31st October 2009

Wow! We cannot believe that it is going to be November tomorrow, our time here really has flown by! We had a fun start to the week when on Sunday we went to the SALVE home for visitation day, all the children (apart from Moreen, who unfortunately did not have the day off due to being at a different school! ) were home for the day so we had a lovely day playing games and eating lots of food prepared by Robinah and Harriet...Everyone had an excellent time and especially liked playing and winning Ludo! We left feeling very full and tired but are really looking forward to when we all get together again.

On Monday morning we came across the boys on the green by main street, they had found two tiny puppies and were having a great time playing with them, they had made them a house from a cardboard box and it was lovely to see how much they wanted to care for them, we stayed with them on the green and played games, whilst Esther gathered some more information for Charles profile with Charles and Stephen. We also got to meet with 6 more street girls sorting rubbish who were all very willing to answer my questions for the research on street girls I am undertaking for SALVE.

We were invited to a meeting of people and organisations keen to help the area of Masese on Tuesday, this was a very informative meeting held at Pastor Terry's house (We were also treated to a lovely lunch cooked by his wife) Everyone there was pledging their support to help this dis-advantaged community, and when we said that we were keen to undertake research into the girls who come from this community and go to the streets, everyone was very supportive and keen to help. Harriet and Stephen continued with the football, and said that everyone had a great time!

On Wednesday unfourtunately I was unable to attend the clinic at Source cafe. Esther said that it was a great success, with Mike speaking with the boy's about how he came to be on the streets and how he came off them.

We wanted to concentrate on Joy Beads on Thursday, as due to the two members of staff running the project at Joy being unwell at various points it has been hard to arrange a time to speak with the staff and the women at the same time. We met with the Matron who showed us some of the lovely seed necklaces that have been made so far. We were keen to meet with all the women so we were invited to return on Friday to speak with them all and see more of their fantastic designs! Unfortunately we got a phone call yesterday to say that the meeting had to be cancelled, but we will attend again next week. I have also been having some positive meetings with Jinja hospital this week regarding educating pregnant women on family planning and spacing of pregnancies which is all a vital part of the picture whne looking at why children come to the street in the first place.

Next week we hope to do further community education research in Mafibira and the surrounding communities. Esther will tell you all about this and Joy beads in our first November blog!

Thankyou for reading.

Lots of Love

Alice and Esther xx