Peace at Last

A little over 5 weeks of school holiday came to an end yesterday and the children returned to school today. The village is remarkably peaceful when they are not here! The mamas and mzungus don't make a lot of noise between them.

The holiday time has really been a great time to spend time with the children doing all manner of things. Sometimes its what they want to do, more often they want to tag along with what we are doing or at least do what they want to do in our presence. Occasionally that can be useful as they will very happily go and get that tool that you need or move the ladder from here to there as required. On other occasions it can lead to trouble as well, as when I was working with some spouting for the new house, making up the corner pieces, and a group of the boys were taking it in turns to drill and rivet. After a while there came a cry from one boy, "Uncle Ron, look what . . . is doing!" . . . had taken an offcut of the spouting and was "drawing" with it along the side of my car.

Anne spent many an hour in the admin block with children reading, drawing, colouring, doing jigsaw puzzles, drawing on a blackboard, learning words and numbers and letters. Both her and Trudi, our visitor, gave the one sewing machine a good workout, mending clothes and even making a few new items.

The highlight though of the holidays came last week on Monday when we finally opened the newly arrived container. If you haven't been following this saga, the container left Lilydale in September and arrived here in Jinja Customs Bond yard in mid January. Unfortunately it has taken this long to get the official documents from the government here to have the import taxes waived. But a little over a week ago, on Friday 13th May, we finally got approval to collect the container. We then had to wait to open it until Monday so that a customs inspector could check its contents. The arrival and opening provided much excitement for the children, and then the work began of unloading it.

There was a huge range of things in the container, but those that brought most excitement to the children were the bicycles and the slide.


I, on the other hand, have had a lot of fun looking through the boxes of old tools that have come, thinking of all of the times that I could have used that, or that, or how good it is to finally have one of those.

Also in the container was a very very large number of items of clothing of all shapes and sizes. Anne, Jane and Christine, with a few others have almost completed the mammoth task of sorting them. Some are ready for the children, some will be modified to fit the children, and some will be given to various people in the community to bless them.


The container also included building materials from a house that some hard working people demolished back in July in Wandin. Soon they will be put to use in constructing roofs for houses here as well as providing some of the bathroom fittings for the nearly completed guest house.


The children and all associated with the village here want to say a huge "Thank You" to everybody who donated goods and / or time and / or money to get this container here. It is a huge blessing, not just to the village, but the whole community.

Its been a while - sorry

It is quite a while since I have posted anything here - thats not because nothing happens, but more because so much is happening.

We have been a village of 32 children for two and a half months now, and life has certainly changed. The new children have learnt many new things, including "Aunt Anne, may I come in?" when they are standing at the doorway of the admin building wanting to enter to read, draw, do homework, do puzzles, or just hang out. They still have things to learn as well, like "LEAVE MY CAR ALONE" as they draw in the dust or play with the doors and windows and locks.

Seriously, the life of the village is totally different now and we can only imagine what it will be like when we have 6, 8 or 14 houses full of children.

At the moment the children are still on holidays from school for another 2 weeks. Despite this they are getting lessons most days in the admin building, and learning much through being able to write all over the blackboard without fear of messing things up in their books if they get something wrong. For many of the children who have not previously been to school, this holiday has seen them come on in leaps and bounds in things like learning the alphabet. Last week at the Sunday night devotions, there were great celebrations when all of the children, including the 3 year old twins, were able to sing the alphabet song on their own.

During the holidays, the children get to do some of the chores that there is not the opportunity for them to do during term time. For some this is preparing meals, for others it is helping out in small ways with the building project of the time. Last week a group of the older girls spent days in the garden digging and planting a crop of maize and other vegetables.

On the building front, great progress has been made on "Mission House". This is a house being built on another block close to the village that will function as a guest house to raise income for the village. Future teams that come from Australia will stay in this house. It now has a roof, and currently the internal walls are being plastered. In the next few days the plumbing and electrical work will begin, and then windows and doors will have it liveable in plenty of time for the team coming in July.

At the village, house 5 is still awaiting its roof that is in the container that is now only a day or so from being delivered (I really am a man of faith!) A slab for house 6 awaits the July team, and there will also be work on the kitchen slab in the next week or so to make sure that we have plenty for them to do.

