Every year it is a big happening, the graduation of our Harmony Pre-school!! It is every time such a joy to see those little one's in a gown and wit a cap! They are so proud of themselves, they are still so young and innocent... There were 40 graduates, this year. It was a nice party, we started a bit late, the electricity went off, so they had to go for a generator. There were two tents, but there was so much wind (as it is the beginning of the hot season) one of the tents went almost into the air, so all the parents took their chair and moved in the shade of a big tree.

Lately, we have been receiving children with such  sad and sometimes horrible stories. It almost breaks your heart, when you realize what is going on.... The baby that was rescued from the pit latrine, after 5 hours being inside the pit, thrown in by the mother. She is struggling at the moment.... Then there was a baby brought in Amecet from the maternity ward in the Hospital. The mother  killed at night the grandmother, who was taking care of them in the hospital. She was stabbed  to death. The mother was taken to the Police, the family was outraged (it was the mother of the father who died) and the baby left in the hospital. The baby was brought to Amecet, because the family was too upset to care for the baby. The last news we got from them is that also the father is now admitted in the psychiatric ward... Last week a child of 2 years was brought, his mother died and the father has been lynched some months ago, when he tried to rob a motorcycle and killed the driver in the process...  Two days ago a baby of 6 months was brought, the mother has a mental illness and the child was not safe at home......When you look into their eyes, you can just see the suffering, as young as they are. We try very hard to get a smile on their face, but it is very hard at times.... I am sometimes worried, where will the children go back to?? Who will care for them?? Who will dry their tears?? Who will protect them?? We need the hand of the Lord, we need the wisdom of the Lord. I know that He cares for them and I am honored to be His Hand and Voice where I can........

Friday, it was almost 6 pm,, baby Grace was brought by the nurse from the maternity ward in Soroti Hospital. She came together with the mother  and the auntie of the baby. The mother was a young girl of 17 years and she was still in Primary school. Nobody knew that she was pregnant and last week on Wednesday, she delivered alone, at school. Nobody saw it, she gave birth behind the pit latrine and when the baby and the placenta were out, she threw them in the latrine. The pit latrine are the toilets here, it is a very deep pit and the latrine is build on top. Especially on a school, the latrine is used a lot.

It is almost the end of the school year. In our school, Harmony Primary School, we have this year 13 candidates, this are students who are in P 7, and are doing their exams next week. This is a big event in Uganda, those exam results will give you entrance in the secondary school and are very important. Wednesday morning we had a time of celebration and prayers for them. All the teachers and the other 6 classes were present and also several representatives of YWAM Soroti, as the school is part of the YWAM Soroti family. It was a happy time, with singing, and all the other 6 classes did a song for them. A time to encourage them and pray for them. And of course there was a cake........ They have their days of exams on Monday and Tuesday........

Yesterday evening, our Frisian cow, Clara got her first calf!!!  We have called her Flora. In the blog of March 30th, I wrote about our first income generating project for Amecet, We got in  March, 3 Frisian cows and our goal is to have enough milk for the Amecet household and the rest we can sell.. We have been waiting for the first calf and yesterday evening it was born very fast. This morning the veterinarian doctor came to check her and to give us advise. But everything is fine with both , Clara and with Flora!! She is already walking and drinking from the mother. We are preparing our farmland, (is in the village, just outside Soroti) to bring the cows there and to get more crops growing there as well. 

We had PANIC this afternoon..... We have an outside kitchen with a grass roof, like all the houses in the villages have. Sunday evening our supper has chips, and we fry them ourselves. Before we had an electric fry pan for that, but that pan was overworked and since that time we do it with oil on the charcoal stove... And that went wrong today.....The fire went in the oil and we had a fire..., we tried to stop it with putting lids on it, it was too much, everyone went for sand to throw on it, but it was too much and the flames went high towards the roof. It was panic, everyone was trying to help, the people from the clinic next door came to look and some men came to help, we got buckets, basins and I got the hose and we tried to water the roof, but it was too much... One of the men climbed up and with the hose he was able to stop the flames. The staff started to pull the grass down and threw water on it. I got the car out, which was parked next to the kitchen. We made it!!!! It was so close to the home, I was almost starting to get the baby's out.... When everything was over, my legs were trembling, it was very close to a disaster. ... We do have fire extinguishers, but yesterday the fire brigade came to pick them, to refill them and they used the opportunity to give a lesson to the staff, how to use them, and they emptied them..... we expect them back, refilled, any moment.... and just then we have this problem....... I thank God that we could stop the fire and I thank God for the staff who were all so hard working and trying to help!!!!  We were a good team!!!

