excellent news!

God is good - all the time

All the time - God is good



On Tuesday we recieved official confirmation that the 10 pending court cases have been approved - to quote Vince 'the judge said yes'!! This means that Duane, Joseph, Vince, Becca, Paul, Violet, Chloe, Noah, Maria and Musa all get to go home with their Mums and Dads. All that remains to do is for the parents to fly out get the kids passports and visas and then they can leave and finalise adoption in the States. Some of the parents are due to arrive tomorrow. The proceedures should hopefully take no more than 2 weeks although - CHOGM starts very soon and this means that most government buildings will be shut for this period. Hopefully all the kids will get home in time for Christmas - that would be so special!



Yesterday we went to Mama Lois sister's wedding in a small remote village! It took about 2 hours to drive through the villages untill we got to the brides village. As we drove up all the african ladies started to do there 'Yai yai yai yai yai' chant and they was such a big crowd of people gathered outside our van that we struggled to get out. They were all eager to shake our hands and hug us! They then lead us to the shade where there was a group playing some african instruments and singing. We were then shoved back into the van where we were served rice, chicken and matoke. We were told that the bride was waiting for us to finish our food in order to come out! So we gobbled it up as much and as quickly as we could! Then the bride came out of her hut and walked down to the van that we were sat in. On top of the fourteen of us already crammed in their ten more joined us! So in a van licensed to hold 14 passengers and thats already crammed as it is we were 24!! and boy was it hot! we were told that the ride to the grooms village was very close - 1 hour later we made it! The ride there was through more small, remote villages on very narrow bumpy dirt roads. At one point the van tipped to the left so much that we all screamed thinking that the van was going to tip over all the way! The van struggled to cross over some train tracks so we all got out and pulled it over the tracks! We eventually made it to the grooms village and pulled up again to a crowd of wailing (happy wailing) women - excited to see us and of course the bride! We were then herded into the church - which felt more like a brick oven! We sat on little wooden pews - and listened to 10 pastors introducing themselves for about 45 minutes! What does this have to do with the wedding you ask? I have no idea! Then one of the 10 pastors preached on the benefits of marriage: warm food, warm bed and a passport! And I kid you not this man was so serious! After that we couldnt even take anymore - they still hadnt mentioned the bride and the groom - and we were so hot and squashed in these little pews that we had to leave. Now, knowing that we were going to a village and would be travelling throughout the day I decided to not drink anything after 4pm the day before. However, by 2pm I was desperate to go to the toilet - so I went into the little mud hut, ants all over the place, flies everywhere - it was more like a hole in the ground than anything else! anyway!

I spent alot of the last few weeks sorting out the storage unit in the pre-school - it always seems to get messed up very quickly with the kids helping themselves to everything! Most of the storage bins were riddled with cockroaches!!!!! But it definately looks better now it is more organised and clean. Pre-school has been going moderately well. Tuesday was a nightmare - the kids were so naughty! I ended pre-school early by telling them that if they didn't want to be here and weren't prepared to behave then I wasnt going to show up at all. Some of the kids were all ladida about it, some of them were apologetic. Dan noted how angry and upset I was and once I had told them all to leave, he came up to me apologised, gave me a great big hug, and told me he loved me! He's such the sweetest kid, and he's almost never naughty! Anyway then the director decided that the next day instead of pre-school they were all going to lie down instead - so from 9am till 12 they all just lay there! Needless to say that the next day - most of them have been really well behaved. I've not been happy recently about the way somethings have been happening and its starting to really annoy me! Some of the volunteers just come with completely the wrong attitude - telling admin here that they came to volunteer, give up there free time therefore they get to choose what they do here! The purpose of coming here is to volunteer where you are needed and serve the needs of the orphanage - help where help is needed. Then some of the volunteers who have been in pre-school use it as a discussion time - when I am trying to teach they use the opportunity to talk about what they have been doing at the weekend, or the latest news on their boyfriend - whether they are still together etc. I mean its fine to talk about those things - but when they are talking over me and drowning out my voice whilst I am trying to talk to the kids it really doesnt help! They also bring babies into pre-school. Oh dear, its so annoying! Anyway, Im glad that some of the admin have heard my frustrations and have now done something about it! One of the girls in pre-school with me - really worries me! Apparantly she will be taking over after I leave - which if she does means the end of pre-school! I was sick on Friday and spent most of the day sleeping - and this girl brought all 10 pre-schoolers over to the house knowing full well that I was sick and they spent a good while running around the house making so much noise - she even asked me to come and watch them for a few minutes- what a restful day!

Well, hopefully this week will work out better - I have to re-organise the pre-school since we soon have 5 pre-schoolers leaving and 5 younger ones leaving. I would also like to make a some cards for the kids who are leaving from the kids who are staying behind and vise versa.

coming home soon!

Hi everyone.
not much news really.
Just that I am coming home on the 8th December, a little earlier...i hope no-one minds!!

Masai Mara & shootings!!

Jambo!
Greetings from Uganda!

A lot has been going on in the last 10 days or so! I have travelled to Kenya and back where I went on a safari in the Masai Mara and Lake Nakuru. The safari has to be one of the most incredible expereinces of my life. It was awesome to see all the animals you would normally see pent up in a zoo outside roaming about the wilderness. We saw lions - male and female - and a pride of 9 females, cheetahs, wildebeest, zebras, antelopes, elephants, giraffes rhinos, hyenas and so many more beautiful animals. We saw a zebra giving birth! We saw lions eating zebras and wildebeest! We saw hyenas and vultures eating the left overs! We saw a dead impala stuck in a tree! We solved the mystery of the dead but uneaten wildebeest!
Lake Nakuru, home to the flamingos, is an incredible sight - a sea of pink! We spent the first night in a 3 star hotel unfortunately there was no hot water! We spent the next 3 nights camping out in the Masai Mara! We had on our second night an elephant enter our campsite. Our night guards were Masai men who protected us with a stick. On our last evening we meet some German girls and we spent the evening sitting by the campfire chatting. I lay on my back staring into the starry sky for hours! Its incredible how many stars there really are out in the wilderness - where there are no clouds or pollution to hinder the view. We saw a spectacular but unusual perfomance from the moon - indeed we wondered what on earth was happening! The moon was only just above the horizon whereas I have only ever seen it far above the horizon in the 'top' of the sky, then it slowly started to disappear finally it vanished behind the horizon. We asked the Masai what had happened, they explained that it was completely normal! It wasn't an eclipse though. The Mara is 1510 sq km of open park which joins the Serengeti Plains in Tanzania.
We had some interesting Czechs with us on the safari tour - they had done 3 safaris in Uganda already, climbed a few a mountains, were at the Masai with us then were off to climb Mt Kilimanjaro. They were very pleasant people at first, then they started to cause trouble. We spent the first full day driving to the Masai Mara national park, we didn't arrive there until 4pm, they then decided to go on a tour of the Masai village, whereas the rest of us didn't want to because we knew that the park closed its doors at 6pm. So they spent about 2 hours in the village looking around. Needless to say that we didn't get our game drive that we had paid for that day. The next day we spent the whole day from 6am to 4pm driving around the park looking for various different game. (By the way, they spent our last 4 hours looking for a leopard - which they were determined to find - however the leopard is very illusive and shy and can rarely be seen at the Mara.) As we drove out of the park the Czechs insisted that we continue our game drive since we had missed yesterdays! So poor Steve (our driver and guide) had been driving around 12 hours in total - he was not impressed and we were not at all impressed. The next day the Czechs returned to Nairobi and we continued our safari.

