.."we are family!!"

..As sister sledge would say, We are family and what a classic song... come on lets all sing the chorus...We are family....ok very good. Life here at New hope is all about family and bringing and demonstrating family to children and young people who until they come here have no family, it is a privilege and challenge. This Sunday at church we were celebrating family. and we celebrated a wedding, 10 young people from New hope who have graduated from Uni and other institutions as well as dedicating the new babies who have arrived this year, there were 8 of them!! (we have had 4 babies arrive this month alone whose mothers have either died or abandoned them. The whole day was a great celebration culminating in having lunch together and then a footy match!! What a day and it is great to be a part of such a big family of all ages, colours and nations.

.....they think it's all over...

..Well i made it, (just!!), when we woke the sun was already up and out and hot and so when the run started at 8am, it was already warm. The run started at the pace of a sprint but Isaac and i managed to go nice and slow....at least the start was enjoyable but the rest, confirmed to me once again why i don't like running, just hurts too much! Issac stayed with me up to about 12 kms and then i let him run on as he is only 16 and i think i was too slow for him but i so appreciated his support...the last few kms were tough with some horrible hills (survived by walking them!) the joy/satisfaction/relief to see the finish line , indescribable!!
Later there was a satisfaction of finishing...would i do it again???.....well i am thinking of the doing the Kampala 10Km...must be mad, obviously a sucker for punishment!!
It was all worth it in the end as i had trifle for dinner!!

...5 days to go!!!

..What about the run i hear you cry..a pic of me wondering what was i thinking!!?? training still happening, even at 6am this morning, can you imagine..must be very serious or desperate. 10 miles still seems like so far, but hey you can only try..remember we are trying to raise money for Kiwoko Hospital, it is our local hospital and does a great job in this area reaching out in to the community. I do have sponsor forms here, so please feel free to donate...
..i was listening to the radio the other day whe an advert came on about the Kampala marathon and fun run and i thought hey i should do that..(the fun run, 10kms, not the marathon!!) how times have changed...Kathryn does ask after each training run, did you enjoy it?? and i am consistent with my answers...NO!!

..Mickey Mouse

..It's the closest we are going to get to Disney land here in Uganda and it is called Didi's world! It is based in Kampala, so we thought lets go and have some fun..so we went one saturday morning and arrived at 10am. As we drove in to the car park, it was worryingly devoid of any other cars, must be closed we thought but no, we were just first there.
For the next 2 hours we were the only people in the park and one of the attendants followed us around and turned on each ride just for us, when we wanted to go on!! It was like having your own amusement park. the best part of the day was the bumper cars, where you actually allowed to bump into each other, head on as well, now thats what you call fun!!

..house

..the youth group here we have called 12:30 @ 4!! will leave you to wonder why, if you don't know...well once a month we are going in to the local community. This month we went to an old ladies house to repair her house, a mud house, we were going to repair one wall and fix the iron sheet roof. I suprizingly was the foreman, and knowing a thing or two about mud houses!!! i asked someone who knew what they were doing. The best about mud houses is mixing the mud with your feet, now people pay big money for mud treatment and you can come here and have it for nothing!!
After an afternoon of mixing and putting on mud and iron sheets, we all had a great time and the old lady was very happy and it was gr8 for us as a group to reach out to some one else.
..Lots of rain here at the moment, and we are very grateful to be living in a brick house but very aware of those people who live in mud houses, which can easily be ruined by so much rain as well as crops...
for those interested?? the run is on the 13th october, still training, even though bed was a better option today!!

....monkey business

..well the norridges and team are here for a few days, they seem to be enjoying Africa!! i think they were all a little disappointed there was some rain and not wall to wall sunshine. it is fun having a team as you get to look at life here thro the eyes of new people because things become very normal so quickly, so roads which are more pot hole than road, local butchers with meat hanging outside, getting used to waiting, cutting the grass without a lawn mower, power off and water running out, cold showers...all good experiences, they are all doing very well....
..running, still 5 days a week (even though haven't been today!!) October 13thb is the day....so we are on the countdown!! ...we run at 6.45, in the morning!!!! i know....

