Sponsored Kids

The Ugandan kids are currently out of school again, second term holiday. They head back to their final term next week so we have been school shopping and prepping for their yearly finals. I know I don't write about these kids that I (which means you through me!) sponsor much so it seems about time for an update on all of them. This is Emmanuel.  He is currently a first year, secondary school student (Like a high school freshman). He is doing very well, especially in maths and every time we are together he asks me to let him drive. I caved once and that was enough. 

This is Tony. He is a primary student, fourth year. (Like a 3rd grader) he really struggles with reading and will have some real challenges ahead of him but he is tough. 

 This is Vicky Imalingat. She is struggling also to finish primary school but I'm sure she will do it this year. The challenge will be what to do next year. She isn't a great student and secondary school is expensive. She could be a candidate for a trade school so we are praying about it.

This is Ken. He is very stubborn and wouldn't let me take a picture so I had to do it while he wasn't paying attention. He is also a first year, secondary school student (like a high school freshman). His grades aren't bad but he has some major anger issues. (I've set broken bones twice with him after hitting things.) More on that in a second. 

This is Joyce. She is in her final year of primary school so she will be taking PLE (Primary Leaving Exams) next month. These will determine if she can go to secondary school, which she would really like to do. She reads well but struggles in other subjects. 

This is Vicky Akello. She is in her second year of secondary school (equivalent of a sophomore). She is very quiet but very bright. She would like to be a doctor and I'm pretty sure she can do it. I'm still trying to convince her she would rather be a nurse though! 

This is Janet. Of the whole bunch she struggles the most. She should be in secondary school by now but she has never mastered reading. I'm sure she has significant learning disabilities and I've tried a couple of times to help her read but I'm not a teacher by any stretch of the imagination. Please pray for us as I have no idea what to do with her. 

This is Opio. He is also very bright. He is also in his final primary year and will be taking PLE. I had to give him the bad news that as I have so many secondary students now I can't sponsor him next year. However, I know he is bright enough to get a scholarship if he really tries. There were  lots of tears when I broke the news but I'm not worried for him. 

Hopefully, you noticed that one more sponsored kid is missing. The first one I started with, Betty. Oh boy, please pray for this situation. Betty is (again) in her first year of secondary school and has always struggled with grades. Last term her mother took all of the money I'd given for school so no school fees were paid. Betty was kicked out mid term. She begged and cajoled her way through most of her classes but, no surprise, did very poorly. She is not allowed to receive her grades until she pays all the money she owes so we don't know exactly how she did. I just don't know what to do. At the start of this year (after failing last year) I told her I had to stop paying for school if she didn't show me she was serious about school and picked up her grades. She promised over and over. No boys, no distractions. She would read and study and apply herself and show me she could do it. Well, I saw no proof that any of these promises were true. Now, I owe double (for last term and this term) for her to even finish this year. On top of that she has moved out of her home (which is close to school) into the home of friends and has told me she would need a bike to get to school each day. No way. I told her she would just have to move home. But she fights with her mother incessantly on top of the fact that an alcoholic grandmother and five other siblings are all squeezed into a two room shack with no power or water.  I'm aware that it isn't actually a good place to go home to in the evening and attempt to study. But many children in this country overcome that. I just don't know how to do it correctly. 

Another prayer point, four of the above children are all "siblings". Ken, Vicky, Janet and Tony. 

However, follow me on this one, the four of them have two different mothers and three different fathers. I actually had to draw a diagram when they explained it to me. Ken and Vicky share the same mother but different fathers. Vicky and Janet share the same father and Tony has a different father than any of the other three but the same mother as Janet. One of their mothers abandoned Ken and Vicky when Vicky was just a few months old and hasn't been seen again. They currently (sort of) live with Tony and Janet's mother but she leaves them for weeks at a time when she has work in the village and they are expected to fend for themselves. And she resents that she was stuck with some children who are not hers. The kids report that she is always angry and they actually like it better when they are alone at home.  Ken's father is a soldier (currently stationed in Congo, he thinks) and he sees him once or twice a year. Father number three is around occasionally and seems to actually care about Tony but beats all four of them and is known to take food and money from them. They say he crashes in their house if he knows Tony's mother is out in the village but when she gets back "she drives him away." Father number two, the one who donated sperm for Janet and Vicky hasn't been seen in years and they weren't even sure of his name. Is it any wonder that Ken has anger issues, that Janet is 15 years old and can't read and that Vicky has never been successful in school?! Please pray for them and me as I navigate how to best help them to be successful in this life and not repeat the same mistakes as their parents.

