The week that was

Greetings, it has been quite a week since we last wrote. Last Monday the primary students went back to school and we had Titus here to sleep the night. He was a dear wee boy, woke about 1.30am and after a feed went back to sleep until 6.30. took him up after feeding and bathing him about 9.30.
On Wednesday we took the S1 students who were here (there were seven in total including three of the boarding girls who hadn't gone home) swimming at the African village complex. They have a rather nice swimming pool and we were able to get a nice lunch. We had a great time, we arrived about 10 and left about 3.30 just before it rained, we had glorious sunshine all the time whereas here (only 10 mins down the road) it started to rain heavily about 1pm, so we were lucky.
On Thursday we attended an Introduction ceremony of Teacher Deborah, it's like an engagement party, where the man's family 'meets' the woman's family and provides the 'dowry' and they decide whether to accept the man. It is quite a process, a real pantomime really and though it was all in Luganda we could follow the process. The dress for this is quite formal so Marilyn had to wear a Gomez and I had to wear a Kanzu. We were the only Muzungu's ( white people) there so we sort of stood out a bit. I have tried to post some pictures on the blog but for some reason they are not going but I will keep on trying. It started at 1pm and we left about 8 so got home around 9.30pm. It really was a very colourful occasion.
On Friday we took our usual assemblies and interviewed two teachers for the Nursery School as well as making final preparations for the next group of boys to come down to the new Family Unit. They arrived after school on Friday and were very excited as you can imagine. We now have neighbours on both sides of us, so far it has not been too noisy. Aunty Caroline was also very excited about finally coming down and taking charge of 'her boys'. Again I will post some pictures when I can.
The week was not over yet. On Saturday we went to Deborah & Henry's wedding, yes, that's right, two days after the introduction. We took eight of the children with us (Paul, Mark, Ezra, Sarah, Sandra, Priscilla, Dorah, and Doreen -they were all in Deborah's class at school). We left home at 9.30am to be at the church by 11.30 for the wedding to be at 12 noon. The traffic was terrible, we were caught ina traffic jam for almost an hour but we got there just before 12. Marilyn had been asked to play for Deborah to walk in to so she was able to have a wee play on the keyboard before the service started. We were one of the first to arrive, weddings are usually late in starting and this was no exception but it did get underway just after 1pm. It was a lovely service of over two hours and the children were wonderfully well behaved throughout. It was conducted in English and we were not the only Muzungus there, there was one other white haired lady. Photos will follow. We then had to go to the reception which was in a different part of Kampala and stopped off to get a wedding present on the way with all eight kids in tow. We managed that OK and made it to the reception about 4.30pm just before the bride and groom made their entrance. The reception was held in a large garden setting with 5 big marquees. We were given seats in the front of one of the marquees so the kids could see everything. I had to give a short speech on behalf of NACMU, as Deborah's employer which I found out about 2 mins before time, there were a number of speeches and lots of music, it was a very joyous time. We got fed about 7pm which the children enjoyed, we were given one of the 12 wedding cakes, as representing her employer, and the children enjoyed joining the line of people giving gifts so were able to give and get a hug from Deborah. We left about 8.30pm and arrived home about 10pm having had a super day. We often say that the things we do with children is creating memories and we are sure that those that were with us will have good memories of this day.
On Sunday Marilyn awoke with a migraine headache, probably due to tiredness so she skipped Sunday School and Church. Monday was not much better so went to the clinic and was tested. guess what............yep, malaria again. We have caught it early so she is on a course of tablets for three days which should knock it.
Only one more baby since last time, a girl Heidi who is very sick but there is one of her Aunties who is caring for her at Mulago hospital at present. She may or may not return here.
That's about all for now, it has been a hectic time recently, we hope we can relax a bit now that all children are back at school this week. We are looking forward to the arrival of our very good friends Ruth and David next week for two weeks here and being able to catch up with them and show them first hand what we do.
So till next time
God Bless