..football

..had lots of rain recently and i am obviously getting used to the weather because even i have been a little chilly!! it's now 10:52pm and i keeping track of the football scores thro the computer, little sad really, especially as chelsea are losing at half time, to reading!! everyone else is in bed fast asleep, which i should be really....but what can you do?? the youth group i do here is fun and this weekend we went into one of the local villages, don't make me spell it, i can't even say it!! i know it began with a K!! to help a man who has leprosy to clear hs compound and to prepare some potato mounds, very simple, but hopefully something that will have been helpful and great for the young people here to give and not always be receiving!! could have done with a strimmer and not just a slasher!!

...back to school

do you remember that "happy" feeling of going back to school?? new geometry set, which would be lost in a few days and what were all the bits for anyway??(wonder why i've got underlining on?? how is it on??
anyway back to the plot..the most exciting was a new class/desk etc... so Joel and anya were most excited about moving up a class!!..which they did and one way of showing it was to move desks, so they are now sitting in different places in the classroom!! both are glad to be back and i think their teacher is as well!!?

..we love July..

July is such a cool month here in the brown house hold, with birthdays, Joel & Anya's and our anniversary (15yrs), i know we don't look old enough...well for a celebration we thought lets go for a swim, which we did but the weather had other ideas and decided to rain on us, at least it is warm rain...but our kids being true english kids thought we've paid for this so we are swimming and they did...i'm sorry to say i wimped out just a little too cold and wet for me, yes even here in Africa!!
...still running, i know i can hardly believe it too, but i'm certainly being stretched by my new training partner, and we get lots of strange looks from Ugandan children going to school thinking what is that crazy Mzungu (Iwhite person) doing?? sometimes i'm in full agreement with them.....

..what was i thinking??

..Have you ever opened your mouth and said or agreed to something and wondered why did i say that? what was i thinking? well that has happened to me the other day. we had some friends over from Kiwoko hospital who said they had a sponsored run to raise money for the hospital which serves the local community here. Well big mouth here said "i'd like to do that" grerat they said, here's a sponser form...."oh by the way, how far is the run i ask (little too late!!)... Only 10 miles they said!!!!! 10 miles, what in one go i exclaim.
So now i'm committed to the cause, and anyone who knows me, knows i hate running. over the last couple of weeks i had a training partner who has now gone! the pic is some of our serious training. The run is in september, will keep you up to date on progress, and anyone interested in sponsoring let me know....10 miles here we come....

...ooo how we laughed!!

..staying on the animal theme, sitting on my vertandah the other day minding my own business, someone asked if they could use my camera...seeing a dead snake, i thought, it would make a good picture. he dropped the snake on to the verandah at which point the seemingly dead snake suddenly became a very much alive snake!! it is safe to say we have never moved so quick...thankfully it was a little wet so the snake struggled for traction!! i asked matter of factlly what type of snake it was,...oh it's only a cobra!!!AAAAHHHH, what are you doing dropping it on our verandah!!! joel and kathryn seemed to enjoy it more than me though and relished getting as close as they could.
ooo how we laughed.....!!

....pets

.. people here think we are a bit crazy!! and we have confirmed it by deciding to have a cat as a pet. The notion of having an animal which is of not much use, other than..(any suggested answers gratefully received!) is a bizarre concept. Our cat called "lola" has been with us for just over a month and fits in well as she is bonkers. she likes to charge around the house in the middle of the night running over beds and up mosquito nets, safe to say i'm more keen on having a cat than Kathryn!!

..water

.a bit of rain this week, and when that happens we are desperate not to waste any!! hence the pic of yours truly trying to be helpful, in the end i just got very wet!!

lots of excitement here today (2/6/07) as Uganda Cranes take on Nigeria(football) in a key africa nations qualifier. There's real talk and hope of uganda winning?! we will see, at least it's an excuse to watch football and eat cake.

