Brightening up around hospital.......

We have been doing various practical jobs around hospital lots of painting in the

semi -private rooms, I hope you like the lilac shade! Mwandaji and his helper Kayombo have made a good job of the rooms.
We have also been doing some repair jobs

and reroofing of some of the small houses on the hospital camp.

Prize giving.

We had a good time on Sunday morning when the ladies Bible School took over at church and we had singing, recitations and presentations of the certificats for the Sept 2009 to July 2010 sessions. The top three canditates also recieved telephones as well as their certificates so they were very happy. The No 3 spot went to one of my midwives who unfortunately is on holiday at present and so couldn't be with us, however, her husband had telephoned her to tell her and so she rang me in the evening to say thank you!!

I also heard from one of the elders who had been encouraged by finding out something about the Bible School programme and teaching so that was good.

Parcels

We had an SOS from Sakeji school in Zambia asking us to arrange urgently to collect our mail which was filling and over flowing their radio room.

I was able to arrange with our ex chauffeur to do a special trip in the land cruiser. They left 6am one day and returned 2 days later at about 6pm with a car loaded with parcels and swahili bibles and French new testaments so it was a very worthwhile trip for us and we are grateful to all the friends who have continued to send to us even though we no longer have a container service for DRCongo these days.

INAUGURATION DAY

Saturday 16th October was a special day for us here at Katoka because finally the 2ndry school administration and IT building, from our point of view was finished and opening day had arrived. There is still much to be done as far as fitting out the various rooms but we had a lovely time and we were able to Praise God for His goodness to us through His many children who have supported this project since the very beginning. Here you see the school Prefet (in the red shirt ) and the representative of the chief cutting the ribbon and declaring the building open. We then enjoyed a feast very nicely set out in the large assembly room.

Progress with the secondary school admin and computer studies building.

We were aiming to have the school building up and running for the start of the new school year so we are not too far behind shedule. We finished all the painting last week and installed the new desk in the prefets office so he was very delighted.

Hanneke our short term worker from New Zealand had bought some maps and other teaching aids too for the school as they really dont have a lot of equipment.

However the things which have caused the most excitement are the computers. This will be the only school in the area to offer this facility and so the prefet has been inundated with phone calls and requests for details about what is to be offered. hanneke is still working on the syllubus. The yound man who was doing the translation into French has been away for 3 weeks so that put things back a bit but hopefully they will soon have that completed.

We do need to find more computers hoever even laptops so that the school will really be able to function well. Of the 4 shown in the photo 2 work well and are completely set up and ready to go and the other 2 work well but need to be reprogrammed...not a thing that I know anything about!

So if any of you readers know of a supply of 2ndhand but working laptops please do get in touch!!

More on sponsorship

Here are some of the children being supported on this years programme. 2010 -2011. They range from the very small to the young "men" of the 6th form 2ndry school. All of them though have one thing in common they are relieved that having had their school fees paid they are assured of their place in the education system for another year.

We trust that they will work hard and make good use of the opportunities given.

at school for another year

September and the start of the new school year

We have been busy getting the sponsorship scheme under way again. Last Monday morning it looked as though all the school children were at my door so selecting 50 wasn't an easy task. Most of those on the scheme are orphans or certainly in some way disadvantaged.

The smaller ones were so cute when they got their exercise books and a bic for the first time!