Lies, lies and more lies.

For a long time the father of Gift has been delaying resettlement saying he wants to find a new wife. Not the best approach to resettlement. However she is now over one year old and plans had to be made. Dad arrived with several family members. He said his sister was to take Gift. She was exceedingly pregnant and apparently due in the next few weeks. Winniefred said she knew the lady and she wasn't his sister. He eventually admitted she was his wife. Had he been hoping to find yet another wife to take Gift? Clearly he got this one pregnant very soon after handing over Gift.

 

Prossy's father has also been giving us the runaround. In the beginning he arrived with his mother - only it wasn't his mother. Winniefred tried to get him to give details of his family but he kept stalling. Last week he admitted he hadn't told his parents about the baby. Winniefred said that if he didn't, she would, as these were Prossy's family. Yesterday he said his mother and Aunt had come to the Office but no-one was there. Not true. The Aunt said that she had lied to him about that as she didn't want to tell his mother about Prossy. Winniefred spoke to his parents and whilst with them put Prossy's father on the phone. Not knowing his parents were listening he continued with his lies. They were very sad at his behaviour. It has been agreed that the Aunt will take the child and the father will pay support. The Grandparents say that they will not admit to their son that they know about the baby until he tells them himself.

Late one evening an abandoned baby was brought in by a Policeman and a Counsellor. I took the details of the story and phone numbers. The next day Winniefred went to the area but discovered a completely different story. The baby had been found with her 4 year old brother. The Counsellor contacted the Police. The boy told them where he lived and they took him home - to a village way out of the other side of Kisoro from where they were found. They left the boy with his father and as the mother had disappeared, agreed a story to tell us. When confronted, it took the Policeman and the Counsellor a while to tell the truth even though they knew Winniefred had been following it up. The Policeman's justification? 'Sometimes it is good to lie for the betterment of a child'. We would have taken in the baby anyway. All they did was waste Winniefred's time.

Winniefred sums it up well. She comes in, sits down, hangs her head, shakes it and says...

'These people, what are they like?'

She deserves a medal.

Four well-fed cuties getting ready for bed.

 

 

 

 

 

Mike re-enacts the Vicar of Dibley scene with the puddle

Mike spent last week in Kampala. One evening he was walking along whilst talking to me on the phone. All of a sudden there was an anguished cry, clattering sounds then no-one was there. My first thought was that someone had snatched the phone out of his hand. What had happened was he had stepped into a hole in the pavement and was up to his knees in muddy water. He dropped the phone and it clattered across the pavement. He had to climb out of the hole then feel around for the phone. The following day he retraced his steps to look at the hole. It was a missing water drain cover. It was lucky it was no deeper...and it didn't happen in broad daylight!

 

This week Gift celebrated her first birthday. A relative sent in a birthday cake. Normally birthdays aren't celebrated at all so this was especially touching.

 

 

 

First, hands have to be washed

 

 

 

Birthday girl gets the first mouthful.

 

 

 

 

Open wide, Timothy.

 

 

Baby Beth is our latest Potters baby and has spent most of her time in the Medical Centre. Last weekend we really thought she was going to die and asked people to pray for her. She pulled through and is very slowly recovering but still needs to gain weight. One problem is that she is now lazy and prefers being fed through the tube rather than sucking a bottle. At some stage we will have to get tough with her...but not yet.

It was very disappointing that when we contacted the family to say she was likely to die in the following 24 hours, no-one came to visit. I assume they think she has now died which will make resettling her back to them a bigger problem. How sad that none care whether she lives or dies. Truth be told, it would be a relief to them if she died.

 

It became necessary to let Doreen, the Nutritionist from the Nutrition Unit, go. She has been replaced by Jemima (Jemeema) a very conscientious nurse. She is an excellent help to Promise who is in charge of the Unit. We are giving each child 2 sets of clothes, 4 nappies, pin and plastic pants when they arrive on the ward. It is still a struggle getting them to cover their bottoms. Yesterday morning a pile of mess was left on the ward floor. Jemima went straight out to tell the mothers this was unacceptable - go get em girl!

Toilets - or none use of toilets still takes up too much of my life. On Thursday Leonard donned a plastic poncho, face mask, gloves and wellies and nobly scrubbed the faeces off the Ecosan walls. We have toilet paper but hands then smearing is preferred. Yuk!

 

 

 

It was a proud moment when we packed the truck with tables made in the workshop and delivered them to the Guesthouse.

Mike brought back some tins of quality Matt varnish for us. It didn't say anywhere on the tin whether it was gloss or matt but Mike got charged £5 extra for it which was apparently proof of being matt. You couldn't get varnish any shinier than this.

Hey ho, duped again!.

 

Geoffrey went to visit Nsaba's family for me. The good news is that he has built an excellent sheep house..except we forgot it needed a door. The remaining mum pig and piglet are looking good now but he still wants to swap them for sheep. We will buy the sheep and door from the market and bring back the pigs. The pigs will be used in the Community Support Income generating scheme. My mind boggles at how we are going to lift a big pig into the back of the truck. I only hope there will be plenty of men around. I have visions of me struggling and attempting to push the pig up and over by using arms and head with added danger of being flattened under the pig. Yet more entertainment provided by the white Mzungu!

The best news is that his harvest is so good he needed 5 women to help him gather it in. Thanks to everyone who has donated to help him achieve financial independence and hope for a better future for all the family.

It was the parent/teacher meeting at the school of Nsaba's siblings. The Dad asked Geoffrey to go with him to represent their sponsors. Geoffrey went even though it was his day off. I told him to take a morning off in lieu but he declined saying these were his children too. Wonderful man.

 

Nsaba's siblings with a bag of flour given to help keep them going until the harvest was in.