Botanical gardens part two

This is known as a travellers palm as water traps in the leaves of the palm and if you were travelling and needed water you could just cut into the leaves and drink the water with a straw.




A boda boda, the commonest way of getting around. you need to negotiate the price however before you get on to make sure you are paying the proper fare and not the 'muzungu' one.




The last two photos are of the bird on the beach (I was tempted to write that caption on the photo of Marilyn in the last blog but I value my peace too much). This is a huge bird, which we were told the name of but have forgotten, which stood nicely on the beach and posed for the photos. They are quite impressive especially with their wings open.

Botanical Gardens (Part one)

Just some of the plants and flower from the gardens.
The first photo shows a goose plant flower open on the left and closed on the right. There were four of these in the casket of baby Peace which was lovely.

The second photo is of a yesterday,today and tomorrow tree with a close up of the three coloured flowers on it. We have those in NZ .
This final photo was a wonderful flower with the male and female parts together in the one flower. I can't remember the name ,however the colours were just gorgeous.

Our holiday

We had a wonderful three nights in Entebbe this last week. We left home Monday morning and arrived at the Airport Guest House around lunchtime , had lunch then read and slept in the afternoon. We didn't realise how tired we really were until we stopped. Dinner each night was served outside our unit on the lawn, by candlelight and lantern which was lovely.
On Tuesday in the morning we visited the market, bought some jandals and some material and fruit, returned for lunch at the guesthouse and then went to one of the hotels nearby for a swim. We had a choice of three hotels to visit and chose the wrong one this time. The pool was a covered pool, quite expensive and we weren't able to lounge in the sun as we had hoped. however we enjoyed it then returned 'home' for dinner.
The highlight for us was on Wednesday when we visited the Botanical Gardens. If we had just been on our own it would have been quite boring, just an expanse of trees with paths between them. However there was a botany student who showed us around and he made it so fascinating and interesting. We were surprised with the number of plants and trees we have in NZ which have come from Africa. We will include some photos separately.
In the afternoon we went to another hotel for lunch and a swim, this time an outdoor pool. Lunch was a bit of a disaster, many things listed in the menu were 'off' and the service was the worst we have experienced here. We are used to waiting for things but this was just slack. The hotel had a nice sandy beach in front of it so we sat on one of the benches and wrote a number of postcards to catch up on our correspondence. As you can see from this first photo it was another glorious day and we got a bit of a tan.


The second photo shows the unit we stayed in and the lovely chairs we could just relax in. It was a lovely setting for us. Just right!!



One of the 'toys' we had on our table each night were battery powered candles. You just shook them to make them come on or turn off. Needless to say Warwick enjoyed fiddling with them as the other two photos show.
They were bought in Holland so were not able to purchase any, what a pity as the boys would love them.


We left on Thursday morning and returned home to welcome home pictures on the door drawn by the boys which was great. They had been very well looked after and so far there hasn't been any regression in behaviour that we experienced last time.
The boys have one more week of school though most schools have finished already. They have their breakup and Christmas gifts on Friday so most of the week will be spent preparing for this. Marilyn is going to be helping with the music (surprise) and Warwick will be helping (pronounced heleping in Uganda) with staging (surprise, surprise), so this is likely to be a full-on week (are there any others?).
We have had Raghma down here each day since we came back, she is such a joy and gives us great pleasure. Her features are changing and she is starting to smile in recognition now, it just melts our hearts.
Baby Peace's mother, Jessica, is settling in to work here in the baby unit so that is nice for her, there is a lot of support here.
That's all for now.
God Bless

Sad news

Greetings. We arrived home last night from three wonderful nights away. We had a marvellous time in Entebbe which we will write about in another blog. However this morning we received the sad news that baby Peace had passed away at 4am. She had been in hospital since Wednesday and was simply unable to fight any longer and she slipped away. The good news was that her mother had been released by the court and has come to work at NACMU so she was with her when she died. Peace was laid to rest this afternoon at 2pm in a moving ceremony at the compound. There is a grave site here for the babies who die, it is nice that they are together.
Please pray for her mother, Jessica, that she may settle to work here, her son Godfrey was so overjoyed to see his mother when she arrived here and we feel that God's hand is on the whole situation, Peace had been struggling with feeding from an early stage so we know that now she is at peace. Please also pray for Mariska and especially for Renske who both did their utmost to help her, they are feeling the loss.
It has been a sad day.

