Africa and Beyond...

Boat Trip on the Turag River

2010-08-08T17:42:00.000-07:00

As a farewell gift, my students took me and Corina on a boat trip along a nearby river. I wanted to go boating at some point during my stay, but hadn't found the time to do it, so I was thankful that they arranged a trip for me! Here are a few pictures of the event...

This is the boat we took.

Here I am trying to row the boat. As you can see, my students got a kick out of this! There is only one heavy paddle, and it isn't very easy to use! I really thought it would be easier (since I have done a lot of boating in my life), but the technique was completely different than what I have ever done. I told my students to jump out so the boat would be lighter, but they didn't listen to me, so we just went in a circle. Eventually I gave up!

Group shot!

Bamboo bridge across the river.

Party boat - these guys (and yes, all of them are guys) were having a dance party to very loud music on the top of their boat.

Kids playing on barrels and pipes in the water.

And, my personal favourite! Naked kids showing off for us - diving, jumping and doing flips! (My students were encouraging them and told them to do flips, which is why I was able to get this picture!)

I loved seeing the kids playing in the water - they were having a great time. The water was pretty dirty, though, and as you can see, the kids use industrial equipment as their playground so it isn't exactly the safest environment for swimming. But they were definitely enjoying themselves!

This boat trip was a great way to spend time with my students, and I am really glad they thought of it and arranged it! (Thanks Nisha, Shraddha, Sahina, Dalia, Rubina, Sharif, Shahed, Shuvashish, Asha, and Chanak!)

Kids in Dhaka

2010-07-19T03:35:00.000-07:00

These kids are selling cigarettes outside the shopping centre near my apartment. They were pretty happy that I took a picture, although they don't all look it!

Looks like one of these little guys was telling a really funny story!

These little guys ran in front of me and grouped together so that I would take a picture, although it took them a little while to organize themselves! Showing them the picture on my camera resulted in a lot of excitement and laughter - they were pretty pleased with themselves!

This little guy lives in my neighborhood - so cute!

I love the smile of the woman on the left - so beautiful!

Finally, here's picture of one of my apartment spiders...but I'll spare you the close-up, because I know that not all my blog readers appreciate my bug pictures!

Things don't always go according to plan...

2010-07-07T09:50:00.000-07:00

Today, I worked at home preparing lectures for my classes, so in late afternoon I decided to go out for a walk to buy some mangoes. I figured I would be out for 30 min or so. I texted my roommate, Corina, to see if she wanted to come. She did, so we planned to meet between school and our apartment...I'd walk, she'd walk, we'd meet in the middle...but that didn't work. But a couple of phone calls later we found each other, so it was all good. So we started walking to find mangoes.

The corner where we like to get mangoes had some for sale, but they were rotten. So no luck. So we kept walking. Then, walking along under a sunny blue sky, a small cloud appears and it starts to rain. So now we are walking and taking a shower at the same time and drawing a lot of stares as we walked in the rain. We had to walk further than we expected, because mango sellers were in short supply, but finally we got to a fruit and vegetable market. We found some mangoes, picked out a few that were okay, and asked the seller "How much?" He tells us, "120 taka per kg." Corina and I both react to this with, "What? No! Too much! 60 taka per kg!" (60 taka per kg is the foreigner price in mango season, and when mangoes are in shorter supply we pay 80 taka per kg.) He tried to convince us that he was charging everyone 120 per kg, so we gave him a couple of looks of displeasure and left. We wandered through the rest of the market (which was actually really interesting...think Granville Island market but a lot more dirty and with a leaky roof) but made it out to the other side without finding any more mangoes.

At that point, we were damp from the rain and still mango-less, so we decided to just go to the grocery store and buy them there (sometimes I really appreciate fixed-price stores, as they call them here...a little more expensive, but much less work to shop there!) So we got on a rickshaw, and then we realized a few minutes in that he was riding the wrong way. (Rickshaw drivers often nod and say yes like they know where you are going even though they didn't understand a word you said, so it's usually a good idea to have a general idea of where you are going before you get on one!) So we had a very nice neighborhood tour...saw some really nice apartment buildings, discovered a park and playground (where the local kids were out playing and the adults were all out getting their evening exercise by walking around the park), and finally made it to the grocery store. We bought mangoes for 80 taka per kg, a bunch of other stuff we needed (because we were there), ate an ice cream bar, and took a rickshaw home. So two hours later, we had some mangoes and a really interesting experience to go with it! I observed to Corina on the way home that you definitely have to be flexible in a country like this and just be able to enjoy the experiences you have, even if they are totally unplanned!

