Hellooooooooooo!!! I’m aware that I’ve not written to anyone at all for a while, and I have not done any newsletters for 2 and a half months.... Let me bring you up to date with my news:
The last term has been rather a whirl of activity!!!!!....
The kids have completed their final term of the school year, and are on holiday again. As usual, the school term consisted of waking up RIDICULOUSLY early in the morning (- they have to get up at 5.30am!.....What’s that all about?!?! ), getting the kids to do their homework, and visiting the occasional school.... which is always an interesting experience!.... You can see a picture of me above getting absolutely mobbed by about 40 three year olds when I went to one of the schools in November (I’m on the very left of the picture) – They were all asking me if I lived in the TV, if I was real or a ghost, and if my white skin would rub off revealing black skin underneath!!! Then they all sang for me for about 20 minutes.... it was soooooo cute!!!
Four of our residential White Eagles from the WEP home have both been in boarding school for the last two years, so we were reeeeeeally happy to receive them back home this November after they did their final “Primary Leaving Examination” (which is what the last 2 years of crazily studying 16 hours a day, 7 days a week in boarding school, with only a few days holiday in the whole year, and eating disgusting beans and posho (a food made of flour and water) for lunch AND dinner, EVERY SINGLE DAY, has been leading up to!!!). They all came home and slept almost solidly for several days, waking up just long enough to stuff their faces with mountains of food (unless beans and posho was on the menu)!!!
We had a few kids admitted to hospital (mostly with Malaria) over the last few months, which means that we have to have members of staff staying at the hospital (day and night) because the nurses in Uganda don’t do anything apart from give medicine and take blood (- from what I’ve observed, anyway!), and it’s necessary for family/friends to stay with a patient all the time to help them with everything else (e.g. make food, fetch water from outside, etc.). So the White Eagle staff have been rather busy with all of the hospital stays on top of their normal work! We’re very happy, though, because we just got a new male member of staff working with us, who is helping with the daily running of the project, among other things, so life should be slightly easier from now on!
For the last month, the kids have been on holiday, and I’ve been running the holiday programme with them. I decided that I wanted to start celebrating Christmas, so they’ve been doing aerobics to my Christmas songs, making Christmas decorations with Lois (a volunteer from the UK), and even making marzipan Father Christmases and snowmen, as you can see in the picture (- the kids loved doing this.... apparently there’s little better in life than “playdough” that can be eaten after you’ve finished modelling it!!!). I’ve put a couple of pictures below of some of our White Eagle children getting rather excited during the holiday programme!
On 8th December we said “Goodbye!” to the 10 young men who had been living in the WEP boys’ home. They’ve all moved out to live either with relatives, or to rent rooms. It’s quite a bit quieter around the project without them(!), although the remaining children are trying their hardest to make up for it! There’s a picture below of some of them with their relatives - we’ve spent the last few years trying to reunite them with their families, and the day was a testimony to the success of that, as all of them had relatives there to support them.
I’ve been keeping you updated on the progress of my friend Nampijja who was paralysed 2 years ago in a car accident.... Well!!!! Wait for it!!!!....... She’s now able to walk outside for 45 minutes with no walking aid or anything, and has learnt to sew on a foot-pedal operated sewing machine, and is doing absolutely amazing!!!! It’s a real miracle, and she came to River of Life Church when we had our last “Testimony Sunday” to share her testimony of what God has done in her life, which was really exciting!!!
At the moment, I’m rather excited, because I’m preparing to come home to England on Friday of this week!!!! Woohoo!!!! I’m soooooooooooooooo looking forward to spending Christmas with family and friends, to seeing everyone, to singing carols, to eating AMAZING food, and to having electricity and water (-our electricity and water supplies have been rather terrible of late, and I’m getting really tired of bucket baths and torches!)!!! I’m going to be in England for a couple of months this time, and I aim to have a very good rest after a very busy year, but I also hope to be able to catch up with lots of you .
Anyway, that’s my news! I reeeeally look forward to seeing most of you soon!!!!
Loads of love,
Sarah
