Home tracing for Tony, returning to Mityana, general cleaning, Omoding has work, Ian is 60 yrs

Dear friends,

It’s very damp here in Kampala and has rained nearly every day! This week we travelled back to Mityana with Tony to find out more information about his family. It was really helpful involving the Probation Officer who was a very professional young lady who we collected from a service station in the town and travelled with her to the village. The three children we had met before were all in school with a bursary from a local councillor. An aunt, Maria, was at the home, she seemed very trusting and naive. We went into the house – which was not good!

The three children, we found last time, the two girls are from another sister who has sadly passed away and a boy who belongs to Maria, live there and the paternal grandmother is sometimes there. They do manage to grow some coffee, which they sell. We then walked to a nearby neighbours and met with two elderly ladies on the mother’s side, sisters of Tony’s grandfather – Tony’s mother is sadly deceased. The relationships seemed confusing to Peace and me, but we managed to fill in the forms for the Ministry of Gender. We then went to the local shops with Maria and bought sugar, posho, soap, salt, bread, etc. and gave her some money. On the way back, there was torrential rain, but not when we arrived back in Kampala. I took a photo as we entered the bypass of a lorry carrying plastic bottles for recycling, some of the sights we see on the roads are unimaginable!

“Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”
‭‭John‬ ‭15‬:‭4‬ ‭ ‭

It was Ian’s 60th birthday on Thursday, and although we celebrated at church after the retreat last Sunday, we also had a cake in the office on Monday. Ian is going to the U.K. this weekend for a month so we’ll celebrate with the boys during the Christmas season.

Halima has had this week off and we employed Victor to be cooking for the boys and staff. He did really well. He’s also been making snacks once a week for the boys to take to school and on Monday he made donuts – sadly we didn’t get any in the office. Petra has also been off work this week and on her way to visit her parents called on Omoding. He now has work at a local salon near his home and we will monitor how he does over the next few months.

The younger boys all have a few days off school as the P7 exams are taking place in their school, they spent most of Friday doing general cleaning and digging the garden for planting. Tresor visited Joshua last Sunday and collected Musumba on Friday morning, as he has finished his ‘O’ levels; he’s looking for some work during the long holidays!

Kodet has an internship for three months in Mbale at a company called Roxa Engineering doing electrical installation. We will find a room to rent for him whilst he is working.

Odong has phoned again and sent photos of his daughter. He seems to be doing fine. On Saturday, Simon Peter, Emma and Tim, who has started a small business roasting meat, called into George’s Place. On my way back from GP I saw Big Brian driving his Boda, he’s fine and doing well. As I arrived home, there was a call from Peace as she was visiting Young Brian at school for visiting day.

All is well here – lots of things happening and lots to be giving thanks for.

Thank you for all your love, support and kindness.

Love Jane x