As there has been an overwhelming desire for more pics of me!! thought i would let you have 2 today, what a treat! (don't know who for!?)

..apologies!!!

Hi again, 2 in a day, this is to say we were of course very excited by the visit of a team last month from derby, and we had such a good time we had no time to write anything on the blog!! as calvary family are here at the mo. they all say hi and especially to hannah and hannah (nice pic!?) the babies also say hi and thanks for painting our house they are very chuffed, the team made an impression and we are looking forward to their return!!?

it was great to have a lot of famaliar faces and accents and was so normal and of course they bought out essentials such as angel delight, marmite and trifle mix, YUM!!

tried marmite on some of the young people here but suprisingly didn't go down very well??

why is that??

.nice to meet you.

Hello everyone, all well? now handing over to Moses......
hi this is kisakye moses from new hope Uganda.
it has been a blessing to meet the Browns
they are really hard working people,kind,loving
I really thank God for them.

this
goes to the Browns

I really believe God is blessing the work of your

hands.

thanks

..for those with taste!

hi there, for those who requested it, yes some did, just read the comments!! i know it's difficult to believe.....but here it is, a picture of me!! sorry for the majority who didn't want it! you can't please all the people all the time!!
all well here, kids doing well and enjoying school, still not much rain, or not enough at least! found a tortoise today..but it escaped..i thought they were meant to be slow, but one minute he was here and the next minute he was gone!! but the zoo continues to grow with a spiky and hairy caterpillar living on our porch.
for those utd readers, just to remind you not to get to used to the premier trophy, we'll have it back next year and of course the fa cup this year! any comments??
sorry the computer won't let me put my pic on!! is this a conspiracy or what?

...it must be...

Today is HOT, HOT, thought it was meant to be the rainy season, hence cooler!! but not much rain at all?? all well here. Joel and Anya doing well, anya had her 1st sleepover in africa and did well, and enjoyed it and so there will be more to follow!! Joel is teaching himself new footy skills each day and now often confuses his dad (not hard i hear you say, very true!) the pic, is a slice of life in our garden on a weekend afternoon, young people hanging around and playing, i think anya and stella are working out what to do with the skipping rope? School has finished for holidays so next few weeks will lots of youth activities/games/competitions, should be fun....

..aah, how cute

Hello there!! as there as been such demand for pics of joel and anya, here they are!! now there seems to be a worrying lack of demands for pictures of me (steve), now why would that be?? all ok here, still really waiting for the rains to come, still getting used to whole idea/concept of celebrating arrival of rain.

The other day i got stopped by the police and i was starting to worry about what serious traffic offence i had committed. The policeman approached looking very serious and stern and we were prepared for the worst.. he asked where i had come from and going to and then commented on how dirty my car was!!! i couldn't argue with him there and he asked me to make sure i cleaned when i got back home and then he let me go!! while driving off i realised i had just been stopped for having a dirty car!!! it's amazing i haven't been stopped more times!!

....how can you tell..

Hi there, sorry about this but we are back on the chameleon theme.... how do you know which one is male or female?? answers gladly received!! we now have 2 in our ivy bush thing? so maybe baby chameleons to come?? question? how do chameleons have babies?? some say they explode out females stomach and wander off? any ideas??

here is a picture for those concerned about the lack of pictures of anya!! wse have had afew days at the pool, very nice and incredibly hot, and yes you guessed it, sunburn followed!! surely though it's all worth it for a tan?? or is that just me.

..lunchtime photo

..lunch time

sitting on the porch the other day, when i happened to look up an this is what i saw!! it's enough to put you off your lunch, over the next 20 mins we watched as the chameleon slowly swallowed it whole, the thing was as big as him!! when he had finished you could clearly see the gecko in it's stomach, nice!!....well we might be on wireless but it won't let me upload any pics, soory about that, you will just have to imagine the image!!

..against the clock..

