9th September, 2018

Dear friends,

Greetings from a cool, wet, damp Kampala.

This week Patrick and Derrick went back to Meeting Point, as they only had two week’s holiday from their Vocational Training. Emma couldn’t go back with them as he now has typhoid – though this didn’t stop him swimming Friday afternoon – after he had removed the cannula from his wrist. He is obviously feeling better and will be returning to school on Monday – he has only recently recovered from measles. We’ve been swimming the last couple days as in the earlier part of the week it kept raining, but it is the rainy season so the weather is very changeable.

‘Whoever sows generously will also reap generously’ 2 Corinthians 9 v

Flavia has been working every day and has had the boys spring cleaning the house, washing and folding all their clothes and doing their school holiday homework. She is really on their ‘case’ even though she is young and small she is very forceful and won’t have any excuses. One of the boys has returned from visiting his mother (and her new husband) and has a tendency to hide when work is involved but doesn’t escape Flavia!

It was Uncle Paul’s birthday on Friday so we celebrated with cake again, everyone loves cake, which is very substantial and covered with sticky cream! Homes of Promise are paying for Paul (a refugee from DRC) to train as a Social Worker on a two-year diploma course at the University of East Africa.

Sheila, Bob’s eldest daughter (12) has been staying with me for a few days, she is home from boarding school – we went to Acacia Mall on Saturday morning to have a ‘girls’ morning out and have also been out for coffee and lunch. I’ve enjoyed her company.

I also managed to have coffee with Betty one morning and she showed me some photos of her garden, where Anton had planted seeds a few weeks ago which are now sprouting up. She is hoping to take him back to Jinja for a day to check everything. I am not sure if I’ve mentioned before but one of our supporters in the UK has been growing fruit and vegetables and selling the excess in aid of Homes of Promise in her church which we really appreciate.

Bob took the four new boys and Ronald to buy new school shoes, which they are very pleased with. He took them to a Bata’s outlet; Keseeta, also had sneakers as he hasn’t had any trainers yet. So the preparations have begun for finding all the requirements for school/boarding school and vocational training. I joined the boys for morning prayers on Friday and big James prayed for the money to be there for the school fees and everything else that is needed, it really moved me – with each boy needing between 4-10 toilet rolls a term (even the boys in primary school), two brooms each, plus squeezers and mops we seem to be inundated in household items.

Denis returns to boarding school on Sunday.

We didn’t manage to get to KK Beach on Saturday afternoon as there was torrential rain, so popcorn and sodas helped pacify the boys who were stuck in the house and compound all day. It’s only another week of school holidays then things should quieten down and I can get on with paperwork and possibly relax!

With love and prayers.

Jane