Special People - Betty

There are 5 people I thought I should tell you about. Each of them in their own way has become a friend of mine having touched my life, made my days better and easier, supported me, helped me see life through different eyes and appreciate what I have. I have only been here 7 months but these 5 stand out and make me smile when I see them in my day-to-day movements around GSF.

I will tell you about one special person a month from now until when I finish my time here. 

Today I am going to start with Betty...

Betty is a beautiful lady and very special. She is my house helper and I see her everyday. She arrives at the house at 8am on the dot with a smile and a warm greeting. I am yet, in all this time to see this lady grumpy! She works hard cooking, cleaning our house and looking after Amanda, I and the 6 HIV kids that we feed each lunchtime in our home.

At Christmas Betty invited Amanda, our friend Debbie and I to her home for lunch. After the meal we offered to help the family clear up, to which Betty’s daughter declined our help and said in response to there being a lot of mess; “It’s a blessing, not a burden”. The family had been so pleased to have us they had felt blessed to have lots of dishes to wash because it had been the result of a wonderful afternoon. I learnt a lot from Betty and her family that afternoon about how I should view my so-called burdens! Betty has a gentle, kind and compassionate heart and I enjoy seeing her every day. She knows what we like to eat and drink and remembers this so that we have our favourites in the fridge even for when she isn’t there (passion fruit juice being my no 1!!).

Betty blesses our home in so many ways and I am going to miss her smiling face and this kind & thoughtful lady tremendously when I leave. 

Sipi Falls

Last week I got to go on a road trip with some lovely girls. Julie, one of our friends who comes to GSF every month to work with the special needs kids offered to take us out on a trip with her, she travels around Uganda educating Church groups about kids with special needs. We left Thursday afternoon and drove East heading towards Mount Elgon and then beyond to Sipi falls. 

Sipi Falls is a collection of 3 waterfalls in Eastern Uganda. They lay on the border of Mount Elgon National Park and close to the border of Kenya.  We arrived at our accommodation at nightfall after watching a beautiful sunset over the valley as we climbed through the mountainside. It was wonderful to drive across Uganda and watch the scenery and views out of the window change.

We enjoyed  dinner and a quick shower before heading to bed. The shower made us all smile as it looked out to the valley below. It was quite a daunting feeling showering in front of a clear window looking out! The other thing that made us smile was when we arrived the guy at the hotel reception explained that there was no power as there was load shedding going on. No problem we thought, we are used to this! When we got to our Banda (hut) and then the dining room we noticed that there wasn’t any electrics or light bulbs anyway! Was he just having us on?!!!

On Friday we went for a hike to see 2 of the 3 waterfalls. They were amazing and so beautiful. It was lovely walking through the local area and feeling the cool spray of the water on out hot faces as we approached each waterfall!

Can you see our Banda just to the right of the waterfall?!!

 After a little rest in the afternoon we set off to the village. We were to attend one of Julie’s teaching sessions the next day that she gives to locals about working with children with special needs. So for tonight we were staying with the locals. It turns out that we were treated like royalty and we had such a wonderful time. We were to stay with the Bishop of this area of The Church of Uganda. We were welcomed by him and his family, by the church secretary, local reverends and church folk. We had to greet everyone individually and sign the vistors book for the church and the home. We were then taken off for afternoon tea at the Cannons house which was about a 30 minute walk away. Here we were welcomed by the family, signed another visitors book and were spolit with omelets, nuts, bread, fruit and African tea. Returing to the bishops house at around 8pm we chatted and got to know this wonderful man and his household. Then at 9pm we then discovered that we still had to eat dinner! We were full but culturally we are informed that you should not decline food so we sat through another meal and tried to squeeze as much in as we could! The bishop and his family chatted for a while longer and then we retired to our rooms. I was so privileged to find that they had put all us girls in our own room and had hung mosquito nets for us all. The Bishop and his children had given up their beds so that we could sleep in them. So humbling.

The Bishop and his family (plus 2 Reverend's!)

The following morning we enjoyed breakfast and went off in the car to the church where Julie was teaching. We left around an hour late and then waited in the church office for about another hour waiting for it all to start and while we signed another visitors book! Julie taught local church members and sunday school teachers. It was so interesting to watch as Julie explained that these children need love and care and are not just children that are bad because they have been cursed or are possessed by spirits. As the practicality of dealing with these children and the explanation was given as to why 

they have seizures, or can’t ‘think’ well, or have problems hearing etc, it was wonderful to see the adults attending begin to start to understand. We broke for lunch around 3.30pm and then got to mingle with the adults and many children at the end. We met some wonderful people during the weekend and so many with interesting stories, humbling lives and those who had experience in our fields of work and were able to help us. I met a wonderful public health nurse who had been working in this area for many years and I grilled her with many questions that I had not found answers to yet.


When the day was finished we then drove onto Tororo (further East of Uganda and about 20mins from the Kenyan border) and stayed with 3 girls who work with a ministry there. They are also here with AIM so it was great to see them and catch up a little. Sunday morning saw us driving back to Jinja and the end of our big road trip!

