Greetings from NZ

Greetings from NZ. We have arrived safely after a marathon 34 hrs traveling and were met in Auckland about midnight on Tuesday by Chris and Beck. We spent three wet and wonderful days relaxing and catching up on sleep etc. at Piha. We have noticed the cold weather and have missed the warmth and sunshine of Uganda.
The first photo is taken from the deck of their place at Piha, it was lovely to see the sea and we never tired of the view. It was mainly cold for us so we didn't quite make it to the beach.
It was lovely to meet Beck, she was so easy to talk to that it felt like we have known her for a long time. The second photo is of Chris and Beck on the deck.
The third photo shows us all.


We flew to Hawkes Bay on Saturday morning to be met by Ruth, Sherrilyn & Deanne , along with Betty & Colin. It was great to finally get to Havelock North.
Sunday was spent catching up with folk from church and by the end of the day we were all 'talked out'.
Today, Monday, we visited the dentist for a check-up and gathered some stuff from home to be sorted through.
We are a bit worried about how much weight we may put on as we have been eating really well, but I guess we can sweat it out when we return home to Uganda.
Tomorrow I am going to HNHS to visit old haunts and Marilyn is looking forward to going to her old study group. Then we travel to Waikanae to catch up with family there which we are looking forward to.
It does feel strange being here and we do miss the boys, especially the two birthdays of Joshua and Matthew last week. Also, no blog would be complete without mention of Raghma. We do miss her also and continue to pray that she will recover from her pneumonia.
Till next time, God Bless

Containers

It is late on Friday night and I am determined to write this blog before I go to bed. It will be our last from Uganda for four weeks as in three big sleeps time we head to NZ for a catch-up with folks.
As you can imagine this week has been busy preparing things for leaving, starting with haircuts on Sat & Sun afternoons. Timothy decided on a new hairstyle and with added moustache looked quite old. He was predictably told to get a proper cut at school so he joined the ranks of the baldys.

We went to Kampala for shopping on Wednesday. We didn't get there last week as Marilyn has had another dose of malaria and it took a good 5 days to recover. She is still finding that she gets tired easily, perhaps 28 hours travelling will relax her?
On Wednesday evening we had an armada of containers arrive, 5 in total. The third picture shows them parked up the drive with many interested and excited children on Thursday morning. I had taken some snaps of the containers we had been working on earlier in the week, and the fourth photo shows the containers now with 4 stacked on top. will be fun getting to those when we need to open them.

Marilyn had gone with Renske on Tuesday to the Drs in Kampala to have her tested for TB. Fortunately the test was clear but she still has pneumonia so is continuing some medication for that. I think we are going to miss her when we are away! You reckon?
Well, that's about all for now, we are looking forward to visiting NZ even though we still have to start packing. Come Sunday evening we will be able to relax we hope.
will see many of you when we return
Until then
God Bless

an attempt at three more

These are the other three from last night. I hope it works!

Another crack at sending a photo

Worth a crack. One of my favourite pictures of you know who

The rainy season

Greetings. I have tried to put 4 photos on the blog, I don't know why they have not been loading but it is getting very frustrating. I hope you can see them this time. The first is one of my specials of Raghma. I love that photo.
The week has been one of wet weather, struggling to get washing dry, then having a wonderfully warm day. Monday was wet though we did have power for much of the day and we were able to do some forward planning for assembly on Friday and Sunday School. Tuesday was spent shifting some shoes from one container to another before getting Raghma down for the afternoon. On Wed. we went to Kampala for some souvenir shopping and were able to pick up a parcel for Alex and Simon that had been sent in November. The parcels do arrive, they just take time! Thursday was spent sorting shoes in the morning and being doting grandparents in the afternoon. We find a morning at the containers is enough for us so tend to recover in the afternoons. Friday we helped with assembly again and had another wet day so prepared for Sunday.
Saturday was wet again so we got out a huuuuuge bag of K'nex we had been given for the boys and they spent from 9 until 12.30 exploring it and making some wonderful things, especially as there were several motors that worked. The second photo shows Timothy and Matthew embarking on a wonderful construction.
The afternoon was spent doing some new pictures for our wall as we decided to take down the old ones.
Saturday night was DVD night as usual and we were to see High School Musical 3. The boys are always keen to have showers and get ready and Richard was sooo keen he got ready for his shower BEFORE he had done the dishes.


Sunday School went well in the morning. The children are becoming used to our standards and discipline and love singing. We had asked one of the Aunty's to lead worship in church in the afternoon only to find out at breakfast from the boys that she left on Saturday for two weeks holiday. So Marilyn asked the girls in her SS class if they would do it and they were wonderful. They came down before lunch and sorted out songs and shared the tasks out among the 5 of them. When the time came they really did a superb job, we can learn a lot from children.

Before church of course is lunch and we had the boys make their own sandwiches which is always messy, but I couldn't resist taking this photo of Richard (again) as it is a delight to see him with his food.
Monday was a public holiday so we had the boys at home again. It was celebrating Woman's Day, a quaint idea really. They don't have a men's day, I wonder why not? Anyway it was fine to start with but after lunch the heavens opened and it poured again. So out came the K'nex once more, after they had all arrived home thoroughly drenched, and again it kept them busy for hours. We also had Hope visit and she became sick so we took her to the clinic and she was diagnosed with malaria so she came here and slept on our bed for the afternoon. There is an awful lot of malaria here at present so some extra prayer would be welcomed. Also please pray for Raghma, she has pneumonia and is on antibiotics for that and they are also testing for TB as she has not been putting on weight. We dedicated a new baby on Sunday, named Mercy whose mother died in childbirth and the father doesn't know what to do, who is one week old and weighed 5 kg, more than Raghma at 4 months.
Todat, Tuesday we helped with some shoeboxes which are going out to another organisation, and also watched the senior school take part in an athletics meeting with several other schools. There are some awfully fast runners here, but mainly in the other schools.
That's about it for now, I do hope the pictures go but if not, sorry. We are looking forward to returning to NZ in 12 days time though there is lots to be done before we leave.
God Bless

Third time lucky

Struggling to post these photos of Raghma, don't know why.
Hope they go this time