Beginning of Lent, Child Protection Policy, Children’s Home reregistration Certificate, Martin arrives, plea for old smart phones

Dear friends,

I met up with Griffin at Makindye Country Club when I went to church last Sunday morning and he made me a cappuccino. He has done well working there and is now looking for full time employment at a hotel.

We have at last been issued with a Children’s Home Certificate – sadly they have left off the ‘s’ of ‘Homes’ and we will have to apply for a correct certificate to be issued!

On Wednesday Peace, Petra and I went to George’s Place as we had an annual staff meeting to go through the Child Protection Policy and talk about how we dealt with certain issues, these are really helpful meetings. We were still in Garuga when the young boys came back from school and had an opportunity of listening and talking with them. At present Griffin, Ronald and Sula (older boys) are at home (Sula had been treated for typhoid), they also wanted to talk with us.

“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭139‬:‭23‬-‭24‬ ‭

Thursday I drove to Entebbe to meet Martin from the airport, he has come for a couple of weeks. I collected the three older boys on my way and they were happy to be in the welcoming party! Sula was pleased as Martin had brought some crocheting cotton which he has taken back to college to be making hats! He is on a hairdressing course but has a couple of days a week free, he could be using the computers that are available but he isn’t really very interested, he likes being active! The boys were then happy to clean my car under Ronald’s supervision (he is the car mechanic!).

Saturday, Martin and I went to Garuga to see the boys. Our consignment from the UK had arrived, which Trésor collected Saturday morning (this also contained the bicycles – we need to get an Allen key and spanner to turn the pedals and handlebars around). The young boys were really excited about the bikes. They also love seeing what is inside the boxes and each chose a new knitted hat, there were also some old toy cars, plenty of T-shirts, trousers, shorts, pencils, toothbrushes, thank you for all your generosity. After lunch we walked to Sky Beach and as we got near the rains arrived with thunder and lightning – wonderful after so much heat the last few weeks. The boys enjoyed swimming in the rain. Sadly Dan has malaria and is on treatment – we think he must have caught it when he was in the village. Also Raymond has an infection so couldn’t join in the swim.

There has been no electricity at George’s Place for the last few days – it did come back for a few hours enough to charge emergency lights and phones. Also the water was turned off for more than 24 hours.

Bethel’s mum visited on Saturday, we are hoping to arrange for Bethel to visit the family next week for a day.

Martin kindly brought a laptop with him that Benard will be using, also a wireless door bell (they are not available here) for the home and lots of small balls for use with the table football game. We are still looking for old smart phones if you have any, we are able to clear them and adapt them for use here for our older boys. Ian is now in the UK for a month and I could perhaps get him to bring any back with him.

Thank you for all your love and kindness.

Lots of love

Jane x