Praying for the Batwa

Let me just write a little about my time down in western Uganda. First just a bit of background. Fuel Uganda, the organization I work for, does community development down there also. They work with a marginalized people group called the Batwa (also called Pygmies). I wrote a little about them two years ago. Here. They are encouraged and supported in rabbit raising as both income generation and a good protein source.  I headed there with some other missionaries to follow up on ministry. We visited about ten homes and I'd like to ask you to be praying for three specifically:
;

This is Karen and two of her children. She received a rabbit loan a while back to help support and feed her family. We sat with her and talked for a bit. She seemed discouraged and didn't want to talk much. On our way out we asked if she had any prayer needs.  She ask that we would pray that she would become saved. I paused as I realized we needed to talk about what it meant to be saved (you don't need to ask someone else to pray that you will be!)  I talked with her for several minutes and realized that she has been told that because she drinks alcohol she can’t be saved.  We talked more about being born again and prayed together. After that she was willing to share that she used to have 5 children but one died recently to “bewitching”.  She believes someone cursed her child and they died because of it. It has to be a terrible thing to live with. I wish she didn't live three days travel from me as she really needs someone to visit and encourage her. 

 Please pray that the Body of Christ, the Church near her, will rise up and meet her spiritual needs. We can also pray that God meets her physical needs as it was obvious the family has some serious struggles. Their rabbits aren't doing as well as they could be because Karen fears thieves will steal them (which is a legitimate fear in this area) and so she isn't taking great care of them because why bother if someone will just take the result of her work? Please pray the desire to escape from problems into alcohol will be replaced by a saving hope in God!





Next is this old man. We didn't even get his name. He lives in a shack built of trash in the front yard of one of the rabbit recipients.  He has no idea how old he is but he knows there was no president when he was a young boy.  (He also insisted there is no president now, so take that with a grain of salt. I suspect he is in his late seventies at least which is double the life expectancy of the average man here). His nephew has started building him a "real house" (on his right) though it will still be made with sticks and mud. May he know the peace and contentment that can only come from God.

Lastly is Innocent’s wife, Allen.  Innocent had received rabbits in the loan program but Allen told us her husband has left her and she has been without him for several months. She had several rabbits and all of them were stolen.  She has seven children and her house is very damaged. When she was moved out of the slums several years ago they received this house but termites have gotten into the wall and it is crumbling. Please pray that she would know God as her provider.

Please pray also for us, that we would know the best way to help and encourage without creating dependency. We want people to be empowered to care for themselves, rather than sitting and waiting for someone else to come in and help them. We also don't want to provide only physical help while neglecting people's emotional and spiritual needs.

Holy Spirit, this job is way too big for us. Please show us the way to love people as best we can. Jesus, these are your children, struggling and hurting. Please show yourself faithful to them. Let them see you at work in their lives. Father God, may we all be more faithful to the calling you have given us. Amen. 

Malaria and necessary friends

Well, my last post mentioned how sick I was of traveling, turns out I meant it literally. Since Sunday I'd been feeling like I was on the verge of vomiting but as we were traveling all day through the mountains in Western Uganda I just blamed it on being tired and car sick. Well, I'm an idiot. I finally got back to Soroti late Tuesday afternoon still feeling extremely car sick, carried my bags through the door and literally collapsed into bed thinking I'd just rest a bit then feel well enough to open up the house, unpack etc... (I'd been gone 10 days). Well, sometime after dark I woke up enough to go the the bathroom and give myself a panic attack. My urine looked all wrong and suddenly it hit me. I had malaria.  I went to grab a rapid test and treatment pack and discovered I locked my med room when I packed up and I couldn't remember where the key was. I called my good friend Rachel before I realized how late it was. But she called back and happily came over with a rapids test and poked me. It took less than two minutes for it to come back positive. Oops. Started treatment and fell back into bed. I did have the presence of mind to set an alarm for the second dose. I got up and took it but sometime in the night I started vomiting and I'm pretty sure I didn't retain much of that dose.

Tuesday Rachel came back to check on me, which was a good thing as I thought it was still morning but turns out it was late afternoon. I also thought I'd been taking fluids because my mom had been bringing them to me but upon trying to explain that to Rachel I realized that it was probably pretty unrealistic and most likely I'd not been out of bed at all except to vomit in almost 24 hours. She gave me my next dose of meds which I think I waited a whole four minutes to throw back up. So, wonderful friend that she is she didn't really give me a choice, packed me some clean clothes and took me to her house. My vet (her husband) gave me a liter of fluids and but unfortunately I still couldn't stop vomiting and didn't keep down Wednesday morning's dose of Lumartem either. So (despite my protests) Rachel took me to the hospital where it took them three blasted hours to put a new line in and give me a single dose of IV malaria meds. I convinced them I could keep getting fluids at home and if they would send me with a dose of promethazine I would be able to switch back to oral meds and take care of myself. Thankfully, they know me there so they gave in.  But there was no way Rachel was actually letting me go home. So back to her house where I did nothing but sleep and get more IV fluids for another 24 hours.  Anyway, here it is Saturday and I've been discharged from Rachel's house. I still feel exhausted and have one more day of Lumartem ahead of me but I'm feeling human again.
Thank you Rachel, that even thought I'm stubborn and not easy to care for you persisted. You're a great friend and I'll happily return the favor if you need it.  Oh, appreciation also to Daniel who was willing to poke me five times to get lines in. Thanks, I think. And also mixing meds and running to the pharmacy repeatedly. Thank you.

