Special People - Jaja Mary and Nanna Stephens

This month I wanted to talk to you about a very special lady I have met in Uganda called Jaja (grandmother) Mary. Jaja Mary has been around GSF for years. She used to be the matron of GSF many years ago and from I hear she kept a firm control on things! The men who work at GSF and used to live in the orphanage are all still treated by Jaja Mary as her 'boys' and she will look them up each time she visits and keeps them all in check.

Since being at GSF I have got to know Jaja Mary and have come to know what a kind, gentle and fun spirited lady she is. She is a Godly inspiration to me and I love every meeting we have. She brightens the room when she arrives and is loved by everyone at GSF. She will not tell anyone her age and amazes me that despite her advanced years she can still walk for miles and hop on and off of bodas to get around the village. 

Jaja Mary has become like my Ugandan grandmother and I enjoy spending time with her and despite not being able to speak much of the same language together we enjoy sharing smiles, holding hands, hugging and just laughing together.

This brings me onto another special grandmother. Whilst having written this blog I have come home for a couple of weeks since hearing the news of my very dear Nanna who died aged 90yrs on the 28th April 2012. My Nanna was a strong Christian lady who I know right now is singing, dancing and celebrating in heaven with her Jesus. For years she has talked about going 'home', it is something she has lived for. My nan has been an amazing inspiration and Christian role model to me and I know just how privileged I have been to have had such an amazing grandmother who has taught me about being cheerful and trusting in God no matter what the situation.

I have been so grateful that I have had this time at home with my family. It has been amazing to ready the encouraging words of condolence we have been sent in cards and to meet people in town who have shared their own memories of my Nan. Everyone who knew her remembers her wonderful smile, cheerful spirit, kindness, humble nature and most importantly her faith, trust and belief in God. I have been blessed to have had such a wonderful Nanna who has over the years loved me, cared for me, encouraged me, taught me about the Word of God and been an inspiration for me. As we prepare for her celebration and thanksgiving service I can look back on so many memories of precious moments I had with this amazing lady.

Kitty Stephens

31/07/21 - 28/04/12

These words describe my beautiful Nanna;

"What does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

Micah 6 v 8

Meet our new family members...

At the start of last week GSF welcome in 3 new sibings to the family fold here.

Welcome to Daniel, 8yrs, Efluansi, 2yrs and David, 1 yr. They are sweet children full of fun and mischief. They are settling in well and seem very much at home already.

Then on Thursday evening baby Ben arrived! He was born on Monday and sadly his mother had died in childbirth. He has come to us so that we can be his new family and give him love, care, nourishment and all the cuddles he could want! 

Please pray for these precious children as they adjust to living at GSF, as they make friends and become part of the family.

A crazy week!

My mum left and then before I knew it, it was the middle of April! I cannot believe how fast time is flying. I had always thought that once my mum had left I would really be counting down the weeks to my return and then it was here. Eeeek!! I have 11 weeks left here and I can feel the time slipping away. I have had a great few weeks with all my visitors but there was certainly no time to get sad because as soon as I was back on site from dropping my mum off my crazy week started.....

On Sunday night I returned from dropping my mum off in Entebbe to find Laureen, 5yrs who had a very swollen left elbow after having fallen over giving her friend a piggyback! I was not sure if it was fractured so we went off to the local clinic the next morning for an xray (we still do not have confirmation as the xray reporter ended up not being at the clinic that day! The technician did say a fracture was unlikely and now her arm is fortunately slowly improving! He said if it doesn’t get better its probably broken and to come back!! Great diagnostics!)

On my return from the clinic on Monday I did my rounds to find that Eddie had measles. The team here were amazing and all worked together to get him shipped out of his house as we wanted to protect one of our other HIV children in that house who has not been immunised and is at risk. Eddie is now doing well and back in his house with his friends. We have since had a number of cases of measles reported in the village and in our school and have been told that there is a measles epidemic in this area.

In the middle of this I had also been administering IV antibiotics to one of our HIV children every 12 hours. Phillip has a chronic ear infection that is only sensitive to a certain antibiotic and we began that antibiotic course also on Monday! On Wednesday morning unfortunately that IV cannula stopped working so at 6.30am Phillip and I went to the clinic where I tried to recannulate him. What a challenge he was! After his stay in hospital in November when he was really sick they must have used and used every possible vein in his body to the point he hardly has any left!! He was such an amazing boy and let me prick him until we got one in and even helped me to stick it down and hand me things with his one free hand – he was a fab assistant! As a reward we both had some chocolate for breakfast!

