My House!

This is our place in Kumi. Well my two roommates prefer to sleep in the hut although there is room in the house for them if they want. I sleep in the main house and they spend most of their day in the main house as well. That is the pit latrine you can see across from the hut.

These are the fields by our place that recently were rather active with people planting their crops now that the rainy season has truly started.



Just to show the distance from the house to the pit latrine. Far enough that you think twice before having a cup of coffee or drinking too much of any liquid in the evening;)

Our back porch with some furniture which is nice for using when we have visitors or just having breakfast outside sometimes etc.

My roommate Mareike and a guy from their mission that was visiting and he was a huge blessing as he helped us get our generator going so we could actually pump water for the first time in about 2 months I think! We basically just use it to pump water so we can have running water inside the house. However, it only worked a couple times I think then broke down again. We got it "fixed" and then it broke again and now we have to buy another part to fix it properly! The majority of my time since I moved to this place we have had no running water... but it's amazing how you just adapt and get by. He also fixed other things in our place which was wonderful!

Pictures continued

These were the little roommates my housemates found in one of their cupboards in their hut!

Our oven door has some difficulties so this is our contraption to enable us to use it still:) This is the bread my roommates make. All the bread you can get here pretty much is all sweet bread so it's not our favorite.

The coal iron---especially with no electricity this is all that can be used. I attempted to use it and couldn't believe how heavy they are.

The attempt at rat elimination from our attic. It was quite the combined effort to get the tomatoes up there as you can see.

A lady who comes out every year from the UK had wanted to get a cow for this woman and her child with CP. I was sent along to be the photographer so I could send pics back to her in the UK of the successful delivery. I was sitting in the seat in front of the cows head on the bumpy journey and was anticipating any moment I could butt heads with the cow as it thrashed about in the back of the pick-up!

We took a trip up to the Karamajong area to return a patient with leprosy who has been at the hospital for 30 years and her son and two grandchildren. It was quite the cultural experience as the Karamoja people are still mainly into cattle raising and live a very different lifestyle than most of the Ugandans. Their attire is very unique as well and apparently it has only been a couple years since they have started to wear clothing. The boys I noticed don't usually wear more than a shirt. Many of the men just wear a cloth over their shoulder and most carry a shepherds stick and a small stool (you can see them in the pictures) that they use to sit on and also to rest their heads on when lying on the ground. Unfortunately, there is also a significant amount of cattle raiding in this area that at times can be quite violent. The patient was having her feet mapped by the community worker for special shoes to protect her feet as she is susceptible to ulcers. We had quite the greeting as we entered the compound with water splashed on our faces and front as we ducked under the entry. The second time I at least knew enough to close my eyes! The kids especially the grand daughter refused to stay so we returned back with them. The lady's son has also come back.

Helen our social worker and the community rehab worker.
The community rehab worker was making a pattern so they could have special protective shoes made for her to protect her feet from ulcers.

The girls wear these cute little skirts but most of the boys only wear shirts.

The boy in the green shirt is the lady's grandson.

We were "talking" about the necklaces...

If you zoom in the picture you'll notice he has impressive earrings.

People crossing the field to meet us. I almost felt I was in some movie scene!

On our way we stopped at this little health centre to meet up with the community worker who knew where to find this patient's family.

I think I accidentally deleted some of the pics. But... I just wanted to share a bit of a different cultural experience. Many Ugandans have not had the opportunity to experience this unique part of their country. It was interesting showing some of my co-workers the pictures from this trip.

It has taken me awhile to post these pictures and since starting to do this blog the leprosy patient has since returned to the hospital. I guess life there is too difficult as there is little food and as you can tell the land is not the most fertile place to plant crops! This is a major issue with trying to re-settle many leprosy patients as they don't have the means to support themselves and often become a burden to the family who often are already stretched and struggling to feed those already there.

Will try to post some more pics at some point... and provide more life updates.

Pictures!

These two ladies and their babies were in the nutrition unit at the hospital and their kids have cerebral palsy. I was showing them a movie of a family who had a boy with athetoid cerebral palsy. I was hoping it would be encouraging and inspiring or at least show them that others even in western cultures have struggles with children with the same problems. It was neat that these two both had relatively good English. The picture below is of a cutting board I had the workshop guy make for one of my young stroke patients so that she can independently peal and chop produce. It's a simple concept (you can buy them in Canada similar to this) but it seemed to work well:) This lady is grinding peanuts to make "gnut" groundnut paste or as we might call it peanut butter.

