Life here for local villagers and even some people in town for that matter, is far beyond our comprehension.  We could never understand how people can get by and survive in situations that they do.  I know that people here react to circumstances and even act differently on a day to day basis (e.g. no apparent concern for their own well being by walking in the middle of a highway when cars and trucks that also don’t care about them are flying past).  I can’t understand why, but I know there is a reason and the vastly different life they live, full of trying times has to do with that reason.  It is great to be able to meet some of these older people and talk with them and to also see their appreciation for trying to give their younger generations a chance at knowing a different life.

Who knows just what they might end up being in life; maybe just good friends:

Rock stars:

Plumbers:

Soccer stars:

Wrestling stars:

It doesn’t really matter what they do in life, just as long as they get a chance and are happy:

One grandmother that I was talking with during visits said that she had no idea how old she was exactly, only that she was not a child when the Indians were chased from the country by Idi Amin. When her daughter got married she moved nearby to Kampala and a little while later passed away leaving her children behind.  When visiting for the burial, the grandmother found the children almost dying also.  She brought them back to Kabale on the bus with her, but was so overwhelmed that she almost killed the children and committed suicide, except that someone counselled her not to.  She ended up taking some local herbs to help her to breast feed the children and brought them up, doing the best she could for them.  When we found them they were in a healthy condition and very balanced children, except that their future was going to be hard with their grandmother getting older and less capable of looking after them.  I just wanted to give the grandmother credit for a fantastic job.

Another grandmother I visited had not long returned home from a two month stay in hospital.  She was very distressed the whole time we were there, because she had not planted any food while she was in hospital and so had nothing to share with us. She was saying that she had almost died in hospital, but was glad to see her grandchild again. We bought some drinks and biscuits so that at least we could share some food together.

March News Front

March News Back

A unique gift to bring…
Each person who has come to visit us at Casa Segura has brought something unique with them…

• Julia brought wisdom from her many years of missionary experience.
• Emma brought her camera and took some beautiful photos of the children.
• Andrea brought school supplies from her classroom in Australia.
• Mick and Belle brought a heart to serve

I could go on for pages and pages… Each one of us has a unique gift to bring…

Things are going slower than wanted because we are still working on operating funds as we wait for more building funds to be raised.  We are still moving slowly although, five of the six houses have cooking places and chimneys – though a few finishes are still required and we’ve just started to put supports in for water tanks ready for when money comes in for that.  We really need water tanks as we currently employ someone to fetch water with a bicycle and jerry cans.  Another project we are trying to get started is toilets in each house, and a septic tank.  Currently we are using an unsatisfactory toilet that was built for the site workers.  In fact some people have complained to the authorities about it, but fortunately the local authorities have been lenient with us as they see we are trying to get things in place and that we are in fact doing a good job with the project.

February saw us have some birthdays also; first up was Susan on the 1st:

Elisabeth on the 13th:

Patience on the 25th:

Now that we are moved in, the children enjoy seeing the work going on and even pestering the workers a little:

During building we also had a regular visitor to the site, who is now a common sight at Akanyijuka, coming to play with the children and to see the Mzungus; little Daniel:

February saw some Ladies from Sydney, Australia come and visit, enjoying some time with the children.  Rosie and Hayley were greatly enjoyed as the first visitors to the new homes:

They were here on a whirlwind trip to start a project similar to ours, joining with a friend of ours from a local organisation.  They are just starting out and trying to get all the red tape sorted to start in a year or two with a school in Bukinda, a village nearby, on the road to Kampala.  They also helped out with some of the street children that we knew by putting them in boarding school and some in a home with a carer to go to one of the better Primary Schools.  You can see a little about them at www.foundationsau.org.

On a personal note, sometimes here you just wonder what you are doing here.  All the frustrations that you can get, about dealing with the way things are here, the people, the lack of things you like from home, missing family and friends, wondering why should I be the one doing this.  Then out of the blue you get a reminder.  Usually I leave the rubbish to take when I go early in the morning, hoping I will not run into someone on the rubbish bins and have to give it to them.  One morning I threw our rubbish in and then a man, probably in his late twenties, pops up and says thank you – with all sincerity for the bag of rubbish I had given him.  I could not help but think that in ten or twenty years that some of the boys at Akanyijuka might have been there if we had not come along.  Sometimes we also see boys from the drop-in centre on the rubbish tips and being involved with the drop-in makes us glad that we might one day help them to also not be in that situation.

2010 has begun and since my last news the number of children at Casa Segura has doubled to a total of 16.  Holidays are coming to an end, so it’s back to school time for us, as it has just been for many of you. With our recent influx of children and the local jungle children, this year enrolments at our school are up to almost 40 students. We are excited that we will now have 2 teachers to carry the load and are now hoping to improve the standard of education that our kids receive.

We are believing in faith for God’s provision to bless all these kids with a uniform and school supplies ready to start the school year.

Please pray also that this year the legal paperwork for the establishment of the school can be completed with the Bolivian authorities.

Things to pray for…

· That the all orphans and staff at Casa Segura will have a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.

· Favour with Bolivian authorities.

· More orphans to come to Casa Segura, and long term workers to care for them.

· Funds to build more cabins and to build a fully operational kitchen.

· Protection for the orphans, missionaries, workers and their families  from all kinds of spiritual attack including protection from Malaria, Dengue Fever and other sickness.

· Godly wisdom and guidance for Leadership

· All barriers to the work of Casa Segura to be removed.

· Doors to be opened for new areas of ministry.

· That God’s Will be done through my life and ministry!