Headed home....

Have started the several day journey back to Soroti.... am more than sick of being on these Ugandan roads but had a good time in western Uganda.
 You might get a blog post someday......

At least there were lions!

Well, you all must have been praying. The final step of getting my work permit was relatively painless. There were several hitches and it took several hours but for a day in Ugandan government offices I’ve had much worse. I now have a three year work permit!! 

The truck is still in the mechanic so no updates there yet. The mechanic will get several more days with it before I go pick it up. 

Several days of travel across Uganda has left me tired but on the road on the way we got to see tree climbing lions! So that makes it so much better.

Five lions just hanging out in this tree visible from the main road! 

Time to get out of Soroti for a little while.....

Ok, in all seriousness, I'm headed out of Soroti for a bit. I'm going for several reasons and most of them you can be praying for:
1 I'm going to the Immigration offices Monday morning to HOPEFULLY get my much needed (and long awaited) work permit. There have been many hurdles and I'm a bit worried but I'm trying to trust God that I'll be leaving with my passport in hand and legal permission to be in this country three more years.
2. My truck is falling apart. I need to leave it in the hands of a good mechanic for a while. So I'm limping it up to Kampala. This one needs prayer because Friday evening it was suggested I not drive it that far. Soroti's mechanic had it for 11 hours Saturday and he thinks it is now good enough to get it to Kampala so we're giving it a try.
3. I'm following up on some of Fuel Uganda's ministries in Western Uganda. I hope to be an encouragement as well as have a quick break from Soroti. Unfortunately it is three days of tiring travel (not on interstates!) so it is hard to get super excited about it.

Anyway, thanks for praying!

don't want to

I just don't want to do this anymore....

I just don't want to have my truck break down and have no idea how or when it get it fixed because I had the same problem dealt with just a few weeks back. But I need it ready to go to Kampala in 24 hours. Do I take the risk?  Find other transport? Wait?

I just don't want to have to go to the bank and be treated like an idiot for something  immigration (or the bank) messed up. Especially when MAF in Kampala has the original paperwork and they are the ones I'm paying to deal with this.

I don't want to bring my patient to the hospital and have to fight for tolerable (not even good) care. And hear that they didn't do the ultrasound and are waiting another day. And didn't give blood. And aren't even sure what the treatment plan is. And don't even have running water for the patients.

I don't want to go to church for a 9am program and actually get started at 12:15 and then have to rush and do a poor job because we wasted so much time.

I just don't want to anymore.  I did it all yesterday and I'm done.

I'm in a great mood today. You should probably all be praying that this missionary can hold her crap together today.

Babies!!

Baby guinea pigs at four days old (the three little ones  in the back). 

I have a bunch of babies who were born almost the same day a few weeks back! I love having all these animals around!

Baby bunnies at four days old. 

Baby guinea pigs at two weeks old. 

Baby bunnies at two weeks old. 

Food distribution

A few days back I mentioned when I was at the clinic it was obvious the prenatal women were losing weight when they should easily be gaining.  It isn't just the vulnerable who are hungry in the community but they are just the easiest need to recognize.  My little village church felt they had to do something and with Gods help they did a huge food distribution. One of the missionary families I serve with wrote about it and the link to their blog is below.  I love my church in Obulle and love the amazing things God is doing through their servant's hearts.

Pictures and more of the story here

and more pictures and details here!

One of the things she mentions and it makes me excited is that several Karamojung families and even two S. Sudanese families benefited. This culture can be very divided down tribal lines but this church goes out of its way to be atypical in that regard.

Running the numbers

It was antenatal day at the clinic today. I almost never pay attention to the numbers but today the midwife was tied up with other things so I had to do patient's records and also the government record books so I interacted with the numbers more than I usually do. 

22 pregnant patients, 8 for their first visit. Of these, 4 were past 30 weeks (well into their third trimester). They just didn't think they needed to come to the clinic for anything before this. 

14 were there for their second or third visit. Of these 10 (!) had either stayed the same or LOST weight from their previous visit. This surprised me but I guess it shouldn't have. Parts of Uganda have had drought instead of the first rainy season and crops failed. Since folks eat what they grow, there is little food. They have planted again in this second rainy season but nothing is ready to harvest yet. Most people in this area are down to one meal a day. It was obvious in the ladies in the clinic today. 

1 patient had swelling in her feet and trace protein in her urine so got referred into town for lab work. 

1 patient was highly suspicious for twins so she got sent into town for ultrasound. 