..these internet cafe places are tense places to be, so much for having a relaxing time reading and writing emails!! i can't help myself but look at the ticking clock as the minutes count down to zero! i get all tense and everything seems to be on a go slow, except the ticking clock. my mind goes blank and i can't think what to say or what i need to do on the net and still the clock tick down with no mercy....is it just me? or are their others out there?
this weekend at new hope we could be (hopefully) be wireless!!!! wow, no more walking up to the office to plug in!! so maybe this wekend we could be communicating like mad, we will see. they have been building it all week and it is a very impressive set up just looks very complecated if it goes wrong!
anyway here's to the 21st century!! and there goes my ticking clock!!......

...the earth moved!!

At 5.30am this morning, was woken up by the whole house shaking and moving!! an earth tremor, which was very exciting and thankfully no injuries and of course joel and anya didn't blink and stayed fast asleep!!
the pic is of anya who was a bridesmaid 2 weeks ago, she did so well and as you can see was concentrating very hard on her walking, there is a certain style of wedding walking here in uganda!!
HOT weather here at the moment and no rain!! and therefore lots of dust!!
sorry picture doesn't want to appear! maybe next time

...do eggs bounce??

Hi everyone!! well do eggs bounce?? one game we played last week was dropping eggs from a water tower and seeing if any survived!! well 2 did at least, with one being wrapped in a passion fruit, within a balloon, in a sock

and in a bag!! very creative... for those who know them we pick up glen and wendy tomorrow, which is very exciting.

so good books to recommend please, suggestions very welcome!! and of course films.....

...life

Hi everyone, busy week here, with a youth week with the P7's. it's been quite a laugh and as you see lots of silly games!! don't know who has enjoyed them most, me or the young people!! the game they are playing was a relay we thought up with as many bizarre items they have to carry as possible!!??

i hear there is snow in the uk, thanks to those who sent the pics, here it is hot and once again i got sun burnt!!, will i ever learn to put on sun tan lotion?? well that's what kathryn keeps asking.

boda-boda

Afternoon!! amasing what you can carry on the back of a bike!! and of course on pretty terrible roads!! good weekend here, what did we do?? good question but i do know it was good! weather for those weather fans is hot and dry!! even though there still seems to be rain, even though it is the dry season. i think people are obsessed with the weather as us brits. and like us really haved no idea what it's going to do next!

Public Service Announcement

Sorry to break in to the browns blog, but this is just a quick admin post for all you readers out there! No doubt many of you phone abroad and more relevantly some may even phone the Browns! We have been using TeleDiscount which is pretty good. But today i got a link through to a site that will find the cheapest of the many sites out there that do cheap international calling so I decided to pass on the information. For example, telediscount calls from UK landline to Uganda mobile was 8p per minute, and this website showed one that was 5p per minute.

So check out:

Money Saving Expert Call Checker

If you, like me, are on NTL you may want to check that the quoted prices are the same as they are one BT. You can do that by looking up the Non-geographic number definitions here and then cross checking with the tariff guide for that classification here.

And that is the end of this public service announcement!

...the long silence....

Hooray we are back!! sorry for the silence but i had forgotten usernames and passwords which are both fairly important to this whole process!! blogger have just changed things and everyone knows..change is not a good thing!! and when computers are involved and me, there is always trouble.

anyway just wanted to say hi and we haven't forgotten you and hopefully you haven't forgotten us!!

oh by the way, here is the dolls house made at christmas, wouldn't pass any building regs but anya's happy!!

...2007

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! what are you going to be doing and where? please some exciting stories of where you celebrated and how would be cool! don't quite know what we will be doing yet? have been looking after one of the babies this week and that has meant being up in the night!! wonder if i will make midnight?? Anya's cast is off end of this week, hopefully!! she has done very well and been cheerful throughout.
wonder what 2007 will bring.... who knows, a chelsea team who can defend? more car punctures? we will try and keep you infromed,.... have a good one....

happy christmas

Happy Christmas, from Uganda!! here it is either hot or wet!! but as you can see from the picture, we are staying true to a few english traditions! Anya has now got her 3rd plaster on, as the other 2 either went soft or started to fall apart? thge doctor did say it wasn't our fault !! i'm choosing to believe him!!
the christmas tree is huge as you can see, any guesses on it's size?? hope you all have a great christmas and tremendous new year!!

