Uganda brings out the best

     ** Saturday, Feb 16. This morning our group visited Raoul's boys home in Bugembi.  It was the first night that they had stayed at the home and had 5 boys with them, including Emmanuel, the boy Raoul had "picked" from the Musesse village yesterday. We did physcials on the boys and left meds for 4 of them.  Raoul has established a home for street boys and calls his ministry Kwagala.  He has a full-time house dad named Brian, a cook/housekeeper and a short-termer from Canada named Robbie.  They expect to increase their number to 10 or 12 kids right away.  Raoul will also bring a band for a visit to the prison on Monday. 
      We ate lunch at The Keep, and found that you can wait 2 hours for lunch.  We then went to see Sera's Caring Place and checked out all the boys and Margaret the house keeper.  We did 2 minor surgical procedures on 2 of the boys. These boys are so respectful and well-mannered you would never believe that they were streetboys not so long ago. 
     We then went to a place near Lake Victoria where a pair of girls with burn injuries live to redress their wounds.  They live in a house that looks like it had been bombed out, with several other families.  On the way home we stopped by the "supermarket" to buy some things for supper.  There were several boys, maybe four to 8 years old, begging outside the store.   These boys were all carrying plastic bottles with rags covered in super glue inside of them.  Paul told us to not give them anything, and before we left he told the boys that he would never give any money to anyone who was sniffing glue.  Two of the boys gave Paul their bottles, hoping that they would recieve money, but began chasing the van and beating on it to get their bottles back once we started to drive away. 

     ** Sunday, Feb 17.  We had the priveledge of worshipping in the Bugembe Worship Center, the tiny Bugembe church where we had done a clinic on thurday. We saw a  lot of energy and freedom of expression in their worship.  Paul Hunter was suprised when he was asked to be the guest speaker when we arrived, but did as well as if he had a sermon prepared.  We also gave away a crate of shoes and some reading glasses after the service.   We got out of church by 2 pm, had a light lunch, some a siesta, and some a hike around town.  Pam had hired a chef to prepare a special supper, and Raoul's band was here to practice for tomorrow's ministry at a prison, as well as to play for us.  We had a fantastic supper, then the reason for the party was revealed.  Dr. Klinger had asked Paul and Pam to help arrange this evening as an opportunity for him to propose to his wife of almost 30 years, and vows were renewed.  There were tears.  Valentines day was celebrateded just 3 days late.

Tuesday-Friday

Tuesday we toured the Jinja Main Hospital, which is  a government hospital. It was horrific. People sit on beds and wait for family to bring them food, water, and help them use the restroom (in buckets in the room). They see a Dr. the Dr. prescribed medication. Then it is up to the family to go to a pharmacy buy all the supplies and medication. Then the nurse would administer the medication. The only way to received treatment is to pay up front and provide everything you need in the process. You have to provide your own bed sheets even! There were people lying around in a huge room with 4 beds in a cubical type divided area. They seemed so sad. There was not a smile in the building. You can smell the wounds when you walk in. Many people were in a make shift traction for femur fractures, a small girl had burns to her upper torso and head, and other people were just sitting on beds with no treatment being in process. The Emergency room was three exam tables with no equipment in the room. Im not sure what they can really get done in there but it didnt seem like a place I would want to be even for a minute. The maternity ward was a large long room with roughly 40 beds or more lining the walls. No privacy at all. The maternity ward is usually a bright happy place in most hospitals. This was the opposite. That afternoon we followed up at the fountain of hope school with some children we treated and saw a few more. The girl with the injured foot that sharps debridement was performed on looked great and the I&D abscess was healing very well.  We brought the 15 year old girl with the mitral valve click home to travel to Kamapala with us Wednesday.

Wednesday we traveled to Kampala to see if we could get our 15 year old girl a cardiac echo or at the least an EKG. We toured the hospital, which is state of the art, and met with several department heads whom showed their facility and all they could perform. Paul got Maboe an appointment with a Dr and she was seen received an EKG and some lab work. It appeared nothing was abnormal so we finished the day by touring another hospital and clinic. We found many resources in Kampala that we can refer patients for the umbilical hernias and many other surgical needs. It was a great day knowing we have places our patients can go for continued treatment  that live in villages and even in Jinja. 

