My "hood"

Nyahuka
Snow capped peaks (taken from the health center/Peds ward)
Longhorns visiting the Health Center
Early morning view
Residential Nyahuka

TGIF!

I'm not so used to this Monday - Friday work week thing...not so crazy about it to be honest, but it's good for me I think. Believe it or not, I have more routine here than I have since graduating from high school...

Here's a few things from the week...

• I was walking to the Heath Center one morning this week and there on one of the sparsely populated porches of the shops/living quarters that sit back from the road a bit there was a young guy, probably about my age, standing with a towel wrapped around his waist and bathing in a basin much like I wash my dishes in...I guess he just decided he'd rather bathe on the front porch that morning...whatever :)
• Sunday afternoon I had a cold coke when we ate in Bundibugyo town before sending Dave off to Fort Portal, and can I just say IT WAS FABULOUS! By the time I went for a soda last night at Team Pizza there weren't anymore coke's left so I had a Fanta Orange, it was good, but can't quite measure up to a cold Coke!
• Yesterday morning during rounds we came upon our first of what would be 4 kids with convulsions of various sorts...this one unconsciousIt was just Jennifer and I at that point, so I'm pushing (yes, 8E, PUSHING) valium, ceftriaxone, and D50 diluted with NS...every several seconds the kid (maybe 2 years old guestimating) would pause in his breathing and my eyes would move from the IV catheter that wasn't really working all that well, to his chest that had momentarily stopped moving up and down, and say a little prayer, "please God, not now, not another one" and think "BREATHE!" to myself, and his little chest would return to it's heaving, pulmonary edema-like pattern...the mom started crying at one point and as a nurse there's an unbelieveable feeling of helplessness to not be able to communicate with her and reassure her or even ask her what she's feeling...he's still alive today, has malaria and a Hgb = 4, so was being transfused when I left...
• Jennifer recieved confirmation from the Dr. in Kampala that Maate arrived safely at International Hospital and we'll hopefully hear updates at some point of what they find/how he's doing. Thanks for praying and keep it up!
• The men hanging around at various points along my walk home from the Health Center today were in rare form, jeering/mocking/laughing...(I guess they're glad it's Friday to0)...and after our study at team mtg. yesterday about forgiveness I'm trying not to let their behavior define them in my heart/mind...trying not to let their behavior affect how I respond to the smiling/friendly kids I pass a few paces beyond them...evidently Desmond Tutu defines forgiveness as not letting what someone does/says define them...God help me...

I'm going to try to post more pictures tomorrow, we'll see what happens.

Later Gators.

frustration...

This afternoon was my time to talk to my parents...monday morning their time, dad's day off, works well, but since daylight savings our scheduled time is right in the middle of internet time, I told mom that I was in the process of getting online to post pictures to my blog when she called, and she wants to see the pictures so agreed to call back tomorrow at the same time...

I have now spent the last 45 minutes trying to load pictures and have only been able to successfully post 3!!!! Craziness!!!!! So frustrating...there are lots more to come, just need some more speed/bandwidth or something...aaaaahhhhh....

laters

Maate

this smiling young man is really sick. He's 15 years old and weighs about 20kg or about 45 lbs. We've been treating him for about a month with TB therapy based on his Chest XRay but he's not getting any better infact he's getting worse, but these days his main complaint is his abdomen, he's so think you can see the pockets of air/gas moving through his intestines and causing him pain. Jennifer's not sure what else we can do with what little we have in Nyahuka as far as diagnostics go, so she got on her cell phone, called International Hospital in Kampala and got the director of the HOPE ward there to agree to take him in their "no payment" required program. Problem: we're not sure we can get a male relative to go with Maate and his mom, for protection and provision and translation, etc. Please pray that they come up with someone to send and that we can get him to Kampala ASAP. I stayed behind after Jennifer and Scott left to make sure that Maate understood why we were sending him to Kampala and where we were sending him and that it's the best hospital in Kampala and that they'll take good care of him, and that I didn't want him to be scared. Often in health care, we talk over/about patients and not TO them, he's 15 and very capable of understanding what's going on, enough that he had this look of fear/pain on his face, but then as I was leaving after we chatted (via. translation) I did the double hand wave and smile, and I got a smile and wave back...such a great kid...please pray!

Cheerleading African Style

The girls gathered in the photo on the left waving their arms are the Christ School girls that are sort of like self appointed cheerleaders. They sing praise and worship songs and other sorts of songs throughout the game and the drums on the right are their accompaniment...a little bit of a different spin on the American short skirts and pom poms, but exuberant and motivational nonetheless.

