Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

Well I doubt there will be bears present, but next week, I am going on safari! We had planned to do it a bit later on, but the office is closed next week for 3 days while an organisation called ‘Farming God’s Way’, come and teach Jenga and people from the local community all about Biblical farming methods. They have done extensive work across Africa with some very impressive results. If you want to read up on their work, it’s www.farming-gods-way.org. So while everyone is learning planet & people-friendly farming methods, us non-farming folk are heading off to see some African animals in the wild! We will stay a night in Kampala first, as the tour leaves from there in the morning. We return back to Kampala 3 days later to chill out for a day or two, then head back to Mbale. Can’t wait!

Also, the rains have arrived – hip hip hooray! Everything looks greener already and I need to begin training Korah not to jump up on people when she has very muddy paws. Learnt that one the hard way. It’s cooled down a bit here but is still pretty warm, just not sticky and hot, which I’m very happy about. 

If you’ve been Facebook stalking me, then you would have seen that we climbed the Mbale part of Mount Elgon on Easter Monday which was a steep walk but well worth it. There was a part where you have to climb a “ladder” up a sheer rock wall which was a lot of fun but the whole time I was thinking ‘my mum would die if she could see me now’. The ladder is really a big bunch of sticks/logs/branches all shoved into and on top of each other in a vague upwards fashion. Some of the branches creak quite loudly when you put your weight on them, which is never reassuring! I wish I had taken a photo of it…I think one of the boys might have, so I will see if I can get a copy to show you all. The whole walk took about 5 hours and it started raining on the way back down which made for a slippery time. Almost stacked it a couple of times but luckily our guide Martin was there to catch falling foreigners! This was the view from the top:

Tomorrow, the whole Jenga team are watching the Royal Wedding thanks to all the British volunteers here. I wonder what style of dress Miss Middleton will opt for?

I guess we will all know soon enough – until next time….

Louise :)

Fuel prices, football and fractured arms

Welcome to another instalment in the life and times of an Australian volunteer in Uganda. The wet season is still holding off here in Mbale and this place is desperate for rain. It normally begins in February or at least March and we are coming to the end of April and it still hasn’t arrived. People are starting to worry and food prices are continually rising and if the rain doesn’t come soon, it could have catastrophic consequences. Please pray for rain, those of you who are so inclined.

Fuel prices have been going up and up here, which affects the price of basically everything else you can think of. Transport, food, services – everything is getting more expensive. I can afford to wear a slight increase here and there but for many people here, it’s just not possible. There have been demonstrations in Kampala and Jinja about these kinds of issues and there is a growing unrest here in Mbale too. I overhead some of the local Jenga staff members bemoaning the current price of tomatoes this week and even since I arrived a few weeks ago, there is a marked difference in the price of things like breakfast cereal and margarine from then until now.

For some more happy news, one of my housemates, Tiffany, slipped on some water in the kitchen last Friday and fractured her elbow! Ouch. I spend the better part of Saturday in the hospital with her - thankfully she was admitted to a new, private hospital here in Mbale and managed to get a private room. She now has a plaster cast keeping her right arm permanently bent so it can heal. It will come off in two weeks. 

I just visited Mbale hospital and went to the surgical ward again. David is doing well and you can see the skin changing and healing. All the bandages are off now, as you can see (sorry if you’re squeamish!). His mum had run out of antibiotics again, so we were able to go buy some more for her and some milk for David. We also came across the friend of Grace, a Jenga staff member, whose mentally disabled son had been in an accident and broken his upper leg. His father has passed away and his mother is now looking after him full-time in the hospital instead of being at work earning an income. I asked Grace to ask her friend if they were in need of anything. She had purchased the medication her son Innocent needed, but it was about to run out and she had no money to buy more; she didn’t even have enough to money to feed him. We were able to purchase about 10 days worth of medication for Innocent, as well as some food. It’s heartbreaking to think how many desperate people we didn’t get to speak to or help in that hospital, but it’s always encouraging to be able to help people with practical needs and be generous with our resources.

This week, I have sent off two funding proposals to an organisation back in Melbourne, funnily enough! They are called Entrust, and they secure funding for development projects around the world that meet a whole list of criteria of things like cultural sensitivity, project sustainability & strong accountability etc. They ensure all projects they take on are legitimate and likely to succeed; not only wearing all administration costs, but chipping in a percentage of funding themselves. If you want to check them out, the website is www.entrust.org.au. One of the projects is to give away 2,000 free Bibles to Alpha course graduates, and the other project is the building of a community food storehouse in Mooni. Part of funding has already been secured and I’m sure the rest is to follow!

Also this week, I visited the juvenile prison for a second time. I read them the story ‘You are Special’ by Max Lucado and sang a song with the guitar. Deo, our Jenga brother, asked if anyone wanted to come forward and give their lives to God, and four boys came forward! We prayed for them and were able to teach the whole group a simple version of ‘O Happy Day’, which they loved! I don’t think they get to hear music very often in that place.