Thursday we went to a church, which is a wood framed building with dirt floors and a tin roof. We saw several patients there, but due to the rain it delayed several people coming to see us. We will be attending church at David and Sarah's on Sunday and we all look forward to this experience. We had no water when we got home due to power being out throughout the day. 

Friday we visited another village, Budondo, and saw at least 100 patients. We were in a church with two windows and 75 people. It was hot and stuffy to say the least. The people of the village welcomed us with their loud cheering and hugs. We encountered one boy whom had been an attempted sacrifice. His face had scars from being at knife point and he had many irregular scars covering his back. The reasons why he was not sacrificed we do not know but they found a reason why they could not follow through and dumped the boy near the village were he was taken in. This place is full of evil but we fight daily to keep the light of God and his glory with us as we travel out to these places. We prayed over the boy after assessing his physical needs. After seeing the patients in the village we traveled to Jinja to follow up on a girl whom we had seen at the house Thursday night. She had burned the dorsal side of her foot with hot water two weeks ago. Dad sharps debrided the wound and we dressed it with silvadene and wrapped it. It looked much better Friday afternoon, we redressed the wound and will follow up Saturday afternoon. We prayed for water and it rained Friday evening. Byron, Linda, and myself took a shower under the rain water and it was so refreshing! We caught the water in buckets to use for flushing toilets and bathing. We are so thankful for the rain!

Bugembe Prison

Monday the medical team, with the much needed assistance of Jared, Jeff, Edgar, Robyn, Paul, Gideon, and Peter, visited the prisoners of Bugembe Prison. We all met in the courtyard area which consisted of stone ground and walls with different locked barred rooms all around. The prisoners lined up and sat on the ground as Paul introduced all of us to the prisoners and why we have come to see them. 100lb bags of beans, sugar, and rice were provided for prisoner use. Also bars of bathing soap and laundry soap were provided for prisoner use. They were very excited when Paul informed them these items where for their use and he will be coming back to ask the prisoners if they were able to use the soap and eat the food provided. Which is very sad in this country to have to worry that when you want something to be used a certain way the money, food, and clothing may not always be used for its intended purpose. This was the first time a medical team and Paul had visited the prison. We saw various injuries and illnesses that we were able to treat with our medications on hand. One man is very very sick with PCP which is a type on pneumonia that is acquired and opportunistic when a person is infected with HIV. Another man probably has a broken ankle and needed an x-ray that the team will pay for if the prison will allow him to be transported to a hospital. The man with PCP is in dire need of a hospital and has shocked us all by even still being able to stand. Paul treated the prisoners to sliced pinapple that Gideon and Peter were so gracious to cut up for them. Their diets are very poor and may eat once and if they are lucky twice a day. So the pineapple, fresh pineapple that is, was a very big treat. They were very appreciative of our work and treating them with our medicine and time. Some of the prisoners are there for being out after 8pm and not having money to bribe the arresting officer. Others have stopped under a shade tree that an officer did not like and said a woman was loitering. You can go to jail and receive no justice for the smallest thing here. So these people may not have even committed any real crime at all. They were very pleasant and respectful, we did not have any fear of them. We just hope that the medications we provided are actually administered and used the way they are intended!

Village of Lwanika 2/9/13

On Saturday the medical team with Paul, Robyn, Peter, Edgar, and Jeff drove far out of town to a small village to see patients of all ages. The children chased us smiling and waving from the edge of the village to where we began seeing patients.There were several young children that needed antibiotics and we discovered that they take medication better than any child in the US ever has or will. The antibiotics they consumed orally were crushed adult pills and diluted with water then administered through an oral dropper. We did what we could with the limited resources and supplies. There is no electricity or running water in this village. In this place they truly feel forgotten. Beans were provided to the families to give to the very malnourished children. We dressed wounds, treated upper respiratory infections, and treated fungal and  parasite infections as well. Some children have wounds that have healed that are so amazing to see. A small child with a deformed lower leg due to a previous break will probably never walk well once grown. She will need extensive bone grafting and many surgical procedures to correct the damage to ensure she would continue to walk. This treatment may never find her, but we will try to make connections with any resources we can that could help her. We are not here to simply administer medications and treat what we see. We want to find resources and make things available to these people that they never dreamed of. There is no reason why they can't have a chance at a prosperous life without crippling defects that go untreated due to circumstance. The team bout all the children ice cream as a treat that they really enjoyed. It was a great day and God watched over us and helped us use our medicine to reach these people and let them know they are not forgotten.