On the 'mzungu' front, some personnel changes are afoot. Luke who has been here since June last year, is now in his last month in Africa. To the surprise of many here, he has finally booked a ticket home and will depart in early June. He will be greatly missed both inside and outside of the village. Trudi who has been with us for 10 weeks, departs on Sunday. She also has made a big impact during her time here, not the least of which happened last week when she accompanied a team from YWAM on an outreach to western Uganda. The mothers, the children, and even the dogs will miss Trudi when she goes! In June we have some new visitors coming, then in July we have a team so exciting times lie ahead.

Roof contractors preparing to put the spouting on the roof of Mission House

The finished roof!

Charles working to plaster the walls in the lounge room

Ibra and Sharon in the new clothes brought by their Jadja (grandmother) on their way to church.

Its a Busy Village!!

Life at Village of Hope always has something of interest going on. With 32 children, there is never a dull (or even quiet) moment, particularly now that they are all on 5 weeks holiday.

We have had our own little dramas at times. Steven, one of the new boys, broke his wrist when he fell over. An xray was followed by a plaster cast, although it was off in 2 weeks and he has been fine since. I think he enjoyed the daily ritual of having his arm wrapped in a plastic bag so that he could bathe, then coming back to have the sling applied again.

Then there was John who bit his tongue when he fell over. He managed to take quite a chunk out and so we decided to take him off to a clinic to get it checked. With service that you could only dream about in Australia, John had been registered, examined by a nurse, who called in a doctor for a look, who scheduled him for surgery and in he went, all within 25 minutes. After the surgery to put several stitches in, they decided to keep John in overnight and he was very brave through it all. A couple of days without solid food and then all was well for him too. It only kept him quiet for the first day, then he was back to his old self.

Easter was chocolate free, but was instead celebrated with special meals of chicken and rice for lunch and turkey and matooke for supper. There were sodas as well and during the afternoon we went on an outing. The park turned out to be a part of Jinja golf course, so we had to move when balls started flying over our heads, but eventually another space was located close by and several games gave those who weren’t climbing trees some fun.

This week there has been opportunity for different groups of children to get some extra classes in (much) smaller numbers than they get at school to learn some of the basics that they may have missed out on. The admin building is usually abuzz in the mornings with puzzles and reading and writing and drawing and practising number recognition and even letter recognition. To see the faces of children as they begin to understand is amazing.

As well as this learning, many of the children are eager to help with various jobs that are going on. Anne usually has ‘help’ preparing dinner as the children want to learn about different ways of preparing food. The moment I look at a ladder or pull out my keys to open the tool shed I am swamped with willing helpers. These kids have held tools while some repair jobs have happened or walked down to the site of ‘Mission House’ to carry some tools home or to clean up off cuts of timber to be used for the cooking fires.

Another group of girls have been quite amazing. This group of 4 teenage girls have spent each afternoon this week in the garden, digging the ground with hoes and planting seeds. Now is the time to do this with wet season upon us. I’m not sure where I would have to go in Australia to find 4 teenage girls who on their own, with no pressure from anyone else, would show the dedication necessary to work so hard in the garden for so long to achieve their goal.

As well as all of this good stuff, there have been times of sadness as well. Last weekend we heard of an accident at the lake where 2 children had drowned. Today we found out that one of them was a boy that Trudi, our visitor, had made some connection with. On Thursday morning we received a phone call from a friend at YWAM informing us that a boy of one of the families who live and work at the YWAM base had died the night before, collapsing suddenly after playing football and eating supper. The boy was well known to the children of the village as he attended the same primary school as them. Again we are reminded that even more so here in Africa, you cannot take life for granted, and we should all be thankful for the life we have.

Some photos of our outing - games being played and children with delight on their faces

Hoppo Bumpo!

A human pyramid

Peter and Maliko

Sebudde and Purpose

Another Weekend of Celebration

Saturday

This weekend there was yet another birthday to celebrate. Trudi, a visitor from Oz, had a birthday and organised a trip to Lake Victoria for the children.

Trudi has made some connection with a couple of fishermen, and arranged for them to take the children out in their boats for a short ride. For most of them, this was their first visit to the lake and they were all very excited.


