I collected Heather (one of our Trustees) from the aırport early Sunday morning after a slight altercation with the police on the journey there – all was well – I didn’t pay a fine! Heather settled in and we had a quiet day.
Monday was busy with going to the office first thing, meeting Tresor, Petra and Peace and visiting George’s Place, taking all the school supplies. On our way to GP we ‘bumped’ into Ian and joined him in a light lunch at the Patisserie.
We arrived in Garuga early afternoon and sat in the garden where the boys introduced themselves and Heather had an opportunity to speak with Benard.
Tuesday morning was our Ladies Fellowship – not everyone has returned from travelling, but 5 of us (including Heather) met at Annabel’s. I really appreciate this group of international ladies as we study and share our faith. In the afternoon Heather and I collected Peace and Petra from the office and again went up to Garuga as we had planned a meeting with the Director of Little Angels – unfortunately he was delayed and the meeting was postponed. Heather also had another opportunity to be talking with the boys and staff as well as being shown around.
“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Wednesday, Jesse (who has just corrected me on the spelling of his name!) collected Heather and I at 8.30am as we were home tracing for Jordan. We met Tresor at Kajjansi with Jordan who came with us and travelled to Peace’s home. Martha her daughter and Revd Michael greeted us and prayed with us before we journeyed on to Mukono. On arriving at the District Office we met a Social Worker, Simon, whom the Probation Officer had assigned to us for assistance. We pursued our search to a village a few miles away but Jordan was unable to recognise anywhere. We eventually gave up and went back to the District Office to drop Simon off but then Jordan said he could direct us to where an aunt stayed! This was in a slum area near the centre of town. We located a home and a young girl, Queen, recognised Jordan and said her mother had been helping him but he continually ran away. We are not sure if this is actually a relative – the girl’s mother has phoned us since and Simon will be in contact with her and relate more information to us. Following lunch at a local cafe (where Jordan was recognised by a waitress as a boy from the streets, collecting plastic bottles), we travelled to Kayenga, where our plans were to pay Dan’s siblings’ school lunches/fees, etc., collect Dan and return to Kampala. Unfortunately, this did not happen. We arrived at the school, registered Ronnie who is also ready for school now, paid the required fees for Shila, George and Ronnie when the car wouldn’t start! Jesse went in search of a mechanic, Peace phoned Dan’s grandmother – it started raining hard – we were there for three hours until after dark! My car window wouldn’t close and I improvised with a car mat and plastic bag to stop getting soaked! Eventually the rain subsided and we had three mechanics plus Jesse working on the car electrics – we were making plans on different ways to return home when suddenly the car started. (Jesse has taken the car this morning, Friday, to fix a new control panel – hopefully the problem is resolved now). We eventually arrived home at 10.30pm. Everyone happy and giving thanks to The Lord that we had made it! Tresor collected Jordan from Kajjansi to save us driving to George’s Place as we had a busy day planned for Thursday.
I awoke early and cooked 100 sausages for our picnic. Petra and Ian arrived at my apartment at 8.15am before we set off in Ian’s car to meet up with the boys at Ggaba landing site for a boat trip and hike! 29 of us jumped on to two boats and travelled across the lake, then through a narrow waterway on the other side of Lake Victoria,
Because there has been little rain we couldn’t land and had to be ‘piggybacked’ to dry land. A few brave adults walked through the mud! We then started our hike to Eagles Nest Retreat Centre where Doug and Debbie from church are located. This is an amazing place, with wonderful facilities for missionaries to spend time on retreat. We were welcomed, given advice on the layout of the place, advised where the swimming pool was, where we spent most of the day. We enjoyed an American game, ‘Cornhole’ with partners, throwing beanbags and trying to land them through a hole in a wooden slanted board. Saidi and Jesse won the tournament. Poor Beckham was my partner! I threw two in the pool by mistake! We ate, laughed, relaxed and enjoyed an incredible day. There was water volley ball, swimming and no one even wanted to play football. The highlight of the day was crowding into the back of a lorry to take us to a different landing site to catch the boats back!
Friday Heather and I did food shopping following a visit to the Country Club. Today, Saturday we are off to visit the boys at George’s Place. They are preparing to go back to school on Monday and the new boys will join them, though we still need to do home tracing next week for Tony. Dan’s father is bringing him back today.
Thank you for all your love and support. It’s been a good end to the school holidays with many blessings. The new boys are settling well.
Love Jane x