Today is the last day of the working week, with tomorrow being Good Friday. We also get Monday off too – woop woop! There is a BBQ on Saturday at a Palestinian family’s house (they also have a large flat screen tv and cable!) which should be a big celebration for all the mzungus here in Mbale. I am getting into English soccer/football over here and last night we watched the Tottenham vs Arsenal match (3-3). I think I have watched more soccer in Mbale than I have anywhere else added all together! My dad would be so proud of me ;) All these late night matches are beginning to take their toll on me though…I still wake up very early no matter what time I go to bed!

I have continued running once or twice a week but due to the heat, I’m not quite covering the distances I used to be able to manage (that can be my excuse anyway!). My aerobics partner is away tonight so I won’t be going to class…I don’t think I have the energy for that today anyway! Maybe I’ll go for a little run tonight before the sun goes down. The sky is quite grey at the moment; hopefully that means rain! 

Anyway, it’s time for lunch now and my stomach is telling me to get a move on. Hope you are all well wherever you are and please make a comment so I know it’s not just my mum and dad reading this!

Cheers,

Lou :)

In the news this week...

Greeting readers. So our little voyage to Kampala this weekend had to get cancelled due to some politicial riots in the capital city. Guess we'll just have to go another time. So that was a bit disappointing, but what can you do? Since the last time I wrote, I have edited two funding proposals for two different Jenga projects, edited and tweaked some informational material on our food storage program, been to another African wedding, a double children's birthday party and the most exhausting aerobics class I have ever encountered (think 1.5 hours of high-impact moves and LOTS of repetitive step work). I had very sore calves for a couple of days.

I also visited the hospital again and checked in on David. He looked about the same as last week, but you can tell the skin is slowly healing. His mum had another woman there with her and was feeding David some posho and beans, which I presume the other woman had brought. They seemed to be doing well. Before we headed into the wards, Ida (one of the Jenga staff) encouraged us by telling us that a lady had come into the office earlier in the week looking for the mzungu lady that had prayed for her at the hospital a couple of weeks back (I think it may have been me!). Anyway, I think we were all out somewhere but the lady told Ida she came in to say thank you because she had been sick in hospital with stomach complications and was in the surgery ward awaiting an operation. Basically, after we had come through and prayed for her, the complications disappeared, she felt better, so the doctors checked her out and told her somehow she wasn't sick anymore and that she could go home without needing surgery!  Woo hoo! It's always nice to be able to practically help people with their basic needs, but it's even better when God comes in and does the "impossible"!

We visited the TB/AIDS ward on Thursday which was really sad. The people there are really unwell and are very unlikely to get better unless they recieve a miracle. So we prayed for miracles. The patients were very appreciative of our presence in the ward - not many people like to hang around this ward for fear of becoming sick themselves (it's ok, I've had all my shots!). Thankfully, everyone we saw had a carer with them to provide food and company  while they were in hospital - this is not always the case which is a very sorry state to be in. I also dropped into the malnutrition ward again to get some photos that another Jenga volunteer needed for a brochure, and had a good chat with the head nurse there who is very helpful. We are hoping to start a feeding program in the ward from September this year which will go a long way in supporting not only  seriously malnourished children, but their mothers/guardians also. Stay tuned for more info later in the year.

In other news, we got a German Shepard puppy!! She is very very cute. We're thinking of calling her Korah, but Tiffany is yet to confirm! This is her:

So now we have four dogs. And a cat...who hates dogs. Especially puppies. She'll get over it.

Other than that, I don't think there's too much else to say. Hope everything is well in Melbourne or wherever you may be reading this from! Until the next post...

Louise :)

Hospital Update

I know two posts in one day is a little excessive, but just wanted to post a few photos from my visit to Mbale hospital this morning.

This is David, the little boy that got pushed into a fire bin about 3 weeks ago. I know it looks nasty, but this is actually an improvement from when I first met him. You can see the skin is starting to grow back over his stomach, but the groin area is still a bit of a mess. He's off antibiotics but is on some pain killers and his mum has to clean his skin with a special liquid. I went to the pharmacy with one of the locals and got some more of both for him, plus some boiled eggs and bananas to eat.

We spoke to David's mother and she told us that the father works some distance away, but returns to Mbale regularly. Since he found out about David's accident, he has not returned home. She has been in the hospital with David for 3 weeks now and cannot return home (and earn an income) until his body has recovered further. They don't know how long that will take.

Poor kid. I am hoping to track his process as he gets better, so I will keep you updated.

Today I was actually visitng the malnutrition ward, we were just swinging by the surgical ward to visit David. It was quite an intense experience. I had a good chat with the head nurse there about how many people visit the ward to get a packet of a special peanut paste containing milk powder and vitamins for their undernourished kids. Since June last year, they have had over 400 clients visit the ward, with the most extreme cases being admitted to the malnutrition ward. The ward currently has 13 children living there, and can squeeze in up to 21. Some children in the ward look chubby but they are actually horribly malnourished; their small bodies swollen with fluid. The ones who look emaciated are more visually disturbing, but are actually on their way to recovery.

