A Little Ray of Sunshine

I left Mbarara on the morning of the 24rd. Hilda and Deborah came with me on the bus. Once we arrived in Kampala, we went to Mango hospital together to visit Anthon. It was really good to see him and his mother. He had surgery the day before but was still in good spirits. They removed the infected portions of bone and put an external fixator in (pins to stabilize the bone). He was on lots of antibiotics and pain medication but his mother told us that he was being strong. He had not cried for a single one of his injections. When I asked him how he was doing, he said that he was feeling much pain, but from the outside you never would have known it. What a courageous little boy! I hope he continues to do well.

Anthon, Me, his mother and Deborah:

My Last Day in Mbarara

My last day in Mbarara was actually spent in Masaska, buying goats. We did not return to Mbarara until 430 pm and then we got lost trying to find the place where we were to drop the goats off. It was starting to get dark, but I made one last visit to some of my favorite kids in the villages. I had some photos printed earlier and I gave these away to the kids. They were very happy to finally receive a hard copy of a picture after having many taken. I gave some other small gifts away and it was a really good night! I finished off the night by taking milk tea and casaava. It was a nice way to end the day.

Me and Elizabeth:
Me and Anthony:
Me and Fareed:
All the kids:
Me and Ida:
Meeka with his new shoes:

Buyin Goats

After my string of bad luck, things started to go well for me again. I had just a few days left in Uganda, and I thought I would make the most of them. What better way to spend ones time than buying goats! Exciting eh? Well, not really... On Tuesday (July22), we drove out to Kasesse, which is about 3 hours north west of Mbarara. The drive was beautiful considering we had to pass through Queen Elizabeth National Park.

Tea Plantations:

Lake Albert:

Kazinga Channel:

The equator:

When we arrived at the farm to purchase the goats, we were sadly disappointed. Although the animals looked good, there were some discrepancies with their records etc, so we decided not to buy any of the goats. The following day we travelled another 3 hours to Masaska (east of Mbarara) to visit a well-known dairy goat farm. We were impressed with the goats and bought 13! Our original plan was to shove all the goats in the back of our small SUV, but needless to say, we realized quite quickly that this plan was not going to work. Instead, we took 5 goats with us and arranged for the transport of the rest the following day. Luckily these were well behaved goats so the journey with them went well.

A string of bad luck

It has been some time since I last posted an update. At the beginning of the week, I got hit with a really bad cold that I got from one of the ladies in the villages. I know it was from her because everyone that worked with her 2 weeks back is now suffering. I was starting to get better from that illness when I got hit with a nice case of food poisoning. That kept me in bed for a good day and without food for almost 3. I was starting to feel better from that when I accidently (stupidly) deleted all the photos from my camera. I had not backed up the majority of the photos so needless to say, I am devastated. I had some pictures on the work computer so I was hoping that would be able to retrieve some of these. Again, my bad luck continued. The computer crashed and is now completely out of commission. So, I guess the end result of this crappy past week is that I have few pictures to show from my trip and I have no real update for now. I do have some good news though. I have arranged to volunteer at the Uganda Wildlife Education Center for my last three days in Uganda. I am not quite sure what I will be doing but I feel confident that I will be able to spend some time with the chimpanzees. Now the challenge is leaving my camera alone long enough to get some photos back to Canada! Sigh....

Anthon

I started out the day by attending church with Hilda. It was a very dynamic ceremony with loads of singing and many "hallelujahs!" I had met the pastor a few weeks ago when we treated his pigs. During his sermon, he mentioned our ability to 'heal is pigs; praise the lord...hallelujah!!" I guess I have healing powers. Awesome!