A massive thank you to Julie who organised everything and let us listen in and see first hand the amazing ministry she does. It was great to get to another part of Uganda, meet some wonderful people and see some of God's beautiful creation :)

Halfway

I have been here over 6 months, which means that I am well over my halfway point. I have been here for 203 days and only have 140 days to go. I am amazed at how fast the time is flying and thankful to God for all the blessings I have seen and been able to be a part of here at GSF and in this area.

In 6 months I have seen 4 new children come to GSF, have been able to rearrange and reorganize the clinic and the children’s medical files. I have been able to keep up with all the medical problems that our children, staff, families of staff, school children, teachers, missionaries and local community have  had. I have worn many hats in this role, far more than I ever imagined. I have acted as a nurse, social worker, public health advisor, doctor, pharmacist, lab technician, cleaner, phlebotomist and administrator! I have attended multiple hospital visits and waited for many hours in clinics on hard wooden benches, more hours than I can even count (longest record so far 11 hours in one stretch!!). I have squeezed out maggots from a baby's back. I have been able to care and love on so many children and have seen many, far too many that need help but that we were just not able to nurse or provide care too as we sadly can’t help everyone. I have mastered the art of malaria testing and have studied more about medicine these last 6 months than I have in many years. I have argued (in a nice way!) with medical professionals to get the best care for our children, they have very few advocates so it has been a privilege to stand up and be their voice.

I have mastered public transport and riding on a boda boda which when I first came frightened the life out of me! When on boda's I have learnt when to close my mouth and stop talking so that I don’t get a mouth full of dust during the dry season! I have sat in a taxi with a stranger’s baby on my lap (and been wee’ed on more than times than I can count, no nappies here!), have had a chicken at my feet and seen dead animals thrown in the back of the vehicle too! I have seen snakes, cockroaches (many more than I would like in my house), strange little stingy caterpillars, big wasps and army ants. I have also been stung and have fallen over in the rough dirt roads.

I have eaten Posho, beans, cabbage, Matooke, goat, bamboo, grasshopper….. and drunk more soda than is good for me.

I have been fortunate to travel a little around this beautiful continent. I have been to visit some amazing waterfalls in East Uganda. I have been on holiday to Zanzibar and enjoyed idyllic white sands and turquoise seas. I have lost count on the number of times I have travelled to Kampala, and I still stare out the window in amazement at life that whizzes by. I have stood at the source of The Nile, I have quad biked along the River Nile. I have experienced the wet season with it’s amazing thunderstorms and rainbows and been in the long hard heat of the days of the dry season. I have spent hours staring into the beautiful night sky in awe of the hundreds of stars you can see up there.

I have learnt how to play new games – Dutch Blitz and Settlers being two of my favourite. I have experienced life with no water and no electricity and spent many an hour living by candlelight. I have enjoyed almost weekly packages and letters from friends and family back home. I have attended one wedding and one burial.

I have played for hours with beautiful children and chased, thrown water, been hugged and laughed during many fun hours living here with them. I have watched children’s faces light up on Christmas morning as they open their gifts and watched in wonder at the joy as they go to the movies for the first time. I have been privileged to give donations towards medical bills, which have transformed lives of those who would never have had the opportunity to get medical attention.

I have enjoyed my first Christmas away from home and experienced my first American Thanksgiving and Superbowl! I have been blessed by having 2 lots of visitors already and loved being able to show them what I am doing and where I am living.

I have been able to experience life with local villagers and get a glimpse of the tough things that they endure daily. I have collected water from the borehole and attempted (very badly) to carry it on my head. I have learnt to hand wash clothes. I have met people who have touched my heart and blessed my days such as auntie Betty my house helper, Jaja Mary my Ugandan grandmother, auntie Juliana the GSF matron, Amanda, the best housemate ever!, James who cares for all my many packages in the post office, Phillip who has endured so much sickness but still giggles away and loves to hold my hand. I have learnt about a totally different culture to mine, and the traditions and different beliefs it holds like that of witchcraft. I have tried and am still trying to master just a few words of a very difficult language!

I have worn a skirt nearly everyday that I have been here (that is a real achievement!).

So much has happened already in these 6 months and there was so much more but there are just too many experiences and wonderful memories to mention…and I still have so many things to look forward to!  After having welcomed so many visitors to GSF I am very much looking forward to having my mum, brother and friend Leah who are still to visit me in the coming months. I still have 5 months left of living life in this beautiful country where I never know what each day will bring.

I have done so many things and I guess they have changed me. Through these experiences God is molding me for the next things to come, whatever they may be. I am about to turn another year older and am amazed that in the last few months I have seen many more things than in many of my years put together. During my time here I have laughed, cried, been home sick, had so much fun, loved Africa & hated Africa, wanted to be anywhere else but here and not wanted to be anywhere but here! It’s so exciting for me moving into the last few months here with an expectation of the unknown in what may happen in my daily work and what may happen to me personally! I pray that I will be open to the opportunities before me, that I will wake up each day ready to be the hands and feet of Jesus and to give unconditionally and without hesitation. I have been fortunate enough to experience life where I can live simply and give much, thinking of others and in return being blessed with love. 