This was my dining room in the guesthouse that I also ended up using as my kitchen. That was the little electric coil I cooked on for awhile:)

Above I am enjoying a coke in Kenya. I went to Kenya in January in order to get another Uganda visa stamped in my passport. I was accompanied by one of the hospital drivers who is half Kenyan:) I must admit not only does the coke bottle look different but it tastes really sweet compared to Ugandan coke:( I wasn't too impressed. I now can say I've been to Kenya and have a stamp in my passport to prove it although I only spent about 2 hrs there! Below is the bus I took from Kampala to Kumi after Christmas break. It was not the most enjoyable experience. Yesterday, I took the bus for the second time and again it was not fun! God was good though and the stranger in the crowd (who I asked for directions) on my walk to the bus station happened to also be getting a bus going the same direction as me. Her English was really good, she is a Christian and she was so helpful. We got seats together and finally left, stopping in a petrol (gas) station after about 5 minutes of driving. After sitting for about 45 minutes at the petrol station we realized there was some mechanical fault they were trying to fix. We decided to try going back to the bus park to get another bus. My friend went to check and then came to call me to go get the other bus... and of course it was full by the time we got there. We waited and waited and then got news that the mechanically faulty bus was now working so we went back to the petrol station. Got our seats and finally left. The bus I think stopped about 15 times at least before reaching Mbale which was my destination. The trip which should have taken about 3-4 hours ended up taking about 5 1/2 hrs! The passengers were getting fed up with it, especially after having been delayed so long already. I found out that the girl who helped me actually knows the German nurse at Kumi Hospital whose room I have taken over in my new place. Apparently my new Ugandan friend's sister used to be a Dr. at Kumi Hospital. Small world.

The sound of the "repaired" bus still unnerved me with it's loud clunking noises as we drove. The wild swerving and speeding of the driver also was not too reassuring! This would be why I do my utmost to avoid taking public transport here. But I was relieved to finally arrive at the guesthouse with my two backpacks likely weighing at least 50 lbs combined hanging off me! I can't believe I still haven't learned the art of packing light:(

Sorry I didn't manage to upload more pics in Kampala. I ended up getting food poisoning or something so was feeling pretty rough for a couple days there this weekend! I was soooo glad to not be in my home with only an outdoor pit latrine!

Will see if I can post more pics soon and have to take more pics of my new home.

Paperwork!

I just wanted to post a quick update while I am in Kampala. I went to immigration today and received advice from the lady I spoke to last time to wait on the work permit and just get a special pass at this point and request an extension on the pass if necessary. I guess considering how long I have left here and the cost of a work permit and the time it takes to process it she didn't think it made sense to pursue this avenue---I agree, but it's nice when it is the immigration officer advising this.

I also ask that prayers continue for Kumi Hospital as the situation does not seem to be improving at this point and many people are feeling very discouraged and hopeless. Please pray that God would intervene and that somehow we would see God working good through this situation that seems so bleak right now. Please pray for wisdom for the hospital leadership and donors, and especially for the staff as many are struggling to get by and especially to pay school fees for their children who started school last month. The staff have not received their salaries for 2 months now which means, for some, their children have not been able to attend school or have been sent home from school.

Please pray for wisdom for me as well as I want to be able to be used by God in whatever way He chooses and yet it is so hard to know what to do and how to respond to various needs and requests. I also am not always sure how best to be supportive and also struggle with my attitude and how to "work" under these conditions currently. Pray that I would really hear from God clearly and that I would have the courage to act and have the faith to be obedient.

On a positive note I was really encouraged yesterday to see one of my patients, a 7 year old girl who had severe burns, walking almost "normally" with a walker. This was a big improvement!

I also have a new challenge of working with a 5 year old boy who has some fine motor delays. He is an outpatient so I hope I can work with him for awhile.

I will leave it at that for now. I still don't have pictures of my new place to post yet...:( But the girls I live with found a few new roommates in the hut they sleep in. I heard screams on Monday and then was told I needed to come see something. Apparently a rat (of which there were known to be few running around in the hut) had decided that the clothes cupboard made a good nest for her little ones. There were 3 tiny mice/rats crawling around in her clothes! We decided since none of us could outright kill them--they were after all rather cute-- that they would be disposed of in the field by our house to let nature take its course. A few minutes after this a bigger one, possibly the mother, emerged from a box on top of the cupboard while my roommate was cleaning up the mess, which evoked another scream! We have yet to find an effective rat eradicator---if you have any suggestions please pass them our way;)

More to come,

Thanks for the prayers and emails of encouragement. I'm not sure if anyone else heard of the land slide here, but since we heard about it first through family/friends overseas who were worried about our safety, I just wanted to say that where we are is fine. We live in a very flat area but the place affected I think is only a couple hrs away from us. They are estimating over 300 people have died, so please pray for those working to bring relief and aid to the victims of this natural disaster and the families affected as they grieve the loss of their loved ones.

