15th January, 2023

Dear friends,

Life seems to be pretty hectic here!

Most of the boys are back, Dennis and Ronald are planning to return on Monday from Pader. Kasita has returned from Mukono and Musa’s father brought him to the office from Mbale on Monday. New Brian, young Brian and Sula have yet to return. It had been Peace’s birthday on the 2nd and we celebrated with cake, better late than never!

The new young boys have been for interviews at the primary school, Denis is going into P1, Saidi P2 and Bethel into nursery (if he is still with us when schools start). The older boys in primary school are having extra tuition each morning at school. With so many boys of different ages in the home it’s good for some of them to be out of the house for a few hours. Omoding hasn’t returned and is still in Tororo as he has malaria. He feels he is too big to return to primary school and his family are looking for a hairdressing course or apprenticeship for him, which we will obviously help with.

“The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them.” ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭21‬:‭14‬ ‭

This week on Wednesday, Peace and I took Dan back to his parents in Kayunga, he had enjoyed Christmas with us, we met with the local Probation Officer, Colin, who came with us to the family home and signed all our paperwork, we then got involved in taking the PO to a nearby village where there was an issue he needed to deal with. This all took a while and we were unable to visit Dan’s school but plan to do this when the schools return.

Johnson (Musumba), came with us to Kayunga, his grandmother lives nearby, so he spent a few hours with her and it gave us an opportunity to explain our need to have a relative sign the hospital consent forms. An aunt came to the hospital early on Friday when he had the eye operation. The operation took three hours, Peace was there and Benard, who stayed with him overnight. Petra went and settled the bill. I visited Garuga to be with Tresor, Eric and the boys, Patrick’s (security/deputy warden) brother has died and he has gone back to the village for a few days. Benard and Johnson came in an Uber back to the home Saturday lunch time. Johnson spent the afternoon sleeping whilst Benard and I took most of the boys swimming. We have put Johnson in a small room on his own and I spoke to all the boys asking them to be considerate for the next few days, allowing him time to recuperate. He has to return to the hospital on Tuesday. Tim is still unwell with TB and eating very little. Tresor managed to buy Bethel some crutches but he is managing to hobble around without them! Prayers please especially for Johnson and Tim.

I met with Nora this week and we visited Kingdom Kampala, I am pleased to report that I now have a letter from the NGO Board with a recommendation for a work permit – which I have to submit with all the other documentation. The Law Commissioners have an office on the 8th floor now so Nora will be based there some of the time.

On my way back from Garuga on Saturday afternoon I called to see Asaph who is doing well on his industrial training. I also visited Godfrey who has started a chapati making business, near the home, Victor and Joshua helped him set it up!

Thank you for all your love, support and kindness.

With love and prayers.

Jane x