The rest of our week

Since our very full and satisfying day on Tuesday we are pleased to report that baby Peace is making progress. Renske, our lab technician, has been looking after her and she is now almost 3.7kg. This is still lighter than our Raghma (who is 6 weeks old now and fatter in the face as the photo shows). Peace is 7 months old and is still very thin. Please continue to pray for her and her brother Godfrey, who has settled in well.
We also had another baby arrive on Friday from the same police station that Raghma came from, a 2 month old baby abandoned in good condition, healthy and happy, a gorgeous wee girl. Her name is Tessa. This means that we have had six new arrivals in the last three weeks, which takes the number of children to 115 or 116.
For us Wednesday was spent clearing out more junk from the school storeroom and writing a few letters, Thursday was spent sorting out the Christmas boxes for the children at the school and at home. For the home we have to take out the soaps, shampoos, toothpaste, pens and pencils, writing books, marbles, and chalk as these are used by the home or the school. We then replace what has been taken out with other gifts from other boxes. It was another full-on day but we were pleased to finish the task (over 200 boxes altogether).
We celebrated on Friday, by going to Kampala to replenish supplies before we go on holiday. Rebekah came with us also which was good for her to have a day out.

Saturday was a good day with our usual clean-up. We got our dear wee Raghma down mid morning for the day. She is changing in the face but has started to give some lovely smiles. We love her to bits and can appreciate how grandparents feel.




Today, Sunday, was a good session at Sunday school on Paul and Silas in prison and a good teaching at church by Pastor John. In between these we again had Raghma down here and while she was sleeping the boys decided to do a bit of hairdressing, firstly on Marilyn then on Warwick. We thought it was the revenge for their haircuts last week.










This is a lovely photo of Rebekah who is going to come and help Reny look after the boys while we go on our 'holiday'. We are really looking forward to our three nights off in Entebbe and are really grateful to Reny for staying with the boys to enable us to do this.
















Pleases pray for Reny, Rebekah and the boys in our absence, and for all the children in the home, especially the new arrivals. Please give a special prayer to the Aunties who are nursing the babies, we have a fresh appreciation for the wonderful work they do.
Also pray for Piet and Pita in Holland. They are extending their trip by a week as they have so much to do, please pray for good health also, as they are struggling with some very cold weather. Prayers for Mariska would be appreciated too, as she carries on magnificently.
Finally, once again thank you to all who keep in touch through email, text, and snail mail. I might have said it before, but we really do enjoy getting mail.
God Bless

Our day and saint Mariska

Thought we would share some of what we did today and a little about Mariska. Christmas is coming and the celebrations start on Dec 4th with the school breakup. At this each family gets a set of clothes for the family, along with a Christmas shoebox for the children. Last week we spent some time sorting suitable clothes, from the bales of clothes here. That task we completed today (there was a need for approx 180 sets). The workers here have a Christmas gathering on the 5th Dec where they all get some gifts. This year they are getting bedding along with other things, so we sorted out 120 nice blankets or quilts for that today as well as sorting out some clothes for Gulu ( the part of NACMU which operates there) and some nice clothes for gifts for the children in the home for Christmas. We managed to complete that task today too. So, all in all, it has been a busy but very satisfying day. All of these things are coordinated by Mariska, on top of her other responsibilities at the home. Mariska is a wonderful organiser, always unflappable when situations arise. She is 'in charge' while Piet and Pita are away. We finished the task about 5pm, Marilyn went to feed Raghma (we try to do that when we can) and as I was about to return home Mariska got a call from the police in Mukono. There were two children needing somewhere to go. She called on Marilyn and they both went to get the children-a 7 month old girl named Peace, and a 2 year old boy called Godfrey. Their mother had been arrested for child neglect as she had been locking the children in a home while she tried to find work so she could buy food. When we arrived, we had to take the children out of the mother's arms. It broke us all up to do this. The boy had a distended stomach and was so thirsty that he wanted to drink his bath water. We also suspect malaria as he was burning up. The little girl weighed about 3 kg and was severely dehydrated, so on arriving home Mariska and Renske decided that she needed immediate hospital attention, as feeding her anything could kill her if she got too much protein at once. So at half past seven Mariska and Renske and Auntie Eunice left to go to Mulago Hospital where there are 2 wards for babies with severe malnutrition. In Uganda, you need to stay and act as nurse to anyone admitted-there are no nursing staff like at home. Auntie Eunice a delightful 25 year old Ugandan woman with an amazing faith, will do this as she has for many other children. Dinner for Mariska would be at 10.30pm at the earliest!! We really love this amazing young woman, who has such a heart for the work she does. Do pray for her, she carries this place while Piet and Pita are away. As can be seen from the photo she always has a ready smile no matter how she is feeling. She is truly one of God's special saints!

