Dear Friends

I still have quite a few newsletters to write up from my recent stay in Uganda but today I got some news that I can’t wait to tell you!

I called James as I had not spoken to him since being back. He was thrilled when he heard my voice as he was bursting to tell me something. Last week he got the results for St James’ pupils National Leaving Exams they took in November. EVERY eligible child from St James passed and the majority got 2nd Super Grade which is amazing!

There is only one grade above this and that is a 1st Grade. We have had a few first grades in the past but this to me is more rewarding, seeing most of the children achieving good results. Its not been an easy year at St James either as we have had lots of problems with staffing, children unable to pay their fees and adverse weather which prevented James harvesting enough food.

James says every child will be able to go up to secondary school too which is wonderful too. AND I have just remembered that 2004 was the first year that our children sat their exams at St James as it was awarded NUEB status (National Uganda Exam Board).

I feel so happy for James as he works so hard and really cares for every child.

He also tells me that he has all the staff he needs for this year and that the children have started to arrive and school doesn’t officially open until the 2nd Feb!

Now I must get down to more fund raising to help him in the only way you and I can do and that is by continue to build the school classrooms, dormitories, clinic, etc. etc. Still lots to do but I feel that you are with me on this journey and will not let me or our friends in Uganda down.

Thanks for all you have done so far and PLEASE keep up your friendship and support for St James.

Love Gerry x

Dear Friends of St James

I have been home from Uganda for just over a week and gradually settling down again though I always find it far more difficult than settling into my Ugandan life! I hope you had a lovely Christmas. I was greedy and had six Christmas’s! I had a wonderful time in Uganda though very different from my usual as the children were all on school holidays. I took out books to read, music to listen to, videos to watch but never used any of them as I was too busy having fun!

It was really good to be able to spend more time with friends and ‘family’. I spent a total of a week with one of our Ugandan ‘daughters’ Florence in Kampala, at the beginning and end of my stay, and then with my other young friends in between, many like Florence have been helped with their education by my family and friends. But mostly I was living with James and this enabled us to talk a lot about St James and try and iron out some issues. The school holidays also allowed James to take me on ‘tours’ of places of interest in Uganda as we had done for him when he came to the UK!

It was great to catch up with all that has been happening at St James and seeing Hambridge Hall in use was wonderful. James and I would like to thank all of you so much for raising money to buy 200 desks, fifty for each of the four classes in the hall.

I hope that one day there will be a desk for every child at St James! As you see by the attached photos many of you asked for your desks to be named and we gave the job to a local unemployed man who wanted to earn money to help feed his family. I wonder what the children will make of the names on their desks when they return to school next week at the start of the new school year.

I have also attached the YouTube link to a video I took inside Hambridge Hall showing the four classrooms and the new desks. We still have to finish the walls, and more importantly put in the ceiling. We would like to do the ceiling as soon as we can find the money as the pounding of the heavy rain on the metal roof during the wet season is so loud that teaching becomes impossible. Also now St James is a National Exam Centre the noise will not help those trying to concentrate on their Primary Leaving Exams every November!

Thank you once again for all your interest and support for St James. If you know anyone who could help us out with raising money for the ceiling please let me know. For instance, do you know anyone in the building industry that might like to sponsor the completion of the classroom block by building the ceiling and/or finishing the walls? The children and teachers at St James would be forever grateful to them and you!

Thanks again for all the interest and support for the children at St James Junior School, Nakakabala, Uganda.

Will be in touch again soon with more of the newsletters that I am writing up!

Love Gerry x

Click here to watch the video of the classrooms and desks

Dear Family and Friends

I arrived home yesterday, tired and dirty (clean dusty dirt!) but happy after a wonderful holiday. Yes it was a holiday compared with my usual ‘working’ holiday to St James! But it was just as much ‘hard work’ having fun all the time!

As I may have mentioned earlier I have quite a few stories to tell you about my stay and as soon as I can I will forward them to you. I expected my five weeks stay to be quiet and uneventful but it was far from that!

Thanks again to all of you who have kept in touch and donated to Joy Clinic. I will update you with the progress of that too.