The Masai culture is very interesting! The boys tend to the goats as young as 3 years old, then at around 7 years they tend to the cows. The women cook, look after the kids, do the usual chores that African women do but however they also build the entire villages! The men...well, lets face it theres not a lot left to do really is there! In order to become a man the boys must first go through the circumcision rituals, they are then sent out into the bush from anything upto 5 years! Whilst out in the wild they must kill a lion in order to prove themselves. If they do kill a lion, they get to choose the most beautiful women from another village to marry and don't have to offer cows in return since they proved their worth by killing a lion!

Our last night in Nairobi was rather dramatic! We had gone to bed at about 9pm after driving back from the Mara all day. Suddenely we hear about 15 gunshots! We lay there very quiet wondering what on earth was going on. After a few moments I went out of my room and asked the guard what was going on. He told me that some people had been shot - he was very calm adn unperturbed about the whole situation. Then I went back to bed and we heard 4 more! The gunshots were so loud we could even hear the caps falling down onto the ground. I stuck my head out the window and could see lots of people mulling about. It turns out that 4 people were shot right outside our bedroom window! The next morning we left for Uganda!

Things are going well at the baby home. 3 children have left us. Tolofina is 3 years old, she was found severely malnourished, she is the youngest of 12 children, her older brother who is about a year older than her is a healthy well cared for little boy - she has been obviously neglected by her parents. So her parents have now given up legal guardianship of her and she has been fostered by a Ugandan lady. Joyce one of our toddlers has gone to a different orphanage where she has older siblings. Philip a 18 month old has gone to a Dutch family who are living in Uganda for 3 years. Our numbers are now down to 55 children, the lowest we have been in a while. We are still waiting to hear from the judges about the 10 pending cases. Its so sad, these children should have gone home about 1 year ago, and yet they are still here waiting to go home. I missed the kids so much while I was away especially Nathanial Elliot.

I love watching the kids here going to school in their smart uniforms - u can see groups of children from as young as 3 walking to school together - it's so cute! and they are really excited about going to school - since here you have to pay for school not all children are able to go, unless they recieve some kind of scholarship or someone can sponsor them. The kids in Kenya and Uganda are so hard working! They wake up early to do their chores, probably walk at least 2 or 3 miles to go and get water, then walk a long way to school, then walk back from school, have lots more chores to do - fetch water, feed the cattle, bathe the younger siblings, help cook etc etc. They barely have time to play, I'm sure a lot of them - especially the girls dont have time because they have so many other jobs to do.

Pre-school is going well, I walked in the toddler house today (saturday) and I saw all the Mamas sitting with the older kids playing games and helping them with their alphabet and numbers - it was so nice to see and reassures me that they will hopefully continue this when I leave.

That's enough 4 today,

Asante Sana





from left to right: wildebeest; elephant; cheetah; rhino; lion; Nairobi; lion eating wildebeest; Masai warrior; Masai hut; Joseph & Junior; Joyce; Philip; Tolofina; Musa; Nathanial Elliot

All is going well here in Uganda. The weather is very hot at the moment - making it hard for anyone to do any kind of work - but we all plod on like usual. I'm just dreading the arrival of December - when it gets even hotter - (how will we cope?). I am - and it may come as no surprise to some of you - sick again - this time I have bronchitis! And.....I still have worms! Oh, how I dream of being worm free!!! Maybe not in this country!

The pre-school is coming on well - I am trying to get some consistency going in the pre-school, and therefore I have written some guidelines for volunteers who want to join me in there. We had one girl in Pre-school, who on her first day here - undermined me in front of all of the kids and one kid in particular. We were playing an alphabet game and Paul one of the kids just sat and did nothing throughout the whole game, then it came time to give out stars, I gave all the kids stars for good work and effort. I didn't give Paul one because he hadn't tried at all, and just sat there mucking about the whole time. So this girl - when she thinks I'm too far away to hear anything says to Paul "Oh Paul, I'm so proud of you, you've done really well, well done for trying"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Are you kidding me?! Paul sat there and did nothing, absolutely nothing...then she is going behind my back, undermining my authority and praising a child for being lazy! It annoys me that people just come here for a few days or for a few hours and start treating the kids like 'poor little orphan kids' who get told off, or who don't get a star. The same girl also in a conversation with some people here said that "I should be more liberal with my star giving"! Oh, sure they're 'poor little orphan kids' - why shouldn't they get a star when they want one - even when they've been really disobedient, been lazy, smacked their friends round the chops, or scratched the new car sitting on the driveway. Hey, lets reward all the 'poor little orphans' even though they've been really really naughty and they all know what they should and shouldn't be doing! They are good kids, but we are not doing them any favours by treating them like 'poor little orphans'. This same girl on a separate occasion asked me if she could give sweets out to the kids who had said their alphabet correctly. I told her that I rather she didn't give sweets out to the kids as a reward because this will only set a precedent, and I don't think that we should be giving kids sweets for something that they should be doing anyway - I mean that's what the star chart system is for - to reward them for effort and good work. So anyway, the next day I ask her if she would be able to take the 'less able' pre-schoolers and work on the alphabet with them. Ten minutes later all the kids come running in with sweets in their mouth telling me that they got them for saying their alphabet!! And it wasn't a well done for saying your alphabet everyone - heres a sweet, it was a you can have a sweet if you tell me your alphabet! So, anyway, just as I had thought the next day for a week all the kids are asking for sweets during pre-school. Anyway, as you can tell this kind of thing really annoys me.
Another thing here that really annoys me, is people treating this kids like monkeys in a zoo, "Ahhh look at all these poor little orphans, aren't they so cute"!!, carrying the 7 year olds around like they're little babies, cuddling a kids whose just been told off for something, it irrates me so much. We had a bunch of americans come here one day, I asked them how they came about being her, and they replied "Well, we had a free day, and we had to choice between going whitewater rafting and coming here, and well lets face it this is the cheaper place"!!! Excuse me? So you're just a tourist here, didn't know what else to do, thought since you're Africa you might as well go and visit an orphanage - after all it seems like the trendy thing to do now a days! Come to Africa - go on a safari - visit an orphanage. We also get people who come in for an hour or two, sit there and take hundreds of photos of orphans - afterall thats all they are to them - they don't sit and cuddle them, they don't ask them their names, they just take some photos, pick maybe one kid up, and then get their friend to take a photo of them holding a kid. And then what do they do? Go home show their friends and family their photos of all these 'poor little orphan kids', oh and look here's one of me holding a kid - look here's me doing my good deed of the day!
Forgive me for the sarcastic and moody tone of this section, its just something that really annoys me.

So some exciting news, Mweru, our little autistic kid (although not so little - I think he's 6) is going home! Yay!!! He has been here since he was about 2. His Dad brought him to us, since he had to go to jail for some petty crime. When he came back to pick his kid up about 2 years later he found out that he had a problem - wasn't 'normal' and so left and said he would come back and pick him up...but never showed up. But, he's come back now, wanting to take him home, so hopefully tomorrow he will come and take Mweru with him. I just hope that his father actually realises that Mweru is going to a lot of hard work and that he is prepared to care for him properly. Mweru has progressed so much recently - he can even say a few words, I would just hate to see him regress and be poorly treated.

