The very best and warmest greetings to you all.

As I am sitting here on Tuesday, late afternoon, I want to say a huge thanks to all who have been writing and sending gifts, but most of all just for thinking about me and my children here. I have just looked back at my last blether and it was on the 24th March, well so much for my weekly updates! If I was being cruel I could blame it partly on a very good friend that came to visit in April, and we had such a great time catching up and seeing some of this beautiful country. Off course it is my fault, and again I believe I was waiting for the 'right' moment, not too tired or busy, but yesterday has been my impetus for writing today and I will explain today's title.

As my days would go by, I wondered which one I should pick as "a day in the life of Marsali", and there are some common features like wakening and eating (but they also vary considerably!) but really my days are so variable it is difficult to pick.

Most days I am at the home from 8/9ish, seeing who is sick/better, does anyone have to go to hospital for clinics, dentist,etc, will I be able to make a long overdue start on my filing system for the kids, lots of hugs and smiles from the children. On Monday afternoon we have a general assembly with all the kids where they are free to share anything they want (sometimes amusing, sometimes heated), Wednesday afternoon we have staff fellowship time (singing, reading the Bible and praying), Friday afternoon we have a staff meeting ( business stuff and dept reports, sounds formal but it never is!).

So I do try and work around these set times, but the kid's health vary and taking one day at a time is my mantra. So I could have picked any of these days, or even told you more about my holiday last month (which was great, Lake Victoria, River Nile, waterfalls, safari, following lions in chase, herds of elephants,buffalo,etc, in the beautiful Rwenzori mountains, chimp tracking in a rain forest) but I'm not going to dwell on this because of recent events here in Kampala.......

In the early hours of last Friday 3rd March the Ugandan Government and Military carried out a joint exercise of 'removing/rounding up' (we are not allowed to say arrested) street children from Kampala. We were informed that 292 were taken to Kampinigisa Remand Centre that night, more have been taken on other nights since. The figures from yesterday were that 122 were with the police for court appearances, and they had 190 at Kampinigisa with more expected that night. The ages ranges from 5 months (some were with their mothers) to 18 years, some toddlers, some 6/7 year olds but the majority seems to be above 10 years.

In some ways this has not come as a surprise to the NGO's ( Non-Governmental Organisations) working with street children, this type of exercise has been carried out 5 times already in recent years, however the Government seem to still believe this will work to solve the 'problem of street children'. Representatives from our NGO's have had many meetings regarding these plans and have strongly opposed this strategy and particularly the use of military action, they have advocated for supporting long-term strategies addressing individual needs, contributing reasons why children are on the streets, tackling the growing drug and alcohol abuse issues, and aiming for resettlement either with family or independent living, and assistance with education and health needs.

Representatives from the NGO's gathered yesterday (Sanyu, our social worker and I went from Open Door) to visit Kampinigisa ( about 1 hours drive south of Kampala). I want to say here that this place holds many memories of Amin's years with Ugandans, it is now used as a detention centre for capital offenders.

Now after all those facts and figures I will now speak from my heart. We arrived expecting to see the children behind bars but still nothing prepared me to see them behind bars. I remembered my first newsletter from Africa, describing how I had to see the beautiful African skies behind the security bars on my home, but my experience was not like this.... When they saw us arriving they were shouting and singing they were so happy to see us, to see them stretching through the bars to share handshakes and half-hugs was bitter sweet. We went into where they were being held, and as we walked into the main building there were 3 rooms, one in front with the youngest ( I was allowed inside this one), and 1 to the left and right with older ones. Each was barred, there were no beds, there were some mattresses but not enough, the 'toilet area' was disgusting in the extreme, faeces everywhere, I did see them getting food (it was the same basic posho/maize and beans that our children at Open Door get!), they say the water is good, but they had run out of medicine. I do feel some sympathy for the staff at Kampinigisa because they say they were not prepared or informed either of the timing of the 'round-up'.

The government representative now wants the NGO's to come in and resettle the children back to their homes. Off course we are all going to do what we can, yet we are all so pushed in terms of finances, resources, time and energy, but we are committed to these children and seeing them released from detention as soon as possible.

We spent as long as we could with the children, listening to their terrible tales, sharing with them, telling them that many people are thinking of them and praying for them, we sang together and then we prayed, we did ask them to cooperate as much as possible with the authorities there, and that we are all trying to get them released. It was horrible to leave.

At the same time my heart was with Michael, one of our children from Open Door, that had a very serious septic arthritis and I had to ask someone else to take him to hospital, just to set the scene a little bit more as how I am often pulled in different directions with different needs, some individual like our children at the home and then large scale like all the other street children in Kampala and worldwide.

I realise this is not the most up-beat letter I have sent but I cannot make an apology for that. This is the reality here, off course there are many things I am thankful for and have happy times in amongst these challenges, but today these children need a voice, and I am just telling their story.

WITH MUCH LOVE AND SMILES MARSALI