....ow!!

it's been a bit quiet recently, this end, due to problems with the old internet!! i don't think it was me!? last weekend was eventful, i had great plans of going to watch the football, but anya fell off a climbing frame and broke her leg!! so instead of watching the football i was in the hospital. they were great and helped anya and us through it, she is doing really well and there is very little moaning and she just gets on with it. so not only is it our 1st christmas in uganda, it is also our 1st one with a broken leg!! the big cast will be on for another 2 weeks and then a smaller one after that, a spiral fracture for those who know bout these things.

1000!!

Greetings one and all, a friend has just let me know, we have now had had 1000 hits on the blog!! WOW, i presume that it is good?? thanks for everyone who reads our wandering thoughts and make nice comments!!
Lots of rain at the mo and kampala is an absolute nightmare to get in and out of... so trying to avoid that of we can! no further punctures to report, HOORAY!! Pic is Joel and anya on the swing, thanks ED, the seesaw is no more, sorry to say, fun while it lasted.
at the moment, trying to build/construct a dolls house!!! yes i know, those who know me will now be in shock an d will wonder can it happen, pics to follow as proof, hopefully!!

Hi there,
i have returned from up north! had a great time. we were on the new land for new hope uganda, where a childrens centre

specifically for childrfen rescued from LRA will come and stay. we were involved in clearing land, slashing and digging and as you can see from the picture eatring meat!! take my word for it very nice. when i have other pics will put them on. it was an 8 hour drive on a variety of roads, but i have now found the best road in kampala!! 100 kms of perfect tarmac, not a pot hole in sight!! certainly makes driving easier when you don't have to avoid craters in the road!!

all say hi here......

Baby Silas...

Hello, one and all!! couple of weeks ago i mentioned that we were having baby Silas over for the weekend, hence the picture, we had a great time and he only woke up 2 or 3 times in the night!! i forgot what that was like! Joel and anya really enjoyed ~silas being around. Silas is part of the baby house here, where at the moment they have 9 babies ranging from3 monts up to 3 years, these babies have either all been abandoned or their parents have died. the baby house is looking for upto 30 sponsers for the house to support the babies and everything they need and at this point they have 15!! sponsership is $30/month.
lot of rain the last few days, but still no sign of christmas decorations, tree or music....it's quite nice really...
bfn..

Ugandan barbie...

The other night we had a "camp fire" in our garden, where we roasted pork on sticks, very nice, some were a little over done!! but it was a barbie so black on the outside and pink in the middle is what you expect!! then for pudding we demonstrated the culinary delight of toasted marshmallows!! a mixed response would be safe to say!! great fire though.
puncture no.7!! yesterday, so new tyres for us i think!
lots of rain today so we've had great fun making mud pies, great fun and i trhink anya is an expert!!

bfn

...Big Bang!!

..the big Bang!!

well the other day, there we are driving along one of our fine roads here with a car full, when suddenly there's a huge BANG, what's that i thought, we've just been shot!! but no..... the back side window had just exploded inwards!! all over one of our friends, it was all very exciting and now our car has a black plastic bag for a window!! very attractive looking!!
hope you like the picture, yet another chameleon pet but this one was very big and if i'm honest a little scary!! he has wandered off now...
this weekend we have one of the little babies (Silas) who is 3 months coming over, so that should be fun, to be reminded of sleepless nights and nappies etc...
bye for now....

swings!

hi one and all, thought would send you at least one of our "playground" courtesy of Ed, what a clver chap he is!! he's just returned from sudan, had a good time.
the swing is cool (oops the font has gone smaller and now bold!!) ah still bold oh never mind! picture of seesaw next time, as this is taking an age to load.
favourite film ever? what would it be?
bye for now
brownies

motorised caravan!