Work Permit

Well, I am about to head back to Kumi after being in Kampala for several days. I came down mainly to get started on the task of trying to get my work permit. I was a bit discouraged on Thursday after speaking with a lady at immigration and seeing that the requirements included a criminal record check from Canada which I do not have and was not aware was needed! Anyhow, I did some research and contacted the RCMP in Canada who reported that if the specific requirements for fingerprinting are possible to do here in Uganda then I should be able to get a criminal record check done without being in Canada in person. The site, however, that they referred me to reports a waiting time of 120 days on average and possibly more for the criminal record check to be processed! Considering that the Uganda paper processing I think can take anywhere from 2-4 months to complete and then the snail mail time to get the fingerprints to Canada and criminal record check back to Uganda etc... I would likely be ready to leave the country by the time my work permit was processed. Anyhow, today I went back to immigration and spoke to a different lady and when I shared with her what I found out from Canada regarding the criminal record check and fingerprinting and processing time etc she just said not to worry about it and to just fulfill the rest of the requirements for my work permit:)!

Unfortunately, although I have a letter from the hospital it doesn't have the specific details that are required by immigration so I still have to go back to Kumi before I am able to submit my papers for my work permit.

Please pray for this whole process as it is just beginning and from the stories of others it can be a long, tedious process that requires numerous trips to immigration. I don't look forward to it. I especially feel anxious as I have some potential travel plans that take me out of the country in which case I will need my passport. I know I have to submit my passport to them at 2 different points in the process so hopefully the timing doesn't conflict!

Will keep you posted on the progress...

I sure hope trials produce perseverance:)

It's been too long since I have written here- sorry. I will try to give a bit of an update on life and hopefully it won't come across too negative;)



I guess as far as work is concerned I don't have any particular news to share personally. Work continues on here despite the unfortunate exit from the hospital of our only ortho surgeon. It is a huge loss for the hospital. There have been a significant number of staff that have left since I have arrived which means adjustments and obviously some disruption to hospital life. It has been sad to see people leave and the hospital leadership and staff really need to be upheld in prayer as this new year begins. A substantial portion of funding is being cut this year and next year from significant donors so it is putting financial strain on the continuity of some of the hospital activities. Wisdom is definitely needed. During times of so much transition it also tends to negatively influence the morale of the staff and the hospital as a whole which affects the work environment.

On a more positive front my accommodation changed as of January 30, 2010! I must admit that apart from adjusting to using a pit latrine (for those not accustomed to this term it is basically an outhouse except there is just a hole in the cement floor so instead of sitting on a seat you have to squat), I was anticipating life would be more comfortable.....

However, this wasn't quite the reality. On Sunday January 31, I had pretty much moved my stuff to my new place. It wasn't a great distance, just about a 3 minute walk from the guesthouse. There have been 3 German girls with another mission here at the hospital. One of them has relocated to another town and so their mission had requested that I move in to their place as the two girls remaining at the house are fairly young (although very mature) and the mission wanted someone older with more experience I guess to stay with them.

I had not yet unpacked or settled by Monday night when I came down with a fever and general body aches and pains. I woke up on Tuesday morning and was fairly certain it was malaria. The girl who had "moved out" happened to be over which was good as she is a nurse and gave me malaria medicine to treat myself. I pretty much stayed in bed for 3 days straight with a fever on and off in a house that was about 30-32 degrees with no fan since we found out on Tuesday that there would be no more electricity for an indefinite period of time...! There is a generator for the hospital to run but it doesn't supply the staff housing. So, our excitment at just having our water pump fixed so we didn't have to be quite so careful with our water consumption (although we still have to be conservative with use as it is dry season and we rely on rain water) quickly disapated as we realized that without power we could no longer pump water up to the tank and therefore would run out of running water inside. We tried to prolong our water supply as long as possible, but our bathroom water ran out in a couple days I think and then not long after our kitchen water ran out. Thankfully, however, their is a communal water tap just outside our yard so we take big jerry cans out to the tap to fill with water for our bucket baths and dish water etc. I've personally found it easier to take my shampoo and conditioner out to the tap and wash my hair outside;) If I imagine that I am camping it seems more manageable to handle life right now! Also, for a short time the bohr hole where we get our drinking water was also out of use so we were having to get water from the tap outside, boil it and then filter it! We were grateful when the bohr hole water was available again.