I am writing this post sitting the in dark because the power is out yet again, and I am hearing large cockroaches jumping/flying around my kitchen...kind of gross sounding, but oh well. Really, I should try and get on top of this cockroach issue...but I think I am just going to accept that in order to have a low stress life, I will have to peacefully coexist with them.

Power outages, cockroaches, and very long trips to find mangoes...it's all part of the experience of Bangladesh!

Critters...

2010-06-30T23:24:00.000-07:00

Bugs, and big ones at that, are a part of traveling to a more tropical climate. (Although, it is worth noting that bugs are a part of my life at home too...I think my sister killed over 40 spiders in the first two weeks she lived in my apartment).

Mosquitoes are plentiful here in Dhaka (and they love me), so I sleep under a mosquito net. Thankfully, they don't carry malaria. Cockroaches are also plentiful - they mostly live in our kitchen, but I also have a fairly large cockroach family living in the cracks and crevices in my bathroom. There are so many that it is usually not worth killing them - more just emerge from the cracks. It's a bit of a losing battle. However, I have learned that you have to kill them carefully, or you have a really big mess to clean up afterward! I think it is really funny when the cockroaches are "hiding" in holes in the sink, but you can still see their antennae sticking out and moving around...reminds me of when little kids play hide and seek! (you know, when they just can't quite get themselves fully hidden even though they think they are!)

Here are a couple of my bathroom cockroaches...these are some smallish ones...

There are also some impressive spiders in Bangladesh - they are huge! I've seen one big spider in my house which I just pretended didn't exist and I've never seen it again, but the really big spiders can be seen close up in Lawacherra Rainforest (the same place I saw the gibbons and got leeches on my feet)!

Here's a couple of pictures - they were pretty cool to look at because you could see their body parts in so much detail! In this first one you can see the bug the spider had killed and wrapped up (beside it in the web). This picture is of the spider's underside.

Here's another shot...

And, one more, just because!!

Traffic in Dhaka

2010-06-26T21:36:00.006-07:00

So, just to give you a sense of where I live, this is a short video I took of the traffic on an average day in Dhaka. This road is one of the main roads near my house - about a 20 minute walk away from my apartment. Thankfully, there are many pedestrian overpasses on this road, which is where I took this video from.

Things that you might notice in the video...

-car alarm sirens that some of the buses install as their horns in an effort to get other vehicles to move out of their way (it's not terribly successful, and just irritates their foreign passengers (aka me) to no end!)
-people crossing the street despite the presence of pedestrian overpasses!
-rickshaws waiting to cross the highway (I was trying to get the video to include that sight as well, but didn't succeed).
-cars and buses cutting each other off constantly...

When I take a rickshaw and I need to go across this road, I always get off the rickshaw on one side, pay the driver, and then walk over the pedestrian overpass and get on another rickshaw. No sense in risking my life and his!! There are traffic police that stop traffic, but they are not always listened to and I am just not ready to risk crossing in a rickshaw when I can walk much more safely!

The buses are all dented and scraped along their sides from cutting each other off in traffic...pretty scary looking. Dhaka is not the place to drive if you are concerned about the condition of your car...you will get scraped and bumped by other vehicles.

The honking really got to me in the first couple of weeks, and some days it still does irritate me because it seems so senseless (why must we all honk when no vehicle is moving???) but for the most part now I can tune it out.

Traffic in Dhaka...always interesting!!

Tea Estates & Reflections on Poverty

2010-06-19T07:40:00.000-07:00

One of the highlights in Srimongol is seeing and visiting the many tea estates in the area. The tea plants grow on many of the hills, and there are often tea pickers working, picking the tea leaves that will be used to make the tea. Pictures show it best...

Notice the tea picker in this photo?

A tea picker...

The tea grown in this area tastes great, and I'm definitely going to bring some home with me!

