Today is a great day for Akanyijuka and all were abuzz with excitement all day. I headed out with Paul and Paulene, Quinton’s parents and it was all meant to start with meeting Pastor Edward at VCCS and then get going with picking up new children. However it started with a text from the Landlord for Graeme and Lisa’s perspective house, saying that they wanted to make a deal today and go back to Kampala today. So we hooked up with Henry the negotiator to see what he had arranged with her yesterday. So around 45 minutes later we headed off for what we actually had planned to do, but with a meeting with the Landlord scheduled for 2 pm, fun, fun, fun.
Our first trip was a little way out of town and we had three to pick up; Justine and Vastine, twins, and Judith. We were getting close to where we were meant to go and we all noticed that some people waved from a store on the side of the road, and kept driving. I did not really see them very well but waved back just because that’s what you usually do and we kept going. Paul and Paulene were talking about the hike that we were expecting when some man came riding up on his bike to tell us the people that waved were actually the ones we wanted. Sorry guys, you missed out on the walk. When we got there we discovered half the village had come out to see them off and also that they had brought two other children that they were hoping we would take with us also. One was a lot older than the ages we said we would take, but the other one we will note and go and look into her situation a bit more. Justine and Vastine were obviously a little bewildered and nervous about the day, but Judith was actually whinging about coming with us, which makes it hard to take them, even when the Grandmother is coming also. The good thing is though, as we were driving along she was saying she was scared about the car ride, but was soon giving out excited noises rather than scared ones.
It was the best feeling to bring these children in, the current children heard us from their classrooms and all came out saying “They’ve brought new children!!!” Later Kathryn said that her students were playing with play dough when a new child came in and most of them gave their play dough to the new child and roused at the ones who did not, and then proceeded to show him what to do with it. It is good to see that they have changed so much since they have come.
After this we dropped Erica home as she was doing a little training with our new stand in Matron, and we picked up Quinton to do some maintenance tasks at Akanyijuka. We picked up the remaining three children for today, Isaac Jordan, Samuel and his sister Dorothy. When we were picking up Isaac Jordan and waiting while he was bathed and dressed I heard a little boy crying out the back of the house next door. I asked Edward to check out the situation and it ends up that the mother had just gone out and left him there. It’s no wonder why children end up on the streets and other things over here.
After we finished off the last few things to have the rooms ready for the new children we went home and had lunch. Then Henry came by to pick me up to take me to the 2 pm meeting with the Landlord to try to do some negotiating. After two and a half hours of talking and going through this and that we ended up with an agreement that we were happy with. Graeme and Lisa, rest easy!!!
The good news for the power situation for today was that after going off at 7am in the morning it came back on early this evening around 7 pm or so, but it was not high enough voltage for the fridge to come on. Every now and then you can hear it click and wind for a split second as though it’s going to start but that’s it.