Another week flies by

Indeed another week has flown by, we have enjoyed having baby Raghma in our home, she has really captured our hearts. We have spent a lot of time with her this week. On Tuesday I went with Joshua to Mengo Hospital to have his eyes checked further. We now know that he needs glasses. So we chose frames and will probably get them this week. We think it will make a big difference to his classwork.
Friday, having decided to relinquish Raghma, we went to Kampala for a day at the beach. By the time we got to Kampala it was thundering and lightning and pelting with rain so we just went shopping instead, had a nice lunch, and filled in the emptiness of not having our baby.
Saturday was a wet day for most of the day. The boys spent the afternoon painting. They are getting very good at drawing now, this picture shows Mark, Richard, Timothy, Paul and Ezra making some pictures for our wall.










It cleared up for a while So Richard and Ezra went outside for a bounce while Joshua looked on.












Meanwhile, Owen was busy in the kitchen with Marilyn cooking sweet and sour chicken for dinnner.











It is good to know that there are some Kiwi Icons around the world. One such item is shoe polish shown here. So Ugandans know about Kiwi.



That's all for this week
God Bless you all

Angel Raghma

We thought we wanted to share some more photos of our wee angel Raghma.
The first is of Raghma with Joshua.















Some of her on the couch up close, you can see how she has captured our hearts.





On Friday though we knew it was time for her to go up to the home.
We have loved having her here and it was good grandparent training for us, but it was taking its toll on other aspects of our home life. It will be better for her in the long run, but we do miss her.
We did get her down today for the day which was nice. I'm sure that will happen quite often.













This is her having her last bath before going up to the home.

Our weekly routine

We have had a busy but somewhat uneventful week. Most of any 'spare' time we had was spent looking after Raghma. We still have her with us, she is such a lovely wee girl except when she cries with colic at night. Babies are very time consuming though. We also helped sort clothes for Christmas gifts for the parents of children at school. They get a set of male and female adult clothes along with a childs set and two pairs of shoes. The children also get a shoebox of goodies. It all takes time sorting it out. Sorting out the school store has also been an ongoing task with some progress being made. The boys love testing the felt pens and sorting out pencils,crayons etc.
Went to Kampala on Wednesday and took Joshua to have his eyes tested. He has been referred on so we will need to go again to see the likelihood of his needing glasses. The rest of the week has been ordinary so thought I would give you an idea of what our normal weekly routine is.
Monday to Friday the boys wake between 6 and 6.30, breakfast at 7 and off to school at 7.30. Marilyn & I then have our breakfast, check the e-mails (when power and network connections allow) and generally do a study from 'The Word for Today'.
On Monday we go up to the main home for staff devotions at 9am then home for housework, washing, sweeping, mopping, wiping..... Lunch is sometime between 1 and 2pm and the afternoon is spent ironing, baking and getting ready for the boys to come home.
School officially finishes at 4pm but the boys arrive home anytime from then until about 5.30 depending on what tasks they have to do.
Supper is at 6pm after which are showers and ready for bed. We try to have a Bible story at night together on the couch then the younger ones head for a story and bed by 7.30. The older boys do some schoolwork with Marilyn until 8.30 then they head off to bed too. Juliet (one of the teenage mums) comes down for some school work after that so Marilyn is kept busy.
Tuesdays and Thursdays we try to help out somewhere in the morning or afternoon but also try to write some letters or relax.
Wednesday is our usual day out. We feel it is important to have one day a week away from the compound so Wed. shopping in Kampala is our usual out.
Friday is spent preparing for Sunday School and also preparing food for the weekend and our dinner on Friday night. Friday night is also DVD night so the showers are over quickly as they are keen to watch the DVDs
Saturday breakfast is at 8 but some of the boys (especially Paul) still wake at 6. Breakfast is usually cereal and toast (rather than the porridge they get from the home during the week) and then the boys get asigned some cleaning jobs to do. We finish by sweeping and mopping out. Marilyn then often cooks muffins or scones with many willing helpers, to have with lunch. The afternoon is time spent with the boys and Saturday night is DVD with popcorn night.
Sunday is again breakfast by 8, we make our porridge, which they like, and toast again. Sunday School is at 9 until about 10.30, home for morning tea and pikelet making time. Lunch at 1 and church at 2 until about 3.30 then we relax until dinner( which is always sausages and chips which the boys love. We get it from the home and do not make them here although we do usually make a coleslaw to have with them!). We have a weekly 'family conference' on Sunday night and decide on our weekly focus for the coming week. Once the boys are in bed we generally iron while watching an episode or two of 'The Cosby Show' on DVD.
So, that is roughly our weekly programme in general, subject to change depending on sick children, babies in the house and our own health. Its a hard life but somebody's got to do it!!!
Please continue to pray for Piet & Pita in Holland, they have a very full programme,
for Mariska and Ronald and Ram as they carry the load here,
for us as we continue to look after wee Raghma, give us wisdom as to when to take her up to the home,
for baby Ischa who is having a battery of tests as she continues to battle high temperatures and TB.
One final request is that if you send us a parcel (no hints there at all, let your conscience guide you) please let us know the tracking number of the parcel as we can get it in Kampala if we know that. Also if you send Litebreak please send it in a plastic bag as the container gets crushed and it goes everywhere.
That's all for now
Love and God Bless