Its common in families here where a mother remarries for her first children to be abandoned because the step-father doesn't want to look after another mans children, that is how so many children are abandoned and they are also abused by the father and even the step-siblings.

We recently acquired some puppies who will become the future guard dogs for the babies home! Its so funny to see the kids reactions to these dogs! They scream so loud even when the dog is a little blob in the distance! All of the kids apparently had a similar reaction to men - except they got a lot better when we had male volunteers come. Now the kids really like having 'uncles' around. So hopefully the kids will get a lot better with the dogs - although it will take a lot of time and patience!!

An interesting story about ugandan mentally:
In the local guest house - the guards robbed a wealthy Mzungu on her way home, the guards seeing that she didn't have alot of money on her tried to make it look like someone else had robbed her and they were just helping her. The owner of the guest house and his friend came running to help the lady who told them that the guards had robbed her. The guards tried to run but Bob the owners friend - who is licensed to carry a gun shot him one of them in the foot. When the police arrived they were very upset and very cross with Bob that he hadn't shot to kill....because now they have more paperwork! Seriously, that is what they said, they weren't cross at the guards or sympathetic just mad that they now had more paperwork to process and no dead bodies!!

A friend told me a story about a girl who had been adopted from India by an American missionary family who then moved to Uganda to continue their missionary work. The girl was about 10 when she arrived in Uganda with her family. Her family then abandoned her here in Uganda after being here only a few weeks, they left her here all on here own and are no where to be found!! Imagine adopting a child who was abandoned at like 3 or 4 and then abandoning that child on their own at 10 years old in a foreign country!! Apparantly they are back in the States but they are hard to track down! How could a family do that to a child, a missionary family?!!!

We celebrated Amani's birthday a few weeks ago, we had a nice meal of rice, stew and cabbage! (nothing out of the ordinary) but it was still delicious! We also had coke!!

I will leave you with an interesting thought: did you know that the nearest place to get a nice piece of beef or even a beefburger is 2 and a half hours away?!!




1) new puppies : ebony and ivory
2) the bow and arrow found in the living room
3) Mweru
4) Mweru

Nathanial Elliot

congo and latest news from orphanage

Congo (DRC)

I think Congo (DRC) is where I suffered the most culture shock. As we walked across the border from Cyangugu - Rwanda we were immediately surrounded by excited Congolaise all eager to talk to us, all eager to touch our skin. We were grabbed in each and every direction everyone wanting to change money with us, to take us into town, to help us. One policeman seemed very eager to please - we all wondered what he wanted from us. I'm pleased to say that this policeman in particular wanted nothing from us, just to help us and see that we got to our boat safely. We made it safely to the port where we were going to purchase our tickets. We asked for a tour of the boat before we decided to spend 14 hours on it! It was a small boat, designed for 200 people...they were selling 400 tickets, so we would be carrying twice the 'legal' amount of passengers. As we returned that evening to catch our ride to Gommoa we were pushed through the crowds of people to allow us to board the boat first. I do not know whether it was because we were Mzungus or because we had first class tickets. In any case the Congolaise - and rightly enough - started shouting and arguing, I heard one man shout 'Why are you letting the Mzungus through first? We've been waiting so long...you care more for the Mzungus than your own people!' I felt guilty that we were being let through the gates before the crowds of people that had been waiting, and I understand how it can be percieved from the Congolaise side. Trying to board the boat was a rather interesting experience! Everyone was pushing and fighting to get the best seat on the boat. I gradually pushed my way through the crowd like a good African would and eventually made it to the front of the crowd, what I didn't realise was that there was no plank to walk onto the boat, there was just a very large gap between the port and the boat - and to make matters worse the entry to the boat was sloping steepily down towards the water! As I was steadily pushed forward I managed to jump over the gap and started to fall backwards as my back pack was very heavy and there was a bunch of people blocking the entrance - where I could stand on a flat surface! Luckily someone grabbed my arm, this person escorted me upstairs to the first class cabin by pushing and shoving poor people out of the way and yelling stuff I couldnt understand - needless to say that this guy then turned around and asked for some money - so much for being genuinely kind and helpful! We sepnt an interesting evening on the boat - turns out the first class wasnt too bad. I suppose it was better than being squashed downstairs with hundreds of people and many chickens - both dead ones and living ones!! We were also pretty squashed upstairs too - we were about 15 people sleeping on 3 matresses! The television was on full blast blaring out music videos in Swahili with scantily clad women dancing provocatively. There were thousands of insects - hopefully no malaria borne mosquitos.

We arrived in Gommoa at 7am. Upon arrival at the port we were summoned into a small shack and asked to show our passports. Of course there the official aksed us to pay an obligatory sum of money which everyone had to pay upon arrival! Of course I must of missed the 397 other African passengers queuing up to pay their dues! We questioned the official as to why we had to pay money after getting off at a port in the same country we boarded. We explained to him how we already had to pay more at the Bukavu port than the rest of the people - there was a scribbled note on a piece of paper that said 'passengers $10', it wasnt until the lady saw us Mzungus that she added on 'foreigners $20'!! He said that it was normal to pay a fee at both sides of the border. We told him that in that case they should print it on some official paper and hang it up on the wall, we told him that it wasn't fair to ask us to pay more just because we are 'rich' mzungus. After much debate he gave us our money back - so much for it being an official fee!

Gommoa is a very interesting town - it borders with Gisenyi - Rwanda. It has a live volcano which last erupted in 2001 destroying most of the town. Everywhere is covered in black ash and volcanic rock. Houses have been built on top of the lava, mostly wooden shacks, sometimes using volcanic rock. Most of the houses dont have electricity or water. If you walk into the tiny houses the floors havent been flattened at all, its all bumpy and black - the beds are wonky as are the tables and chairs!

We started taking photos in Bukavu but many people kept on shaking their heads at us or tutting, we eventually found out that its forbidden to take photos and that if caught we would get our camera confiscated, have to pay a fine or end up in jail. I didn't take my camera out after that - so unfortunately got no photos of Gommoa.

We walked back into Rwanda before dark. The next day we spent sometime into Gisenyi. We went to a very beautiful and secluded spot by Lake Kivu and walked around. We also just sat and relaxed watching the sunset. As we were walking back by Lake Kivu we stumbled across a small group of boys bathing in a small pool, there was also a group of men bathing in the lake. In order to get back to where we started our walk we had to cross a stream which was flowing from where the boys were bathing, obviously we didnt want to step into the water barefoot as we had flip-flops on. So we walked round. The area we walked into appeared to be a little muddy so we opted to walk on that rather than in the water. Turns out we were all wrong about the mud. In fact it was much like a warm muddy pile of sewage. It stank of sewage waste, it was warm - and oh my goodness it was just gross! We were sinking into it pretty fast. I feel into it on my knees as my flip-flop got stuck. Ironically, when I got out of the muddy swamp, I ran into the very lake I wanted to avoid in the first place to wash all the smelly sewage waste of my legs and feet!