Today was also the day that we picked up Anthon and his mother, Cecilia, and took them to the orthopedic center. They are being transported to Kampala tomorrow so that Anthon can have his surgery. When we arrived at their home, there were many people from the community there. Most of the people there were helping Cecilia prepare the house and the other children for her departure. It was wonderful to see how the whole community got together to help this one family. While we waited, Cecilia had set out tea, bread, avocados and bananas for us. We ate and watched the children play dodge ball with a wound up ball of plastic bags. When it was time to leave, Cecilia loaded the boot of our car with matoke, yams and eggplant! It was really nice of her. In return, I gave Anthon a teddy bear and his face lit up when I gave it to him. It was really cute. We had a safe journey to the medical center and I hope they are both now settling in well. I am still amazed by the generosity of people here and it reinforces my desire to help them in any capacity that I can.

Anthon (looking very smart today!) and his mother:

World Population Day

The National World Population Day was held in Mbarara, Uganda. It is an event that aimed at educating and encouraging local Ugandans to participate in family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention. FOAC was invited to participate in the event so we set up a booth at the stadium. The morning started slowly. The opening ceremony for the event was supposed to begin at 9am. So we had arrived good and early and had our booth ready to go. However, we neglected to remember one thing - African time! By 9am people were just starting to put up their tents and get their booths started. However, this was good opportunity for Francis (our co-worker at FOAC) to scope out the scene for free stuff. He found us free t-shirts, hats and he even hooked us up with badges that identified us as officials for the event. It was really funny how excited he was to receive and give out free stuff.
The opening ceremony began at 11:30 and there was a huge parade of school children complete with a brass band.
By mid-day, the guest of honor had arrived. Before he made his way to our table, we were instructed to 'prepare ourselves' and stand as he passed by. There was a huge crowd complete with photographers and groupies. I still have no idea who this man was (some representative for the president) but apparently his attendance was a big deal.

Paravet Graduation Ceremony and Football Handout

On Wednesday, we held the graduation ceremony for the 2 paravets that we had trained earlier in the week. We had invited the entire community to attend the ceremony. However, when we arrived in Kitoha, no one was at the church. We inquired about the lack of attendance and we were told that there was a burial that day and visits by the sanitation minister. Of course, anytime we stop the vehicle near the trading center, we always receive a HUGE audience:

So, we had no choice but to wait and hope that some people would show up. As we waited, we watched the activites of the primary school nearby the church. One of the younger classes participated in physical excercises:

Meanwhile, a small child who did not attend the school rode a bicycle that was much too big for him. He was suprisingly talented at riding this thing:

There was another older class that was participating in craft day. The girls sat under a tree while they made baskets. The boys constructed matts.

After several hours of waiting, some beneficiaries eventually showed up. The crowd was very small, but we proceeded with the event anyways. We handed out the certificates and aprons to the ladies and Rebecca gave a talk on land rights. Overall, the ceremony went quite well, with the exception of the strange man (who I talked of in my last posting about training the paravets) who interrupted the talk every 15 minutes with odd questions and comments.
After the ceremony, we donated 2 footballs to the nearby school; 1 ball for the girls team and one for the boys team. The kids were very happy. It was a good day!

The Third Dog

Normally there are 2 dogs always at the office, Max (Hilda's dog) and Puppy (real name, Bush), but now there are 3? Last week a new dog showed up and she has not left since. Maybe she heard that there were muzungus at the office...ha ha ha. She pretty much looks like a dingo, and the fact that she is living with 2 male dogs now means that there will be puppies soon. Yikes!

Max and the new dog:
The new dog:
The three stooges:

A sunset in Mbarara

While I was walking to the tea room last night, I saw this beautiful sunset:

Then I had tea and fried cassava for supper...mmm delicious!

Teaching in Kitooha

On Friday, Judy and I began training 2 paravets in Kitooha. We arrived at 9:30 eager to start the day, but little did we know that the catholic prayers were being held in the church. We waited and waited and finally at 12:30!!! the prayers had finished. The turnout was good. About 25-30 attended. We taught about basic goat husbandry and identification of diseases. We will continue our trainings on Monday, talking about specific goat diseases and then we will hold a practical session on Tuesday. Overall the teaching went very well with a few hitches. There was a mentally disturbed young man who insisted on attending the trainings. He would intermittently stand up and rant in some language that no one could understand. We would wait patiently, then he would finally sit down and be quiet. Then there was this other man who would continually ask irrelevant questions. For example, after we were talking about basic diseases in goats he asked "why do you only work with goats? why dont you give people money for school fees?" Weird. I directed those questions to Francis, the coordinator for FOAC. Other than that, things went well, and I am excited to continue the trainings next week.