Despite these inconveniences we are still very blessed because we have solar panels that provide us with light in most of the rooms of the house at night, have a gas stove we can use, and a fridge that can run on gas:) Overall, it could be a whole lot more difficult and others are struggling more than us. We also have been battling some house guests. When a guy went up into the attic to fix something with the water tank he commented on wires being chewed by rats up there... so we have had someone put tomatoes with some powdered poison on them and some local food with poison in the attic. However, I don't think it was effective as I still am fairly sure I can hear them quite active in the ceiling and when he checked there were no dead rats discovered despite the food being gone.....maybe the bats ate it!? (apparently there are many). We also discovered that some cat decided that our shed in the backyard was a good place to have her kittens, so we have 3 little kittens in the shed. I have found homes for 2 of them I think. Anyhow, thankfully although there are some unwanted house guests in the place, I am very grateful for my two new housemates as they have been fabulous and I have to admit I think it is more truthful to say that the "young" are teaching the "old" in many respects. I am trying to learn all the quirks and routines of this house which is actually a bit of a challenge! We generally share the cooking responsibilities and usually eat our dinners and sometimes our lunches together and share the household chores that aren't taken care of by our househelp. So far I haven't really been able to pull my weight in these areas as I have been sick most of the time:( But my two new housemates are a huge blessing and example to me in many ways!

In other news, I know I had mentioned hoping to start a Bible study with one of the doctors here. Unfortunately, it is proving difficult to co-ordinate people's schedules especially a surgeon who does not know when she will finish work in the evenings! We are hoping to meet on Thursday evenings but we may have to try to change this time if it continues to be a problem. Please do keep this in prayer though as I think it would be great to meet even if it is just a few of us that are able. (As of this afternoon we have been able to decide on meeting on Mondays which is great. I already feel like things are coming together and would like prayer for God to bring along the people He wants to be a part of this study- so far I think we are 5. We all need prayer for commitment as well as it is easy for distractions and other obligations to hinder our consistency.

On the topic of prayer I have been privileged and honored to have had several opportunities lately to pray with patients/mothers of babies here and I trust they have sensed God's blessing and peace. I sometimes have to remind myself that working in this hospital and context affords me the freedom to do this and to discuss my faith with my patients openly;) I need to remember more often to ask God to lead me and open my eyes to situations where he wants me to pray with and share Him with those I meet- both patients and staff.

I will sign off for now... I will try to post more pics of my new home and maybe some more hospital pics as well soon. I hope to go to Kampala maybe next week to apply for my work permit and so may be able to take advantage of faster internet there to upload some pics. Please pray for this too as I've heard rumor that obtaining a work permit is not the most simple process...

Thanks to all those who take the time to read this blog. It is encouraging to hear from you and to also know of those who are keeping me in prayer. By the way, I started back at work again on Tuesday this week but have taken some shorter days as I still don't feel I have my full health and strength back yet and really don't want a relapse.

More to come...

More of life!

The kitchen - the rest you can see below- I couldn't get the pics together. You can see the white bag of charcoal in the corner. The sodas in the cupboard are pretty much in constant supply at the guesthouse unfortunately!

Hospital staff sports day.

They did more than play tug of war with the rope
Had musical chairs dancing game, football and a
cycling race! Quite amusing.

The guesthouse kitchen sink with the bat, alive, I discovered one night. A few days later there was a rather large gecko stuck in the sink as it was too slippery for it to get out. It was rescued by the gardener eventually.

The kitchen

Bonus eggs and chicken in the same pot! I guess they hadn't been laid yet.

The traditional dress for women- gormas. The ladies that keep the guesthouse going:)

This baby goat had just been born!

The son of one of my colleagues being baptized.

Lots of cows

Boys off with their bikes to get water from the bohr hole.

I loved this picture of this little girl helping her mom wash the laundry.

The protestant (Anglican) church

A typical meal. Well except now that it is just me there is no longer a meat dish. Cooked cabbage I would say we have about 3-4 times a week! Thankfully I like cabbage. The flat bread thing is jipati (? spelling) and then boiled irish potatoes.

Town. The van is a taxi. There are a couple of streets that actually have more shops. This is where you can easily get a boda boda (the motorcycles) to go to the hospital. The post office is in that yellow building.