well where has May gone, as a family and with the Investment Year students, we have been away for half of it...we had a great time, just very tiring, the first 4 nights we were in Jinja at a retreat centre, on the banks of the Nile and as you can see it had a trampoline which Jole and anya loved and with a fairly impressive backdrop of the Nile....there is a rumour that there is a picture of me on it, but unfortunately i don't have it!! the week was designed to give the young time to deal with hurt, pain and unforgiveness and to experience God as their Father, it was a good time for all....After we went up to Kobwin, near soroti, for those who know Uganda, to work with the small new hope team there, we are setting up a new childrens centre specifically for those children taken by the LRA during the war and working through the trauma as well as continuing the vision of Bringing the fatherhood of God to the fatherless. we went to weed the maise and to do some youth work in the afternoons....as you can see i look like an expert.....but looks can be deceiving! 5 hours of digging in the heat of the day...safe to say not the most fun i have had...in the afternoons we took on the local young people at sport, after losing narrowly to a controversial goal in football! we had a convincing 8-7 victory in the netball (golden goal decider)..it was great for us as a whole family to be able to go and for the kids to experience another part of Uganda,..drive home was alittle matter of a 10 hour epic, with the bus loaded up to the brim and even with a live chicken wandering around the back of the bus!!
all good fun and a great experience.....

..trip away

..still no news from the judge regarding silas, meant to have heard monday now told its tomorrow, friday!! we will see...well we are off for a week with the investment year students for 4 nights in a retreat in jinja "transformation of the heart" and then 4 nights in Kobwin in the north of Uganda, where we (new hope) has some land where we are constucting a childrens centre specifically for those children affected and traumatized by the war in the north...we are going to serve the team there by digging, weeding etc as well as do some children and youth work in the afternoons...last time we were there..we got about 200+....we are going as a family and the kids are very excited about going away with the "big young people"...so an early start tomorrow...and just to let you all know we will out of contact for a week....

....a tad warm!"

...well there i was last week thinking i was suffering from a little cold/flu, you know sweats/chills...(reminds me of a song..." i've got chills they're multiplying and i'm losing control....) on thursday after my own personal diagnosis was off, my temperature decided to climb to 108!! is that right? well it certainly felt that hot!! thought hey we are in Africa why not a malaria test and lo and behold yes it was....but before you can find that out, they need to get blood out of you!! we tried (kathryn and me) and both failed!! so our local clinic ma (Roger ) came and did the deed!!
The treatment consists of 6 tablets in one go and the 2 tablets for the next 4 days...those days being feverish, no appetite and banging head....better now, thankfully and it is certainly something i don't want again....well it took nearly 2 years for one of us to get it...

..school days

..maybe Anya is the next Monet? who knows? Joel and Anya continue to enjoy school and even though it is very different from their experience in England, they are more than used to Mum being teacher, head teacher, playground monitor, secretary, care taker etc..and interruptions from random birds, bugs, bats, people as well as if the wind in the wrong direction the distinctive aroma of the nearest latrine!! how nice is that? The other day we had a day learning about Maise and following the process from ploughing, planting, harvesting and then visiting our maise mill to see it turned into Posho, it was cool...on another note, we are in court with Silas on 14th, he hasn't done anything wrong, i don't think? it is for the next process of legal guardian ship and then adoption so we are very excited about that...maybe not about spending a whole day in court, waiting, waiting.........waiting............................................................................

.coach brown...

..hi all, once again a bit of delay in writing but here goes...Football here is just about the most popular thing in Uganda and here at New Hope the boys love it so we thought hey lets start some coaching..so thats what tim and i and have taken on, at the moment we have under 13's and over 17's and the secondary school team..next plans are to set up a 14-16 year old team..we have developed the field which we are very proud of and we also have nets...one of the biggest challenges is to keep the footballs in one piece, punctures are a common/daily occurence..big african thorns being the culprit..always looking for kit/shoes etc as most of the boys play with bare feet and are amazing with it!

