Fine, smart and organised !

It is wonderful to be back  - I am staying in Lungujja with Pastor Steve and his family.  Monday morning started with a tour of the at Rock of Joy where I was proudly shown the new class rooms and concrete floors instead of soil which becomes mud when it rains.  Each class stands and greets me by saying "welcome to Rock of Joy Childrens Centre  - We are fine, smart and organised"   - whihc they are!  Smart in their new school uniforms and jumpers the Baby class were sitting at tables on small chairs and play with puzzles and threading beads.  These children are tiny!  and they crowded around to touch me and to be picked up smiling and shouting excitedly - I love it!  They have created a new school hall from previous classrooms which means they have somewhere to sit to eat and for when it is raining.  Lots of changes and exciting things going on.   
 
The Health House to be is still occupied - the previous owners wife has agreed to go but so far no movement -  the local council is involved and helping to move her but seems powerless to make it happen.  This really does need resolving so please keep praying that she will actually go! <

Prayer changes things

Several people have been asking for things to pray for. So if you would like to pray for the work of The Kabanda Trust , here are some pointers.

Gladys
Prayers would be much appreciated for Gladys, Pastor Steve's wife. She has been suffering from stomach pains since November and it is as yet unclear what this is. Gladys is the lynchpin of the family and it is difficult for them if she is under the weather.
Us
Last time we were there I spent most of the 2nd week in bed with bronchitis so prayers for safety, health & Gods protection as we travel & work would be much appreciated.
New School
In Oct last year Gordon & Richard(one of our trustees) visited another primary school which has 600 pupils - two school in Stoke are going to link directly with it .... next week I will be setting everything up so pray that all will run smoothly and that we will have wisdom about how to work with this school.

In terms The Kabanda Trust work in Lungujja before we go for which we would value prayers:
1) The Health House - last year we purchased a building to serve as a Health House for the school & community. It has a sitting tennant who so far has refused to move out - whilst we dont want to make anyone homeless we need this person to leave. The money for the purchase of this building was a real answer to prayer so it would be wonderful to see it freed up so that we can begin to use the building for its intended purpose and to benefit many people.
2) Please pray for Pastor Steve's as he manages a demanding role as the Pastor and as the Director of the school. As the school grows the demands of managing it take much of his time. Pray that he will have the strength & wisdom that he needs and that trustworthy and able people will stand alongside him in his ministry.
3) Building work - they are about to begin building brick classrooms rather than wooden ones. This is exciting as it is the fruition of a vision for a permenant school. The cost of the first phase of this is being paid for by a legacy we recieved and from the sale of the calendars. Pray that this goes to plan and that those working and the children are safe whilst the building work is taking place.
4) Money! Because of the current international financial crisis we are challenged by both the effects of the falling exchange rate and the rising costs in Uganda. This means that for every £100 we gave them last year we now need to find £130 just to keep our support at the same level. Pray that God will continue to graciously provide for the needs of these children.
A particular need is for people to become regular monthly givers and to stand with us in the work at Rock of Joy providing some stability in our finanaces.

5) Boarding House - pray for the safety & health of the chidlren who live in the boarding house and for wisdom for us & PS as we make decsions about its future. These are chidlren from the most needy of families several of whom have lost parents and family members from HIV/AIDs and are sufferers themselves. Also it is coming up to the Easter holidays which is always a challenging time - for some children there is no home to go to, for some the parents/carers dont turn up to collect them and for others life at home is difficult. PS ususally reports that many come back to school thinner & sick - prayers for these special children are especially needed :)
We are in a position to buy the house but the government has recently tightened up the boarding regulations and we need to understand and see how this will affect ROJ. Wisdom, understanding & sufficient money are needed + a co-operative vendor!


THANKS !!!

Heading off now :)

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It's not fair

Earlier in the week I was at Belgrave Primary School in Longton, SOT, talking with J1 & 2 (year3). Sharing a very large bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk provided an excellent illustration - the first child got 1/2 the bar & shared half with their friend who got 1/2 to share with the next who had a 1/4 to share etc... you get the idea. Eventually its so small that it cannot be shared so it ends with somebody having only 1 square of CDM :( THATS NOT FAIR they cried in unison. Life is not fair - but then who ever said it was.

The notion of fairness was not lost on them, is it fair that we have a smart brick school with carpets on the floor, more books that we can shake a stick at, comfortable chairs, everything we need to help our learning, interactive white boards (what ever happened to black boards & chalk) and a wardrobe full of clothes at home? Whilst in Uganda although they have very little they are incredibly proud of what they have. It was inspiring to see 60 young children realise how fortunate they are in comparison and eager to know what how they help make a difference for the children in Uganda; so I left them enthused and excitedly planning.

