Coffee with Ken, Joseph bitten by Zimba! George’s Place fumigated, photos of older Joseph

Dear friends,

It’s been a quieter week, I met Ken Tuesday morning for a coffee and he came back to the office later to practice authorising online banking under Petra’s guidance.

Peace and I went up to Garuga in the afternoon and visited Little Angels to talk with the head teacher about Joshua having some extra tuition for P7 exams. Whilst we were there we checked on new Joseph who had been bitten by Zimba! He was fine. We also called at George’s Place and checked that Joseph had been for a tetanus injection, which he had, and he’d also been given some ointment from the doctor. He is being very quiet about the incident and it was felt that he knew he shouldn’t have been hurting the dog. Zimba has never bitten anyone before and he often gets very rough treatment by the older boys but of course we will monitor. Benard is still away but returns this weekend.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” – ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭3‬

We arranged for the home to be fumigated on Wednesday – which is regularly done here in Uganda, we get lots of ants, cockroaches, bed bugs, geckos, etc. Ken even has his gardens sprayed against snakes! The fumigator came early in the morning so that the house was fine when the boys came back from school.

I have spoken to Augustine this week who is doing really well, Patrick who is with his grandmother in Rukungiri, also I’ve seen Emma who came and stayed at GP for a few days. Peace has sent Ivan’s solar panel by taxi to Mbale as her husband was unwell last weekend and they were unable to travel. Big Denis has his Prom this weekend and we have sent his suit, shoes, etc. by boda. He called and asked for a few shillings to give a flower to his girlfriend! They are certainly growing up! Trésor is back from Rwanda though seemed very tired when he arrived at the office on Wednesday.

Our 2023 accounts have now been filed with the Charity Commission, thanks to Geoff our Treasurer. In the office we have been looking at and updating our policies to make sure we have all our paperwork up to date. We are planning a Management Meeting for the end of July. I spoke with the auditors here this week and we are having an online meeting to see how we can improve all the paperwork signing, authorising and ‘stamping’ which I must say I find very tedious but needs to be complied with!

On Saturday I went up to Garuga, we checked the boys boxes which were all in good order, then five of the boys cleaned my car for some pocket money and later we took them swimming. Trésor is back to normal!

I have been going through all my photos and am making a start on a ‘Life Story Book’ for Joseph who is at Don Bosco on an agricultural course. He has not been able to stay with a relative since he was put in our care in 2017 (See story here), though I do have photos of his parents. He is a kind, caring lad, very artistic, good at football, can knit and crochet, mentors the young ones, is quiet and undemanding. I’m hoping this will help him to feel valued and appreciated within Homes of Promise.

Thank you for all your support over the years you are making such a difference to these boys lives and we thank God for the support and encouragement.

Love Jane x