Romans 8 v 28 "In all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose".

Mango's are so tasty.....

....but please do not confuse these with Mango fly’s which are disgusting!

My day did not start well. My first job when waking for medical rounds at 6.30am was to check on baby Ketty. The previous night her housemother had brought her for an ‘inspection’! There were 6 lumps on her back and she had been crying inconsolably for hours. The housemother thought that the lumps were moving under the skin so wanted us to see them. After a look and a bit of deliberation between the missionaries who had seen the offending lumps before, it was decided that baby Ketty had been infected with Mango Fly.

The 'official' bit: Mango fly (officially known as the Tumbu or Putzi Fly) is very common in Central and East Africa. It lays eggs in clothes that have been hung outside to dry. The eggs then, when in contact with warm human skin, hatch. The larvae burrow into the skin and develop into fully grown maggots if left to their own devices. The unfortunate human host develops multiple boil-like sores, usually on the backs of arms, around the waist, back or bottom. The medical name for this condition is 'Myiasis'. To avoid being a host to the Mango fly offspring, the simple solution is to iron all of your clothes as the heat from the iron kills the eggs. (Info taken from: About.com/Travel Africa)

Mango fly was one of two tropical medical experiences that I had been praying I would not have to deal with in Uganda. Mango fly and Jiggers (small ticks that bury into your toes and have to be dug out) were my ultimate gross factor situations that I did not want to encounter here and the day to face one of my fears had come! I applied Vaseline and an occlusive dressing to the lumps knowing that this would suffocate the maggots and prepared myself for the extraction the following morning. I woke and went straight to her house. I removed the dressing, wiped away the Vaseline and began to give each lump a good old squeeze. As I squeezed fairly large maggots easily 'popped' out from the skin and lay there on her back, dead. It was gross. For those of you who know me well you will know that I pride myself on my strong nursing ‘stomach’. I have the ability to have random conversations about patient’s bowel habits or wounds and smells whilst eating my lunch in the staff canteen at work or whilst enjoying dinner at home but this,.....it did me in! All I can tell you was that it was fortunate that I had not had breakfast! Yuck. Baby Ketty hated the whole experience as much as I did and screamed throughout the extractions. I had thought of taking a photo to show you but even that was too horrible. I am now recovered and so is the baby. Hopefully that will be my one and only Mango Fly experience, which I can now tick off the list and put way behind me!

U'ganda love this!

I was at the local hospital a few days ago taking some of our kids for immunisations. Part of the immunisation schedule here in Uganda is to give babies and children under 5yrs a dose of Vitamin A twice a year. Vitamin A is used in the developing world to help reduce the risk of death of babies by up to 15%. Supplying Vitamin A to children in underdeveloped countries is part of the World Health Organisations goals and is one of the most cost-effective of all health interventions for saving young lives.

Today I gave the Vitamin A like a professional Ugandan who has done this lots of times before. I felt very smug with myself administrating it in it's unique way and it reminded me of my first visit here 6 months ago when I was totally shocked at how it was given. Remembering this story made me smile so I thought I should share it and a smile with you too! During this first visit I was cradling a baby who had just been given her immunisations. The nurse then gave her Polio drops and handed me the vitamin A gel capsule to give to the baby. I looked at her confused. How could I give a fairly large gel capsule to a new born baby?! The nurse kept saying, “give, give”. I then expressioned to her, “how”?!. The nurse then proceeded to very clearly show me. She took the gel capsule from my hand and placed it in her mouth. With it clamped between her teeth she bit off the edge in order to ‘burst’ it open. The contents were then squeezed straight into the baby’s mouth! There was I waiting for a pair of scissors or some alternative option for how to open it and before I could even come up with a suggestion she just did it!!

Today I felt like a proud student and experienced the oddity and albeit slightly uncomfortable feeling (I still have my western professional nursing cap on somehow!) of bursting a number of capsules in my teeth so that our babies could have their dose of vitamin A!

It's hot and dry...

On Thursday I had been to the hospital with a group of children and was coming home in the staff van. We had been to the immunisation clinic, about a 20 minute drive away from where I live. On the way home even with all the windows open I was sweltering and was thinking of everyone back in chilly England! I was watching out of the window at 'life' going on in my local community and thought how amazing it would be if I could show my dear friends and family where I lived and a little of what it was like. I think the surrounding villages, scenery and people are beautiful and amazing and I hope through seeing this short video you will agree :) This journey starts just outside our nearest village "Kikube" and finishes just before we reach the driveway to GSF (the video stopped just shy of the GSF signpost but you might see it in the distance!). It is the dry season at the moment so the video should show you a glimpse of what it is like living in a hot and very dusty place (it has not rained for about 6 weeks so every vehicle that passes leaves behind a swarm of orange dust, so much that we have to shut the windows in the van every time another vehicle passes in order not to get a mouth full of soil!). Enjoy the small video and I am sorry that I am unable to share some of this heat with you too!!