greetings one and all, thought a picture of the car (or motorised caravan as someone put it!!) was due. actually looks quite clean, but very rarely like that! we have a special gift of punctures as we have now had 4 in as many weeks! well at least that is something i can do on a car!
joel yesterday saw an eagle flying over the house with a rabbit, very cool, but why don't you ever have a camera when you need one! now that woulsd have looked impressive on the blog, never mind!
bye for now......

friends

hi there, sorry for no news, no power the last few days, so food going off and no ability to charge anything!! at least we ate well!! but hooray it came back yesterday (monday!)
had suprise friends drop in on friday (john and shelia wastie!!) very exciting, so good to see them and we spent a good few hours together, Ed is here and has built a swing and is now in the middle of constructing a see saw! we have also discussed black holes! well he is a physicist(is that a right spelling?
keep on blogging!!
steve

which dress

So we passed these the other day on the way to kampala, what do you think, which one should i get kathryn? suggestions welcome!!

cats and dogs

Have you ever felt like cat or dog ? or wondered what they think or what their life is like?? well as a family we have had a little "taste" of their life!! As the picture shows we have just had de worming, yes that's right, de worming pills!! thought only cats/dogs had them. it's something you take every few months out here!! as someone said the consequences of not taking them are just not worth it!! (will leave that to your imagination!!) the pills tasted like chalk and we had to take 5 each!!! other than that all well here and in kampala for the weekend.
bye for now

cats and dogs

Have you ever felt like cat or dog ? or wondered what they think or what their life is like?? well as a family we have had a little "taste" of their life!! As the picture shows we have just had de worming, yes that's right, de worming pills!! thought only cats/dogs had them. it's something you take every few months out here!! as someone said the consequences of not taking them are just not worth it!! (will leave that to your imagination!!) the pills tasted like chalk and we had to take 5 each!!! other than that all well here and in kampala for the weekend.
bye for now

hair

well here we are again, life is sweet, we had a few email problems but we are bac on line1 hooray, thanks for all the help from mark and jon in the uk!! joel has found a new chameleon, which is very exciting and is now our new pet, well it's alittle different from a fish or cat? here they are cooking cassava chips, very nice, well at least they are better cooked than raw!
time to go off and play footy, bye for now.....
ugandan wedding tomorrow (9th) which should be good fun, and the girls in the family group are all very excited as they are bridesmaids so can have their hair done etc... relaxed african hair is amasing( thought for the day)

kangaroo's

Well hello there, today i have found out that my dell computer is one of those which is at risk of the battery exploding or at least catching fire!! i always thought it got a bit hot!! so hopefully no explosions until the new battery arrives!! the day draws nearer for arrival of the car, another week or so, hopefully, i have another tough question, no-one by the way answered the one about flies!! does a male kangaroo have a pouch?? if so what for?? prizes may be awarded.
thanks for all the positive blog thougts we will keep on trying to keep
updated. bye for now
"the browns"

life

we are just about to enter another weekend which means being off line for a couple of days, so why not blog.... lots of rain at the moment as the rains seem to have come a month early which is making everyone work really hard, ploughing, clearing and planting all at the same time!! my lettuce are doing well but did plant the whole packet of seeds so an abundance of lettuce we now have!! we have started buying a car!! we've put some money down but now the paper work takes over so may still be a few weeks, a picture will appear when it does!!
this weekend we are celebrating with calvary family and eating goat? anyone had it.... is very nice but can be a bit chewy!! depending what bit you have on your plate!!
so what is the film "cars" like.. reviews would be good, thanks.. and other movies i need to know about..
bye for now
steve