OTHER NEWS

On Tuesday, Jesse, my star preschooler, left to go back with his Mum. Jesse arrived in August last year from prison, where his Mum was doing time. He had to leave the prison because he was getting too old to be there any longer. So a few months ago his Mum was released after serving her sentence and has now returned to the North of Uganda with Jesse. It was very bittersweet to see him go, but we know that he his happy and excited to go home.

I returned from Rwanda to find two of the toddlers quarantined with the Mumps, unfortunately it has spread to almost all of the pre-schoolers and a few of the younger toddlers. There is one case of the mumps in baby room 1, and we are all being extra vigilant to ensure that it does not spread to the preemie room.

Very exciting news – for me anyway – I am taking driving lessons! Yes indeed! Although Uganda is probably not the best place to learn to drive it is convenient because I have many long dirt roads to myself without having to worry about too many other cars. The nurse here bought a cheap old car and she is teaching me.

Yesterday (Friday) the Mamas in the toddler house asked if they could have a meeting with me, regarding some issues in the house. It turns out that the Mamas feel that when I am not there the kids play up for them– so in other words the kids behave all nice and sweet for me. Well I’m not 100% sure that that is true, but never mind. They would also like me to discipline the kids more, because they feel that the kids do not always obey me! I am slightly confused – do they behave for me or dont they? By discipline they mean spanking the children! Now, I am not against spanking a child on the bottom, in fact I think that these kids and probably a lot of kids back home need a good spanking every now and then when they misbehave. All this business about not being allowed to spank your own children is ludicrous – and I think that the deterioration of the younger generation and their destructive and criminal behaviour is because spanking is no longer enforced – anyway that’s a whole other story. So basically, we talked through methods of discipline, I gave examples of what we use at nursery (time out etc) and we all agreed that we would try these other methods! So watch out kids here I come!! lol

I’ve been thinking a lot about adoption recently, not whether I am going to do it or not, because I know that it is something I am definitely going to do, but when, how soon is too soon? All these amazing kids here who have no family, no hope. The only hope in their lives is being adopted or fostered. It upsets me that kids like Sophia – who has AIDS, cant be adopted outside of Uganda – it upsets me that she probably will never be adopted because not many people within Uganda would want to adopt a child who had AIDS and pay for all the medical expenses. There are so many kids who need adopting in Uganda however the government make it so difficult for people to adopt. I went to the embassy in Kampala on Monday, because I heard of one British case where a couple had attained legal guardianship of a child and then taken that child back to the UK on a visiting visa, cutting out the whole living in Uganda for three years procedure. They were unable to comment on any particular case, and as far as they could tell me the law regarding adoption between the UK and Uganda haven’t changed. I still have my heart set on adoption, but there are so many things to think about. I guess I still have time, I’m not that old yet! I wont adopt until I now that it is what God wants me to do. So I guess I am just praying and waiting on him for an answer!

On Thursday night, I took Nathanial home with me, we had a barbeque with a friend of mine and we feed him lots of meat – since that’s what his body needs. I think he really enjoyed the sausages! I also gave him a bath with warm (!!) water – this might possibly be his first hot bath – ever!! He loved sitting in the little basin and splashing about in the warm water – it makes a change from the orphanage where they have a bucket of cold water thrown over them!! I put him in his PJ’s and lay him down on my bed – he was fast asleep within 10 minutes! He slept well – I on the other hand, didn’t so much! He took up most of the most tossing and turning all night and even managing to kick me on the face once! It was so nice just to lay there and watch him sleep – he’s so cute! We had toast in the morning for breakfast, then I had to take him back for 8.30am so I could do pre-school.

photo update

(l to r, t to b)
Tolofina is 3 years old, arrived severly malnourished 7 months ago
Jesse
Nathanial after his bath - what on earth happened to my hair!
Nathanial - with his big swollen tummy!
Nathanial in the tub
Melody
pre-school playing alphabet bingo

Jiggers!

The other day I noticed that I had a really itchy patch on the bottom of my foot, I thought that it was just another mosquito bite so I applied some anti-itching cream, unfortunately that didnt really seem to work! so a couple of days later it still hadnt gone away and by this time I coulnt walk at all on the side of my foot. The spot was all red and then whitey/yellow inside...I just presumed it was puss or sthg inside. so anyway I went to ask the nurse what she thought it could be, she said it was probably a spider bite or sthg! YUCK! she wanted to ask Mama Maggie what she thougt it could be. turns out its a jigger! definition "The female chigoe, jigger or sandflea bores into the skin, usually of the feet, causing extreme irritation. If Tunga penetrans is not removed, it can cause an infection, which may become gangrenous"

So Mama Maggie - the jigger expert gets a syringe needle to poke the 'spot' and try to extract the jigger whole, unfortunately it's too thin! so she gets a safety pin and sticks that in twisting and turning it trying to get the jigger out, unfortunately the jigger is burrowed to deep into my skin to get it out with a safety pin, so instead she uses a scalpel and cuts around the jigger (into my foot) and then once she had a big gaping hole she pulls the jigger out whole! YUCK! and yes it hurt, she gave me a piece of wood to bite down onto so I wouldnt scream and wake all the babys up! So yes, I am now a true Ugandan!

Genocide - Rwanda 1994

I decided to go to Rwanda to visit a friend who is working with an NGO in Kigali. The NGO is aimed at bringing women out of the cycle of prostitution. They train women to make things so that they can earn money themselves. Many of these women suffered rape or witnessed atrocities during the genocide so she is also interviewing them in order to write a book and the UN would also like the information. I also wanted to visit the genocide memorial centre in Kigali to learn more about the Genocide since we had only studied it briefly in school. What I saw and learnt was very insightful, it also shocked me and kicked my thought processes into action!

How many people are actually aware of what happened in Rwanda in 1994? This country suffered so much hardship so many wound still need healing.
I'm still having difficulty understanding how such an atrocity could have occurred on so many different levels.
Firstly, where was the international community when Rwanda needed us the most? The UN declared after the Holocaust 'Never Again', yet the whole world sat and watched while atrocities on an unimaginable scale took place. The UNAMIR force was made up of 2500 troops, however, their 'monitoring mandate' disabled them from intervening. The UN spent 8 hrs discussing the crisis in Rwanda never once mentioning the word 'genocide'. Had they used this term the UN Security Council would have been legally bound to intervene and prevent and punish the perpetrators. Arguments over costs and the provision of equipment delayed the UNs decision to send 6800 troops and police to help defend the civilians. It wasn’t until June that the French decided to send 2500 troops to Rwanda. On July 4th the RPF captured Kigali and set up an interim government, the Hutu government fled.
Why did it take so long for the world to respond? What could be more important than saving the lives of 3 million innocent people? How can you put a cost on these lives?
Quote: "When the UN declared 'Never Again' was it meant only for a certain group of people?"

People weren’t just murdered in the genocide they were tortured and died in the most horrendous ways. Machetes, clubs, arrows, spikes and many other items were used as well as shotguns. The H's went on a killing spree throughout the whole country sparing not even the youngest babies. Heads were smashed with clubs and sliced with machetes, limbs were amputated, women were raped, children were shot, killed with machetes or clubbed to death. The H's behaved like animals killing their prey. These acts aren't just acts of war or genocide they convey pure hate and evil. It amazes me that people can generate so much hate towards each other and kill others in such brutal ways. The H's hated the T's so much that they smashed babies against the walls - swinging them by their legs until their skulls cracked, they stuck a pole through one women’s vagina until it came out her head this was after they had gang-raped her...How cam people hate each other so much that it cause them to commit such acts? These acts convey animalism and pure evil.