A new addition

........ Just before Mariska came to the gathering on Friday, she had a call from the police to ask if she could pick up another baby. She had already collected one earlier in the week, (Job, a boy 1 month old, abandoned) so she went and got Raghma, a baby girl of two weeks old. She brought her to our place for the evening and asked if we would like to look after her. We were delighted and Raghma is still with us. We don't know how long she will stay here, the boys would like us to keep her, but that would not be fair on her. She is a delightful little dot, who gives lovely smiles and we feel quite priviledged to be able to get our grandparent training with her. Not used to bottle feeding though, it was so much easier to have food on tap as it were.
We had a visit on Saturday from the woman who had looked after her for a few days. She wanted to keep her but her husband said no, so she took her to the police to find a place for her. It appears Raghma's mother died giving birth and the father dumped her in a bush in heavy rain, and this lady found her. The woman was so happy that Raghma has a good home and I'm sure she will continue to visit her. It is really sad that she could not keep her as she certainly loves her and would be able to provide well for her. She was accompanied by one of the policewomen who called NACMU. This was the same police station that our Richard lived at for 6 months, so she was very keen to see Richard, and was simply overjoyed to see him and noticed many changes in him. It took Richard a little time to relax with her. He probably thought she was going to take him back, but he did remember her- she was quite lovely.


So our time has been busy, babies take a lot of looking after, feeding every three hours, washing etc.. BUT WE LOVE IT!!!!
Please continue to pray for us to have the energy to devote to all who are in our care. Timothy has come home this morning with a headache so is sleeping now, he is the third of the boys to have this. It seems to last two to three days then they are alright so hopefully he will be OK tomorrow.
We did receive some mail during the week, thank you to those who have sent letters and parcels, we DO enjoy getting mail.





Our wee angel. Please pray for her as she settles into Noah's Ark










This is Rebecca who came to our rescue when we got delayed in Kampala. We see her regularly for cups of real coffee-she arrived complete with coffee plunger and different types of coffee. She has no jug so comes to our home each day for her daily fix! Warwick does not mind at all!!

All action

Greetings to you all. It has been an action packed week with lots of small jobs being done. Firstly, we now have a set of swings erected outside our house. It has been enjoyed by children of all ages as you can see by the photos.








The second picture is a nice one of Matthew and Ezra.













We have also had some extra lights put in the lounge area over the table which has made a big difference to us when we are helping the boys at night and when reading. Our tired old eyes were straining without them.






We also now have some shelves in the kitchen which has enabled us to make better use of the benches when we cook (the collective use of 'we' here means Marilyn & the boys - they really love cooking especially the cleaning of the bowels (bowls) afterwards). In addition this week we have looked after Alex who had malaria. Fortunately the medication he got from here worked well, and he was able to return to school on Wednesday. He & Simon have some important exams this week so please uphold them in prayer.





We had not intended to go to Kampala this week but Brad was taking his car in for servicing and wanted some company so we went with him on Thursday. We left about 8.30 to take his dog to the vet on the way, then the day went like this.... First stop for coffee at Chris and Juliana's place (another missionary couple from Holland) (1 hr), second stop for coffee at the Sheraton (1 hr), lunch (3 hrs - I kid you not, its tough but someone's got to do it!!!), wait for the car exploring more of Kampala (2 hrs), bank for NACMU (1 hr), shopping (30 mins) and we finally arrived home at 8 pm. Fortunately one of the volunteers, Rebecca from Canada, was able to look after the boys until we returned. All-in-all a full day out doing nothing but eating and drinking. On Friday we hosted a get-together of the missionaries and volunteers here for Pizza and sodas and had some unexpected guests as well....... tell you more in the next blog.