5th May, 2019
Dear friends,
Anton and Yusuf have been busy planting cauliflower and tomato seeds in bags, (seeds I brought from the UK). The cauliflower seeds germinated within a few days, we don’t see many cauliflowers in the markets, so I’m not sure if the boys will enjoy them when they’re ready. Anton is anxious to be getting back to the village and was hoping we would have an opportunity to take him. Unfortunately, with 26 boys in the house, it seems unlikely in the next week. We have agreed for him to return on Tuesday, by bus and to take Yusuf with him for a week so that they can work on the land together.
‘Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.’ Phil. 4:8
We spent a couple of days this week looking for relatives of Najib. We will keep working on this as we do not register boys properly into the home or into education until we have found relatives and know the family situation.
Paul was delighted when we obtained a simple sewing machine for him on Wednesday, to improve his skills. The boys lined up with trousers that needed mending and he happily repaired nine pairs. He was given an old sheet and some pillowcase material and has been busy making a dress, skirt and shirt. He hasn’t wanted to return to the shop he was working at as he wasn’t being allowed on the machine! He will go back to his tailoring course at Meeting Point shortly to improve his knowledge.
Emma has been saving some of his money from the working internship welding business and sent his mother some money to buy a pig to rear. (He is also cutting his wisdom teeth.) It is very encouraging to see the boys saving and thinking about how they can help their families. We collected Simon Peter on Friday afternoon from Don Bosco.
We did get an opportunity to give out some of the knitted jumpers this week as we travelled around and these were appreciated.
Thursday afternoon we had hoped to take the boys swimming but the weather wasn’t suitable so the boys happily watched a video, I was in the office and thought it was quiet so went to investigate to find 16/17 boys engrossed in a cartoon film. Hopefully, we will either go swimming today, Saturday, or to KK, we will take a vote on it! KK won!
All the boys collected their school reports on Friday. We were delighted that Saviour and Musumba are still both 1st in their classes. Some of our boys are struggling at school, but all the reports showed that they are improving in their studies and their behaviour at school has been good. We give praise and thanks to Our Lord for the way these boys lives are being changed.
With love and prayers.
Jane
