Tuesday 31st March 2009

Buckets of rain this week have helped the garden at our place come on well.  We are getting to the stage soon that we will be able to help out a little with costs at Akanyijuka, supplying some of the things they usually buy as well as some extras that they don’t usually get.  Yesterday they gave me some jobs at Akanyijuka and so I went down to replace about four faulty light switches – when we build our own place we have to put in decent things, that is if you can get them!!!  Kathryn sat with Rogers for a bit to discuss about a staff meeting with the teaching staff, so I taught the P2 class about my screwdriver and pliers, which they didn’t seem to think were good for pulling teeth.

Monday 30th March 2009

We had a nice easy day with our usual Monday Morning Meeting with key staff from VCCS and Akanyijuka, followed by some easy tasks like delivering post and doing up pay requisitions.  Then as soon as I sat for dinner, literally as I picked up my fork to start to eat, the phone rang.  It was Pamellah saying that they had a problem down there, I jumped to something like, a sick child or that the electricity had been cut off.  Alas it was that a light switch was playing up and the light could not be switched off.  So after dinner I headed down to fix it, and luckily at 6:45 the electrical shop was still open to buy a new switch on the way.  After fixing the switch, the Matrons must have thought I was in repair mode as they brought out every other thing that had a problem as well, like the clock that had a floating hour hand etc.

Friday 27th – Sunday 29th March 2009

Friday night we hosted the Kanyesigye family, that is Pastor Edward and Peace and their four children.  I had the task of preparing dinner for them, and it seemed to go down alright.  I had made mild versions of what I would usually do and no one rejected anything, not like an earlier time, when Phil and I had made an authentic Mexican dish and it was so hot that we could hardly eat it.

Saturday afternoon Kathryn and I went down for our first music lessons.  I had looked on the internet for ideas for first lessons and such and after giving the lessons I decided that what I read was not for someone that had never touched the instrument of choice, but that is ok.  We start slowly but the good thing is that as you go on one picks up things quicker.  The children did hardly anything but they were over the moon about just having a go. 

On Sunday when we went down to take some photos they were actually practicing, and they were still so excited.  I am however, sorry because although I took my camera down, I had not put the card back in so I have nothing to show for my efforts.

Thursday 26th March 2009

This afternoon we attempted to start music lessons with some of the older children from Akanyijuka.  I say attempted because basically I gave them a talk to let them know it will not be easy and then we both gave a few little exercises that they could do without instruments.  We will start on the coming Saturday to see how we go with real lessons.  It will be challenging as there will be some fun times to be had with the language barriers.

Wednesday 25th March 2009

This morning we visited the drop-in centre and took Tine, a young lady we met from Denmark.  We had previously taken her for a visit to Akanyijuka and thought we would show her the drop-in also.  In the evening we went around to where she is staying and had dinner with her.  It was encouraging for her to say that she thought what we were doing here was good.  She is doing an internship with a big NGO with lots of funding and she said that she thought what we were doing was more productive, or value for money.  We have also invited her to come to Akanyijuka to do a little talk on Denmark with the children one weekend before she leaves.

Saturday 14th to Saturday 21st March 2009

THE CASE OF THE MISSING WEEK

Wow is it that long since I did a post, it may seem as though I have forgotten about you who read my blog.  I haven’t, it’s just that when you get behind it seems so hard to try and catch up.  Last week was not too busy, but other factors made it impossible to get onto the internet and post blog entries.  Firstly on the weekend a close friend of ours had a relative pass away, then on Monday we travelled three or so hours to the burial and back.  Then we have a week or two (still going on now) of power interruptions – mind you that is after a weekend of power out all day to do maintenance, obviously they uncovered, or created a greater underlying problem.  Then UTL (our internet provider) decided to do a crack down on people that used two phones on one account by disconnecting everyone and waiting for them to come and complain and then sending them away to provide proof that their phone is the one linked to the account.

Sorry for the missing information of this week, but nothing too exciting happened, just normal run of the mill life in Kabale.  At least I assume that is the case as I can’t remember much more – just those things that made life a little difficult.

Thursday 12th & Friday 13th March 2009

Not much to say – I finally finished the financial reports, went shopping, spent Friday morning at the drop-in.  So here’s a few extra photos from last weekend.

Wednesday 11th March 2009

It seems the birthdays never stop these days, I suppose when there is 40 children it’s almost a birthday a week.  Today was Christian’s turn.  After today there is no more for the month of March though.

Here is the birthday girl:

And here is a photo of a visitor we had – ‘Farmer Joe’, aka Pastor Edward in a hat that the Roberts gave him:

Monday 9th March 2009

THE 40 FACES OF AKANYIJUKA!!

Yesterday I managed to get photos of all the children, I was a bit trigger happy on the old camera so here they all are:

I didn’t get a photo of Moses Akanyijuka by himself so I put up the following two in series with Andrew, the first one is captioned “I’ll pull your ear!”

Then the second is captioned “Yeah well I’ll step on your toe then!”

I’m sure that is not the true story but it sounds and looks good!!!

 

Sunday 8th March 2009

This afternoon we visited Akanyijuka with a friend we had met, Tina.  Tina is from Denmark and is in Kabale doing an internship with an international NGO as part of her studies.  She seemed interested in what we were doing so we took her along.  It was a great time, we were there for three hours and I just enjoyed myself playing with the children.  I took my good camera along and got a few photos.

Alex’s mug shot:

“Let me adjust these aerials and see if I can make my sister’s hair go funny!”

“That’s it!!!”

A game of Duck, Duck, Goose: