Destinations

This month we started a building project on land that we own about 5 kms outside of town.  Where we are currently located we are renting and the location is a bit small for us.  We are attempting to build better homes for the children to live in, while having some space to run around.  It is our hope to build the homes and a part of the school block so that we can move into the new houses before school starts next year.  This is our plan, but we do not currently have enough funds but are believing that they will come in and so we are building in faith.  If we don’t have money for starting the school block we may look at building temporary structures so that we can run school from there.  Here are a couple of photos of us getting under way.

 

 

 

Here in Uganda one thing is good, that if you are building something for public use, which is what we are classified as doing, then there are certain standards that need to be met, you can’t just build any structure and leave it at that.  Unfortunately we chose to use someone that had 32 years experience to supervise our building project.  It turned out that the way he set us off building ended up that the foundations of the first house were much, much more expensive then they needed to be.   This was a big set back to our morale, being that we did not yet have funds to build all we need to build to be able to move at the end of the year.  But after a few days Kathryn managed to talk me into being more positive again.

 

We had a couple of birthdays in early August, Mid:

 

And Joan:

 

I love this photo of Joan and her house mother, Benalita:

 

The early part of this month saw the end of term with the children on holidays for three weeks, which worked out well as we had many visitors this month, starting with Merial and Tessa from the UK:

 

The 23^rd August saw a good friend of ours get married.  It was good as it was much quicker and a less drawn out experience then usual weddings here in Uganda, but still a great time for the couple.  Again our ugly beast of a car made the chief wedding mobile, don’t know why but people seem to think it is good for some reason!

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

The last week and a half of August saw us hosting six more visitors.  Four Australians – two from the Gold Coast and two from ACT.  They had all been staying in Mbale, Eastern Uganda working with a school there and had heard about us so they came to check out what we were up to.  To read a little about them check out one of their blogs: http://brimmyos.blogspot.com/

 

Briony:

Stewart:

Brooke: 

Karen:

                                                                    

 

We also got a visit from Jan Best, from Botswana (previously Australia) and Lettie, a young lady in Rod and Jan Best’s church.  Lettie has come to gain a little experience with us and to help and learn about how we do things, as well as anything else that may come her way whilst here.

 

Jan, just can’t stay away from the kitchen!

 

Lettie:

 

Here is a photo of most of our visitors at Lake Bunyonyi:

 

We also managed to finish the first house up to the point of laying the slab this month, getting ready to raise the walls on house one and do the foundations on the second house next month.  It’s been a great time to start moving ahead with a new project, working with the local people in our area.  We have been starting to build relationships with the local workers which will be good for when we move there.  It definitely has been full of its challenges and very tiring physically, but more so mentally challenging trying to deal with people here, and of course when you are responsible for funds that others have given, it steps up another stress level again. 

The end of the month also saw Dismus having a birthday: