blinking

James is one of the little guys with Kwashiorkor at the Clinic.  He has been improving I think (swelling weight has gone down and weight has started going up again without the swelling accompanying the weight gain).  But each day when I see him, he sits on his bed and it looks like he's doing everything he can to blink...that it takes all the energy he has in his tiny little body to close his eyes and open them again...the blink of his eyes each time is noticeable, when any of the rest of us blink it goes pretty much unnoticed, but each of his is deliberate; this little one is hanging on for dear life in a way I have never seen before.

Over the mountains and through the woods...

So this weekend was my first trip by ground "over the mountains."  The mountains referred to are the Rwenzori's and they're traversed by pretty much off roading for about 3 hours...I mean, you're driving on a "road" but the quality of the road pretty much is the equivalent of off roading in the States...we left early saturday morning and stopped at what is evidently a usual breakfast point for WHM travelers, we had bacon (cold of course), cinnamon rolls, coffee, tea, fruit...delicious...Pat's vehicle was making a really loud clanging noise but despite me hanging out the window and trying to see what was making such a racket, and Michael Masso switching cars to see if he could figure it out while driving it, and Pat and Michael climbing under the car (while it was parked) to see if they could see anything, we still had no idea what it was (but it was so loud we couldn't believe it wasn't obvious).  We didn't see any exciting wildlife on the trip but made it safely to Fort Portal, for which we all thanked God.

For me there were several memorable experiences throughout the 3 days we spent away....

1. I stayed in the cleanest, nicest, most quiet hostel I've ever stayed in anywhere in the world, all for a grand total of the equivalent of $3/night/person (7,000 Ugandan Shillings).  I slept like a baby (as usual).

2. In talking with the hostel owner and her two house guests with Pat for maybe 10 minutes, my "bubble" was totally burst...the bubble of "I've only been here in Africa for not even 3 weeks and am really enjoying it"...they were 3 older, embittered, seemingly burnt out missionaries who succeeded in totally depressing me in the matter of 10 minutes we spoke with them.  I told other teammates and Pat as I processed this experience outloud, that it totally depressed me but then also made me soooooooo very thankful for my World Harvest teammates, and Pat especially.  My whole team, everybody has their moments of course, but everyone seems to have a reasonably healthy perspective, I'm so thankful for that, and I think these folks helped me see it more clearly.  I'm having trouble putting words to it, but I was so discouraged and simultaneously encouraged it was really strange...another paradox I suppose.

3. In the stories that the Bart's and other teammates told of their 10 years here in Bundi, I was totally amazed...these folks have been through some crazy tough stuff and God has held them through it all, He has given them each other and the testimony they each gave to how God used the gifts/talents of the others at just the right times when they had come to the end of themselves was so encouraging.  And can I just say when I heard of two missionaries breastfeeding their own kids and deciding to take on a little Ugandan baby who had lost her mother and breastfeeding her too to keep her alive, AMAZING...these women are something else!

4. On the trip back (after a brilliant mechanic in Fort decided the clanging noise was a "bushing" on the shock absorber that was missing and causing something else to be loose and clanging around....I don't really know) we saw baboons sauntering across the road, and these other white and black furry monkeys with long tails that I can't remember the names of jumping incredible distances from tree to tree, and a whole flock of hornbill birds in a tree we drove under...just for me the girls in the car said :)  Sooo cool!  And Les, I found myself talking to them, just like you do "hey, look at you!"

5.  Can I just say, HOT SHOWERS ARE FABULOUS!

just a few things...

I'm going to Fort Portal for the weekend, most of which will be good bye festivities for the Bartkovich's, the couple that came here 10 years ago and started Christ School (secondary boarding school here), since then they've had 4 kids and are now going back to the States. The Pierces (David and Annelise) who have been here for the last year and a half or so I think are taking over the work of running Christ School, David will be headmaster replacing Kevin Bartkovich. There will also be shopping/resupplying done while we are there, as Fort Portal has more in terms of stores and a substantial town center than we have here in Nyahuka.

The peds ward has been crazy the last couple of days and I was shocked to find all of the kids still alive this morning (some looked really bad yesterday - worse than I've ever seen kids look...it was kind of like a mini ICU/ER actually, pretty scary, but praise God they're all still alive).

New meaning to "public health nurse"

If only you all could have seen the scene at about 6:20pm or so this evening as I rode up to my house on my bike in the rain, soaking wet, wearing a dress with capris underneath (with a t shirt on top) and a rain jacket, sunburned face and arms, mud splattered all over my face, and the back of my black dress and my great timbuk2 bag and my rain jacket well splattered with mud kickback from my bike tires, my glasses covered in rain and mud...this is what public health nursing REALLY looks like in Africa!