I wrote about Anna Grace in the blog on 14/8/2018. She was brought in Amecet after she was born 10 weeks too early and her weight was 1.3 kg ( see picture left). We have been struggling with her, at times it was very hard and we feared for her life. But see the picture now (above). Her weight is 2.8 kg today and she is gaining every day!! She drinks very well and she is a beautiful little baby!! We are so happy with her and we thank God for sparing her life.. We need to look at those "success stories"  at times, esspecially after loosing baby Godfrey (read the last blog).  That can be so sad, when you try and try and still the baby dies. Rejoice with us in the life of Anna Grace!!!  We have already three new children, one baby was brought to Amecet, while we were bringing the body of Godfrey back to his family. that was baby Rosemary, her mother is agressive towards her, she has a mental problem and the grandmother and great grandmother brought her to Amecet, so we keep her for some months, while they go for treatment for the mother. Then on 16/10/2018 two twin sisters were brought to Amecet, they were born the evening before by a Caesarian operation. The mother had passed away. They were called Mary and Esther, Again sad stories, but the baby's are doing well and they all drink good.

Little Godfrey left us peacefully on Friday morning (12/10) at 6 am. I wrote in the blog of Thursday, that there was no news about him. But that day it went already difficult. I was with him almost the whole day, and I saw that his saturation (level of oxygen in the blood) was dropping. I went to the doctor and he prescribed IV medication and to put him on the oxygen machine. His temperature was also not stable and he vomited small amounts. I really felt for the little man, so small and so fighting for life. We prayed as a staff, for him and asked God to touch him , but knowing that God knows the whole situation, we trusted Him for whatever would happen...

Last week we got 6 six children on one day, today 6 children left Amecet on one day!! On the blog of October 5th, you could read how the 5 brothers and sisters arrived in Amecet. Since that day, our social workers have been working hard on their case. They visited the village, where they came from, talked with the mother, who is in police custody and with the authorities there. The father was taken by his family to another hospital, far from there. The only family left, to care for the children, were the relatives of the mother, who also lived again in another district. Simon and Elias, our Social Workers, followed up with those relatives and they were willing to take the children and care for them. So today, Simon is bringing them, we made a packet for them, with matrasses, mosquito nets, clothes and some food items. The children were excited to go and Simon left Amecet with a happy crew in his car... It is strangely quiet now in Amecet.... They were a wild group, we had to pick them out the trees, rescue them from the trampoline and get them out of the fights they had with each other, but  we did enjoy them, especially Emmanuel, who has Down Syndrome. He  came out of bed in the middle of the night, clompetely dressed, because it was light, so it was morning.... there was no electricity in their home.. We had an interesting time with them, but we are also happy that they could go to their relatives and go back to school and be in their normal circumstances.... 

A new baby, his weight just over 1 kg!!! The baby is born last night and came via the clinic of the neighbours in Amecet. The mother passed away, after excessive bleeding. The baby is premature, very small and his weight is just over 1 kg! There is no father, he ran away and the uncles came this morning to Amecet, to fill the papers and sign. His name is Godfrey, he was cold, so after weighing, we wrapped him into warm blankets, and warmed him up in the incubator. We feed him via a NG tube, because he is too small for sucking. We are not sure how much pre mature he is, according to the papers of the mother, he is 4 months pre mature, but we think it might be 2,5 month or so. He is smaller than our last mini baby, her weight was 1.3 kg.. Please stand with us in prayer for Godfrey, we feed him a little bit of special premature baby formula, every 2 hours. But he does vomit a bit. His breathing is very good, and his temperature is normal now. I will keep you informed!

This afternoon we got 6 new children in two hours.... First a new born baby, he was 2 days old. His mother passed away after the delivery, because of over bleeding. The family of the late mother came to bring the baby. It was again a sad story, the mother had been working in Kampala, they had never seen the father of the baby. There was a lot of confusion and the baby had only been fed water with some glucose.  We can take care of the baby, while the family  buries the mother and sort out everything with the father. 

Yesterday morning we, left Amecet at 8.30 am, to travel to Cure Hospital in Mbale. This hospital is specialized in neuro chirugy and treats children with Hydro cephalus and Spina Bifida. We had asked the grandmother to come with us, she is willing to stay with Jane in the hospital, in case they want to admit her. Elias drove and he dropped us at the hospital and while we were waiting there, he drove to visit a family and had an appointment with the Probation Officer in Palisa.