Today it would seem that the H's and the T's are living happily together, in any case they aren't classified as such anymore - they are all Rwandans. I asked a few people and they all say that there aren't any more problems. Surely there must be feelings of anger? Things like this don't just blow away. Perhaps there still is conflicts happening in Rwanda but the "world" just doesn't deem it important enough to put in the headlines, after all surely things like Pitt and Jolie's marriage mean so much more to us? Or the latest evictee on BB? Asking one man, who was 1 of 10 survivors in a 4000 people massacre, how can you carry on living here knowing that you family's murderers live right next door to you? He replied that he had forgiven them by the grace of God. Wow! What a powerful statement - all his family died in this particular massacre, he was injured and had to hide for many days - yet 14 years on has he forgiven the perpetrators and life just goes on - obviously grieving but not dwelling on his past so much so that it hinders him from working, raising his children and being a guide at the very sight were he witnessed so much bloodshed.


As we were walking towards Nyamata (one of the massacre sites) (in the region of Nyamata 40,000 were murdered) I couldn't help but feel this overwhelming sense of guilt. All these crowds we were walking through knew why we were here in Nyamata - they know the only reason Mzungus come to their town is to visit the genocide sites. As we got closer I just wanted to turn around and walk away. I guess I was scared of what we might see but I also didn’t want to be that tourist who just comes to look and take photos. Often we visit countries and behave like we are visiting monkeys in a zoo. We have in our culture a need to visit places where atrocities took place: Auschwitz in Poland, WTC in NY, even the dungeons in London or Edinburgh (I'm guilty too!) Why do we visit such places? Does it make us feel less guilty? Is it our way of helping? Remembering? Why are so many of us fascinated by such morbidity? We come and look, we point, we take a few photos and leave a small donation forgetting what really took place.
I left the church feeling heavy-hearted knowing that the world had just turned a blind eye to all that had happened. But feeling guilty and heavy-hearted isn’t enough, I wish there was something I could do, something real, something meaningful.
I found it so hard standing in the churches knowing that so many people had died there whilst seeking refuge, knowing that so many atrocities had been committed in my lifetime in the very spot I was standing. What made it harder was seeing the skulls all lined up by the hundreds, the thousands of bones. The clothes all piled up on top of each other in a small room is what made it all seem so real - the smell of death, the bloodstains...the schoolbooks, exactly the same ones I use with my kids, torn and covered in blood.
I felt that as I was walking away, out of the church that I should look solemn. I felt guilty standing there and laughing with my friends, knowing that for the people around us the genocide was so real, it felt like I was disrespecting them in a way. But then I also felt l shouldn't feel sad because these people have been through so much - their tears are filled with vivid memories and physical pain yet my tears can be perceived as tears of pity and sympathy.

In any case, I don’t regret visiting either of the sites, one of the men who survived told me that they welcome visitors, they want people to take photos and tell others about what happened in Rwanda. So this is what I'm doing, and rather than giving you just facts I felt that maybe recounting my visit with my feelings might help you understand or at the very least learn a little bit more about what took place here in Rwanda. Perhaps in the vain hope that we can all learn what hate may eventually lead to, and understand what happens when we turn a blind eye to our fellow humans around the world. Perhaps we will learn from history?

SOME STRIKING FACTS: UNICEF stats 1995

99.9% of children in Rwanda witnessed violence
79.6% " experienced death in the family
69.5% " witnessed someone being killed or injured
61.5% " were threatened with death
90.6% " believed they would die
57.5% " witnessed killings or injuries with machetes
31.4% " witnessed rape or sexual assault
87.5% " saw dead bodies or parts of bodies

(l to r)

bloodstains on wall where kids were killed whilst sheltering in their Sunday School building

skulls lined up by the thousands

bones piled up the millions

photo update

BOYS WITH THEIR BODAS
(l-r)Nathanial, Mathias, Duane, Asheraf, Arnold

child abandonment

This week I have been inquiring about some of the kids and trying to learn more about their past and their stories.
Jereniah is about 3 years old he is in baby room 2. He has some physical developmental problems - he cant yet sit up on his own, he doesnt communicate at all. His story is a very sad one although unfortunately not uncommon in these parts. He was abandonded at about 6 months - thrown in a pit latrine to die - obviously he cant sit up so he just lay there for 3 days while people crapped and pissed on him. (sorry to be so crude) And then he was eventually found. It took a good week for him once he had been found to open his mouth as he had kept it sealed shut the whole time he was in the pit latrine. Jeremiah has had these developmental handicaps since birth and that is why is mother abandoned him to die. Here it is a burden for many different reasons to have a child with disabilities so most of them are thrown into pit latrines to die unfortunately only few are found alive. Jeremiahs future is very uncertain, it is unlikely that he will be adopted or fostered and he can only stay at this orphanage untill the age of 5, at which point he may just go to a mental institute or be locked up for the rest of his life.
I wrote about Asheraf last week the new boy abandoned at the bus park. We later discovered that he had been sat there waiting 2 days for his mother to return! He is doing really well and seems to have settled into life at the orphange quite well. I am quite attached to him and Nathanial the other new toddler who is also doing well. Its so hard to imagine how and why anyone could abandon these kids but I suppose...(I cant find a suitable ending to this sentence, sorry!!) Its easy for us and for me to judge these mothers, question thier motives and question their love for their kids but I guess...I hope...I would like to think that these mothers did it with the best intentions to give their children better lives then they could ever provide at least for the sake of these kids that is what I wish and hope for them. Maybe in time I will have more insight and understanding about the issues of child abandonment and be able to answer some of the questions I am asking myself. I guess one thing I do know is that there is no one simple answer. I also know that abandoning a child in a pit latrine to die is one of the most horrendous acts a mother could ever commit - and will never understand how a mother could do this to their child.

Sorry about this but this update seems to be more my thought processes than any news really!

more new kids and homesick :(

Well, this week has been a bit scary! I have still been ill so on Wednesday I think it was the nurse told me to go to the clinic to get checked for malaria - and so I did - and fortunately it was negative for malaria. The question that remains is - whats wrong with me? Why am I still ill? So the nurse gave me something stronger to kill the parasites and worms! So hopefully that will work. We'll see!

This week has seen the arrival of 2 new kids. The first to arrive is called Ashraf (sp), he is 2 1/2 and was abandoned in the local bus park - where the police found him and the probation officer brought him to us. He also suffers from Kwashikor so his face and tummy are swollen. The other day he was sat on the toy boda-boda and was collecting wood (from the tree that had just been cut down) was breaking it on his knee and making a little firewood pile! This gives us some idea that he comes from the village and that this may have been one of his daily chores! He is a very good football though and we have been playing at kicking the ball around.
The other new kid is approx 11 months old, however he weighs only 8 pounds! He is severely malnourished, his ribs sticking out from his chest and his limbs stick thin. We didn't think that he would make it through his first night, however he is being well taken care of by one of the volunteers and seems to be doing better.

Pre-school os going well, although I've not been teaching much this week, just doing lesson planning and organising things. The mad-venture people have been doing a fantastic job and Im so glad to have them here.
Im finding it hard to understand the Mamas at the moment - and I don't mine in literally. They can be so affectionate with the kids and so loving and caring, yet they can be the complete opposite - they can just beat the crap out of the kids because they think they are disciplining (sp) them. Now there's disciplining and beating them - these Mamas make no distinction. The other day I was upstairs in the baby home doing some planning and I hear one of the kids screaming - so I look out the window to see whats going on and I see two Mamas pinning down one of the boys, pulling his pants down and hitting him at least 6 times on the bum with a wooden spoon, and we're not talking a little slap - I mean a proper hard whack so much so that I could hear it from where I was! I know that if you do smack your children - you should never do it in anger - but these Mamas are so cross when they punish them. On the positive side I think that the reward chart is having a positive affect on the kids and I think that the kids really understand the concept. Even one of our naughtiest kids has been so good this week and for the first time since we started this she was able to come out with us on reward day.
Yesterday I visited another orphanage in a more rural part. I wanted to see how other orphanages compare to ours and how they do things. I realsie that our kids are very lucky compared to many others. Our kids are very clean, they always have clean clothes and 3 meals a day, lots of love and attention from the Mamas and the volunteers. I know that things like clothes is superficial but its important to Ugandans that kids have one set of 'smart' clothes. In many ways our kids are spoilt - they cry if they cant have a coke, they cry if they cant have their own way. Yet the kids in the village are so used to having nothing, yet they're so happy and content having very little. Our kids are so americanised! I wish they were more Ugandan because when they don't get adopted and they have to go to an orphanage for older kids which is less priveleged or back home with their extended families these kids are going to learn life the hard way - they are going to have to work hard, they're not going to be able to throw tantrums because they want coke and not water, or because they want more food.

I forgot to tell you all last week about the agricultural fair I visited with a friend. I decided to take Duane along - as it always does him some good to be out of the orphanage and walking! So the fair was basically peope selling their fruit/veg and various other products as well as craft stalls. There were also cows, goats and chickens on show as well as a few tractors. There was also a few fair rides. Now Im very wary of fast and very dangerous looking rides at the Loughborough Fair, so there was no way anyone was going to get me on an African fair ride! And as it turned out I made the right decision...I saw a man on a ( I cant remember the name - but it spins around really fast and your sitting in a sit and I think the ones in England go up and down and spin indivdually, anyway it was a really simpe version of that, but the seats were so big and there was a measly metal rod that you pull done on top of yourself - to supposedly keep you from falling out!) the ride was going really really fast and then I turned to see this man holding onto the bottom of the seat - he had slipped and was dangling from the bottom of the seat! he was screaming and yelling and they didnt even stop the ride or slow it down - they just waited - for what felt like 5 minutes to stop the ride and get him off - so anyway this guy had managed to swing his little seat - which was attached to the top of the ride by chains - to the nearest one to him which happened to have someone esle in it - so comsequently his little seat was swinging and twisting around and he ended up screaming at the guy to let go of his seat and the poor guy ended up slipping out of his seat - so twi guys were hainging on to the bottom of the seat for dear life!! suffice to say Im never going on a fair ride again!! EVER!

This afternoon I am moving out of the volunteer house just for the weekend - as I need some peace and quiet and a bit of time on my own. It's been about 5 weeks that I lived at the v-house with about 20 other people so I am going to enjoy a full nights sleep undisturbed by people singing at the top of their voices at 2.30am, or people screaming or running around the house like headless chickens! Ill be staying in the house above the orphanage - so Ill be able to hear screaming babies and such but its got to be better than hearing a high pitched American screaming at the top of their lungs! It also means I'll have access to MSN over the weekend - yeah!
Yesterday whilst out in town with the kids I saw the biggest insect I have ever seen in my whole life! It was about this big (c lines) --------------------------------------------------I wish I was exagerrating too but Im really not! One of the locals said it was a cockroach - As long as it can't fly I dont care what it is!!

more new kids and homesick

Well, this week has been a bit scary! I have still been ill so on Wednesday I think it was the nurse told me to go to the clinic to get checked for malaria - and so I did - and fortunately it was negative for malaria. The question that remains is - whats wrong with me? Why am I still ill? So the nurse gave me something stronger to kill the parasites and worms! So hopefully that will work. We'll see!

This week has seen the arrival of 2 new kids. The first to arrive is called Ashraf (sp), he is 2 1/2 and was abandoned in the local bus park - where the police found him and the probation officer brought him to us. He also suffers from Kwashikor so his face and tummy are swollen. The other day he was sat on the toy boda-boda and was collecting wood (from the tree that had just been cut down) was breaking it on his knee and making a little firewood pile! This gives us some idea that he comes from the village and that this may have been one of his daily chores! He is a very good football though and we have been playing at kicking the ball around.
The other new kid is approx 11 months old, however he weighs only 8 pounds! He is severely malnourished, his ribs sticking out from his chest and his limbs stick thin. We didn't think that he would make it through his first night, however he is being well taken care of by one of the volunteers and seems to be doing better.

Pre-school os going well, although I've not been teaching much this week, just doing lesson planning and organising things. The mad-venture people have been doing a fantastic job and Im so glad to have them here.
Im finding it hard to understand the Mamas at the moment - and I don't mine in literally. They can be so affectionate with the kids and so loving and caring, yet they can be the complete opposite - they can just beat the crap out of the kids because they think they are disciplining (sp) them. Now there's disciplining and beating them - these Mamas make no distinction. The other day I was upstairs in the baby home doing some planning and I hear one of the kids screaming - so I look out the window to see whats going on and I see two Mamas pinning down one of the boys, pulling his pants down and hitting him at least 6 times on the bum with a wooden spoon, and we're not talking a little slap - I mean a proper hard whack so much so that I could hear it from where I was! I know that if you do smack your children - you should never do it in anger - but these Mamas are so cross when they punish them. On the positive side I think that the reward chart is having a positive affect on the kids and I think that the kids really understand the concept. Even one of our naughtiest kids has been so good this week and for the first time since we started this she was able to come out with us on reward day.
Yesterday I visited another orphanage in a more rural part. I wanted to see how other orphanages compare to ours and how they do things. I realsie that our kids are very lucky compared to many others. Our kids are very clean, they always have clean clothes and 3 meals a day, lots of love and attention from the Mamas and the volunteers. I know that things like clothes is superficial but its important to Ugandans that kids have one set of 'smart' clothes. In many ways our kids are spoilt - they cry if they cant have a coke, they cry if they cant have their own way. Yet the kids in the village are so used to having nothing, yet they're so happy and content having very little. Our kids are so americanised! I wish they were more Ugandan because when they don't get adopted and they have to go to an orphanage for older kids which is less priveleged or back home with their extended families these kids are going to learn life the hard way - they are going to have to work hard, they're not going to be able to throw tantrums because they want coke and not water, or because they want more food.

I forgot to tell you all last week about the agricultural fair I visited with a friend. I decided to take Duane along - as it always does him some good to be out of the orphanage and walking! So the fair was basically peope selling their fruit/veg and various other products as well as craft stalls. There were also cows, goats and chickens on show as well as a few tractors. There was also a few fair rides. Now Im very wary of fast and very dangerous looking rides at the Loughborough Fair, so there was no way anyone was going to get me on an African fair ride! And as it turned out I made the right decision...I saw a man on a ( I cant remember the name - but it spins around really fast and your sitting in a sit and I think the ones in England go up and down and spin indivdually, anyway it was a really simpe version of that, but the seats were so big and there was a measly metal rod that you pull done on top of yourself - to supposedly keep you from falling out!) the ride was going really really fast and then I turned to see this man holding onto the bottom of the seat - he had slipped and was dangling from the bottom of the seat! he was screaming and yelling and they didnt even stop the ride or slow it down - they just waited - for what felt like 5 minutes to stop the ride and get him off - so anyway this guy had managed to swing his little seat - which was attached to the top of the ride by chains - to the nearest one to him which happened to have someone esle in it - so comsequently his little seat was swinging and twisting around and he ended up screaming at the guy to let go of his seat and the poor guy ended up slipping out of his seat - so twi guys were hainging on to the bottom of the seat for dear life!! suffice to say Im never going on a fair ride again!! EVER!

This afternoon I am moving out of the volunteer house just for the weekend - as I need some peace and quiet and a bit of time on my own. It's been about 5 weeks that I lived at the v-house with about 20 other people so I am going to enjoy a full nights sleep undisturbed by people singing at the top of their voices at 2.30am, or people screaming or running around the house like headless chickens! Ill be staying in the house above the orphanage - so Ill be able to hear screaming babies and such but its got to be better than hearing a high pitched American screaming at the top of their lungs! It also means I'll have access to MSN over the weekend - yeah!
Yesterday whilst out in town with the kids I saw the biggest insect I have ever seen in my whole life! It was about this big (c lines) --------------------------------------------------I wish I was exagerrating too but Im really not! One of the locals said it was a cockroach - As long as it can't fly I dont care what it is!!

Worms and mariage proposals!!

I have worms again! Joy! Joy! Joy! And as I speak (write) my stomach is beginning to hurt again and I feel that I may need to rush to the toilet again! (Its a good job they have toilets her - otherwise I would be really stuck! Even thought they are only 'squatty pottys'! Anyway, way to much information there!!!) I've had it over a week now. I didnt think it was worms at first so thats why I didnt go to the nurse before, which I guess wasn't very clever! I had a bad night yesterday because of it, but I hope that I will start to get better soon!

The little boy I took to get an x-ray last week to check for TB - does indeed have TB. So he will need to go to the TB clinic in Kampala and start a series of treatments. On Wednesday I went to have a blood test to check my blood type. We have a little baby girl called Priscilla who has Sickle Cell Anemia and is quite ill at the moment since she has an infection. So I went to get tested in case I have the same blood type I could then give her a blood transfusion. But alas I am not compatible.
Next week I may have to travel to Impala (not quite sure where that is) to take Mathias a little boy to the hospital there. They have a specialist unit there. A doctor who visited here a while a go thinks that he may have water in the brain or on the brain so he may need a drainage. I hope that it is something that can be easily treated.

Things in Pre-school are going well. On Friday it was just me as the other mad-venture people have gone away for a long weekend. I was quite worried that things would go pear-shaped but the routine was followed and the mamas were with the older and younger group while I taught pre-school/school.

We had the reward day on Thursday this week as the mad-venture people were away on Friday. We had a teddy bears picnic! Ben the Bear came along too! (For those of you who dont know about Ben the Bear - Im not crazy! We had some party food and some healthy food and we played party games. The kids had great fun - I think and they enjoyed the games and food especially! We felt like we were on show for the local community - we were enclosed by fencing and there were at least 50 school kids clinging onto the barbed wire trying to sneak a peak at the Mzungus (white people/westerner) feeding black kids cupcakes and bananas! We most of put on quite a show because more and more of kids started to come and watch!

On Wednesday we took the older kids who don't sleep for a walk down by the Lake. We stopped on some grass and had a sit down half way there. We then saw this guy running towards us, I presumed he was going to tell us that we were on private property and that we had to get off. So, when he approached us I asked him if we were okay to sit here, he said we were fine. So anyway, he started questioning us, asking us where we were from, how old we were, why we were here etc. Obviously, I am very wary of random men asking me such questions and even more intimate ones so I just ignored him for a while. He then asked me if I could come and sit with him and talk to him etc. I said that I was busy with the children. He then asked me why I was being so rude! I just said to him that I was here with the kids and they are my priority and that I wasnt going to leave them alone while I talk to a stranger. He then accused me of being racist towards black "Why do you hate balck people" he asked me! "Why do you come to our country and steal our money and jobs and you hate us so much?" At that point I probably should of upped and left, but I stayed and answered his accusations. In the end he walked of in mard - muttering something to himself about Americans coming to Uganda and treating black people like dirt!
Now, some people might think this was rather rude of me, but its not uncommon for Mzungus to get unwanted attention around here. I think at least every girl here in the V-house has there own personal stalker. They follow you, they come to the baby home, they leave notes declaring their undying love for you, they manage to make an appearance wherever you are!! Its to obvious that these men just want a ticket out of the country, and its quite sad to see how desperate they are and to what lengths they will go to to try and get a Mzungu girlfriend. So, yes I have had one Ugandan ask me to marry him, after having spoken to me for like 5 minutes. Its quite sad as well because so many guys do it, you just don't know who to trust anymore, and that is a big shame.

This week has been rewarding in many ways. Regarding the preschool the mamas have been fantastic! they have been sitting with the kids during class and encouraged them to learn and praised them when they have been successful. They sit with them at the table and help the kids write their names. It was a big concern for me knowing how the mamas might react to the new pre-school programme, but its been amazing to see them participating and actually enjoying being with the kids in a pretty chilled out atmosphere!

I've been here a month now, I think I have definately settled into life here. Its no longer strange to walk down a dirt path followed by 3 or 4 enormous cows, or to turn a corner and run into a family of chickens, its no longer as scary to be walking around outside in the dark and see bats everywhere! Im used to the smell of burning rubbish at every corner - although my lungs probably never will be! Im used to riding on boda-bodas and piki-pikis and am slighlty more relaxed about it - although I do still have to hold on with one hand. Im used to having to boil drinking water or to not often having electricity. I am appreciating life here and realise how lucky I am to be living here in such beautiful surroundings. The Ugandan people are fantastic, they are so welcoming, despite having very little they will give everything just to make you feel welcome and will prepare enormous feasts fit for a king.

On Tuesday, Duane and Josephs parents had to travel back to the States without them. The judge hasnt had time (yeah right) to make a ruling and the earliest he is likely to make one is September. Joseph the older one, took the news well and understood that Mummy and Daddy would be back soon to pick them up. Duane on the other hand didn't I think really understand. So when it came to them leaving Duane got very upset, but was fine afterwards. Its been amazing to see the confidence Duane has gained whilst his parents have been here for 3 weeks. He's a little chatterbox and enjoys singing 'the wheels on the bus'. He also used to sit outside sucking his thumb for hours and rarely move from one spot, he now enjoys running around outside and playing with the other children. I hope that Duane continues to be as outgoing whilst his parents are away, and I will certainly try my hardest to ensure that this happens. I took him to the cafe once and we had chips - he accidently dropped one on the floor and he just cried for about 5 minutes none stop - obviously I didnt let him pick it up or eat it - but he was so distraught despite having a plate full of chips in front of him! But then I suppose it is understandable, because I think they rarely eat enough to full them up, so every piece of food is treasured.

