Christmas Day, Boxing Day hike and Charles’ heart operation

Dear friends,

We hope you all had a very Happy Christmas.

On Christmas Day the boys joined me at Kampala International Church and did well in reading the Lessons, leading the prayers and lighting the Christmas Candle on the Advent wreath. There was torrential rain during the service, (we meet in a tent) and water was flowing in, Ian who was ‘talking’ was standing in about two inches of water, thankfully the sound system coped with the noise from the roof! There were about 150 people in church and some had to stand! Following coffee and cookies we drove to George’s Place, in the minibus, my car, Tresor’s car and Ian’s car! Halima had cooked our lunch of fried pieces of tilapia, chicken, beef stew, roast potatoes, matoke, rice and salad, which we all appreciated, this was followed by ice cream. Later the younger boys went with Tresor and Benard to Sky Beach Hotel where there was a bouncy castle and entertainment. The older one’s watched football and I went home to cook chicken for the hike. Victor and Griffin went to Silver’s Hotel to help with the washing up!

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” ‭‭Ezekiel‬ ‭36‬:‭26‬

Thursday we had planned a hike and met at Ggaba Market where we took a boat across to a nearby island. Victor was again offered work at Silver’s hotel and missed the walk. Christine, Ian and Trevor who sometimes drives for us came along as well. Sadly not long after we had started off Christine was knocked over by a boda and was knocked unconscious for a few seconds. An American Missionary lady stopped and took Ian and Christine back to the landing site and then back to our apartments as she had a car parked in Ggaba (God is good – all the time!). The rest of us carried on the hike after some of our boys spoke with the boda guy – giving him some advice on driving! We enjoyed the walk, the sun came out and it was really hot – we stopped for a picnic of hardboiled eggs, chapatis, chicken drumsticks, banana, apple and juice. It was a lovely time, though I was tired when we eventually got to the other side of the island and caught a boat back. Yusuf managed to find a jackfruit which they enjoyed on their return home. I phoned Christine, who is ok but has a bump on the head, bruises and aches and pains. Prayers please.

On Friday I met Petra, Peace and Charles (Petra’s nephew) at Mulago hospital at 9.30am as we had an appointment with the surgeon who will be doing the heart operation on Charles. Charles is a very ill young lad and although 11 years old is only the weight of a 5 year old. He was examined, his heart is enlarged and his liver has been compromised. He had X-rays, blood tests, more medication prescribed and has to go back to the hospital on Monday, when the team who are operating will discuss his case. They are looking at replacing two of the valves with metallic valves and doing a repair on a third valve. We were there a few hours and Petra messaged me later with the results of the tests. The costs of tests, medication and the operation only emphasised to me how thankful we should be for our NHS! The operation is expensive and thank you to those who have offered to help. We believe Charles will be operated on in early January.

Saturday afternoon I returned to George’s Place. Augustine left on Friday to go back to work. Benard, Stephen and I walked the boys to Banana Village where there is a deeper swimming pool than at Sky Beach and the boys enjoyed swimming, diving for coins, playing football and ludo. We also watched the monkeys who live in the trees there!

Thank you for all your love, kindness and support for our work over the last year, we really couldn’t do this without you. Wishing you good health and blessings for 2025.

Love Jane xx