And it reminded me of how exciting it is to go out to Uganda and particularly what a joy it is to spend time in Lungujja. Now I am starting to long to see our dear friends, to catch up with everything and to meet the new children at Rock of Joy - the Baby class who will be sooooo excited to see us that they will jump up and down for joy.....
I cant wait :) Bring it on .......

Journey on

But he's already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It's quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbour, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And don't take yourself too seriously— take God seriously. (Micah 6v8 The Message)
Remember good old Father Abraham? He left comfort and security because he was asked to and set out into the unknown. In short - he trusted God, God honoured him and vast numbers of people were blessed because of it. Love it! A timely reminder for me - with only one week to go before the next trip to Uganda I am struggling with the challenge of moving out of my comfort zone, so I need to hear that God honours and blesses my steps of faith and there is no choice - I must go :)

Tim Hughes sums it up in his beautiful song

God of Justice, Saviour to all
Came to rescue the weak and the poor
Came to serve and not to be served
And Jesus you have called us
Freely we've received now freely we will give
We must go, live to feed the hungry
Stand beside the broken
We must go
Stepping forward keep us from just singing
Move us into action, we must go.
To act justly everyday
Loving mercy in everyway
Walking humbly before You God
You have shown us, what You require
Freely we've received
Now freely we will give
Fill us up and send us up and send us out Lord

Have a listen...... copy and paste http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbyHtq-2sGU

Joining the Blog o sphere

A number of my friends have taken up blogging recently. This made me rethink my attitude to blogging - could it be that it is a positive and pleasureable passtime ?
I usually only blog when in Uganda to serve as a record of what has happened during the visit, to share with whoever is interested in the work of The Kabanda Trust and as information for anyone who is willing to pray for us. The unreliable electricity supply and the poor quality of internet connection mean that blogging is normally not a pleasure but an exasperating excercise, which I am sure any of you who have have sat for an hour writing 6 lines (cos its slow as well) and then lost it all, will no doubt confirm !
So this spate of friends blogging and speaking moving, deep and meaningful thoughts into my life has been an eyeopener - keep it up guys.... you never know, when I can work out if I have anything useful to say I might just join you regularly in the Blogosphere : )

Nurse Gloria

Praise the Lord - we have found a new nurse, a lovely lady called Gloria. She is also a trained midwife so there are plans for her to provide some family planning and antenatal clinics in the future. during the last few months 2 of the mothers of ROJ children have died apparently due to to antenatal and postnatal care which they can not afford. There is great excitment at the arrival of Nurse Gloria and Gordon is working with her to prepare the Health House - buying equipment, furniture etc and making plans for how she will work.
this afternoon we are holding a health seminar for the parents to introduce her and explain what she will do. Wonderful.......
when we first met Pastor Steven 4 years ago this week he was talkiing about the desparate need for health care here and his vision for a nurse based at ROJ to serve the needs of the chidlren adn their families - so here we are four years later - setting it up, he is thrilled at the answer to his prayers and way that Gloria has not only the nursing but also midwifery skills which are so needed. Praise the Lord .... again!!!

The Last Week

Gordon, our daughter Bex & her uni friend Lucy, Ann & Keith (Trentham friends) and Jayne a teacher from Abbey Hill one of our link schools arrived safely on late on Sunday night. The ensuing week has been busy catching up at Nansana and working with Rock of Joy. Jayne spent 2 days observing and then organised us all to run a teacher training day on Thursday. We spent a wonderful afternoon with the lovely teachers and our new nurse Gloria enjoying an Elmer Story Sack and a set of activities to provide some new ideas for them. it was a brilliant time with the teachers obviously feeling quite inspired and wanting to do another one this week. In June bex and Lucy are bringing a group of uni friends several of whom are teacher trainees so Jayne is working with the teachers here looking at what help they would like and will then do some training with the students in preparation for thier visit - all very exciting for everybody.

