September 14th-21st
Hi everyone, forgive us if we haven't sent a personal email. Life here is tiring and we crawl into bed when the kids are down.
The last week has had its ups and downs. Friday was my biggest challenge yet with Steve coming down with fever, vomiting and diarrhoea, not malaria but a stomach bug. Got some Abs off a mum in his class, you can buy ab;s here from the chemist. The locals seem to know which drugs for what. We had no way of getting to the docs as Steve was too sick. He ate a light diet today Sunday and we looked at a house. Our taxi driver never turned up, so we got a boda to the market and my cell phone fell on the road AND A LADY IN THE STREET YELLED OUT. WE WENT BACK TO RETRIEVE THE PIECES AND THE LADY PRAYED WHILE I put it back together. Yeh it works. Then we negotiated with a taxi but Kampala is out of fuel so we had to hunt for fuel and he put our fee up,however we got our house and though it is run down we fell in love with it. It had not only one mango which we prayed for but two and pawpaw and bananas and matoki which I will have to learn to cook.
We then had to negotiate a price as he was asking way above our budget. We will clean it and do some painting and he will put the rent up in a years time. GOD IS FAITHFUL.
I took Wednesday off school to do house work and shopping. The market was awful as I was accosted by a heap of people wanting money or a job. Life is so hard here for many. Some have degrees and cant get work. Many work for 140000 shillings a month which is about 100 nz dollars for a month. They live in shacks and cook there food on coal fires.
Last weekend I took Moses and Pauline to the market to get veges and sat them at a table to get a fanta and chapati. When I came back Moses was screaming as his eye had blown up red and puffy. We finally worked out what had happened. The last person at the table had chilli sauce. The table had not been wiped properly. The ladies were fussing around him and were just about to rinse his eye with grey water they wash their rags in. I pulled him up dragged him screaming onto a boda with pauline on the front and got home to the anti histamine and clean water.
We are now looking for a vehicle. the gardener at school is in hospital as he was hit on Friday on a boda, lucky it was in town and the police dropped him at the local hospital and his wallet was not stolen. Our landlord Nicky went to the hospital and was shocked at the filth, bowls of blood and uased swabs in ED, its a hideous place.
We walked home in the dark from a school function and were nearly hit by a truck out of control. There are few rules here, survival of the fittest, no, survival of the richest. I love and hate this place. I hate seeing the extremely rich and the extremely poor.
We took a lady home from church today so I could see where she lived to give her vitamins as she was recovering from malaria. We drove with a lady from church who has worked in poor areas all over the world and even she was shocked driving down a wealthy street and then in the middle was a dirt road lined with shacks people cooking on fires burning rubbish etc. Lord help me not to complain we have plenty. I felt ashamed dropping her off;
She works at a hairdressers she gets paid 20,000 shillings a week which is about 15 nz dollars and that is when she gets customers sometimes its only 5,ooo shillings.
A highlight this weekend amid the sadness was going to a birthday party a child in Steves class from a wealthy family. We arrived with another parent. Steve at home in bed at 10 am and didnt get home till six. They hired a party lady, we ate, drank and played all day. Moses and Pauline had the time of there lives, for Pauline it was like going to disney land as this would have been her first full on kids party. They even got loot bags which I have hidden as ladened with sweeties.
Prayer needs, we need a vehicle good cheaper ones are difficult to find materialistic but we want to survive.
Health protection.
Understanding Paulines needs.She is strong, physically active - her and Moses becoming very close but she is aggressive and unsocialised as she wiped a kid out today at church because she wanted the childs bike. We love her to bits and she adores her mama and Dad. At night she teaches Moses Ugandan in bed.
We love you all
Sharron
