20th November, 2022
Dear friends,
The schools and vocational colleges have been closed early due to the spread of Ebola. All the boys are now back at George’s Place, 22 boys. Some will not be able to go back home for Christmas as there are travel restrictions in affected areas.
Peace, Jesse, Saidi and I travelled to Lira on Tuesday. It’s a long drive and took us about 9 hours, we did stop for lunch. Saidi knew everywhere in Lira town and guided us to the Good News Hotel where we were staying. Saidi is a really intelligent young lad who can speak four languages, (not fluently) English, Luganda, Swahili and the local language. The following morning the Probation Officer came to meet us and we visited the father’s home. The mother had left Saidi with the father when he was 4 years old. The mother still lives nearby, she sells hens, we had the opportunity of speaking with both of the parents before looking for the Local Councillor 1 to sign and stamp our papers. We then spent time at the mother’s home, before visiting the maternal grandparents in the village, though we had problems with communication as neither Peace nor Jesse understood them! Peace decided to call the PO again and ask him to explain who we were. Saidi just introduced us his Auntie Jane, Auntie Peace and Jesse! All good fun!
“He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.” Psalms 91:4
After a late lunch in a local cafe we travelled back towards Masindi and stayed the night there. Thursday morning we started our journey back to Kampala, but at Luwero one of the car tyres had swelled and split, we were thankful that the tyre hadn’t burst whilst we were driving. After fixing the spare tyre we continued to Don Bosco Vocational College in Bombo to collect Asaph. The Director of the college, Father Cat, showed us the examination piece Asaph had made for his final carpentry certificate. The Director also took us to the tailoring workshop, where I bought a skirt and bag that the students had made for about £10.
I spent Friday at George’s Place, Simon Peter arrived on his boda with sodas and bread for the boys, he is doing really well and also helping his mother. Augustine had arrived on Thursday, he is staying with his brother this weekend, and Godfrey called in after work, so a fairly full house!
Saturday morning early I went to Salabed to collect a hold-all that had been sent from the U.K. with lots of shorts, t-shirts, New Testament’s from the Gideon’s, playing cards, toothbrushes and pencils. I then went up to Garuga and in the afternoon we took the boys to Sky Beach Hotel where they swam, played football and enjoyed the swings. One of the new boys, Joseph who had jumped into the deep end of a pool a few weeks ago and panicked as he couldn’t swim, reluctantly entered the pool this afternoon, Musumba encouraged him – I think he will be a good swimmer in a few weeks! He wants to be a boxer.
Preparations are underway for the party next Saturday, invitations have been sent out and a large cake ordered. Anton, Emma, Patrick, Shaffick, Big Brian, Tim and Derrick have all been invited and are planning to come.
Please do be praying for the Ebola situation, ‘it’s not very clear how many have died – many cases are presumed but untested/unconfirmed, and there’s talk of likely victims being buried quietly without reporting to the government at all. Give thanks that Uganda is experienced and well-equipped for Ebola outbreaks, however it’s certainly the worst outbreak in the last 20 years.’ (These last two sentences taken from Chris Howles of Crosslinks prayer update).
Thank you for all your love and support, the boys are fine and doing well, I’m really proud of them.
Love Jane x