Medical Missions 2/7/13

The Medical Mission Team on this trip is Linda and Don Klinger, Byron Baum, Jon Hensley, and Kayla Steelman.We arrived safely with all of our totes thankfully! Prayers were answered. Thursday, our first day at Paul and Pam's we organized our supplies and got our mobile clinic bags ready for action. We had an amazing day on Friday. We went to the Fountain of Hope School and saw roughly 70 children with different ailments. We treated everything from scalp infections to abscesses. Dad performed a sharps debridement of a child's foot wound on a school bench! We also formed a possible diagnosis on a 15 year old girl with Marfans syndrome, which can be very fatal in some cases. She was already symptomatic by having fainting spells and chest pain with exertion. They are a strong resilient population and they are so precious. When we arrived we couldn't even get out of the van without them swarming us grabbing our hands and hugging us tightly. They call us white people Mazungu.There were tons of tiny pleasant voices yelling "Mazungu, Mazungu." There was a primary school, middle school, and high school and we saw some children of all ages. Some of the children live there and some walk to and from school. They wore tattered uniforms and most didn't have shoes and non of this seemed to bother them. They still smile and play, laugh and run like normal children. They find their way into your heart the second you see them! We will be going to a village outside of Jinja somewhere today to see a population of people whom feel truly forgotten. They do not have electricity or running water so this visit with medications and wound treatment will be a wonderful gift. We cant wait to see what we can do for them!

Men's work!

Ok I guess it's time to hear from a mans perspective on what is happening here in Uganda. Well one day while the women were visiting the hospital Peter our driver and Jeff and I took the van to the mechanics shop (very loose description) and had the van worked on. We took it by the day before and the mechanic thought the bushings needed replaced in the front end so we made an appointment for the next day. When we got there they pulled the van under a shade tree and proceeded to replace the bushings which after further inspection were fine but the shocks were shot so they replaced the shocks and drilled and tapped the ball joints and installed bolts so the bolt could be pulled and the joint greased when they service the van. While we were waiting we seen all kinds of things being transported by boda boda's (motorcycles) we even seen a 200 to 300 pound cow tied up and resting between two men on one, tried to get a picture but was to far away.

Then a new friend of mine named Michael or as I called him BIG MIKE came over and introduced himself to me, he is a friend of Peters he is about 6'5" tall and weights around 350. He had two window locks that we needed installed in the back sliding windows on the van and a home made Phillips screwdriver. He handed me the screwdriver and latches and said get in the van and change these. After sizing him up I thought an argument would be fruitless and once in the van understood why he told me to get inside, there was no way a man of his size would have fit in the back so he stood outside and held the latch on the window while I tightened them. Then all he wanted to do was go eat and expected me to buy.

Well we couldn't get loose so he took a raincheck. Well after they put the front end back together they moved it over to what they call the pit and proceeded to do a front end alignment which was interesting to say the least but they did a good job on that also. So after they finished I asked the mechanic what kind of warranty he would give us and finally got him to commit to a one year verbal guarantee not sure how good it is but hey it was something. We then took the van to the wash bay where they pulled the vans front end up on ramps and then power wash the under carriage then hand wash the under carriage then rinse it off, then they turned it around and backed it up and did the same. We then went to another place where they hand washed the inside and outside of the van, so by the end of the day Peter was in heaven on how his office looked. He takes great pride in the van and treats it like it was his child, while other vehicles run fast and hit the potholes he will always slow down and dodge every pothole he can. He takes pride in his profession, we agreed it isn't a job when you love what you do and there is no doubt he loves what he does.

 

 

While they worked on the van they were working on a taxi right next to us and it is hard to believe that people actually ride in these, we took a few pictures so everyone would see just how fortunate we are with what God has supplied for our transportation.

 

 

So there you go that's how a man rights a blog ;-) it will probably be the last one after Jodi sees it. Oh well my plan might work!

 

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