On Wednesday, after cannulating Phillip, I took Faziri to hospital in Kampala for his monthly check up. I had gone with a really heavy heart knowing that we would be sitting in the waiting room waiting for 4-5 hours just to see a doctor for 10 minutes. I walked into the reception and after handing in my paper went to the back of the queue trying to ready myself for the long wait. As we walked into the waiting area the doctor who saw us last time saw us smiled and said ‘see you soon’ - Haha I thought! Behind him was one of the nurses who then led me to the front bench. I was confused and also starting to get embarrassed as everyone was looking at me. I hate the ‘white skin’ thing where we often get offered special treatment and I really try to avoid this where I can but she was insistent that I wait at the front. As she then called me to go in she told me how grateful they are that people like me come to help them and their children in Uganda and the least she could do is try and help me a little. I could have hugged her! I have seen this nurse on the last two occasions I have been at this hospital and she has sat and chatted to me as I’ve waited – it’s a novelty for them to have a ‘muzungu’ (white person) sitting with everyone else waiting in the government hospital and she always makes a bee-line for me! I was flabbergasted to be in and out in 15 minutes (my other two hospital waits with this child were 9 hours and 5 hours) and after telling my driver I would call him later (he knew that meant much later!) I was ringing him with the exciting news that we were ready to leave. This nurse made my week, what an angel she is!

Back at GSF whist going back and forth between Eddie with the measles and Phillip for his antibiotics, I had also been seeing the usual day to day clinic patients when I also started to get a steady stream of children coming to me who had either vomited and/or had diarrhoea. It took me a few cases to figure out that not everyone had malaria (always my first assumption!) and there was a bug spreading around the children's houses. We are now seeing the tail end of that and my work is getting back to a normal pace. The last 4 days have felt like a marathon! 

What with saying goodbye to my visitors and then work being a bit crazy I have had a whirlwind of a week and that’s without even mentioning the four new children that have arrived to join our family here – wait for the next blog!! 

No pictures this week. Sorry, too busy!!! :)

  Philippians 4 v 19 "And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus."

The risks of being a child in the village

Before my mum left and on her last day here with me in the orphanage she got to witness one of those sad stories that I see here from time to time.

This is Godwin. He is five years old. He was brought to see me by his father who works here on site in the farm at GSF. Straight away both my mum and I could see that Godwin had the most awfully infected earlobe. It was huge and he must have been in so much pain. His father explained that the ear had become infected after he had tried to ‘pierce’ his son (pierce his ear).  Godwin’s father explained that they are living in a poor part of the local village and their hut is deep in the village, far from the road. They know that there is a witch doctor in that area who is catching children for sacrifices. Godwin’s cousin had been chased last week by the witch doctor, which had frightened the family so they started to pierce the children, and sadly Godwin’s had gone wrong.

I explained to my mum that witch doctors in this area take ‘perfect’ children and behead them. They then offer their heads as a sacrifice to their gods. Offerings are made for all sorts of reasons and local people will approach the witch doctor and ask them to make sacrifices on their behalf (and at a cost). A child sacrifice is the highest of them all. A child will only be taken if he or she is ‘perfect’, i.e. has no scars or defects on their head. Families here will all pierce the children’s ears in order to make sure that they are not eligible to be taken. 

Seeing Godwin reminded me of another example one of our teenagers had told us when she returned back to GSF from a home visit at Christmas. She had watched one of the witch doctors carry a 6-month-old baby off to the forest and then later return without the baby. Everyone in the village knew what he was doing. We asked her why no one called the police but she said that the police would not come or do anything about it so no-one bothers. We asked her how she was dealing with it as it sounded quite traumatic and she just shrugged and said that it was just how it was here.

It shocks me that families here have to deal with this and it is 'just' something that happens. Life is so tough here. Godwin’s father said that as soon as the ear was healed he would again try to pierce his ear because he wants to protect him and make sure he was not at risk. The family are unable to move away as Godwin's father cannot afford another property that is in a ‘safer’ area. Please pray for Godwin, his cousin and for all of the children living in the village who are exposed to such horrendous risks. Pray for God’s protection over these precious children and over the dark powers that are in this country.  