The Easter weekend has been a rest - this afternoon we are running a health seminar for parents at ROJ but all the others have gone to see the Equator !
Easter Sunday was the wettest day we have ever experianced here - storms all day. We celebrated wtih over 2000 in the cathedral at 8:00am and then at Kingdom Gospel Church in Lungujja a joyful celebration wtih over 200 peeps and Pastor Steve preaching for an hour and a quarter - at the end it was still pouring with rain and no body wanted to go home! PS & Gladys perpared lucnch for 45 peeps so it was quite a speical meal! We enjoyed soem of the fruits of their labours from the poultry project - very tasty :)

Small children and toys

From my journal:
Up at 6:30 to the sound of children arriving to school and then oh, the joy of a cold shower! Everyday this week I have complained to myself about the cold water - but am reminded that at least it is water and for this I should thank God.
Then went out to see children arriving for school - the Baby class (3-4year olds ) were absolutely delighted to see me excitedly jumping up and down and shouting "Bye muzungo" - I dont think they understand hello - then trying to touch me and hold my hand :) We have been blessed with 2 new nursery teachers who are montesorri trained who are brilliant and have changed many things. The children now sit at small tables on small chairs with their names written next to them and enjoy "activities" - a big development from before where they sat in rows and chanted letters, spelling and numbers. Justine, one of the new teachrs is with baby class this am and the children doing PE which consists of singing and moving to a variety of songs about ducks swimming, frogs jumpeing etc. Eventually i decided to leave them to it as i was too much of a distraction for her to keep 40 small children in order!

In the afternoon PSteve & I took Justine shopping for Educational Toys. Some of the children from Walton Hall Special School in Eccleshall, Staffs had donated their unwanted toys, held a toy sale and raised 150 pounds. This was the money we used..... it was a great thrill to be able to fill a whole trolley with a range of things from toy skittles to counting cards and then a number of cardboard books and stacking toys for the small children. THANK YOU WALTON HALL :)

This is why

From my jounal: After supper Pastor Steve took me around the village to see how some of the children who come to the school live. It was pitch darkness, there is no electric in this area here and even if there was they couldnt afford it - i think I was quite relievied in a way as it meant i couldnt see the full horror of the way some of them live!
The first family lived in a small lean-to shack at the back of a larger wooden building where apparently they show blue movies (when they can afford electricity from a generator). The smell of alcohol on the men standing around and the stench of other things was overwhelming BUT so was the delight of the family of children from Rock of Joy and their mother that the Muzungu (white person) had come to visit their home - I feel so embarrassed when they kneel to me, all I wanted to do was cry at the situation I see and they are honouring me.... so difficult... we stayed for a while and chatted to the children then headed through the thronging candlelit village past stalls and shops with everywhere the smell of burning firewood from small "stoves" over which the women cook outside. Next we came to Denis's house. Denis is one of the boys who lives in our Boarding House - last year his mentally ill father had tried to burn their house down and had died leaving mum with a large number of children who she struggles to look after. Dennis was taken in to the BH because he was being abused and PS wanted to show me his home. In the darkness we almost tripped over a sleeping pig (interesting experiance) and walked into a goat before literally stumbling over Denis's 4 year old brother. Late at night in the complete darkness this ragged forlorn little one was sat outside on his own. I was hard not to pick him up and bring him to a place of safety. No sign of mum, no food, no light, no warmth , no affection - such a picture of sadness and despair. So, here was a such a poignant reminder for me that is for him and children like him that we do what we do and why The Kabanda Trust is so important to the future of the children at Rock of Joy school.

Baby Clothes

We had a extra luggage allowance this time so asked the church members in Blurton to donate baby clothese for us to bring to give to Wakisa, a refuge for homeless pregnant teenagers. They take in girls who ahve been abused, raped and then thrown out by their families and who have nothing and they care for them and love them! When the babies are about 8 weeks old they try and rehome them or reunite them with the families - its an amazing place, Bex our younger daughter "discovered" it last year adn spent a month working with them. It has totally inspired the future direction for her. Well, the response from the church was an overwhelming outpouring of generosity in the shape of at least 5 suitcases full of baby clothes. Being the forward party for the group I brought the bigger clothes - for 1-2year olds and gave them to Gladys, Pastor Stevens wife. The joy and excitment as these were distributed to the needy families around the church was humbling - there was a constant stream of mums and dads to receive a selection of the clothes and they often insisted on kneeling to me (even more humbling). First they thanked Gladys, but she said no thank Sue and I said no thank God and his people in Blurton! So, A VERY BIG THANKYOU to EVERYBODY who gave baby clothes - it is hard to convey to you how very very special this has been for the people here and how much it shows them God's love..... tomorrow we will take the small baby clothes to Wakisa.... watch this space..

Safely arrived but no electric

Staying in Lungujja with Pastor Steve, Gladys and family where sadly there is no electric until they turn the generator on at 7:30pm and it goes out at 10pm s0 only really today had access to computer.