As well as the boat ride, they amused themselves on the foresore with various games and just watching those in the boat.


Ronald, the fisherman, also put on a short display of fishing with his net, and despite being in the wrong place at the wrong time of the day, managed a small catch of 4 fish, which we blessed the neighbours with.

As the rain arrived, the children retreated to the bus and returned to the village for an ice cream.

Sunday Night.

On Sunday, Robert Kafeero, the director of Uganda Hopebuilders made an appearance at devotions to talk about the role of the family. He entertained the children for quite a while and engaged them in his lesson very well.

Another reason for having Robert come was that the village presented bibles to all of the children in primary 4 or older.

One or 2 already had small "Gideons" bibles, but 8 children were each presented with a nice new hardback NIV. The mothers presented the bibles, and Pastor George and his wife Jeska were on hand to pray for the children as they received them. It was a great night.

A Cause for Celebration

Yesterday we had at the village the opportunity to celebrate with Ooee Luke on the occasion of his 24th birthday.

Luke has been here at the village since July last year - I think he is looking into permanent residence. In that time he has made a number of good friends and they were invited to join with us for a party.

Luke purchased some special food, including Matooke, Beef, 2 Chickens (prepared for cooking by the boys) and sodas. Anne made a pair of chocolate cakes complete with the required number of candles and the mamas prepared the food.

When we gathered there were 63 in all. A delicious meal was served up, followed by the cake and the sodas, then the children were given the opportunity to wish Luke a happy birthday. Many of them took the chance to speak up, in english of course, and testify of the great friend that Luke has been to all of them. After the children, many of the adults also wished Luke a happy birthday and thanked him for his friendship, especially his good mate Farook. Luke was really moved by it all.

Clearly he has had a big impact on the lives of the children and also others from the community.

Happy Birthday Luke!!

Singing "Happy Birthday" as the cake arrived

Enjoying a Soda

Luke distributing the birthday cake

Peace, Jackie and Prossie from next door performing an item.

A few new faces

Here are a couple of the new kids, enjoying watching the computer

This one is Rachel, She is the second youngest of 5 sisters.

Here is the ever smiling Joshua. We collected him on Wednesday from a village about 50 kms east of here.
And this is Maliko, who came in on Monday.

One Week In

32 kids are a whole lot more joy than 16, but also a whole lot more interesting, adventurous and hard work.

14 children arrived last weekend and then one on Monday and another on Wednesday. Since then there have been times of outfitting them all with new clothes and shoes, trips to medical clinics for treatment and then all of them for testing, enrollment at the local schools (we have one secondary student) and preschool, and lots of time just getting to know them and watching all of the mischief they get up to. Some are learning rapidly the ‘rules’ whilst others it is going to take longer for. Without exception, they are all excited to be in the village and part of a new family.

The houses are gradually being set up - the new cooking stove is finally ready for use and tables and benches have been made to make the dining experience possible in two separate groups. Tomorrow we should get the solar lights up and running - very important since we are still without power after more than 2 weeks. When the lights finally come on I’m sure the new children will be quite surprised.

The integration of the old and the new kids has been amazing. After the initial infatuation and treating the smallest kids as toys has worn off, new friendships have been made and there has been no indication of any disharmony between the two groups. The experienced kids are very helpful in explaining things and helping their new friends.

It has been a bit of a shock for the two mothers, Rose and Persis. They are coming to terms with the work involved in caring for 8 kids, but with the support of the other mothers, Agnes and Loyce, they are getting on top of it.

Some things that have been highlights of the week:

• The smile on Maliko’s face on Monday when Ivan, Luke and I collected him from the Kikaramojo slum. Mailko is the boy who we couldn’t get on Saturday because of the recent death of his mother. He has been amazing all week and is so enjoying the comfort of the village.

• The sight of children playing on the swings - a simple little thing but probably the first time for most of them.

• One new girl sharing her new clothes with another who we hadn’t been able to get enough dresses for.

• The way that all of the kids have participated in the nightly devotions and singing.

• The kids discovering that they don’t have to hide away some extra food in case the next meal doesn’t come.

If you are not yet a sponsor of the village, please consider it. There are sponsorships available for the two new houses. Check out www.hopebuilders.org.au