..here they are...

..all well here...just thought i would put some pics of the chidlers ...as you can see all doing well..big news is that Silas is now walking (HOORAY)..now means his clothes will stay a little cleaner for a little longer!! Joel and Anya doing well and enjoying school. the head teacher is too!! ..well here are myh kids and they are great!!

...frog chorus

..hi all! the last couple of weeks have been so much fun as well as busy...P7 week has just finished, a youth week with our top of primary school (yr 7/8 in Uk) it a full on week og fun and games and challenges as well as having a theme, ours being 24/7...thinking about God being with us every minute of every day.. the young people are split into 4 teams who compete for everything...reds won!! we even had peop[le offering to clean for others people at 5.30am!!! thro the week i developed a throat infection and got the closest i have ever come to losing my voice...didn't lose it though, just croacked a lot which gave everyone great amusement. It really was a privilege to serve these young people, who made it a fantastic week.....

...bats & computers

..well it's been an age since i last posted...what can i say except computer problems and internet access has been a real nightmare..but we are now back on (hooray!).. one nightly event we have in our house during the night bis the pitter patter of tiny feet....no its not another baby, but the sound of bats (running) in our roof space...yes i didn't know bats ran i thought they flew!! but bats it is and 2 intrepid adventurers (silver and moses) entered to take on the bats...and ultimately to win....i think they were about 20+ of them...The approach seemed to be to hit them hard and hope you kill them or at least knock them out, while this was happening the other bats were trying to escape...all done i a small space under iron sheets in the heat of the day...one way to spend a Saturday.....

...life begins @....

....so they say that life begins at a certain age!! well i have now reached that magic number...40!! difficult to believe and also a little scary, so on my big day thought i would try and hold on to my youth by playing on Joels game boy, playing frizbee, watching movies and eating chocolate...maybe it's not so bad being 40 after all...i wonder if i can do that all year?..Kathryns dad is with us here at the moment and the 3 kids are really enjoying him, he likes to do some practical work while he is here...think he despairs of my tool box, which has to be the smallest in the world....with very little if nothing in it!!?? well it has screw drivers, string and super glue and a hammer..i've always found that is enough for me....nothing wrong with a bit of brute force and ignorance..
...well here's to us 40 year olds and a whole new life beginning....(wonder what i've been doing for the last 40 years???

..new year

..well 2008 has started in style here in Uganda, with a fuel crisis due to the Kenya situation...the other day we were coming back to kampala from the far west of Uganda, and it had just been announced that there was very little if any fuel...we had over 250 miles to travel and less than a 1/4 of fuel left!! every petrol station was empty so we ended up buying on the black market 60 litres of fuel at double the price (5,000/litre instead of 2,200/litre!!)..well at least we weren't stranded!!...Even though its a little in convenient for us our thoughts are with those in Kenya, friends and family and hope and pray that peace comes quick..
Happy new year to all....

..Happy Christmas...

...As Christmas draws nearer, it gets hotter and drier here but all excited with Christmas season and Rach and ant coming to visit for Christmas and New Year. Thought i would put a pic of the sun for those ones of you who haven't seen it for a while! plenty of it here, so we thought nwe should share some. New Hope is very peaceful at the moment as lots of the children have gone home to relatives for a couple of weeks, but still there are quite a few remaining who have nowhere to go....we wnnt with a few of the remaining boys from Calvary family and we took them out for Christmas dinner (rice, beans, matoke, and sodas!!) very nice and joel went for Cassava and loved it....a slightly different type of christmas dinner but we all enjoyed it.
..Joel and anya very excited about enjoying Christmas with their new brother, going to be fun!! (this saturday we are signing papers for legal guardianship of Silas, next stage of the adoption process)
We wish you all a happy christmas and new year......(have a good one)

the 3 C's...