This little boy is actually five years old. Five. I couldn't believe it. He was smaller than my two year old nephew.

I can't remember the name of the condition, but basically this kid's head is full of fluid. He is "lucky" in that he can hold his head up - sadly, not all kids with this problem can do that.

This was hard to look at. This child was two or three years old I think and was the skinnest child I have ever seen in person. I've seen lots of photos like this before but when the child is right in front of you and you can hear his cries of pain, you just feel so helpless. There were flies all over him and he was just lying on a mat outside, covered with a thin piece of material.

The nurse told us they had run out of sugar in the ward - they are normally given 5kgs to last a month if I remember that correctly. They add the sugar to milk and porridge or whatever else they are feeding the children in the different stages of their malnutrition. Sugar obviously adds calories which these kids desperately need. I went and bought 2kgs of sugar for them, which will hopefully tie them over until the next lot comes.

I left feeling sad about these kids and angry about the amount of food that is wasted all over the world every single day while kids are literally starving to death. I thought about all the stupid things we waste our money on and how often we buy things we don't need or even like that much, just for the sake of having it. It's overwhelming to think how much money is in the world and how pathetically small a portion of that filters into the places that need it the most. Places like Mbale where a few dollars can mean the difference between life and death. I know I've said it before and I'm not trying to make everyone feel bad, but it's the reality here.

If anyone out there wants to donate specifically to the hospital ministry, my bank details are at the bottom of my blog - if you give any amount and write 'hospital' in the reference box, I will make sure that the entire amount goes straight to the people here that need it the most. I can even give you the name and situation details of the person it helps, so you know exactly where your money is going and what impact it is having. Even $10 can do amazing things over here. Please consider giving and together we really can make a difference!

Thank you :)

Eden

Hello again!  I am back in Mbale and starting to delve into some administrative work here in the office. The last couple of days I have been writing current ‘blurbs’ for all of Jenga’s projects to update on the website. I think all the info on there is from 2009, so a lot has happened since then! Later this morning, we will head to the hospital again which I’m looking forward to. I’m not sure if David will still be in there – part of me hopes he is because I want to see how he is doing, but part of me hopes he has healed so quickly that he is already back home and his mum has been able to return to work. I am taking my camera this time, so hopefully I will be able to take some photos to give you a better idea of what Mbale hospital is like.

Our week in Jinja was pretty amazing. We stayed at a retreat centre called Mto Moyoni which was the closest thing to Eden I can imagine. You might have seen the photos on Facebook, but even they don’t do the place justice. The transformation of the heart course was incredibly enlightening, refreshing and true to its name! It was run by two Dutch ladies who have some pretty interesting stories to tell – one of them was shot in the arm several years ago by some men who thought she was a witch doctor and wanted to kill her (long story), and has the scar to prove it. I started reading a book called ‘Captivating’ while I was there, which God really spoke to me through. It’s quite a few years old now, and I remember lots of girls were talking about it when it came out and I thought it was just a whole lot of mushy girly crap about flowers and princesses and lame stuff, but it turns out I was wrong. I got less than halfway through, but it really changed my thinking on a lot of key spiritual issues and theology and I realised I believed a lot of things I didn’t realise I believed that just weren’t true. I have since downloaded the book to my Kindle so I can finish it J

The grounds were very beautiful and peaceful and I enjoyed just sitting and enjoying nature for long periods of time while overlooking the Nile. We even saw a whole heap of monkeys and a chameleon which was very cool. I didn’t really want to leave Jinja because it was so lovely, but it is good to be back home in Mbale too.

We have another wedding to go to this weekend! The younger brother of one our Jenga staff – Pastor Vinnie – is tying the knot and we’re all very much invited! I bought a semi-African style dress at the market a couple of weeks ago which I’m going to try out. Stay tuned for photos. What else is happening? We are most likely going to get another dog next week – a German Sheppard puppy that is very cute. We’ve come to the realisation that our guard dogs are not so great at guarding, but they’re very good at jumping and licking. They’re the diet coke of guard dogs. Tiff decided that we should get a dog that’s a little more hardcore, so we’re hoping to train this puppy into an intruder-shredding machine. Wish us luck.

The volunteer boys plus Tiff and I are going to head to Kampala next weekend to check it out and enjoy all the luxuries that a main city provides. I’m very excited about the prospect of a proper salad. And the cinema. I feel very out of tune with the world over here – I have no idea what songs are playing on the radio or what movies are showing on the screens. But yet, the world still turns.

I should probably go do some work, but kudos for keeping track of my blog and I will try and keep it updated as much as possible without boring you! Until the next instalment…