I found it easy to look at the tea estates and the tea pickers and think about how beautiful it all looked, but then I found out that the tea pickers only make 48 taka a day (about 70 cents Canadian). This was a bit of a sobering realization and it saddened me - 48 taka is barely enough to buy food to eat, let alone have anything extra to spend on other expenses of living. This is an unfortunate reality for millions of people in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world, and it is also the most densely populated. As a result, labour is cheap, and so you find people like the tea pickers working extremely hard for very low wages. And even still, there are millions in Bangladesh who are unemployed, and many resort to begging on the streets. Nearly everywhere I go, I am asked for money (taka), and the condition that many of the beggars are in is heart-wrenching. People with paralysis, missing limbs, birth defects, and blindness, the old and the very young (babies & toddlers) can all be found on the street. Bangladeshis do give to beggars quite regularly, so a subsistence living can be made by begging, but it is painful to witness.

Being here and seeing this first-hand is definitely challenging...gives me lots to process and think about. At the same time, I am encouraged by the potential that Bangladesh has - the people here are not blind to the challenges that face the country, and bit by bit they are working to improve the situation here. Many of our nursing students are passionate about doing this, and that is really exciting - they want to go and make changes in their country, be leaders in health care, and provide care to those who need it most and who are often overlooked. I'm excited about the potential that they have to accomplish this!

World Cup fever!

2010-06-15T03:54:00.000-07:00

Well, the World Cup has just started, and preparations have been underway in Bangladesh for the last month. Flags are flying on rooftops, from apartment windows, from flagpoles in the middle of villages, and men are sporting jerseys all over the place. The two favourite teams here are Argentina and Brazil, and pretty much every Bangladesh male has chosen one or the other to support. They are not half-hearted in their support…apparently, fights between the two groups of supporters are not uncommon. I was surprised that even when we left Dhaka, the World Cup fever was just as strong…it was great to see even small towns/villages flying the flags of Argentina and Brazil.

I had a pretty funny interaction with one boy as I was walking in the rural areas near the town of Srimongol. Most Bangladeshis know very little English, but most people know “hello, how are you?” and “good afternoon”, and boys and men will often ask us “where you from?” or “what country?” So this kid who was about 13 or 14 walked by Corina and I on this rural road, and he asks, “Where you from?” So we tell him – “Canada” and “the Netherlands”. Then I said to him, “World Cup – Brazil or Argentina?” At that point, his face broke out into a huge smile, and said, “Argentina! Argentina!” with his arms above his head in a cheer for his team. It was pretty cute! World Cup fever surpasses all language barriers, apparently…

Here are some pictures of Argentina supporters in Srimongol town…the flag they were carrying was pretty impressive!!

The flag was long!!! And it definitely attracted attention!

They paraded through the down-town area too! Go Argentina!!

And, just for fun...here's a couple of guys taking cell phone pictures of Corina and I when we are out walking...they asked if they could take our picture, so I agreed with the condition that I could take theirs too! People take our pictures on their camera phones all the time...and usually they don't ask...it's a little weird, but oh well! Foreigners are really uncommon here, so we tend to attract a lot of attention.

Taking the train...

2010-06-14T08:15:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I took a train trip up to a more rural area of Bangladesh, which was really nice – so good to get away from the noise and busyness of the city, even if only for two days. We went to a town called Srimongol, which is where a lot of tea estates and fruit gardens are. It is a more hilly area of Bangladesh, so that was a nice change as well (much of Bangladesh is flat and covered in water).

We had to get up early to catch our train, and at 5:30 in the morning we met our rickshaws to get a ride to the station. At the train station, we found a place to wait where we didn’t attract too much attention – as foreigners in this country, it is not unusual for a crowd of people to circle around just to look at you, and for beggars to come up to you constantly and persistently, but we avoided that for the most part. The people we were sitting near were surreptitiously reading our tickets to find out where we were going, so I knew that they would tell us when our train came. Sure enough, they let us know, and a couple of people also looked at our tickets and made us follow them right onto the train and into the right car. (There is basically no way of knowing what car to get on unless you can read Bangla, and because Bangla is an entirely different alphabet I can’t read anything here!) One lady took us right to our seats, told the people who were sitting in them to move, and then stayed with us for most of the trip! People here definitely do want to do whatever they can to help visitors to their country – it is really nice. We’ve had similar experiences everywhere we go in Bangladesh – someone will always come to our aid, whether we ask them to or not!

