Flying by!

Hiiii!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while - we have been sooo busy! Saturday and Sunday we were in Jinja. It was a completely different world! Sooo relaxing! A mini holiday! We stayed in gorgeous Ugandan huts overlooking Lake Victoria's water rapids. The view was beautiful and it was so peaceful. It gave us time to reflect on what we have seen in Kampala and to recoup, ready for our last few busy days!

On Monday, Matt taught rugby in the morning. The boys are really enjoying it and Matt is starting to get in to the teacher role! They are great with the basic skills but do not understand the rules, as none of them have never seen a rugby ball before and they are not used to following such complex instructions! They are getting there though and I will be watching them play on Thursday morning.

Meanwhile, I have been teaching dance in preparation for the fundraising performance, which will be on Thursday evening. The message is getting around that the Mydel Dancers are back on form, so more and more dancers are coming to practise. Only the 12, which have been fully committed, will be dancing for the performance but at least the others are now re-gaining interest and I'm hoping the performance will re-generate a buzz around the Mydel Dance Crew and in turn develop the project.

Rich, our friend from church who is a pilot, came to visit the home on Monday afternoon. He gave us a great discount on our flights - without him I would not have been able to afford this trip. It was very bizarre picking him up from a posh 5 star hotel in Kampala, after slumming it for two weeks! We managed to encourage him on to a boda (motorbike taxi) and weaved our way through traffic to Mengo. Pascal and the team greeted him very well as they explained the awful situations the boys came from and how they have changed so much since they have been staying at The Mydel Boys Home.

Rich then visited the Home, where all the boys were waiting excitedly. The boys expressed their thanks for Rich, for he has made our visit possible. Three of the boys gave their testimony, though one boy struggled to talk as remembering his background was too difficult for him. It was a touching moment. It really hit home how much suffering these boys have experienced. They prepared traditional Ugandan food for everyone, providing Rich with his first Ugandan meal!

We then handed out the gifts of more airbeds and hair clippers, which I asked Rich to bring over. Rich also came with a bag full of clothes for the boys and the neighbours. As we handed them out, the neighbours gathered in excitement and showed great happiness and appreciation. Redondo explained how great it was that we were also helping the neighbours, as they also help with the boys at times.

Thank you Rich!

There has been a weird atmosphere. There was something not quite right in the air, I could sense it. I told Matt how I was feeling and he agreed. We were very alert as we were traveling around. There were many people, men and soldiers patrolling the roads, carrying tear-gas launchers and dressed in riot gear. As we moved around, people's eyes seemed a lot more shifty.. its hard to explain, but we knew something was going on. It was the first time I have been properly scared, as of the days of the riots which I have previously been in. We later found out that the arguments over the community hall, which we previously were using for our dance practices, had escalated. Their was a huge conflict between the previous owners of the hall refusing to move and the community who want their hall back. It's all calmed down now thankfully but they certainly have a different way of dealing with things around here!

After rugby and dance, we visited the Tailoring project this afternoon. The project teaches young mothers and prostitutes skills such as making and fixing clothes and creating bags and jewellery. It seems a very value project as obviously these women need to be given such an opportunity to get out of their awful ways of currently making money. All of the sewing machines they had have either broken down or are now rotting, so the project has been at a stand still for the past 5 months, leaving many women disheartened. It would be great to be able to help this project at some point but it does need a more sustainable plan.

We have also sorted the boys with ID cards, showing their identity within Mydel. The cards will help them a lot as the police around here can imprison you for anything, such as having no identity, proof of age or where-abouts. Some of our boys have even been caught moving around the streets at night without ID cards! So each boy now has a professional card explaining who they are and where they stay.

Everything on the to-do list is now ticked off! Apart from the computer course, which we had planned on leaving 12 of the boys on, when we left. It costs 100 pounds - if anyone would like to fund this please just click donate! :D

Tomorrow we will be counseling the boys so please pray for our wisdom (I'm not quite grey yet!). Please also keep our health and safety in your prayers as there has been an Ebola out-break - not in our area yet thankfully!

Only two full days remaining! Busy Busy Busy!

Loooooove xxx