On Saturday the nursery schools in this region celebrated the 46th anniversary of Independence and I was asked to accompany the nursery school in Basori. What a day!! 96 nursery schools were represented with 30 children from each school with their teachers were invited to "march past". I was included in this and it was great fun. They had nursery school age children representing local dignatories, members of the government and even the President who arrived in a cavalcade of vehicles with horns blowing, lights flashing and "security" running along side. The children all looked wonderful in their freshly cleaned uniforms and many of the girls had their hair plaited for the day, some even had their hair decorated with sweets, very colourful and noisy!

One of the highlights of the day for me was that the Sanyang Scouts, who we also support, were invited and they gave a demonstration of their marching skills which was fantastic. These children were age between 5 and 8 and honestly could have put the army to shame. They were perfectly in time, changing pace, turning and all to the real Army band. I was so proud of them. I will upload some photos soon to the Facebook page.

In the afternoon they had sports where there was some fierce competition. The children all did so well, they arrived at 10 am or before and it did not finish until 7. Brilliant day and again showed me just how proud these children and their families are that they are receiving an education.

The Arabic School staff have also dug their own soak away and as soon as funds allow we will be buying cement and sand and start the block making. I am very happy that they have all done this work themselves, they really do believe here that if we all join hands things will get done. No sitting around waiting for money to fall from the skies!

Not sure if I should have another blog for this but as I have mentioned it before...... The scouts in Sunbury have started collecting money for the Scouts in Sanyang after the death of one of the young girl scouts from malaria. We aim to buy every scout family a mosquito net and so far have enough money to buy and distribute 30, we would love to supply every scout family, they cost around £5 each for the big ones. Please sponsor a mosquito net and help protect our young scouts.

I was very happy to be there for the opening of the well that the villagers have dug for themselves at the school. They realised that they could not rely on the charity to do everything and so set to themselves. We provided a small amount of money for some of the materials but really can not take any credit for this. See our Facebook page for photos of the well and the starting of work on the toilets. Will keep posting new photos when I visit.

The Arabic School in Brikama is also in desperate need of toilet facilities and I was surprised and delighted when I visited to see that the have dug the soak away themselves. The staff all helped out and it obviously will reduce costs. Once the toilet is finished in Basori and I can be sure we have enough money I will start to buy sand and cement to make blocks for this school. Obviously, any donations gratefully received!

Thank you

Since the New Year we have had three sets of visitors to schools and every one of them has said they have had a memorable day and really enjoyed the visits. Please read the comments on our guest book and contact us if you would like to spend a day with us.