I had gone with Stephanie (a long distance runner and Nutritionist) out to one of the extension nutrition sites in a village called Busunga; up and down some hills (pretty much you walk your bike up AND down the hills here...or at least I do), through a river where there used to be a bridge but there is no longer - I just need to give kudos to my chako's that performed beautifully through this whole adventure - when there used to be a bridge and is no longer, you just walk through the river with your bike to the other side to continue on the road on the other side (river wasn't deep enough this time to have to carry the bike across but we'll see about next time...).  We did weights, I sent a kid to the clinic for evaluation by Jennifer, so we'll see her tomorrow (a few months over 3 years old and only 7.5 kg!  and some developmental delay on top of it I think...was 8.5 kg over a year ago which means the kid has lost a kilo in a year instead of gaining a kilo!), and gave out food after the project volunteers and health center staff did teaching.  

Then, Stephanie asked if we could visit one of the moms that lives near the health center to ask her to show us how she prepares the food she gives her child (kind of a quality control measure and the opportunity for education), so Babika the nurse, gave us a woman who lived "near" and we were on our way with our bikes and Eusta for translation help.  We walked and walked and walked some more, Stephanie and I both said to each other "near is evidently a very relative term!", turned off the road and onto a footpath, past a couple of compounds and finally arrived at this woman's home.  It's right about now that my not having had enough water to drink that day caught up with me and I got a splitting headache (shhh, don't tell my mom!)...So we sat and watched her gather wood, build the fire, peel the matoke, add the soybeans and g-nut paste in, etc, then we needed to get going...so we were off on our bikes and then it started to rain - and now we're another mile or so past the health center, we have to get back to the health center and then continue on home....up and down the hills, through the river, etc...needless to say I was a mess when I got home...too bad no one was home to take a picture...sad state of affairs indeed, but I was proud of myself.  I held my own on my bike keeping up with Steph (how is it that I always find myself friends with extreme athletes?!  it's almost uncanny, and a lot intimidating!), and all in all it was a great trip!

Sitting around this woman's fire, with all of her sisters around and all of their kids and they just sit and stare at you, I looked down to see what time it was and one kid noticed I was looking at my watch, and then started staring at my watch like she was wondering what in the world it did...and some of the little 6-7 year old boys were kicking around a ball and they all had HUGE holes in the back of their shorts/pants so their hinies were hanging out, but they could care less, they were having a great time....funny thing is that from the front you could never tell their shorts were shabby in the least, not until they turned around and you saw their butt cheeks!  To see what these folks do with so little is simply incredible...it sounds so cliche, doesn't it?  I know, but it really is true.

Riding our bikes, kids just yell "muzungu!!!!!" (white person) as you ride by.  Their other line is "how ah YOU?"(each word emphatically enunciated)...Scott Will said the kids come out of the womb knowing how to say "how ah you?"

a few more stories...

Nyahuka market experience: Saturday is market day and so I walked down with Pat and then I went on alone to do my shopping for veggies and flour and such. I really enjoyed it, except there's definitely a science to doing it right...I thought I was pretty much ahead of the game for buying the pineapple and cabbages first so that they went in the bottom of the basket I had to carry it all home in, so as not to crush tomatoes or avocado's if I had bought them first and they were at the bottom...well, so I get all of the things I had on my list and then wanted to go look at Kitenge's (fabric you can do lots of different things with but teammates use to wrap around their waists on top of pants since pants are not so modest here (long skirts only)...well, of course I couldn't make up my mind as the woman whose fabrics I was looking at said "hello my daughter, you like this one?" I explained to her that I was not very good at making decisions and that I would be back another Saturday. Well, by this time my basket was super heavy and digging into my shoulder...note to self: look for kitenge's and do other shopping/looking/decision making FIRST before buying cabbages and pineapples so as not to have to carry them around while doing the rest! Then I stop by Iddi's (evidently there are other Iddi's in Uganda other than the infamous Amin) to get flour and candy (he he he) and I saw coke! "And I'd like one coke please" I said..."Do you have a bottle?" the woman behind the counter said..."um, no, do I need to have a bottle to get a coke?" I asked, "yes" she said and smiled as the others in the shop chuckled..."Okay, thank you, webale" I said and left with my flour and candy, but very disappointed in being so close to my first Coke in Uganda and to have to walk away empty handed...So I walked home with my purchases and asked George, who works in Pat's house, "where do I get a bottle to buy a coke with?" after explaining my goof up in the market, he laughed also and graciously explained that we have some here at home (empty bottles you take with you to exchange with full ones). So, next market day I know what to do.