..computers don't you just love them?? you suddenly realise how dependent you are on them when they go wrong....well that is what has happened to ours, for some reason half the screen has gone hay wire and you can't see anything..lovely, just need to find a dell dealer..? no problem, but at least it is only 1/2 the screen so can carry on a little bit, gr8 timin g..which leads me to another C..Christmas, i love it..and i am starting to get used to Christmas being with heat and dust (i think) the other day we celebrated a British Christmas dinner with a few Brits...and even brussel sprouts, which some kind person bought out for us..Silas loved them...i think 1st time he tried anything quite like them and yes we had crackers too (thats the 3rd C)

..P5 trip

..today was a day we had arranged to take our P5's (aged 9-12yrs) on a trip to the city and experience something very different to what they are used too. A person who sponsors the class had put aside some money so they could all have a trip to enjoy the end of the school year.
we thought we would take them to the wildlife centre at entebbe..At the moment it is very hot and dry, probably as hot and dry as we have experienced..as we drive on our mud roads, you hope there is not another vehicle about, but we seemed to be on the road on its busiest!! its when the lorries pass and behind them a dust cloud so thick that you have too stop because your visibility is down to a few feet!! It makes driving interesting to say the least!! Well the children loved seeing the animals, but the greatest excitement was seeing lake victoria, as most of the children have never seen such a big expanse of water...it made it more exciting for me because i again realise how amazing lake victoria is and because i see quite often you become very "bored" with it so seeing the children so excited helped us get excited....so a good day had by all, and finished with chips and sodas!!

stuck in the mud

The last couple of days, we have had loads of rain, so everywhere is wet and muddy and some of the roads are difficult to pass. Tonight we were out and getting there was tricky so we thought we would come back another(safer!) way, well it all started very well and no problems....until we hit a straight bit of road, and then we gracefully slid in to a ditch, with our front tyres nicely buried....it was 8pm and so dark and no street lights in the bush!! the night sky was impressive though! as we waited for dave to come and help, another friend who was passing also helpp
ed push us out, it did give all the locals a good laugh..we decided it would be better if kathyrn drove the rest of the way home!!

..no kids!!!

......hello again. kathryn and emma went to a very lovely waterfall - with impressive rainbow effects.
the queen is here!!! Did you know? All of Uganda is very very excited and roads are being closed down as if no one else needs to do anything - a bit tricky as we need to get to the airport on saturday. Well - we will see - ..........I read in the paper today that a fleet of dogs have been hired to 'bite'?! any demonstrators who might interrupt where the queen needs to go.
Hope England survives being queenless!

a normal sunday.....

..........except for the fact that Emma (Hawley) is here which has added sweetness and joy to the day. Joel is particularly excited because Emma brought him socks! We lent out the car for someone to be taken to the hospital and it has just been returned with no wing mirror and the back brake lights smashed - oops! - luckily we like the person we lent it to. We both fielded 80 children during church......Steve did the running around screaming part and I did the sensible bit (some things never change!).
The biggest thing of note today is that this is the first time that I have ever written on the blog...i am now going to try and attach a picture??!

..Emma

....This last week has been a very tough week for us all here at New Hope. On Wednesday Emma suddenly died while at University, he suffered a blood clot. It was all very sudden and very unexpected. He was 20 years old and just started university. Over the last year i had got to know him fairly well as he was part of the investment year programme, i always enjoyed his sense of humour and his commitment to what he was doing and his concern for other people. i also enjoyed teaching him to drive and we had lots of laughs together but he was a keen and enthusiastic learner. at his burial it was great to hear so many good things said about him, and in his short life he affected many people and lived a full 20 years and as someone said packed more into those 20 years than others do in 70+ years. Emma's dad, Joseph at the burial said that he believed that God had lent him Emma for these last 20 years, which i liked, and even though it is difficult to understand/make sense of, we still believe that God is good and in control. I appreciate the opportunity of getting to know Emma over the last year.....

.."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!?)