2 patients had UTIs so got antibiotics.

2 patients tested positive for malaria so got IV lines with drips. 

Just your average Monday in the clinic...... I guess not completely average, no one came in active labor. 

Tired

Good grief! Has it really been a month since I last posted?!  I'm tired and just plugging along, getting through the days, one at a time. Please pray for increased energy and passion. I'm struggling a bit....

Oh, and someone stole my dog. He is pretty unique and doesn't look like any other dog in this city and all the people who live around me know him. They won't tell me who has him. This is a picture of him sitting on my cat. He actually spent a lot of time sitting on the cat.

Update on this: Eight days after he went missing I posted this on FB.

I just went outside my gate and gathered all of the kids who are old enough to speak English (about 10 of them): "You know my dog? The white one?" "No." "Yes, you do. The little white dog that you always see around my place." "We don't know where he is." "No, I'm not asking you where he is, I'm asking if you know who he is." "No". "Well, actually, I am asking if you know where he is." "We don't know." Five thousand shillings to the one who brings him back." "Truth?!" "Yes". All of them took off running....... I can't help but wonder if I'm going to regret this....

Less than fifteen minutes later he was back. So thanks everyone for praying!

A few days away

 Last week I had a wonderful (brief!) get-away to celebrate a good friend's 40th's birthday. We had some time to kick back and relax and eat some good food and laugh and enjoy a beautiful place.

 
 Oh, yeah. And we saw hundred's of amazing animals. I could post too many pictures and I know they just aren't as cool as the real thing. Up close and personal.

When we get to tell the stories of this trip in the coming years we will talk of being charged by a bull elephant, almost hitting a hipo, tracking down an invisible leopard and then finding a whole family of lions. 

I was reminded how necessary the support and encouragement of friends is. Here on the mission field they are family and co-workers and companions and confidants all rolled into one. Ladies, is it too early to start planning our next trip?!

I need to give credit to Rachel Graham for these awesome animal pictures!

July 2016

Wonderful friends....

Why is everything so hard here?!

After attempting for two long days to get back to Soroti, even that was very complicated and I actually shed real tears in the process, I'm back home and trying to get caught back up. And it all seems overwhelming.
- I had some repair work done on my truck before all the craziness with my nephew started. I discovered after racing to Kampala that the "repair" actually made the problem worse. Some missionary friends took the truck when we flew to Kampala and limped it back to Soroti for me but now I need to deal with it. The missionary who confirmed that I needed the repair in the first place told me yesterday "tell him he made it worse. Now all the seals on that side and also the gasket need replacing." So I'm in the midst of deal with that.
- I used up every cent of cash that I had in the craziness of last week so I really need to get some and here the only way to do that is from the ATM. However, the ATM is out of money and won't be filled again until Monday after 9am.  So no groceries (or anything else) for me until that happens.
- I still don't have my work permit.... but by the God's ability I was able to get my passport back from immigration to use it this week (as it has a three month special pass in it which was supposed to get me through until I have the new permit) but that pass expires today. Which means, because they still have not issued me a work permit I have to pay to get a new pass and keep waiting for immigration to do their thing. But the issue is I have my passport with me in Soroti but it needs to be in Kampala.....so I packed up the most important document I own and put it in the hands of Uganda's incredibly reliable public transit system. I really hope I'm not writing about my missing passport in a few days......

More about this past week

I know you have all seen lots of pictures of Izaac lately. But we are just so happy he is well. Here are some few glimpses of our last week.  This is while we were still in Kampala. Nurses, how do you like these oxygen tanks?  And that monitor? Just thinking about this hospital stresses me out again. They didn't know normal ranges for pediatric vitals. Until we got the monitor, they they didn't even check vitals very often.  We spent hours (days?!) stressing about how to get him out of the country.

 This is Izaac's favorite memory. I think he had never been introduced to vending machines before. He loved putting money in, pushing the buttons and getting out something new. I'm glad that it is so easy to keep a 6 year old happy. (look at how much better his color is in this picture!)

 He also was very happy when his sister arrived. Aren't they cute? 

After Benj and Ellie arrived in Kenya my accommodations took a huge step up.  I don't really want to talk much about the two places I stayed near to the hospital but they can be well summed up with words like terrible and frightening.  This was the Amani Guest House, very nice and family friendly. Ellie made friends within two minutes. 

Then there was my trip back to Soroti.... it was supposed to be a twelve hour bus ride from capital to capital. (Nairobi to Kampala) But the bus got in an accident and it became a 15 hour ride only as far as the border. At 10:45 at night I baled to look for a place to sleep to attempt the border crossing after a few hours of sleep rather than after 15 hours on a bus. You know the place you are staying is classy when they offer free condoms with your registration. (If you look closely at the picture you can see the boxes of condoms over the receptionist's right shoulder.)