"I'm 28 and have no babies." - Naomi is a 13 year old girl who was friends with the woman that used to live here and left in December, so she has started to stop by my door and wants to be my friend. (When someone wants to be your "friend" here, it usually means they want you to give them things...ie. school fees, clothes, food, charge their cell phone, etc). Well, she speaks some English and so we chat for a little while every few days. Friday I think it was, she stopped by and after explaining to me that the large tree outside of our house was a mango tree, and after I tried asking her unsuccessfully when mango season was (she said it starts in April but I don't know how long it lasts, we couldn't really connect on that point), I asked her how old she was, and the other two kids with her, she asked me how old I was. I told her I was 28. She repeated it, and said incredulously, "but you have no babies?" "Yes" I said, "I am 28 and have no babies." She said, "my mother is also 28, and she has had 6 babies." I shrugged my shoulders and grinned. Wow, it struck me, her mother and I have had COMPLETELY different life experiences on sooooooo many levels...it's unbelieveable!

More random pictures...

From the top...Pat painting her mural in the Peds ward at the Health Center, a woman of MANY talents (and my housemate :)!

M., a little 3 year old with AIDS, whose mom has died and his grandmother, who you see holding him is his caregiver and loves him dearly. He was admitted about 3 days before this with severe malaria, and not conscious, on death's doorstep. So, seeing him here with his eyes open is a huge answer to prayer, and the next day his was even fiesty with Jennifer when she was listening to his lungs and heart with her stethescope, and fiesty is good...when kids are well enough to be fiesty it's a good sign (especially when they've moved to that point from being unconscious).

Next are 3 of the nurses that we work with most often. Standing is Joy, and sitting is Yofes and Olupah. They speak english and are great to work with. Yofes has been the IV king, when the others have been unable to get venous access, veins blowing time after time, he comes and saves the day :) Olupah started the same week I did, she came from another health center a little ways away.

Then there's I., a little 7 year old (I think) with Kwashiorkor (and a piece of candy from Jennifer in her mouth!) who has started smiling and playing and talking since I've been here (when I saw her the first few times, she was just sitting and staring really). I like her a lot and was thrilled this week when I got a smile out of her!

The market in Bundibugyo Town last week when I went with Scott Myhre to the hospital there.

The hardware store in B Town, a shot I took in honor of my dad and my brother, I didn't go in but my guess is that the two of them could have spent hours in there talking to the shop keepers...I can just hear the conversation now...about screws and pipe fittings and lumber and such...

The scene at the Bundibugyo air strip upon my arrival almost 2 weeks ago...holy cow, time goes fast.

Then the scene from the inside of our little 10 seater MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) plane that took us from Entebbe to Bundibugyo. Laura is the pilot up front looking at the flight plans.

Then loading of our luggage from the Masso's vehicle into the plane. Laura, the pilot, was also the "ticket counter" person, the baggage person, the flight attendent in addition to being the pilot, literally a one woman show, amazing!

The air strip at Kijansi between Entebbe and Kampala.

Pictures! My humble abode.

So, here is my home for the next 2 years. I really like it, it feels homey to me and I'm really thankful for that. I'm glad that the uploading of pictures has worked. Yesterday was Luke Myhre's 15th birthday so a bunch of folks went hiking today, but I'm a tad under the weather and evidently it was going to be a lengthy all day hike and I didn't think I wanted to be blowing my nose and sniffling the whole way, so as a result I'm here at home and the internet connection is faster because they're all gone and therefore not online :)

So, let's see. The top two pictures are my room, note the mosquito net tucked in around the mattress (even when I'm not in it so that little critters don't try to make my bed their home). And note the clothes pilled up on a chair in my room, going to Africa doesn't even change my habits of how I keep my room :)

The next picture is the illustrious latrine. You lift up the purplish thing and set it aside and then go in the hole it is currently covering. Note Pat's lovely tiling job on the floor (evidently a project she worked on and almost completed just a day or two before I arrived), I really like it, adds pizzaz to the experience :) Then is the picture of the latrine or "cho" from the outside, and then the view from my back door of the pathway up to the latrine in the background. You can't really tell but there's all kinds of flowers and flowering bushes and such along the way, so it really is quite nice.

Then you kind of have to switch modes and the next picture is actually the front door and the "mud room" where I keep my bike and shoes and so forth.

Then the last 3 pictures are all different parts of one big room which is the living room, dining room, kitchen and office, I like that it's all open. And you may not be able to tell, but this room has sky lights in it, so that there's natural light during the day so you don't have to use any lights. There are actually light switches and lights that opperate on the solar power battery system, I just use them sparingly.

All in all, it's a really nice house that has quickly become my home and I'm really thankful for it.