Greetings

Greetings to you all, we are entering a busy time as we get many, many visitors from the Netherlands during their summer holidays. We currently have 14 with another 8 arriving tonight and a Livingstone team of 18 arriving in time for Piet's birthday on Saturday with others arriving on Sunday. It is quite a challenge keeping all busy and meeting their needs. One of the tasks will be to begin the foundations of the 4th Family Unit so once again our area will become a construction site. The jungle has already been cleared in preparation. Accommodation is very tight so the Livingstone teams will use the second boy's Family Unit next to us, and then after they leave, the boys can finally come and take their place.
The children are practicing hard with items for Piet's birthday and we hope for fine weather on Saturday, we seem to get rain most afternoons so this dry season is not so dry. We are still able to get most washing dry in the morning though.
Last week we went to Kampala and were able to buy over 70 textbooks for the Primary School to supplement what they had thanks to money given to us by our church St. Peter's Riverslea, so thank you church.
We are still getting a lot of malaria, the weather here is confusing the mosquitoes too, and it has hit our home with Paul, Joshua, and Marilyn having had it. It seems quite hard to shake but all seem to be on the mend. There have been several cases of Typhoid too, so please pray for the health of all here. We are grateful that we have the clinic nearby and treatment is readily available.
Our 140th child, Titus, has been returned to his family, but we still have 140 children as Robert came to replace Titus on the same day. The Lord gives and takes away, then He gives again.
Our darling Rhode is becoming quite a character, she is a real mimic. The other day I said "I love you" and she replied "I lus you", how good is that! She is also beginning to put words together like "I wanna get up" or "I want to see" and she is gaining in confidence, she still gives us much pleasure.
Please pray for Marilyn and I as we are both quite tired and with her malaria Marilyn lacks energy. Thank you to those who send 'care packages', they are much appreciated, and keep us going.
Till next time
God Bless

Gems

Rhode and her jewels

Hope and Sarai still knitting

Taken from our doorway

Site for the 4th Family Unit is prepared

This is how you think!

Thank you Saint Peters-textbooks you have bought.

Knitting, knitting and more knitting

Greetings all, the latest craze to hit NACMU is knitting and crocheting. We have a supply of wool and needles and hooks, some of it from NZ, and the kids have really taken to it. Each day, before breakfast "Aunty Marilyn I've made a mistake, can you fix it for me please?", after school " A M IMAM,CYFIFMP?", after supper "AMIMAM,CYFIFMP?". It does test the patience, but even the boys are enjoying learning and we all get pleasure seeing scarves, baby booties, bags etc starting to appear. Had a good day shopping in Kampala today and came home with a wonderful array of books for the library. We are constantly surprised by how cheap books are here, we are buying books on Nature, Science, Poetry, etc for about 25,000 Ugandan shillings (which is about $13 NZ) which would cost over $40 in NZ, so thank you to those who have given us money to spend on books, we are getting tremendous value for the money.
Our 140th child arrived on Friday, (named Titus by Mama), who is about three months old and came to us via the police. A woman went to the police with him claiming to be the mother which made the police suspicious because she had been with other babies before, they suspected the child had been stolen so called Piet to look after the boy until they could sort it out. He may not be with us for long but in the meantime he is getting the best of care here. Our prayer is that his family will be found and he can return to them.
There is still a lot of malaria around at the moment, our clinic saw 600 patients last month and over half of them were malaria cases. Please pray that we can be protected from it in the home. We are so fortunate to have medication on our doorstep.
Well, I'd better stop here and get back to my.....KNITTING!!!
God Bless

The latest craze

After Sunday School - knitting inside
crocheting outside
After church, more knitting. Even Rhode is enjoying the action