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: