5th August, 2018

Dear friends,

This week Peace, Bob and I travelled on our own, to the east of Uganda to Bugiri, Tororo and Mbale to visit some of the boy’s families. We were really pleased to find three of the boy’s fathers that we had been unable to trace on previous visits, all quite difficult. On a positive note one of the father’s wanted to be more involved in his son’s life and a visit during school holidays has been organised.

When we first arrived in Tororo we had arranged to meet Saviour’s father as we wanted to settle Saviour and his brother Joshua (7 years) in a nearby boarding school in September but we learnt that Joshua had run back to the streets of Tororo again. We went to the Police and a woman officer came with us to find him. The father had an idea of where we might start looking and amazingly he wasn’t far. Joshua was so happy to see us and his friend also wanted us to take him but this just wasn’t possible – all these situations can be heartbreaking. We now have all the official documentation from the Probation Officer of the area and Joshua is safely in our care. He has been travelling around with us since Thursday. We left the police looking into the home situation!

‘May the favour of the Lord our God rests upon us; establish the work of our hands for us……..’ Psalm 90 v17

Today, Saturday, we are driving back to Kampala. This morning we called to check on Augustine in Pallisa and met ‘aunt Jane’ his baby sister named after me! His father is in Somalia in the army – there are 6 boys, Aunt Jane being the only girl. We were given a chicken that travelled back on my lap for most of the journey. Augustine has land and is interested in building a house, as he now has the skills, but we are checking with Nora our lawyer that the land is legally his as land issues can be a problem here.

Later we called at Betty and Ken’s farm near Jinja where Anton has been staying since Monday and helping Betty with advice on good agriculture techniques. He certainly learnt a great deal from Agromax and planted up seed beds and a kitchen garden for her. She was very pleased with his advice, which has, of course, encouraged him and will help his confidence. He was so happy when we saw him as Betty has paid him generously so we are now arranging for him to start a bank account. Betty presented us with eggs, pawpaw, pineapples, lettuce etc. from the farm, the car was loaded up as one of Peace’s friends was also travelling with us.

When Bob, Anton, Joshua and I arrived back at George’s Place there was so much excitement and noise but eventually, everyone quietened down for prayers. Joshua and Saviour were delighted to be reunited. We left at 11 pm – another long day!

Helen flew back to the UK on Wednesday – I really enjoyed her company, the house seems very quiet now I’m back to being on my own again. We had lived off of chopped up salads for a week with anything I could find in the fridge, as by the time we arrived home in the evenings it was too late to make an effort cooking.

Sorry, Helen.

Jane