Yesterday, I got my trousers caught in the wheel of a piki-piki (motorbike) and they tore a little - I also burnt my ankle on the wheel as we were going over a bump my foot slipped. Today, the boda-boda mans bike broke as we were on it and we both fell! No worries though Im still in one piece!
I was quite sick on Wednesday night - throwing up and diarrehea (sp?) and extremely bad stomach aches - I had to crawl back to my bed in the midddle of the night after spending 2 hours in the toilet (you didnt really want to know that but anyway!) because I was so weak. Anyway, Im fine now after having slept a lot. I think it might have been food poisoning because I had a rolex that evening - which is basically a ciabbati and an omeltte inside which we got from town - so it was most probably the egg.

Yesterday, I took one of the preemies to the clinic in town becasue he had to have an xray - he has suspected TB! I went back again today - to pick up the x-ray and get the results but it wasnt ready so they told me to come back later. Nathanial is currently in quarantine because he has Impertigo (sp). Although, on Thursday he was eating with the kids and sleeping in the same room!

On Friday, we took the kids on a boat to the Source of the Nile, 6 kids came and 3 had to stay behind as they hadnt got enough stars. We had a really good time, the kids enjoyed throwing stones into the river. I will post a few photos from our trip. I have been to the source of the Nile before however this time our boat driver told us that the source of the Nile actually comes from under the ground and that before the dam was built there was a waterfall flowing from Lake Victoria running down into the Nile, but now there is just the lake which runs into the river. So the guide said that the lake is about 40m deeps whereas the river - where the waterfall was is about 143ft (not quite sure on way he quoted one in metres and one in ft!) .

left to right back to front Jesse, Philip with Tonia, Jimmy, Dan, Maria, Joseph, Zuchina and Junior

all hands in the water

the boys peering out over the front of the boat

Good news! & Bad news!

Well, this week has been good and progress has been made! The pre-school programme started on Wednesday - the first day was just trail and error really, everyone just finding their feet and learning what needed to be done. By Thursday things were running very smoothly. The kids are enjoying the structure I think and everyone is relishing the calm! Its really great to walk into the pre-school and see all the kids sitting down and playing with the play-doh or to go onto the porch and see the older kids learning their letters.
All week the older kids hae been talking about swimming, you hear this sentence in Lugandan and then you hear swimming in the middle, it so great to see these kids excited about something. Unfortunately, not all of them managed to get 10 stars on their reward chart, so 3 of them had to stay behind...at least they know that we are serious about this and they'll know to try really hard this week so they can do something special. The time at the pool was fun and although the kids were hesitate - but very excited, they had a great time.

On Wednesday, 3 families got to go home with their children!!!! Something that they have been waiting for for about 11/2 - 2 years! It was such a special moment seeing everyone standing on the lawn saying their goodbyes, and to see how happy everyone was to see these children finally being able to leave to start their new lifes with their new mums and dads. All the mamas were happy too, but sad to see these kids go, as many have been with them since birth. One of the kids who hasnt really bonded with her Mum, screamed as she was carried into the van, she obviouslyu enjoys life at the orphanage - as she knows nothing different or is scared of leaving all her friends behind, she is also rather suspicious of mzungus - whites/westerners!!

The sad news is that the 3 other families were supposed to recieve their ruling sometime this week, but the judge is going on holiday on Monday, and then will rule only on Criminal cases and will not start family cases again until September. So these families who were hoping to leave sometime in the next few weeks with their children have to go home without them. The saddest part is that these kids have bonded with their parents - especially with the older ones and they understand that mum and dad are leaving without them.

I find it so hard to understand why the gov. is making it so hard for these people. I suppose that they are worried about child trafficking but these people are so commited, they have spent so much money and have scarificed so much. Its not hard to differentiate the people with good motives and wrong motives. The judge has had 2 weeks to deliberate on these cases, all he has to do is say 'yes' - he doesnt even have to write anything up his seceratry does all of that. This process has been so hard on all involved - parents and children and I cant see why they think its best for these kids to grow up in an orphanage than in a loving home. The whole situation just boggles my mind!!

I've been here about 17 days now - it seems like longer!!
Yesterday the baby at the hospital was brought to us here in the orphanage. He sleeps in the incubator at the minute but seems to be doing well - he certainly is a little fighter! He was abandoned outside on a rainy day and when he was found his blankets were soaked through! On the way back from the hospital, the probation officer called to say that there were 2 toddlers who needed picking up too. The little boy was abandoned in a coffee plantation, and the little girl was left by a dustbin. Its difficult when a baby is abandoned but its so much harder when a toddler is - they obviosuly understand more whats going on and find it difficult to adjust to being in a new places - with new faces - especially white ones!! Nonetheless Nathaniel seems to be doing well, he has a cheeky little smile and a very cute giggle when tickled. Unfortunately Nathaniel appears be suffering from kwashiorkor - a protein deficiency, so his face and stomach are swollen from malnourishment.
On saturday evening I went with Dwayne, his adoptive parents, and their daughter to the clinic, Dwayne and Scilila were very sick. After a few blood tests it was determined that Scilia had malaria and Dwayne had an intestinal bacterial infection. The doctor said that on a level of 1 to 4, 4 being the worst Scilia was at 1 - the fact that she was on malarone helped a great deal! They had only arrived in the country 10 to 11 days ago so she most have been bitten on her 1st or 2nd night in the country! The medecine they are taking is extremely effective and they are both doing really well.
Being in the pre-school/toddler room observing last week has been emotionally challenging - to say the least. The way things are done in there want to make me either scream out in anger or frustration or just cry because its makes me so upset. Forgetting the fact that I am a nursery nurse some things should just be so obvious but the workers just dont see it. The kids range from 20 months to 7 years in preschool. They expect the children to sit for 1 hour listening to story after story after story - and when they dont sit and listen they get 'beaten' - spanked. The guy who leads pre-school makes me laugh - in a bad way - there are about 11 kids who do school lessons and he gets them to sing the alphabet song together about 5 times and then on their own twice!! and then we do the days of the week, and lest they get anything wrong they'll get 'beat' too!! I've walked out on the odd occassion because I just cant handle seeing these kids being spanked because they aren't singing the alphabet song right.
So. yesterday I had a meeting with all the Mamas, after spending a long time revising the schedule, and I explained the schedule to them and asked them if there was anything they would want to change or if there was anything they thought would not work. They didnt really say much, and its quite hard to get them to convey any feelings or opinions. I suppose for them its probably hard having some 'stranger' walk in and change things - but as I explained to them - Im trying to make everyones life easier and we are all working for the common good of these children. Ive also set up a reward system for good behaviour, for obeying, for good manners etc, all the kids seem really keen and excited about it - since the reward/treat will be a trip to the swimming pool! Well, the official preschool lessons and schedule will start tomorrow, so Im hoping that things will work as well as planned! Although that is rarely the case!