Back to school

Yes, the children are back at school. The last week has gone well so we celebrated with the usual end of holidays disco which was enjoyed by all. The boys even made up an 'air-band' before they went but need a little more practice before performing I feel.
On Saturday we had another cookout as you can see from the photos posted. It teemed with rain in the morning so we watched an episode of MacGiver (a series the boys have really enjoyed, it was series 2 and we have nearly seen all the episodes). By lunchtime it had cleared and was sunny so we decided to proceed with the cookout and the weather stayed fine for us. We made four groups of 5 children by drawing the names out of a hat (so it was God's decision as to who should work with whom) and they were to make sausage stew. Our role was merely to sample some of each of the creations and they were such that there were no leftovers at the end. There's normally no leftovers on a Saturday or indeed any night, but each group did a good job. Marilyn had made a dessert which we had inside and finished with a MacGiver which the boys enjoyed more than the girls strangely.
On Monday the children returned to school happily and Marilyn and I travelled to 2Friends guesthouse in Jinja for 3 nights much needed R&R. We will return on Thursday, Aunty Caroline is looking after the boys until then.
We have spent the time resting and swimming and sleeping which has been good.
Piet and Pita are travelling to Holland tomorrow night, Piet's mum has not been well so they want to see her, and hopefully they will also get some much needed rest. Please pray for their journey and for Piet's mum.
We have had 3 new children recently, Nathan a quiet boy about 16 months old, and twin girls, Jane and June, about two years old we think. We also farewelled Adam and Eve who returned to family after almost 4 years at NACMU. It has been quite an emotional week one way or another.
That's all for now, till next time
God Bless

End of holidays cookout

 two of the groups in the early stages
 group three
 group four
 Aunty Prossy and the Ugandan axe
 Matthew's turn
 success
 look at that beaut fire
  Mmmmmmm yummy
 Thank you Lord for giving us food
 the proof is in the eating
 no left-overs here
 pudding inside courtesy of Marilyn
 and a McGyver to finish off

End of holidays

 THE Band excited about going to the disco
 Our great little dancer-go Richard!
 Uncle Bosco and the girls
 The winning couple.

Holidays week two

Greetings, Sunday night again and after being without full-power for 24 hrs we now have it so time to update things. The second week of holidays has passed and it has been a mixed week for us. The weather has been quite variable, Richard's group cancelled swimming on Thursday, woke to fine weather on Friday, went to swim and an hour and a half later it thundered down. At least they got some time in the water. We have been working with the younger family unit children going through some activities on the computer which we purchased on our way home from NZ with money our daughter Jen had given us from the boat she and Scott were working on. The programmes give good motivation so the children are doing schoolwork without realising it. In addition we were involved in interviewing a new teacher for the Primary School so we will start the term fully staffed again.
Shoes and the containers have also taken some of my time, I have been finding shoes for the home children to wear other than their crocs, quite a mission but successfully completed I think. Next it will be finding sportswear for school, we have a lot especially big sizes but not so many small sizes, we'll see what we can find this week. Meanwhile, Marilyn has gone through bundles of bedding and found and washed sheets and pillowcases ready for the next FU. Guess curtains are next on the list!
Our joy this week has been Rhode again. She had malaria last week and had been quite miserable but this week is back to a happy girl again. We are trying to put panties on her and begin potty training but so far she hasn't tinkled the potty, again we'll see what this week brings. She has been quite delightful especially when Marilyn got out a mirror so she could brush her hair and see herself in it, she became a real 'fashion queen' as you can see in the photos.
Today at Sunday School we continued looking at some of the situations when Jesus appeared to his disciples before the ascension and covered John 21:1 - 14 where Jesus appeared to his disciples while fishing and cooked some fish on the beach. We really needed to smell and taste that situation as well as hearing about it so Uncle Arnout cooked some fish fingers and served them with bread for all of the Sunday School (we thought we might call him Uncle Jesus but instead we call him Uncle Fish). Not a new idea we know but it was fun and the children enjoyed it.
On the health front, there is a lot of malaria around at present, the changeable weather doesn't help, currently we have Joshua down in our house, Hope has it next door, and Pita seems to have it again also. There are many children who have had it in the home over the last two weeks, please pray that it can be contained and that all will recover quickly.
Also please pray for the leadership in NACMU. There have been many staff changes, some in most of the departments so please pray for the staff who are leading these departments and also for the management team in their decision-making. We pray also for a good final week of the holidays, the children have been good in doing their chores, we hope that this continues, will you pray with us too?
Until next time
God Bless

Sunday School

 Ruth leading the singing
 M's older kids
 W's class-the noisies who sing while they work.
 Uncle A acting out Jesus cooking breakfast on  the beach-fish fingers for all.
 Pastor Joann and her 10 top class children.
 Auntie Prossy with her class.

Rhode growing up

 Aren't I beautiful???
 Is this me?
 I still have very little hair, but I can brush it!
 And I'm learning about bodily functions too.