''What happened to the road?!'

Then it was my Mum’s turn to see Africa! My mum made us laugh from the moment she arrived. As we pulled out of the airport we drove onto a dirt road to which my mum exclaimed, “Oh my goodness, what has happened to the road?!” We couldn’t stop laughing at her shock. I explained that 'This is Africa' and roads just happen to be full of mud and pot holes. Our taxi driver really laughed. I think she made his day!

As I said my mum arrived during Leah’s last couple of days here and after waving Leah off at the airport I took my mum on the journey from Entebbe back to GSF. It was great for me to experience Uganda again through someone else’s eyes. I have become used to the roads, the unrefrigerated butchers huts with meat hanging in the sun, the children waving and shouting ‘Muzungu’ as we pass, the beautiful scenery and sugar cane fields. It was lovely to see this all again with new eyes, much like I did on that first journey I made to the orphanage when I first arrived. As we arrived my mum had ‘The Greeting’ at the gate with the children singing and dancing to welcome her in. We then spent the next few hours unpacking her 2 very heavy suitcases. In her cases she had lots of lovely gifts for the children and I and I got to enjoy a second birthday celebration opening many, many cards and presents from friends and family. Thank you to all those who sent special parcels with my mum!!

Crossing the Equator

Beautiful Volcanic Craters

My mum’s two weeks were spent playing with the children, cuddling many babies, working in the nursery school on site and leaning how they teach ‘African stlye’, being the nurses assistant (and what a good she did – she even helped me diagnose one day after having poured over medical books with me looking for a diagnosis!) and experiencing safari!

We went to Queen Elizabeth Safari Park for a few days for our safari, which was beautiful. It’s in the west of Uganda near the Congo border and surrounded by the Rwenzori Mountains. The scenery was amazing and we were really fortunate to be on a tour with 6 other wonderful and very fun people. Three Spaniards who were taking a break from their roles working for MSF in Sudan, a Belgium who was touring Africa and had one big camera with a massive zoom! – We all had a good peak at the animals close up every time he spotted something on the game drive. Also an American guy who is travelling around East Africa writing the history of the national parks as part of his PHD. We were blessed to be with such a great group of people and enjoyed fun filled days together and great evenings in the lodge chatting over dinner.

A Lion very far off but still a lion!

After a dangerous game of hungry hippos!

At the Queens lookout over Queen Elizabeth National Park

Three Wise Monkeys!

Before I knew it my mum’s two weeks had flown by and we had to say goodbye at the airport. Goodbyes are always the hardest :(

Happy days

I can’t believe it’s been nearly a month since my last blog and it is now already nearing the end of April. I have had a wonderful few weeks enjoying time with my visitors and showing them what I am up to here. I have them to blame (my brother and then my friend Leah and then my mum!) for distracting me from my duties of blogging but it has been fun to have such special people to me being able to come visit, see where I am and to experience a little of my day to day life here. I know when I reach home it will be so good for me to have them to speak to about the things I have seen and done here.

At the Source of The Nile

So, two days after my brother left I then got to have my lovely friend Leah come to visit me for 10 days.  I had such fun with her here and we had a really special time together. We were able to spend some time at the orphanage as well as some time out and about. Leah had brought a lot of goodies for the children and for me :) and had a bulging case which incidentally went home almost empty!! Leah loved the kids and managed to fit lots of cuddles in with all of the babies as well as getting a small taster of Social Work in Africa. It’s certainly very different to her Social Work in the UK!

 


















One of my favourite parts of Leah’s visit was when she treated me to two nights away at a local tourist guest lodge. We got to stay in an amazing tent (a posh one with a roof, semi solid walls and an amazing shower!) overlooking the River Nile. We spent time relaxing,  quad bike riding, reading, swimming, watching some beautiful African sunsets and enjoying some great food. Thank you Leah for my mini break!

Viewing the sunset over The Nile from the hammock outside our tent

On Leah’s last day my mum joined us so the three of us were able to celebrate my birthday in Kampala. I had such a special African birthday with two very special people. At my request they took me for a pedicure, a movie and a wonderful dinner.

Birthday pedicure!

Sadly Leah’s 10 days went far too quickly and before I knew it I was back at the airport waving her off but grateful that when I come home, my closest friend will ‘get it’ when I am chatting about all my African adventures, my highs and lows and as I try to readjust to life at home.