Hospitals and Villages

The men have been so busy in the village of Bukeeka putting the water system in and they have been working late each evening, so it's been hard to get a lot of details out of them to write a post each day. They are very tired and just want to eat, shower and go to bed. They are making great progress and are hoping to be finished with the project tomorrow. They have some great stories to tell, so I will try to get them posted along with pictures tomorrow. It will be a day of great celebration!

In the meantime, the women have been doing their own things. Wednesday we took a tour of the children's hospital. It was a very tough day for all of us. As we walked through each ward, there was such a spirit of hopelessness. So many people sitting and waiting and so many sick children. Our hearts were breaking as we saw baby after baby that looked as if they were no longer living. Many of them were sleeping with a parent or relative sitting beside the bed. We were told there really isn't much care given by the hospital beside medicines. Any other care given was by the person who brought them. There were some that had no one. Sitting in the hallway waiting to see a doctor was a woman holding a tiny little baby that was asleep, very pale and very skinny, we guessed maybe three pounds, that looked to be non-responsive. The mother sat there so still, so patient and with such a sad look on her face. It was very hard to see.

As we were ready to leave, a nurse came to us and asked us to come and pray with a young man named Michael who they were sending home from the hospital. We guessed him to be about 10 or 11 years old. He was suffering from AIDS and was very weak. We were shocked that he was being released. We gathered around his bed and laid hands on him and prayed for him. It was such a privilege that we thank God for, then we left with heavy hearts.

To get to the hospital, we had to take some public transportation. Pam had called for some boda-boda's to come pick us up and only three came and there was four of us, so Kylee and I got to share one. It is a challenge with two, but we have seen as many as four people on one boda!

Thursday we went to the village of Naminya to visit the widows. They own and operate a bakery. They were not able to bake for us today, but we had a wonderful time just visiting with them and we each one told about our life. We praised God after hearing how He has brought each of us through many difficult times. The widows sang a song and we had prayer together. What a wonderful time of sisters in Christ sharing a day together.

Pictured left to right is: Alice (this is our host Abdu's wife Betty's mother), Florence, Regina, Margaret, Sarah (Abdu's mother) and Sissy.

On the way home we stopped by Abdu's chicken farm and took a tour. It is quite impressive. He has been working on a second building and has installed a watering system from the U.S. and will be ready for his new shipment of chickens in a couple of days.

Abdu in front of his farm.

After a trip to the market we came home and Grace made a delicious meal of Chicken stir fry and vegetables. As we visited this evening, we are starting to realize that our time here is getting shorter and we are wondering where the time has gone. We love it here and we love the people. We have such wonderful hosts and we love spending time with each of them. We will be sad to have to say goodbye in a few short days.