New Baby and Sick Relations.

This is just a quick update as it is only a few days since the last one.

There is great excitement around the farm at the moment because one of the girls Auntie Yvonne (one of the workers that stays on site) looks after has had a baby girl. Although the situation is not idea, she is a girl of 16 and the father is not interested, we are all very happy because she did not have a straight forward delivery. Two days after her waters broke she still was not in established labour. She had been sent away from a local clinic and told not to come back making a fuss until the contractions were stronger so Christine took the decision to send her to one of the better hospitals that she knows and works with. She was monitored over night on the Friday night but nothing was happening still and the baby was becoming distressed so on Saturday she had to have a c-section. She ended up with a stay of 5 days in hospital , blood transfusions etc and it could have very easily ended up with the death of either the baby, Berna or both if we hadn't managed to get her into the Coptic hospital. The problem appears to have been a low lying placenta which (according to people that know!) would have ended with massive bleeds and because of the lack of blood available here it is very unlikely Berna would have pulled through. Every day a woman here dies in labour in the major hospital because there is not enough blood and we were reminded of this just this week with one of Mr Tuesdays (the farm manager) relations dying just 2 days after giving birth of what is most likely a 'simple' complication.



As Berna needed blood and they wont give any until you have replaced the stock I took a group of 5 boys to the blood donation clinic. They were all very scared but we all gave blood and they realised it wasn't as traumatic as they though and you got free coke or milk afterwards. They are very easily bought!! We are hoping to start taking a group of boys every couple of months as quite a few of them have realised the importance of such a simple thing.

All of that happened 2 weekends ago. Then on Sunday night a taxi arrived with another relative of Auntie Yvonnes in. She was in a serious condition and the family who had been looking after her didn't want the responsibility any more. Yesterday she went to the clinic for tests but this morning when Christine saw her she didn't look like she would last the day. Christine got her admitted into Coptic hospital this morning and she is on oxygen and undergoing more tests. They still don't know what is wrong with her.

Please pray for:

• Berna and baby Anna.



• Loveness, the lady who is in a serious condition, and the doctors caring for her.



• Auntie Yvonne as she is trying to look after Berna and the new baby, then has a very sick relative 'dumped' on her. She has not had a proper nights sleep for over 3 weeks looking after Berna before the birth, staying in hospital with Berna, Berna and the baby after the birth and now the relative. She also has a family of 4 children. (not including Berna)



• The children of Loveness. Auntie Yvonne already looks after one who is 6. There are 3 more smaller ones at home. We are going to visit them later to make sure someone is looking after them but they may end up coming to stay with Auntie Yvonne putting even more pressure on her.

August

Since the last time I wrote we have had a very busy month.

It started with the last week of Don and Christines holiday which went very well. The boys were all very well behaved for which I was very thankful! Just after they got home one of them asked me "did you tell them how good we were?" when I said I had he asked "were they very proud of us?" He had obviously been consciously trying to behave!

Two days after Don and Christine arrived back we had a team of 14 arrive from the UK. They came to run a 'camp'. The boys had a very full program with art, music and fitness in the mornings and team games and challenges in the afternoons. It worked really well and the boys got to experience things they have never had a chance to do before. The boys were split into groups with people they wouldn't always chose to work with and all really enjoyed themselves. It was so nice to walk around and see all of the boys with a smile on their face or concentrating very hard. We hardly had to chase any up for being late to the sessions.

This weekend Kabwata church are officially starting as a church plant here at the farm. They have been holding services here for 3 years now but yesterday came to visit people in the area and today is the official first service. It is very exciting that they are taking such an interest in the work here with the boys and want to build a church however it brings the issue of space. At the moment the service is held in the lounge which is fairly big but not really big enough so we are looking for a room at a school or a tent that can be put up to accommodate more people.

Tomorrow all of the boys go back to school. The last few days have been busy getting uniforms, school shoes and books. Hopefully they are all ready to go and get back into routine.

Please pray for...

• School opening and exam classes. We have 10 boys in exam classes
• The church plant. That we would find somewhere more suitable and people would come along.