..water @ the equator

...Ok, the equator and water going down plug holes...does the water really go down the plug holes different ways down depending where you live, north or south of the equator, or even on it. Uganda is on the equator and at the equator they do a demonstration to show in the north it goes clockwise and in the south anti and on the equator straight down....and it really does!! so for you science people, is it true??(I never was very good at science!!)

...passport fun

passports are wonderful things, but sometimes boy the effort!!! the last few (6-8 months) has been the process of getting Silas a passport, he still needs a Ugandan one. Before you put an application in, you need signatures and letters from so many people (LC 1, 2, 3. Police(special Branch..is that the Sweeney?, probation etc...but before we could proceed we needed the court order..finally after 2 months that came through, and off we confidently went to the passport office, knowing we had everything we need......until we got there and were told we had 1 letter missing from a commissioner!!!! he wasn't in the office...over the last 2 weeks we have spent a lot of time in kampala and the passport office, kathryn went in for a day and ended up spending 2 nights....during this time she spent a lot of time waiting, waiting and......waiting until she was told they had lost the folder....you can imagine our thoughts....but with some help we managed to get a passport (HOORAY!!!!) kathryn even ended up in the strong room where they make them....so now his new passport is in the visa office, and should take 3-15 working days to process, hopefully not 15 as we plan to leave on 7 th August??!!

....hail..

you learn new things every day they say...well i think i always thought it didn't hail in Africa..but lo and behold last night we had one of the biggest storms i have ever seen and it sounded like stones hitting our tin roof and as you can imagine fairly deafening!! As you can see from the photo they were fairly large and i think probably hurt if they hit you on the head!!..off to court tomorrow to see if we can encourage the judge to sign the piece of paper....

e
well it's been ages, but yes we are all still here, and all alive and well, saw ben and ian the other day, thats for those who know them!. the last few weeks have busy with lots of things have been happening, a few week ago a double wedding which was lots of fun and very long, finally having lunch at 6pm!! one of the couples to marry were 2 former children of New Hope which was very cool. Next weekend is a 20 year celebration as New Hope has been caring for orphans for 20 years, so next weekend is a homecoming with all former children and staff coming to celebrate as one big family, should be fun...I have recently become the expert on Tug of war as we had Sports day at the primary school and i was judge and jury for the tug.....lets say very competitive`. even with one of the mums collapsing at the end of her team pull with over exertion!!
Even though the judge has approved the legal guardianship for Silas, we are still waiting for the paper!! we cannot get his passport without it..and we have booked our tickets back to the Uk, so lets hope and pray the judge gets a move on>>>>

...Hooray

Hooray........at last the judge has granted legal guardianship to us for Silas, which means, he is now officially a part of the family, he can go nowhere, as you can imagine we are very excited and now means we can all come back to England...well we can when the judge signs the paperwork....this is how it works, the lawyer talks to the judge, the judge gives the court order, the lawyer types it out, returns to the judge who reads it, gives it to the clerk, gives it to the lawyer who gives it to the judge....who signs it (hopefully!??) we were just about there, when the judge decided to go on holiday and so we are still waiting.......well its at least good for the patience.....but hopefully this week and then we can get his passport and look to come back in August....

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!