There are a few different classes of tickets you can buy for the train – air conditioned compartment, first class compartment, assigned seat in the regular compartment, and standing room in the regular compartment. Riding in the cargo cars or on the top of the train is the least expensive way to travel…and it is a pretty common sight. Every train has at least a few people on top of it (and apparently a lot of people during busy travel times). We had assigned seats in the regular compartment. The windows all open, and there are fans as well, so it was actually pretty comfortable… not exactly the cleanest, but still, not bad! The temperature was bearable, especially because we had lots of wind blowing into the car.

Here are some pictures from the trip.

Transporting bricks down the river.

The inside of the train...not too full, thankfully! And the fans in the ceiling were working...which we appreciated during the times when the train had to stop to let another train pass.

Outside of the train, during one of our stops along the way.

Who knew one person could carry so much hay on their head at one time??

Pictures and stories from the rainforest and tea estates to come soon!

Being a tourist in Dhaka...

2010-06-05T00:35:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, one of the other volunteers, Rhodina, and I decided to get out and see some of the tourist sites in Dhaka. There aren't many...tourism isn't really a big thing here, and the city is mostly just full of people...but we figured that we should try to get to at least a few of the places that the travel books suggest.

We decided to take a taxi to our first location, and paid way too much for it, but oh well (and really, too much was about $8 Canadian dollars for an hour long ride, so not that big a deal)! We went to Lalbagh Fort, which is a fort built in the late 1700s. We walked around, looked at some really old buildings...it was interesting. Here are a couple of pictures...

We also discovered that Lalbagh Fort is a dating/courting location! Bangladesh is a primarily Muslim country, and it is extremely unusual to see men and women together and showing any type of affection towards each other in public. So we thought it was pretty funny to pay our admission fee and go into the fort, and find that it is full of couples all sitting close to each other, sometimes even touching or holding hands!! A few of the women were even wearing burkas. I took a picture...not a very good one, but you get the idea...

We were the only Western tourists at Lalbagh - everyone else was Bangladeshi. Apparently, seeing Western tourists is a pretty interesting and unusual, cause every few minutes someone would come up to us and ask us to pose for a camera-phone picture. Or maybe they just thought that a Canadian girl in a salwar kameez was interesting and unusual... Either way, I thought it was really funny when a whole family came up to me, grouped around me, and started taking pictures!! Here's me in my salwar kameez...

After Lalbagh, we took a rickshaw to try to find the Armenian Church, another historic site. The rickshaw puller had no idea where it was, even though he said he did, so we took a very circuitous route to get there, which involved stopping multiple times to ask directions, traveling up and down bumpy alley-like streets in Old Dhaka, asking for more directions...until we finally got there. From outside the walls, the church was unimpressive, but inside it was pretty interesting! This church was built in the late 1700s or early 1800s, so it has a long history. Here are a few pictures...

Last stop of the day was at New Market, which is this huge market that sells pretty much anything and everything you might need...clothes, shoes, housewares, books, etc. etc. etc. By that time we were too tired to do any shopping, though, since shopping at this kind of market is pretty high pressure ("sister, sister, come look, very nice") and involves negotiating the price of items (to at least half, if not more, of the original price that they tell you...and even then that is still more than Bangladeshis pay!)

To get home, we planned to take a taxi, but couldn't find one. So, bus it was...fortunately, we knew the name of our bus stop, and people were really helpful in making sure we bought the right bus ticket and got on the right bus. One guy even came and checked to make sure that we would get off at the right place. The people here are overall really helpful, and I feel quite safe here.

I wish I could describe the craziness of traffic in this city, but I really don't think I could do it justice...and pictures don't do it justice either because they don't really show the chaos and noise that is rickshaws, cars, buses, trucks, and CNGs all trying to use and cross 4-lane highways with no clear traffic rules except for the biggest vehicle wins. I try to take buses as much as possible for that reason, although they are an adventure in themselves...and I probably shouldn't have as much confidence in their size as I do. The fortunate thing is that there is so much traffic that the buses typically don't get going very fast.

These are a few of my adventures getting around Dhaka city! Next weekend I am hoping to take the train out of the city for a day or two...just to get away from the noise and busy-ness here and try to see a different side of Bangladesh. So hopefully the rain co-operates!!

PS Facebook is still blocked by the government of Bangladesh...and it's too much bother to try to find a proxy server that works...so I continue in my Facebook-less state for a while!

No Facebook for me...

