying with Merida.  These are the three children:

Maureen  (Blessed and Maureen are sisters):

Blessed (Blessed and Maureen are sisters):

Moses:

Not long after this Quinton and Prossy went and got Andrew, Merida’s fourth child for the moment:

 

Poor old Quinton draw the short straw on going and picking up children, he had to end up driving all over the country side to pick up children.  After Kathryn and I got home from going to our usual lessons there was no power so we all had dinner on the balcony so that we could catcht he last light going down.  Then came the fun task of washing up in the dark!! But after another long day we now have 7 more children and they already have people wanting to sponsor them which is even better.

Wednesday 26th September 2007

As I said yesterday the week was going to be busy.  We started with dropping off Kathryn and picking up Prossy, as Edward was away we needed her for interpretation.   Our first point of call was with a grandmother that was looking after her two grandchildren one of which is currently being sponsored by another organisation, but had come to us for help.  We decided to leave the decision of if we would formally apply to the other organisation to take over care of the sponsored child, up to the grandmother, and she decided that she would leave the child to be cared for by the other organisation.  We did however decide to take in the child’s sister, as there is obviously still a great need in this family’s lives.  We did not like to split the siblings, but the grandmother was more than happy with the situation as she could obviously not sufficiently care for the child, even with the other organisation helping out.  Perhaps later she will see the difference and allow the other sibling to come with us also.  I believe that the only reason she wanted to keep the sponsored child was because they were building a house for her, and there would be no hope of this happening if the child was not sponsored anymore.  We are of a strong opinion that it will not happen anyway.

After this we picked up Harriett Manzi and went to look at another two girls that Quinton had not gotten a chance to visit last week when he went out with Edward and Prossy.  After this we went with Harriett and a land brocker to visit three more blocks of land.  I would be very surprised if we ended up taking any of the land we had previously seen over one of these three.  Two of the blocks are more expensive then most blocks we have previously seen, but they are flat, flat and flat, and of considerable size also.  The third however, though not really big enough for what we need, has the most potential (I think) because it is a bit further out of town, has many vacant and also flat land surrounding it that we are going to find out if it is available too. 

Then we picked up Kathryn, Erica and Amelia and headed back to headquarters, home that is, for lunch with all the team to discuss the final decisions for tomorrow’s intake of children.  We came to the decision that we will take in 7 children, four for each new matron.  After observing the way the first matrons handled their children, there is no doubt that the new matrons will be more than fine with four each.  We have 4 girls and 3 boys, all except one is under 6 years of age and two who are siblings.  I have no pictures to post today, but will try posting some tomorrow.

After this we headed back to Akanyijuka to set up rooms according to the requirements.  This invovled, of course, chasing up the furniture place to chase up outstanding furniture that we are still waiting for.  It may seem funny that we keep going back to this person as they always let us down on time frames, but he is probably no worse than anyone else around and if we know what to expect we can make allowances for his delays.  We have all the essential items, but the other things would be good also.  We always have fun putting the beds together, as they are built as double deckers and then cut in half with a piece of steel in the centre to hold them together inside the rooms.  This is so we can move them about easily, but the problem is that the holes never line up and are always too small to just slip in, so with our extensive tool collection we use a hammer and screwdriver to widen the holes. 

It was good to get home and think about the new children coming in, and to talk about what we will do tomorrow etc.  This is what it is all about, getting to see them change over the next few weeks and getting to know them ourselves is a bonus!!!

Tuesday 25th September 2007

Today was a day of relaxing; time to catch a breath in preparation for a busy rest of the week.  We are planning to take in more children this Thursday, assuming all goes to plan, and there is always a lot to do in these times.  The only formal activity that I had today was an Akanyijuka Board meeting at 5pm.  We spent some good time praying and electing a chairman and secretary etc. and brought a few issues to the table for discussion in a fortnight’s time.

Phil sometimes complains some days about it being a boring day.  Well check out his current post on his blog (www.philhollands.com) and you may then agree with us that he shouldn’t be complaining about boring days for a little while.