Will be in touch again soon.

Love Gerry x

Dear Friends and Family

Yesterday I said a sad goodbye to James and Innocent and all those I have come to love over the last few years. There were many hugs, shaking heads and tears but I know I will be back with them in 13 months time God willing as my friends here say. I have had a wonderful holiday, and I call it a holiday as it has been so different to my usual visits where I spend most of my time teaching at St James. This visit I have been shown parts of Uganda I have never been to, met many new people and spent special times and for longer with my friends.

When I was packing for Uganda I put in several books to read and my husband put lots of music on two Ipods all because we feared I would be bored. I have not read one word or listened to any music as I have been so busy having fun, most of the time! There has been a lot I know you will be interested in hearing about but with lack of free time, power and network my news has built up but I will catch up I promise as I love sharing with you the wonderful place Uganda is and the wonderful people I meet. In fact both power and network are great here in Kampala so I might be making the most of them!

As I write this I am looking over the tops of Kampala city with all the usual city noises, strange to my ears after the silence of Nakakabala. I am staying with Florence and Judith again and also Florence’s very lively and amusing nephew Joshua, who had me dancing to Ugandan music in my night shirt last night! They are both asleep on a mattress beside the comfy bed I’ve been given though a while ago Flo sensed I was awake, got up and made me tea and then went back to sleep! I do get looked after!

I will be here until late Saturday when I fly back to the UK arriving 10 am Sunday. I hope you will order some sunny mild weather for my arrival!

Love to you all

I have been promising to go to Godfrey’s home for a few years and this year with no school responsibilities I was determined to do so especially as he wanted me to meet his fiancé Esther and their little boy Adrin. Godfrey was one of Maria Maws children and was at the Kamuli Baptist Church on Sunday. The directions he gave us was taking us through very poor homesteads but then opened up to an area of similar housing but with a smart brick built house at the centre.

I was surprised at first as teachers are very badly paid in Uganda, but I shouldn’t have been as he had been brought up by Maria who had to watch every penny and taught those in her care to work hard and save and that is just what Godfrey has done. The main rooms of the house are almost complete and he will be continuing with the build when he goes back to school in February (no holiday pay here!). Slowly, slowly, brick by brick his house will be finished eventually.

He and his fiancé Esther have had their Introduction, the traditional part of the wedding in Uganda, as I had been to Eric’s Introduction on the 13th December. The legal part of the wedding comes later when the couple or their family can afford it. Ester has just qualified as a Midwife so with two salaries coming in they are planning on getting married when I am out here in February or March 2016. You never know, any of you who take the plunge and come out for the opening of St James may be able to attend the wedding too!

A table was already laid outside in the garden in the shade of a variety of beautiful trees. James was in his element and very excited to speak to Godfrey about the different species. Esther appeared with another relative, placing drinks on the table but saying nothing.

They came back a little later, delivered a full scale meal which was very unexpected, gave us the traditional welcome and then she sat a little away from the rest of us on a mat to eat her meal. 3 year old Adrin also greeted us, ate with his mum and then rushed off to play with his friends many of whom are relatives as this is Godfrey’s family homestead.

Godfrey has invited us back to Kamuli Baptist Church on the 4th as he wants to gather many of Maria’s OB’s and OG’s (old boys and girls!) together for what will be a wonderful reunion and most probably a lively service! I look forward to it!

Just before we left James was given a very handsome cockerel by Godfrey. I have a feeling poor Innocent, the name I gave to the cockerel given to me by Innocents mum, will be for the chop! This new gift joined Alex’s gift in the boot! Though they were kept well apart we could hear some ‘conversation’ going on between the two birds on our way back to St James!

Soon after we got back home I noticed Grace standing quietly outside my door with a package. I had given him some money inside a Christmas card earlier in the morning, when he had thanked me quietly but not exactly enthusiastically and I realised later he was just surprised and humbled by my gift. I invited him in and when I opened the package I found pineapple and two heart shaped lollipops! He had gone out and spent some of his hard earned money on me!

As I have said many times before, the people I have got to know here in the village, might not have much but what they do have they share! Humanity at its best!