The journey was uneventful expect for meeting some amazing irish guys at the back of the plane and excercising together! Over Ethiopia the view from the window was incredible - I was absolutely thrilled looking out inot the most beautiful sunset, i felt so blessed and priviliged to be making this journey again and be to able to see such a visible sign of Gods amazing power and glory in creation - all topped out by listening to Ludovico Einaudis music - fantastic!

The week has been great will add some highlights from my journal next time i can get here....but if you have followed me before you will have read about Edward, if not, do find it to read from a couple of years ago.... He is AMAzINg - it is hard to believe he is the same boy. His English is very good, he is fit and well (apart from a bent spine from his TB) and I love him!! Yesterday he told me "Mama Lizzie, you saved my life, you are my mother and Gordon is my father" such a change. He lieves in the boarding house with 39 other children from such desparate situations, last night i sat outside with them chatting and they ask me about my parents, when I said my mother had died I was greeted with a heart rending series of sympathetic responses as they told me about their dead, dying or ill parents, as well as those who just said "mine have gone away". It reminds me why we do all this ......

Uganda Again

Well, tomorrow I am off again. Getting very excited - I am going on my own for the first week then Gordon, Bex & her uni friend Lucy, Ann & Keith Ramsey and Jayne Waller from Abbey Hill School here in Stoke will join me in a weeks time.
Thanks to KLM we have the most enormous baggage allowance & are travelling with more baby clothes than we could have imagined, these are for Wakisa, a refuge for homeless pregnant teenagers and were donated by the members of St Albans & St Barts Church in Blurton - it has been a privilige to be part of such an amazing outpouring of love - thanks to everyone there. More about this anon.
We are hoping to appoint a new School Nurse for Rock of Joy in Lungujja and get the Health House set up so i am going to spend the week there helping them to get ready for the arrival of "The Doctor" (Gordon of course) who will then sort everything out :)
Great stuff.... i will try and keep this updated but the computers do often get very frustrating - let's see how it goes.
Time for bed here... need to finish my packing.

Wednesday 28 June

At Nanana today.....
The WaterAid engineers have started to install the water harvesting system - drainpipes & a storage tank to the uninitiated! The engineer came and we all signed the contract for the work with me parting with the money to allow them to go and order cement and concrete to build the tank. By lunchtime the foundations were dug ready for the constuction. By the time i leave it will be nearly done.
Great excitement - Eggs for lunch.
Their chickens have now started laying and in a packed room with the head, the director of the school, the water engineer, teachers, Topi and goodness knows how I was required to make an edict about how they would be used!! They had stored up 750 eggs ready for my coming so that i coudl tell them what to do - for goodness sake! So i said - lets have them for lunch, hence the excitment everybody had hard boiled eggs with their posho and beans and the teachers are to take some home for their families. then they will start selling. With 300 birds laying they may get over 240 eggs per day which represents 20 trays at 3,000 shilings per tray. That is equivalent to an income of 20 pounds per day and when their teachers earn aroudn 50 pounds per month will go a long way to helpig them be self sufficient.
Primary 7 are writing to the queen - she is coming to the Heads of Commonwealth govenments meeting here in November so I have promised to bring their letters to send to her. They wanted to know if she would reply, come to their school, read their letters adn where she lived. I ended up taking a lesson on the royal family!
All great fun - it was a really good day.
Also went to the British embassy to collect letter about the Trust becoming an Non Governmental Organisation.. whihc is the main reason for my trip!

Tuesday 26th

Went to Sanyu Babies home today, it is just below the guesthouse on Namirimbe hill. They take in orphan and abandoned babies, they are often found left in latrines and on waste dumps. sometimes they are left at the gate. These unwanted scraps are loved and cared for at the home and are a joy to be with. I went just to check the arrangements for bex & her friend to help there in August when they are here and ended up staying 2 1/12 hours sucked in by the babies just longing to be hugged. I fell in love with Peter; they gave me a bottle and asked me to feed him, he was lying on his tummy over a big cushion, as I picked him up i realised that he was very floppy and had small deformed legs. Peter also had a full set of teeth so I enquired his age - 3years old and yet the size of a 10 month old. He is handicapped they told me - this abandoned unwanted child will always be marked out as different, will struggle to survive and may be unloved but as I fed him his eyes stared into mine and I prayed out loud "May the Lord bless you and keep you, may the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you". As i said this his face broke into a great big smile and he gurgled happily almost laughing.... I will continue to pray that the Lord will watch over him and protect him.
the dedicated staff are wonderfully caring, love & encourage the small children - an amazing place !!