Kitooha, the parish of many hills. This is where I got my Bachiga name, Kyakobale Lillian:

The church where we held our training:
The primary school across from the church:
Me teaching with Sajja, a recently graduated veterinary doctor and helpful interpreter:

The class:
Two boys who were fascinated with the camera:

The Stock Farm

Recently, we visited the stock farm, which is a funded, research-type farm. They have high standard farming practices and they act as a model for other farmers to look upon. They offer animal exchanges (with purebreed goats) to local farmers as a way to improve the local livestock. The farm is really neat, complete with the James Harriot feel to it. We took a small tour and I was able to take some nice photos.

The smiling goat:

The cutest piglets ever:

The Craft Sale

So, this posting has been a bit delayed. Actually, I completely forgot to write it because I had been away for some time (when I was travelling in Tanzania and Rwanda). Before I had left for my vacation, Kent had organized a craft sale at the big regional trade fair that was going on in Mbarara. We collected crafts from the beneficiaries in different parishes and displayed them at the trade show. Initially, things were going very slow and not much had sold. However, by the end of the fair, most of the items had been sold and decent profits were realized by most of the parishes. We have just recently distributed their money and all the women have been very happy, so happy in fact that they continue to send us away with their crafts to sell. Now we have an office full of crafts, but nowhere to sell them! Good thing Judy has a shopping addiction and a passion for baskets!!!

A Glimmer of Hope

A few weeks ago, we were out in the field performing surveys and collecting information on orphans that require sponsorship for a new program at FAOC. We were told of a boy who had a serious leg injury and who wanted help to receive medical treatment. We were taken to his house, but no one was around. When we looked closer inside, there was a small child sitting in the corner of the house. He was naked and unable to move. His leg was incredibly swollen (4 times the size it should be) and I could see pus draining from several seperate areas of his leg. He had beads of sweat on his head, likely because he was in severe pain. When we finally met his mother, we were told that he had fallen 1 year ago and developed a swelling on his leg (abscess). However, she had been unable to provide medical care for him so she had just been treating the leg locally, cleaning away the pus. She had received enough help earlier in the year to have an x-ray taken, but he had received no further treatment. When I looked at the x-ray, I was amazed at the severity of the injury. The boy has 2 areas of severely infected bone and a possible fracture of his femur. I was absolutely devastated to see a child in such a horrible state. While his mother worked and while his siblings attended school, this boy sat in his home, alone, for an entire year. I decided that I was going to get treatment for this boy so that he could have a chance at a decent life. I found a hospital near our office that specializes in orthopedic surgerys. They are going to provide the surgery for the boy for free, and then I will help pay all the other associated costs. We have scheduled a surgery date for the 14th of this month. The mother is happy to have her prayers answered and I hope that this surgery will alleviate this boy's pain and and give him some hope for being able to live a normal life.

Anthon, 6 years old:

A Hidden Beach

While I was travelling around Tanzania and Zanzibar, I realized that the one thing I missed was the water. Mbarara is known for its matoke. There are matoke plantations everywhere, literally, and since being here, I have only seen a few minor streams and rivers. However, my friend and co-worker from FAOC, Deborah, sent me a message one day telling me she was taking me to the beach. I was very skeptical at first...what beach could possibly be in Mbarara? However, once I got there, I was amazed. Hidden just outside of the city limits is a rocky area where the river flows very fast. There are waterfalls in this area and the owner of the land is converting the site into a resort and banquet center. It was really cool. Because Deborah is friends with the owner, he gave us free drinks and food. So, we drank beer, ate muchomo (goat meat...I dont know how, but I am able to eat it, well more like swallow it whole, when I have to) and watched kids fish on the river. It was a good day.