Every time I leave blogging for even more then one day, I don’t even know where to begin. Whether I should start with explaining what it’s like laying under a mosquito net at night with a million mosquitos buzzing just beyond trying to get in….or when I wake up at night with mosquito bites all up my arms and on my fingers…because apparently they still get in somehow. Or maybe I should start with waking up each morning at 6am to open the doors so that the boys can get inside to prepare breakfast before going to school, and then getting up at around 630 and drinking tea and eating breakfast with them before they head off for school, although it seems to very anywhere from 630-715…I’m not actually sure what time they are expected to be at school, but I guess whenever they get there is fine. Watching them walk off to school on their first day was a bittersweet moment. It is nice to have some space at home with them good, but I definitely miss them during the day….
In writing that I realize that I need to catch you up on some of the happenings at The Sanctuary…first of all I found out this week that I wasn’t very specific about where I live. Or why I am in a house alone in a thunderstorm if we bought the house for the boys…lol. In the house we have 3 bedrooms. One of them is mine/the office, one is a guest room/storage, and one is the study room. We also have a kitchen, dining room, sitting room, toilet room and shower. Out back we have two boy’s quarters, each with 3 bedrooms. Right now we have 3 boys each in 4 of the rooms, and Henry and Alex in another one. So when I say that I am in the house by myself it is because the rest of the boys are outside in the boys quarters.
Another new thing that happened this week is that the boys started school! We have 7 of the boys starting at St. Patrick. Patrick, Mike, Michael, Ambrose, and Saidon are all going into P7 (which is like gr 8 at home, although much more intense because they have big exams to write at the end of the year that decide where they are accepted into for Senior school) then Moses and Johnson have started P5. Ronnie is taking an IT course at the YMCA college, and David and Robert are getting tutoring at home. We’ve decided that because they would have had to start in P1 and they are 13 years old, we would try to get them tutored for a year, with the hopes that they can pass a P3 or P4 test and then start in those grades next year.
After searching for a new church in the area, we’ve decided to keep going to Calvary in Jinja…this leads to some fun times in the morning….getting 15 people up, fed, showered and dressed is actually the easy part…its finding the boda, bartering with the boda driver for a decent price, and then loading everyone up is the more difficult task. :) The first week we were about 40 minutes late…due to reasons beyond our control naturally…BUT the next week we were 5 minutes early! So we’ll see how it goes next week J It works out well going to church in Jinja because some boys have rugby at 1pm in town also. We give them enough money for either lunch or transport home and then they can go and do what they want to do..also some of them travel to Masese to and visit family. We really like Calvary for many reasons…1) The music is almost like it is at home! I love it :) and so do the boys! 2) The speaking is biblically sound AND only for 1hr. Its also really great because the pastor speaks in English, but he is translated into Luganda, so for the boys who have a harder time understanding English they can still understand the message. 3) They serve tea before/after the service…which is always a nice treat :)
I guess the other big thing right now is that Presidential elections are taking place on Friday! There has been a lot of campaigning over the last couple of months, and now it is the time for voting. Right now the current president is Yoweri Museveni and his main opponent he is running against is Colonel Kiiza Besigye. Museveni has been the president for 20 years, and is looking for another 5. Because of the results of the elections in Kenya in 2010(violence) people are being very cautious and there is a lot more security in town. The boys even get the next 3 days off of school so that people can prepare for the elections. While I have been given some rules that I need to follow due to the elections, for the most part everything is the same. Once the elections happen we will have a better idea of what is going to happen. Please pray for the safety of everyone at The Sanctuary. Like I said, we aren’t expecting any difficulties, but we are taking the precautions necessary just incase.
Anyways, that is life right now. I will try to write a more personal note later on today!
Love you and miss you all!
Mel
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