In Uganda alone

It is just like being at home, Uganda is cold and wet! had a good journey via Amsterdam the hairiest part of journey was drive from entebbe into kampala as they are doing something to the roads because the queens is coming in november for the heads of commonwealth governments meeting and so everywhere is being done up. The road was narrowed to a single track, it was dark and very busy and their driving does not instill confidence at the best of times, still I hung on and prayed a lot!

Today have been to the british embassy to begin the process of regisitering The Kabanda Trust as an NGO and then met up with Topi to catch up on how things are going from her point of view. This afternoon Pastor Steve came and took me too lungujja - I had a lovely time with them drinking tea and chatting whilst danny (aged 3 but claiming 5) got very cross cos he couldnt have the whole bar of dairy milk which i brought!
Going to bed now cos tired and need an early night.... oh, and there are a lot of american missionary kids staying here at the guest house so there was pizza for supper :)

Safely home

Unfortunately the intermittant nature of the electricity supply has meant that it has been incredibly frustrating to try and use the internet, so I gave up! Sorry to everybody who got bored with the lack of communication and enormous thanx to all of you who prayed for us all during the visit.

Highlights:

• The new buildings and developments at Rock of Joy - as well as three new classrooms they have a new "institutional stove" paid for by donations from Ash Green Primary School in Trentham. This has resulted in an enormous saving in firewood costs - last term cost was 450,000, this has been 150,000!


• The boarding house now provides shelter, care and food for 29 children from the most deprived of families; this is such a challenge- it was desparately sad to see the children whose families/carers did not bother to come to pick them up for the Easter holiday when all the others had gone home .......but a delight to meet Edward again (see last years blog) who is now a cheerful, lively 12 year old who, since he has been able to attend school regularly, speaks amazingly good English. His injured back still means that he cannot stand straight but it was incredible to see him cheekily climbing the shelves where they store the children's drinking cups..... an amazing transformation! Praise the Lord!


• We ran some workshops for the teachers to help them recognise and understand the importance of what they are doing and to show them how much we value their role - it is so important to encourage them - they are doing an amazing work with 300 children who would otherwise not be at school. We also worked with the teachers and the children to take part in the Joined Up campaign (www.sendafriend.com) and had a wonderful time creating "buddies" to be returned to Abbey Hill School in Stoke and then to Germany to the G8 meeting in June.


• I spent a blessed time working again with the womens group I helped set up last year. It has now grown to 50 members who this year I worked with to create a banner celebrating the importance of education for them and their children. We used Proverbs 22 v 5 (teach a child the way he should go) and had a wonderful time sharing our stories and experiances. It was a joy that several of the women had recently become Christians through this group, one of whom had previously been a moslem. Gordon ran a health seminar for them and it was a pleasure to hear their enthusiam to learn and understand more about looking after themselves and their families.


• At Nansana we have helped to develop plans for their chicken project, the future of their orphaned calf, a new water supply and have ordered a new set of purposed made mosquito nets for the boarding houses.


• Lots more things too numerous to mention.....

And unfortunately I have returned with Shingles so will lie low for a bit to recover. Thanks for all your love, support and prayers. Till next time.... x SUE

The Kabanda Children

Since the deaths of Vance Kabanda,his wife Harriet and the childrens brother, Ellie, in 2005, Paddy (12) has been a boarder at Nansana Royal Primary School, which was founded by his father, where he has been provided with free schooling. His younger sister Sandra (aged 7) was removed by a relative to an orphanage. I have been working with Topi our adminstrator to bring Sandra back from the orphanage so that the children can be reunited and for her and husband Alex to bring them up with their own4. This is a complicated business and has involved several meetings with distant family members, lawyers, pastors and managers at the orphanage. One lawyer suggested that I might adopt the children and bring them here! I would love to do so :) but pointed out that i believe it to be in the best interest of the children to brought up in uganda by people who care for them and that i am prepared to do whatever it needs to make that possilble. It was all quite emotional as I am sure you will realise !!!! Please pray that these children who have during the last two years suffered multiple losses, including being separated from each other may soon been reunited with loving family friends who want to care for them.

