Comings and Goings

Good Morning! I have realised that 2 blogs a week may be pretty impossible right now so welcome to Thursday Blog-day; I'll probably think of a better name...

This week has been a bit mental to be honest. I moved into a new place last Thursday with Paul, a volunteer working in admin at Joy Hospice. He's a good lad and we've had a good laugh having people round for dinner. Yes that's right, I've been cooking! We decided to cook Cottage Pie for the girls house and it suprisingly went pretty well, even though there were some interesting flavourings going in there. We've also just welcomed three new guys into the house, Ben who is working in cotton and will be living with us until Christmas, and two Americans, Jonothan and Brian who will be working closely with JENGA for the next week.

On a sporting front, I played football again on Saturday, this time with a very good U16s team who got to the National finals, I could definately tell the difference. I reverted to my usual role on the right flank, winning a penalty with a classic Dave Challis floated cross that seemed to hang in the air for ages, then keeper apparently fouling one of our players and a penalty was given. Because of my mzungu-ness they insisted that I take the penalty, usually not a good choice, however I slotted the ball home comfortably. Then was a mad rush back to Mount Elgon hotel to watch a disappointing Rugby match.

I have also continued to work closely with Michael who is in charge of the youth projects here at JENGA. We have been regularly going down to CRO (Child Restoration Outreach), taking part in football on a Tuesday morning and then Evangelism on a Thursday lunchtime. On outward appearance the organisation doesn't look in good shape, with most of the street children coming in high on glue. Therefore throughout the lunchtime teaching there are about 10-15 kids at the back, some of them only looking about 8 so off their faces that they can't even stand, or do anything, and the ones that can just have a mass brawl. However speaking to Levi, a local Jenga volunteer, who gave the teaching last week, they have been encouraged because there is much improvement in the numbers of these children who have drug problems, there are a few who have even gone to University or got very good jobs because of the work of CRO, without their intervention their standard of living is increased as even is there chances of surviving. I have been really touched and also a little humoured by meeting a young boy, who had better English than most of our Ugandan staff, and was telling me more about Rambo and Jackie Chan than I will ever know. He,s incredibly clever and personifies the potential that can be found in so many of these amazing children. Most of these children have either been orphaned, rejected by their parents or have run away from home due to abuse. They have no-one obligated to care for them. It must be the church who takes responsibility for these children. For more information on CRO please visit http://croug.org/?jc=CRO_Mbale. In a couple of hours I will also be giving the Lunchtime evangelism teaching.

Love and miss you all

Dan

jengauganda.org