For love of the game...

I really like watching soccer, or football as it's called here. These are a few shots of last weekend's district semifinal game in which Christ School was actually defeated by Semliki but advanced to the finals (which they won on Saturday) because Semliki was playing with a mercenary (a player who was in this case too old to be playing) which disqualified them. The final game this weekend against Good Hope CSB won with a successful penalty kick 1-0. Note the difference in attire of the CSB keeper (black jersey/shorts/socks with flames on the jersey sleeves) compared to the Semliki keeper (red jersey and barefoot)! One of the pictures towards the bottom shows all of the people watching from over the fence. The football games really are the thing to do (the only thing to do really) here on a saturday in Nyahuka, and it costs 200 USh (about $0.12) to get in so if you don't want to/can't pay you pack in behind the fence and try to follow the game. Also not sure if you can tell from the action shot towards the bottom that there's a bunch of men standing in the workshop behind the field watching the game...they look like pretty good "seats" and shaded too :) Then there's the throw in shot, and what struck me about that picture is the pressure of a throw in with that many people packed in around the sideline...sheesh...So, I'm not a good photographer, and I'm an even worse sports photographer but I figured you'd like to see the pictures anyways :) Oh and the picture of the two kids is one I called "young entrepeneur." The kid on the left is selling hard boiled eggs with a little garnish of salt, you can see his try sitting in the grass in front of him while he reaps his profit from the other boy.

April

It’s been a good month so far. Granted we’re only 6 days in, but I’m thankful nonetheless. The week has been busy but good.

• The first week post Stephanie has not been a total flop like I was thinking it could turn out to be. Stephanie left one week ago today, and we have missed her, but she’ll be glad to know that kids are still getting food, and the books are still being kept and so on and so forth.

• 51 goats (minus about a dozen who have owners who have not come to claim them) arrived around 3am on Wednesday morning. Pat woke me up (I’d asked her to but believe it or not I was already awake and had heard the truck coming up the hill to the Masso’s house) and I went out in my PJ’s (with a Kitenge wrapped around my waist on top of my pants so as not to be immodest even at 3am when I’m sure no one could have cared less) and we unloaded goats one by one in the dark and carried each of them to the goat pen where they rested for a day or so until they were given away to new owners (HIV+ mom’s, caregivers of motherless infants, etc) on Thursday. When I went up to the back of the truck so Lemech could hand my first goat, he said “I think this is your first time?!” as he bent down and put a goat into my arms which I was holding much like I used to hold my arms when standing at the back of the Uhaul/borrowed pickup truck when my brother and I used to stack fire wood on the front and back porch of our house in Pittsburgh. This city girl was definitely a first time goat carrier (and Lemech could tell) but I did pretty well if I do say so myself, especially given it was 3am and those of you who have had to wake me up for anything can imagine the sleepy stupor I was in.

• I successfully and safely rode to both of our extension nutrition programs this week, on the back of Basime's motorcycle...he's new to driving and I'm new to riding, so we're quite the pair. He's careful and for that I'm grateful. Because he's new to the driving thing he's asked me to ride conventionally (ie. not side saddle) which means I put a pair of pants on under my skirt for the outings but so far no one has stared any more than usual.

• My friend Dave from college arrived safely in Bundibugyo on Thursday evening, just in time for hot pizza's coming out of the oven and a cold beer. It was so good to have him here for a few days, someone that knows me from my prior life, it was refreshing. Not sure if he knew how good it was for me to have him here. We drove him to Bundibugyo Town this afternoon after church and he sent an SMS saying he got to Fort Portal safely. So Carol, if you're reading, your husband is safe and sound for as much of the Uganda portion of his trip as I can do anything about!

• Since Thursday it has been really beautifully clear here, Dave thinks it was his arrival here that brought the weather through, in any case we're thankful. It has been really hot but really clear...4 days straight of views of the snow on the mountain tops of the Rwenzori's...absolutely beautiful.
  

• Shhh...don't tell my mom, but I drove home from Bundibugyo Town this afternoon...yep, driving on the right side of the stick shift 4 wheel drive vehicle, shifting on the left side of the steering wheel and driving on the left side of the road...it was fun :) Pat gets tired of driving all of the time, so I'm looking forward to providing some relief for her every once in a while...Now I've just gotta get my hands on a drivers' license :)

more later, I'm out of time!