Week 2

Mariska, Joker, and Reny decorating one of the home trees.
Sports afternoon netball (note the uniforms!)
The older children's sports teams.
Pictionary night on Friday.

week two update

Greetings, we have nearly survived the second week. Another busy one. We started the children on 'chores' this week. We have nine departments who have two children each morning from 9am - 10.30am to help with the chores. The children are each involved on three days only in the week and they have been very enthusiastic about helping. One of the photos shows Brenda and Sandra as guards in full uniform which they enjoyed so much that they stayed on duty until lunchtime. This is the third time we have done this in the holidays and,so far, the children have been much more responsible about turning up. We have included the 8yr olds for the first time these holidays.
On Tuesday afternoon we organised some craft activities for 'our' group (32 children altogether) as can be seen by the photos. Some great Christmas crafts were created and we were grateful to the 'visitors' who helped supervise.
Wednesday was our day out and rather than go shopping in Kampala we chose to go to Jinja for a swim. The weather was great and we were able to relax a little but, before we knew it, we had to return home. It was good to be able to snooze and read without interruption.
Today we had a games afternoon at the school, soccer and netball, which not only tired the children out, but us also. We had some great help from others but we were still needed for 'crowd control'.
Tomorrow we are having a Pictionary evening with our 'group' so should be fun, then next week we begin rehearsals for our pageant for Christmas day. Life is never dull.
We have a family of six arrive today from Canada and they are keen to help out over Christmas time so we will try to use them as much as we can, which would be good.
Please pray for an extra portion of patience and energy for us as we are beginning to feel quite tired. Our joy each day continues to come from Rhode who seems to be trying new things every day.
Hope you enjoy the pictures.
Till next time
God Bless

week two pics

around the finished tree
two new 'guards' on duty protecting our containers
craft activities, making Christmas trees
making Christmas cards.

O Christmas trees

Our tree being worked on
Nearly smothered in decorations
The girls preparing their WHITE tree
proudly finished

week one continued

Day two, more children and more mud pies
Boy's guitar lesson, one of two groupd Marilyn takes for guitar along with three keyboard pupils. Makes for a busy Sat. morning
Our dear wee Rhode giving us a NICE ONE sort of.
Boys dancing to Christmas music before decorating the tree.

First week over

Greetings, we have survived the first week of the holidays, only seven more to go!! It has been a good week but as you would expect quite busy. Tuesday and Wednesday nights Marilyn stayed with the girls home and was pleased to get back here on Thursday. On Wednesday we went to Kampala with Piet & Pita plus the girls family unit and P & Ps children to buy some Christmas trees and decorations. It was a good day out for the girls, tomorrow will likely be the day the trees go up.
Today Marilyn and I went to Kampala again for food shopping and a nice lunch and to just get out for the day. We brought Marjorine's two daughters back with us as they are going to stay a few days here too. They are two lovely girls, very polite and well-mannered. This evening we have just had 41 children here for a DVD night and popcorn. It is difficult to get a DVD which can appeal to children from 7yrs upwards but they seemed to enjoy "All Roads Lead Home". I think we will sleep well tonight. Not much other news, next week we are starting the holiday activities which should be fun.
Only a short blog this time, until the next one, God Bless