Monday 24th September 2007

I dropped Kathryn off at Akanyijuka and had a great time just playing with her class for only 5 minutes.  It is great to just be with them, even if for only a little bit, and see the joy and happiness they express.  After dropping the car back home, I walked down to the drop-in centre and on the way I saw Eddie dropping a couple of boys off for a hair cut, it was good to see them getting this done, they were happy to be able to sit in the chair and get a hair cut so they looked like everyone else around them. 

I spent most of the time talking with Joshua, one of the helpers, and Godwin.  It was good to talk with Godwin and get a bit of his story; he is one of the more talkative boys.  He has no parents and three brothers and one sister, of which he is the oldest.  He does not go to school but somehow manages to get his brothers and sister into school and provide food for them.  He has obviously inherited a house of some sort from his parents where I believe he stays in very poor conditions with his other siblings.  He makes a special effort to keep them in school and away from coming with him to go into town, as he does not want them to get a taste for life on the streets.

Brown, one of the boys from Hope Africa (Pam and Eddie’s other project), showed up as he had not payed school fees and was chased away.  I sat talking with him for a while and he went through his history book with me, which was good as it gave me a little insight to East African history.  But the amount of times he asked me what this or that meant, or did not know what different things were that I asked him about (things he had obviously just copied from the blackboard), highlighted to me that the education that most people received here was very poor.

After this I met Phil at a secret rendevous point and had lunch and a catch up and then headed of with Pastor Edward to see an  agency that was sponsoring a child whose grandmother had come to us to see if we could take her grand children.  A story that has set a sense of urgency within the team is about a girl Quinton went to see about us taking in.  This girl had been sponsored by someone overseas through an agency.  I will say simply that the grandmother that was looking after three sisters had come to us for help, and help they needed.  It is very sad to have to say that when we made contact, we found out that the youngest sister had just passed away one week prior.  For us it was a wake up call and made us all the more determined to do as much as we can to help as many children as possible. 

Some people say it is best to help the children in their homes in their families so that they can keep their “roots”.  This sounds very good in theory, but when you see on the ground the situation then you can begin to realise that this may not be the best way.  There is so much open for abuse by the sponsored child’s family and the support may not actually help the child and their family.  This is evidenced in this case that we found as the caretaker (the roots) of these three children was the grandmother, and rather than supplying the children with food they provide with the means to get food.  I was speaking with someone from this agency and they were saying that the family was responsible for supplying part of the materials for the houses they build for the sponsored children and if they have no land they hire the land for them to plant seeds.  This is all fair, but in this incident the grandmother was unable to supply all the required materials so the building of the home was put on hold.  And as far as supplying seed or land that is required, that is if the grandmother was actually able to dig and plant seed, the person from the agency was saying that this part of the program had not yet reached Kabale. 

Enough of my opinions for a bit, after this Edward, Phil, Quinton and I went and looked at some more land.  We were talking and saying that we should keep looking and then on October 1st just size up our options and go with the best we have.  When we were talking to Edward he was saying that he had given himself until the end of September to find a property, which will explain why he has been taking us somewhere every second or third day.  We are not sure of our best option yet, most land we see is either too small, too far from a road or too hilly.  We will talk with Henry later in the month and talk about our options for building etc.

What a weekend!!

Saturday 22nd September Today started out with the usual drum lesson with Fred at 9 am.  Fred is coming along ok and is improving every time even though he only gets to practice once a week on the kit.  After this we went down to play with the children at Akanyijuka, we took them all down to a local field to run around and be silly for a bit.  After this I definitely felt like I had spent all my energy and was ready to go home and do nothing else.  On the way home we drove past Edward and he hit me up for trying to get together today and talk about some things, so I told him it will have to be after 2 pm as I was due for another drum lesson at PAG Church.