A trip to Masaka on Tuesday

We visited Rock of Joys sister school in Masaka - a three hour drive away over "challenging" roads!! Set up by a young man who had become a Christian through Pastor Stephens teaching (they met at the village well) They do not recieve direct support from The Kabanda Trust but had two cows one paid for by donations raised by Fliss my niece at her school in Gloucester 18 months ago and another from The Kabanda Trust. Sadly, just before our visit the two cows had died from a rare infection and everybody was devastated. Milk from the cow provided a much needed supplement to the childrens diet and the income from the extra helped pay some of the teachers salaries (no more than £30 per month each). They teach the children in the most basic of conditions. Ann and I wandered round what appeared a derilict building with few desks, no floors, no anything and then stood and cried together, no words could describe how it felt to be there and yet they teach 300 children!!! Despite the appalling lack of anything and the poor conditions they work in they get very good results with the children, the parents are supportive and the lovely teahers are so enthusiatic..... it was a privilge to be with them and to spend a wonderful afternoon together.

This area has been particularly devestated by the HIV/AIDs virus. It is thought that 1 in 4 people are effected and it has resulted in a large number of children being made orphans and suffering the effects themselves. Whilst this is a rural area the poverty is most telling here and the effects of the combination of these two scurges blatant to see. They particularly asked us for support in setting up a health project with them. The nearest clinic is 7-8 miles away - an impossible distance in their terms. We hope that the Trustees of TKT will agree to a proposal to support this school and its most desparately needy children.

Catch up

It has been difficult to use the computers for the last few days so here is an abbreviated version of events. Gordon, Lizzie, Ann & Keith from Trentham with Tim from Uttoxeter all arrived safely. Over the Easter weekend we all relaxed together. Some of us went the 8:00 service in the Cathedral on Sunday morning which was a wonderfully joyous blend of traditional Anglican and exuberant Ugandan. This was followed by a service at Kingdom Gospel Church where we worshipped with old friends and enjoyed the excitement of their Easter celebration – it felt like a truly wonderful day and a real celebration of the fact that JESUS IS ALIVE

Monday we relaxed with Pastor Steven his extended family and Paddy Kabanda the 12yr orphaned son of Vance our charity’s namesake. We have adopted Paddy in spirit and it was a delight to be able to spend time with him for a couple of days - I would love to bring him home, he is such a beautiful, tender child who has been through such sadness…. But, Topi our lovely administrator and her husband have asked if they came take him and his sister in to bring up with their 4 other children and we are keen to support this. Later today Topi and I are going to the office of the Attorney General to see a lawyer about this. In the meantime I am waiting to meet some of their relatives to talk about the children’s futures and how we are able to help.

Yesterday I was a Nansana meeting the guys from Wateraid to plan a new rainwater harvesting system for them – now I’m an expert on water & sanitation and in the evening we had a wonderful time with all the teachers from Rock of Joy School looking at the Joined Up campaign (Jane!!!) and how we will use it with them next week. They had some brilliantly creative ideas and it was great to be able to encourage them and to spend time together.

Today we have met up with a couple from Lizzie’s church in Bristol who may begin to support ROJ, they were called Barbara & Trevor Harrison and had been missionaries here a number of years ago – they knew Peter Mockford’s parents and remember him as a little boy!!! We were also introduced to the Archbishop of Uganda and spent a while chatting with him - Nice man…..

Another breakage and outbreak of Susans !

Yesterday I met the Lungujja ladies again. The group I set up for them last year is still meeting, there were 15 from last time and 15 new ones who I didnt know. One of the ladies had been a moslem and had converted to Christianity which they were really pleased to relate to me. They were really excited to see me which was lovely, there were great whoops and screams of delight - I had to shake every bodies hand and then sit down. As i did so the chair completed collapsed - they were mortified (its because I'm a lady of traditional build ... who needs to loose weight I think!!) and i laughed uncontrollably from my position of disarray on the floor!! Winter (see last years blog) brought her new baby to see me, another one called Sue. Pastor Steven said he thought there would be an epidemic - its such an honor. Anyway, we talked to them about the importance of school for their children and asked them to complete a questionnaire about their children & their experience of school - the responses were very salutary and a reminder that we take so much for granted at home. The good news was that of the 15 ladies from last year who we had given mosquito nets, 12 had not had a bout of malaria since - amazing. We had also taught them to make paper bead necklaces (if I havent sold you one yet do ask... ) - 8 of the women were now making an income from this and previously had no source of income at all.... Praise the Lord for beadmaking. Where ever you turn there are small groups of women making paper beads! Next week we are going to make a banner together - I have brought lots of felt & resouces - it will depict their children and celebrate their opportunity for schooling.