hey there, just noticed it's over 3 weeks since the last post, sorry about that, could blame kit on a manner of things but none would be true. well we have our 1st visitors, sarah and hannah who are hopefully having a good time, they enjoy the taxi rides on the backs of the motorbike!! could be a whole new business opportunity in the uk!!
over the last few weeks have been weeks full of new experiences from harvesting maise and groun d nuts, hard work and blisters as well. the young people here couldn't believe i have never done these things before. also as as a family we have helped collect fire wood and water!! the young people collect water every day! life for us is easy,
joel and anya say hi and they are enjoying themselves especially now as they are on holiday as our guests are here. 7.30am assemblies, anyone beat that? i was surprised i could string any words together at that time of day...maybe i didn't!
will write soon, hopefully
tried to add a photo but no joy...technology!!

hi all, thanks for the comments, nice to know people are reading the blog, at the mo looks like could be updating 0nce maybe twice a week. joel had agreat birthday at weekend and got to play footy pretty much all day, then we watched the england game on a big screen, in the african bush, still same result!! why do we bother even going thro the penalty shoot out!! our freight arrives today?? was meant to be friday but got diverted, who knows where??
life here is becoming normal and certainly getting used to eating beans everday, with pots, chapatis and rice! thankfully the kids love beans.
progress report on our planting for those interested, lettuce and garlic have appeared, COME ON, we are very excited.
the picture is joel sharing his birthday cake with the family group nearest to us.
Question for discussion asked by Joel, "why did God create flies?? answers would be much appreciated, thanks

arrival

hi everyone, we are here, finally. after touring the uk and coming via mombasa!! we have been here 4 days are starting to settle, it is very different but life will become normal i think. but it's afine place when you can pick up 6 mangoes for 30p, can't be bad, the kids had their first day at home school and seemed to enjoy kathryn did as well!! the kids seem very at home and settling well.
went on my first motorbike taxi today which was fun just a bit dusty when vehicles come the nother way, then negotiated my first shopping trip which seemed to go ok?? think the prices were ok!
we're not on email all the time so these posts won't be daily, lets say!! no snakes spotted yet!!
steve

fridge

to carry on the theme of decluttering, we are now sitting in a fairly empty house but we have our priorities right, we still have the tv so we can watch the football!! we did a get bit carried away with letting the fridge go and then having the hottest days of the year, gone off milk in the morning, not the best, so big thanks to the Harts for the loan of a small one.
month to go and hopefully over the next few weeks we will get better at this blogging!!

i will finish on this note, CHELSEA CHAMPIONS!!!

de-cluttering

We've had a great weekend for getting rid of stuff. Jee has moved into his new houswe and taken half of ours with him. Useful, if not a bit disconcerting having no dining room table and chairs any more!

Emmanuel nursery did a sponsored water carry for 'Anyas family'. Involved a lot of adults getting very wet - but really encouraging for us.

We hope that the 29th is in your diary for the fundraiser - the raffle prizes are worth coming for : half a days labour by a friendly builder, free MOT, £50 M&S hamper, nail manicure worth £25 - wow - can it get better?!

cute

1. don't you think this is a great photo?

Plans

Well we are finally beginning to get a few definite plans - we seem to have a leaving date though the tickets are not yet booked. We will leave from Heathrow on Friday 16th June. We wont get to Uganda until the 22nd June because we are Kathryns youngest sisters wedding wihich is happening on the 19th in Kenya!
At the moment we are just working on building up our support team - people who will want to partner with us by giving, praying and encouraging..... so ..... thank you to those of you who have responded to us about this - we are just in the process of putting together a little booklet so that we can show you a bit more detail about the project at Kasana and then you'll know what you are getting involved in!

life here is tickety boo, and for those who know me not only going to a conference in london!! i even admit that i enjoyed it!! careful now, this last weekend had graham and jane from world horizons to help us prepare as a family in going abroad, reallyuseful and encouraging as we seemed to be moving ioin the right direction, you knopw what i saw today a lorry stuck in a wall it had driven into, don't often see that! plans are coming along and we now have a date of 16th june as departure which isn't that far away!!!!
will keep you up to speed
steve