So we went home and had a quick lunch and then I headed down to give Sam a lesson at PAG.  After this I met up with Edward and had a talk about this and that, we went and had a drink and caught up with a few things, which was good, but I had to cut our time short however, as I had to go home and get ready for practice this afternoon.  Tomorrow is a combined church service between Jackson’s and Edward’s churches and a “Music Gala” in the afternoon. 

When Kathryn and I arrived at practice, we were hit up by a lady who had brought two separate children for us to look at to see if we wanted to take them into Akanyijuka.  So I called Edward to come and got him to go with Quinton and see where the children lived, as we had to stay and practice and I was a bit too tired already to think straight.   As I had suspected, the practice was very long, just as well as Quinton did not get back until we had just finished packing up.  So after almost 3 hours we were heading home. 

It was late after 7 pm and since it was our turn cooking we ordered some take away from a local joint, and then went home to get a container to put it in.  Just to top off a long day when I got back to get the take away I had remembered to get some empty bottles that we said we would bring, but I had forgotten the container so had to go home again.

 Sunday 23rd September  We rocked up at 9:30 am for the start to what was a marathon of a day.  Playing morning and night back home had nothing on this – we got home close to 7 pm at night and were there all day.  I think I will have a rest from church participation next weekend, probably just go to Edward’s church and vege out in the back seats.

 At night I was reminded of a story about Agnes’ Aunty which was good to hear.  She had come to see how Ronus and Agnes were going and when she saw Agnes she broke down and cried, she could hardly believe the difference and was sad that she had allowed such a beautiful girl get to the state she was previously in. 

Friday 21st September 2007

Today was a big girly day for Phil and I; we went shopping, but not the sort of shopping that Kathryn would like.  After dropping off Kathryn at Akanyijuka and checking the stores we headed out to do some shopping, preparing for new children next week.  We decided to buy enough stuff to cater for up to 32 children; the full quoter for our current premises.  It was a draining day, but it is always a good time, just because it means we are getting more children, plus it is fun to bargain with the local traders.  I think we are getting better as some things we are getting cheaper now than when we first went out. 

While we were at the markets we bumped into Pam Ward and she said that they are definitely going to 5 days a week with the drop in centre starting next week.  Poor old Pastor Edward is getting to be a busy man these days with us and the Wards fighting for his time, though I think he is trying a swifty by handing more things over to us and them, which is cool by us!

Thursday 20th September 2007

Paneer Tikka Masala!!! When we were last in Mbarara we went to City Top Indian Restaurant and some of us had a delicious dish called Paneer Tikka Masala. It is like butter chicken but with a home made cheese instead of chicken. I asked the people there if it was hard to make and they told me that it was very hard. But I was determined to see if I could and I found a recipe on the Internet for it and as it turns out it is very simple to make the paneer indeed. Tonight was my attempt and producing this dish. It was very well received, but definitely not a City Top job that’s for sure. They have an advantage over me though – they are Indians. The guys can expect a bit more paneer in the future.

On the Akanyijuka front though we went and looked at three blocks of land. One looks very good and we would be able to start without much excavation work, with plenty of good land around for expansion in the future. I think it may be our best option yet, but we are waiting to hear back front he owner as he wants to negotiate with a friend first.

Wednesday 19th September 2007

Today I dropped Kathryn at Akanyijuka and hung around to help and link up the Internet so that they can see Kathryn’s parents on Skype. They really enjoyed it, but I think they enjoyed the computer and trying to touch it more, and seeing themselves when I showed them some of my photos.  After this I headed to the drop in centre to catch the end of it, Pam and Eddie were saying that they were thinking of going to five days a week, which will mean that hopefully I will be able to get there to get involved a bit more also.

After this I headed to meat to Jackson and we talked and prayed for a while, which was good as he had been away for a few times.  Then Kathryn, Phil & I headed home to join the Babysitters Club, looking after Amelia while Quinton and Erica were busy.  Erica had to do Matrons training and Quinton was out with Edward and Prossy looking for more children.  We are looking to getting some children for the new matrons probably in the latter half of next week.