Musumba, Kasita and Saidi home from school as exams finish, visiting the Mayor of Katabi, catching up with Ken and Helen

Dear friends,

Yusuf phoned and sent a photo of himself and Zimba – I’m not sure if he is deterring the monkeys!

Musumba, Saidi and Kasita are all back home from boarding school, having finished their exams. Victor is also around, he’s been baking mandazi (fried dough pastry) and helping Halima, he has an interview at a hotel next Monday. Brian, Joshua and Denis don’t arrive for another few weeks. The younger boys have enjoyed their few days off school. Lots of cleaning has been done, and the staff have been fumigating, as we always suffer from an infestation of ‘bed bugs’, especially when boys return from boarding school.

On Wednesday, Peace, Petra and I went first to visit the new Mayor of Katabi and to ask him to be on our Management Committee or to authorise someone else to take his place. He advised that he hoped to come to the Home to see where we were situated and to check on us – possibly at our next Meeting in December. The Hon. Juma will now retire. We then visited George’s Place and spent time with the boys.

“For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” Isaiah‬ ‭30‬:‭15‬

I arranged to meet Ken and Helen, his wife, on Friday morning for coffee, as it’s been a while since we met up. Ken has been authorising all our bank transactions, as I’ve been locked out of the account since June. I could only approve, but today I eventually managed to log in and will hopefully now be able to authorise as well.

On my way to meet them, I visited a garage as I had a puncture – all fixed.

It’s been a quieter week, but I did go to the ladies fellowship on Tuesday, held at Annie’s home near the Kasubi tombs. She is married to a retired Ugandan Professor from Makerere University, but sadly he has Parkinson’s. Annie has been here 30 years; she was a nurse before she retired, so she and Debbie, who has also been here over 30 years, seem to know everyone! Andrea, my other German friend from Luwero, has been in touch and wants to visit me for a weekend before she leaves for Christmas.

Musumba was called to school on Saturday for a graduation party. He went early in the morning. When I was there for his dedication service a few weeks ago, he introduced me to a girl student. He could have taken someone with him today but declined, so we’re assuming she might be a girlfriend! He’s a really nice young lad.

After dropping Musumba at school, Tresor took Moses, Ram and Ryan to the Football Academy as they had been called for a trial; Raymond also accompanied them. I spent time with the boys at George’s Place. When Tresor and the boys returned about 3 pm, we went to Banana Village for them to enjoy a swim, but when we arrived, a girls’ school had taken over the place, and they were not allowed in – they will go tomorrow after church.

Tim called in to see me in the afternoon, his aunt had phoned me and he has been asked to go back to their village in Jinja. The Government want to build a road and need to buy a piece of their family land. Tim has to sign papers as part of the land had been left to him from his father. He is planning to go today, Sunday! I just hope and pray he doesn’t lose what has been left to him.

Thank you for all your love and prayers – we’re still having plenty of rain!

Love Jane x