UNICEF...a huge global entity attempting to make sure that the children of the world are provided for in all aspects of their lives...piece of cake, no problem, right? (hear sarcasm!) Well, to make a very long story short, they're huge and we're not, and it's a bit difficult for little us (WHM) to make waves in such a organization in order to make their resources available to our community here in Bundibugyo...but I tell ya what, if there's anyone to get those waves going, it's Jennifer Myhre. I'm not really a "wave maker" per se (and I think that's probably pretty close to the understatement of the century), but Jennifer, she knows how to get things moving. The long part of the story involves communication (or lack thereof) back and forth for the last 4 months, trying to get another shipment of formula used to treat severely malnourished kids. Well, they had all but told us "sorry, but no" and as we were on our last box of formula and she was headed to Kampala, Jennifer marched into the UNICEF office last Tuesday to see what she could do in person. She talked with the dept. manager who told her she would work on it...I was kind of skeptical, but Jennifer was hopeful and left feeling like this woman was really going to be able to get us some milk...there were out of the blue contacts from Myhre friends in the States who know old UNICEF Uganda higher ups who know this manager, and VOILA!
My phone rang at almost exactly 5pm on Thursday. I ran into my room to grab it off of the curtain rod where it sits because it actually gets signal there most of the time, and then ran outside to a place where I can actually talk on the phone and get signal...the male voice told me he was calling from UNICEF and asked me who he was speaking with, and I told him my name and confirmed for him I in fact work with World Harvest Mission...he proceeded to ask me to please spell my name..."H-E-I-D-I"..."wow, Heidi, okay" - I was so excited because of what he was maybe going to tell me that I forgot to ask him his name, but he went on to tell me there would be a truck leaving Kampala the next morning and wasn't sure if I worked on the weekends in order to receive the shipment arriving saturday or sunday...he he he...do I work weekends :)..."I'll be around" I assured him, and instructed him to give my number to the driver and that I'd meet him when he arrived with the delivery...WUH HOO!!! I sent congratulatory text messages to Jennifer and other involved teammates and wandered down to Pierces for dinner.
Saturday morning during out 8-10am internet time, my phone rings again...this time it's the driver..."I'm at Caltex" he says..."In Bundibugyo Town?!" I confirmed..."yes" he assures me. "Okay well, you have about another 30 minutes drive past Bundibugyo Town on the main road until you reach Nyahuka where the delivery is supposed to be made." "Ah, what are we going to do now?" he says incredulously...and I'm thinking "um, you're going to finish your work and drive the heck to Nyahuka, is what we're going to do now" but I didn't say that...didn't want him to turn around and drive back to Kampala with the milk in his truck. "Can you come here?" he says. "Um, no." I said, "I have no way to move all of that milk all the way from there." And he hangs up...or his airtime runs out, not sure which...crap, can't have this guy turning around after all of this, so I call the number back. "I'm a bit confused about what it is that you need" I told him. "I need to offload this stuff" he said...well, it's a good thing, because I need the stuff you need to offload, I thought. So, I told him again, "the delivery you have in your truck is for Nyahuka Health Center which is another 30 minutes past Bundibugyo Town on the Bundibugyo Road, so you need to keep driving for a bit and when you get close you call me and I will come to meet you."
30 min. later "I'm just across from the Town Council offices." he grumbles. "Okay, I'm on my way." We proceeded to unload 70 boxes of formula into our storage room, it was the spectacle of the day at Nyahuka Health Center, I can tell you that...Nathan had graciously come down at my request to help unload, and he was a bit incredulous himself that when asking the nurse to find some folks to help unload, the nurse went and asked the mom's of the nutrition patients, leaving the men/fathers on the ward to whatever they were doing..."You're asking THEM to carry these boxes?" Nathan said..."the mothers?"...and the nurse assured him, he was in fact asking the mothers...and they did in fact help...
And as we are unloading, the most edematous Kwashiorkor patient I have ever seen is carried onto the ward for admission. Talk about timing. So, we opened the first box of F75 and made immediate use of the supplies...so, long story made not so short, there's never a dull moment. Webale UNICEF.
2 comments:
you are a wavemaker too! use it to get those men off their tushes. love you.
carebear
that's a cool story
J
...and per carrie's comment, maybe the men were tired.
Post a Comment