End of school year

Greetings. Wow we have had some success at posting photos tonight so have gone overboard a little perhaps and given you a glimpse of the last few days. We hope you enjoy the pictures.
On Friday was the end of year breakup for the school, held this year down at the new church. It started at 9.10am which is very good for Ugandan time and finished around 3pm. It was again a great occasion with each class presenting 3 items. Parents continued to arrive during the concert and by the end there were about 400 there.I had received a text message from Pastor John early on Friday morning (like 5am) saying he couldn't be there so could I please stand in for him, so I had to give a 'spiritual' message to the school and parents, a rather daunting task but it went OK I think. At the end, back at school, the children got the shoeboxes Marilyn & I had prepared and they generally seemed very happy with them. The village children particularly liked getting the sweeties, amongst other goodies. During the afternoon Piet almost fainted and had to be helped back home, he is still not right and on Sunday morning he was in immense pain so went to the hospital to be checked out. He has some 'gravel' in his gallbladder but is not being operated on yet as the pain has subsided somewhat. He has not fully recovered from his food poisoning so continues to be lacking energy. Mind you, on Saturday he needed to drive one of the workers to the hospital as he had caught his hand in some machinery and had cut it off. It was only Piet's intervention which stemmed the bleeding and kept him alive. The worker has had his arm taken off just below the elbow so please pray for him for healing and for his fellow workers to recover from the trauma. We had been talking, only on Saturday morning, about a programme of 'Safety First' for the workplace so this will be a good lead in.
Sunday morning I got another message from Pastor John that he was going to be unable to come to church so again I had to give the message. People may be getting sick of hearing from me!!I am running out of 'messages' though God seems to provide something each time.
It is strange how little things can upset. At lunch time on Sunday one of the plates we used to feed Raghma was dropped and broke and we both felt quite down about that, it was as though another part of her had gone. However we had a delightful time with Rhode today, she is close to standing, with support, on her feet and is almost giggling now. She has a growly voice she uses sometimes too which is quite funny.
Today was the first day of the holidays and the boys had fun all morning, and half of the afternoon too, playing in the sand making mud pies as the picture shows. The girls were more sedate in making houses, they weren't by any means quieter as they can still argue full voice, but they didn't get anywhere nearly as dirty. Marilyn is spending the next two nights in the girls house as Marjorine has 2 days off so we will both be kept busy (as usual). It is now getting late so I'd better head for bed, please uphold NACMU in your prayers as this is a potentially stressful time for many and please pray for an extra portion of patience and wisdom for us.
Until next time
God Bless

Monkey and holidays day one

chasing a bloody monkey out of the house. It really was bleeding!!
Boys and their mud-pies, kept them busy for hours
meanwhile the girls made houses
almost good enough to sleep in.

End of year shoeboxes

getting reports and shoeboxes
I like my new hat
what have you got, I've got sweeties
a nursery class and their boxes

End of year breakup 3

Our friend Jefta as Samuel
Margaret & Gladys, two of the triplets leading a song
Timothy Owen and Matthew dancing
P6 girls with an African dance

End of year breakup 2

progress on the steps
P1 dancing in banana fibre outfits. Made us think of NZ
Baby class grooving to the music
Richard in full voice with his class

End of year breakup 1

Joshua and Hope playing for their class
Meanwhile some new steps are being made
Nursery school rocking Jesus
Hey give me five

From Nobody to Somebody

Greetings to you all. This morning in our Monday devotions with the staff we were asked to look at the slogan for NACMU, From Nobody to Somebody., and asked about what it meant. There were many interpretations, mine was' from trash to treasure'. Many of the children who come to us are abandoned and nothing is known about them, they are 'nobodies'. They have no name and no known date of birth and have just been discarded. When they arrive they are given a name and a birthdate and are loved, cherished and are a treasure. We dedicate them to God and they truly become 'somebody'.
Rhode is just such a case. She was abandoned when she was about 6 weeks old, her mother just left her in a hut one day and never returned. A neighbour took care of her for a week in case the mother returned then took her to the police who then contacted NACMU. She was given her name, Rhode, and a birthdate  (2nd April), and as the photos show she is certainly somebody special now. We have had much delight in watching her sit up, hold onto toys, learn to clap hands, making noises and blowing bubbles. She is rolling over from her front to the back and is starting to try to use her feet. She is indeed a treasure.
Please pray for us in our continuing care for her and the boys, pray also for Reny who has typhoid at present and is finding the medication she is taking saps all her energy. Pray also for Piet as he collapsed today as a consequence of food poisoning but is improving having had several drips to get fluid into him. We had gone to Kampala last evening and had a meal with them at an Indian restaurant and fortunately the rest of us are OK.
We have also had two more treasures arrive in the last few days, a girl Vivian who is about 6 weeks old I think arrived on Friday, and a boy as yet unnamed about a year old arrived today so our family continues to grow. Please pray that these little ones will settle in well.
That's all for now, until next time
God Bless

Rhode & Rhode

Pretty in purple
See my dimple
Learning to clap hands
Sitting up and playing with my toys