rothwellsmission: September 2014

Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the Lord delivers him in times of trouble.

The Lord will protect him and preserve his life; He will bless him in the land and not surrender him to the desire of his foes.

Psalm 41 1 : 2

We got back to Uganda on 4^th August expecting 500 students to be waiting for us. It was the last week of term and we had arranged a programme of activities, films and games as there would be no teaching whilst the teachers marked exams results and prepared reports for the students to take home – no mean feat when you have 500 + students and everything is prepared by hand.

However we were met by Charles, who told us that the students had been 'difficult' so had been sent home early!

We have noticed that some teachers struggle with keeping discipline without using physical punishment which is understandable as this is a fairly new phenomenon in Uganda (and, we are told, is still used in some schools although now illegal).

It may take some time before they come to understand there are other ways of maintaining school discipline rather than lashing out with a stick, but of course it's easier for us as it's been much longer since that type of punishment has been used in the UK, so like a lot of things here it will be slowly, slowly!

Anyway, may have been a blessing in disguise as it's given us all the opportunity of supporting Charles in dealing with a difficult issue that came up whilst we were in the UK that has resulted one member of staff being dismissed and another dismissal being a possibility, investigation is continuing.

So prayers please that the situation will be resolved soon.

And whilst you are praying can you also include prayers for the safe return of the students, some from villages far away.

As we have mentioned before, some of them may have left the relative safety of the school to go back to their home villages where they may face situations that could be dangerous, or could prevent them from returning, such as early marriages for some of the girls. In view of this the return to school is often a rather fraught time for many of them.

In addition to this is the continuing problem of finding the school fees which always needs sensitive handling. Fortunately both Charles and Patrick (the bursar) have a real knack of identifying those really in need, that can be helped a little, rather than those who are probably able to pay the fees. They called it 'giving the mango tree another shake'!

Despite the focus being diverted we have still managed to sort out a water pump, get some mosquito nets on the remaining beds, ready for the 12-strong team from New Life church who are coming out with the Dugdales (who clearly can't stay away!) in November, got a fridge (for vaccines) installed at The Bridge together with a generator, supervised pit latrine digging (the highlight of the week!), prepared a teacher training 2 - day course on phonics to be held at The Bridge, for some local primary school teachers (we have enjoyed doing the homework on this as both of us are much too old to have been taught this way!) and started the adult education Advanced English course, also at The Bridge.

We are almost there with improved security (involving lots of razor wire) around The Bridge and parts of the school that have been identified as 'hot spots' by wonderful Baptiste, the Head of Security.

The security improvements were crucial, not only to dissuade 'exits and entrances' from and to the school generally, but also needed before we install computers at The Bridge to enhance the learning opportunities for the primary school children who attend, thanks to a generous donation from a Dutch company who are also funding an IT teacher, so many thanks and blessings go to them.

We are always amazed at the generosity of people. When we left here to go back to the UK we had one suitcase between us, when we came back we had three, two of which were full up with sports kit and boots donated by local teams. Thanks go to the Richardsons for coordinating this. Their garage is still holding a fair bit of kit that we couldn't manage to fit in, so hopefully the balance will come with Will when he visits in October.

And this would be a good opportunity to thank the lovely lady at the BA check in desk, Barbara, who let us off the (very large) excess baggage charge when she knew who the football boots and kit were intended for. It helped that she was Ugandan – thank you Lord for directing us to her queue!

We have also had the pleasure of a visitor at the guest house, Chella, a teacher from Holland who tried without much success to teach us how to pronounce some Dutch words. She spent her time teaching at The Bridge as well as entertaining us. This is her third visit here and each time she has given up her holiday time to come here and help, so many thanks to her and we look forward to welcoming her back.

In view of the unexpected developments we were unable to take some time out before the start of term as originally planned and go farther afield and see some more of this pearl of a country, so will try to fit some of that in over the coming months.

However we did manage a visit to Jinja and a stay in a banda next to the Nile at the weekend, so the dust was blown off the credit card! And – thanks to the Dugdales we now have our own (their) car so were able to make the trip overland on murram roads, avoiding the main roads, almost without going wrong - much!

The lovely thing is, it is not a hardship 'staying home' as we are surrounded by beautiful countryside – and have just discovered we have a cobra at the bottom of our garden, so can't get much better than that!

Interesting things we have seen this week -

Census forms –

Don't arrive in the post like at home - people come round to each individual and ask them questions, such as –

What transport do you use? – motorbike, bicycle, matatu taxi, boda-boda or donkey

Do you graze? - we are guessing this refers to cow or goats!

Wildlife this week – as well as the cobra at the bottom of the garden (no photo as we ran away too quick) we had two little monkeys up the tree in the garden, saw two magnificent fish eagles outside our banda at Jinja and take a look at the picture of the leaf on the car wheel – or is it? You decide.

Two more additions to the prayer request – can you please pray for Patrick who has typhoid. We spoke to him a few days ago and the handsome man with the sparkling eyes is looking a shadow of his former self, so please pray for healing. However, Stan took him to the hospital today for another blood test and Patrick came away delighted that he doesn't have brucellosis as well, as he suspected, but 'only' typhoid.

And finally, please keep a young couple known to us in your prayers. Their baby, a boy, died a week before the expected birth date but they were not aware of this until the baby was born. The reason given was that the girl had suffered from malaria during the pregnancy, which is sadly not unusual.

She has returned to her village to bury the baby as is traditional, travelling with the baby in a box. She first had to seek permission from the bus company before they would take the box.

They are a lovely young couple who have so many responsibilities already – they support their siblings who are at this school as their parents are dead – and they are still only in their early 20's.

With our love and prayers, and thanks for your support, both in prayer and financially, we are so grateful.

Sue and Stan xx