2010-05-31T01:17:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling really out of touch these days. This is because I can't access Facebook!!!! Unfortunately, it has been blocked in the country of Bangladesh! And because I am not that tech-savvy I'm not able to figure out a way to get around the block...sigh. So, you'll have to email me if you want to get a response from me! I'm not sure how long the block will be for...apparently they arrested the offender, but who knows...

Here's the link to the story about it on BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/south_asia/10192755.stm

And, just because, here are some more pictures!

Here's the river that is near my house. I walk along this river to get to one of the big shopping areas nearby. The river isn't the cleanest, but walking along it is one of the quietest places I have found in this noisy, busy city!

Fishing on the river. Fishermen catch tons of big fish here, although we don't eat them because the river water is so polluted.

Houses on the river...

Around the neighbourhood

2010-05-22T22:21:00.001-07:00

A typical street along my walk to school...

Construction of a new apartment building. There are 12 or 13 million people in Dhaka, and the population growth is huge (I've heard rumors that 1,000 people move into Dhaka each day). Apartment buildings are being constructed all over the place in response to the growing urban population.

Here's one of the neighbourhood kids in a full-out sprint towards me saying "Hi! Hi! Hi!"

In our neighbourhood, rain makes navigating the streets a bit difficult, and the construction that is happening all around us doesn't help to improve the situation! I had to walk through both of these sections of road, and thankfully didn't get nearly as muddy as I expected I would!

The ducks like the puddles, though...

Big sister looking after her little brother...

And one of my favourites...two little guys playing happily in a puddle!

Electricity

2010-05-18T22:49:00.000-07:00

One aspect of life that I take for granted in North America is regular and consistent access to electricity. In Bangladesh, access to electricity is regularly intermittent. Throughout the day and the evening, power to our area gets cut off for about an hour at a time, probably about 4 or 5 times a day. The power goes off at 50 minutes past the hour, and comes on exactly one hour later…that is the only thing that is regular about it. It is anyone’s guess as to when the power will go off…last night, it was off from 7:50 to 8:50 and from 10:50 to 11:50. Now, when I know that I am doing something that needs light, I am always rushing to get it done before 50 minutes past the hour, just in case we lose power! Sometimes I turn on my AC to try to cool my room down a bit just in case the power goes off (our average indoor temperature is 32.5 degrees, so it’s a bit stifling with no air movement!)

Intermittent power…one of the many unique aspects of life in Dhaka!

And just for fun...the view from inside a CNG (CNGs are these green three-wheeled vehicles that you hire to get around the city...I'll make sure to take a picture of what they look like from the outside for a later post!) CNGs feel kind of like a cage on wheels...kind of scary, but fun too!

Brrr...

2010-05-15T05:11:00.002-07:00

Tonight (May 14), I felt cold for the first time since arriving in Bangladesh!!!!! This evening, a storm rolled in (with thunder, lightning, and lots of rain) so we decided to head up to the roof of the apartment building to stand in the rain and watch the storm! It was great…we got nice and wet, appreciated the lightning, and after 15 minutes or so I actually started to feel a little cold!! It was a great feeling. I don’t think I will like the rain so much tomorrow as I make my way to the university in the mud, but for tonight the cool air is a relief!

International Nurses Day

2010-05-15T05:08:00.000-07:00

May 12 was International Nurses Day, and here in Bangladesh, it is celebrated with much more enthusiasm and formality than I have ever seen in Canada!

On May 12 in the afternoon, the nursing students at IUBAT hosted a Nurses Day celebration for nursing faculty and students. The first half of the 3-hour program was quite formal. As each nursing faculty member entered the room, the students applauded (it surprised me…I wasn’t expecting that!), and the most important guests (key nursing faculty members and the university’s chancellor) had to sit at a table at the front of the room. Then, of course, it was time for speeches. The entire nursing faculty, a couple of the students, and the chancellor spoke. I am considered visiting faculty, and the students gave me about 5 minutes warning that they would like me to make a speech as well! So when it was my turn, I did some quick thinking and managed to find something to say…and I think it went pretty well, thankfully! Here’s one of the students making his speech…

After speeches, it was time for cake! The students had ordered a very elaborate cake that they also decorated with candles. (Lighting the candles was a bit tricky…took a few tries and required the fans to be turned off, but eventually we got them all lit!) There also had to be a wedding-style cutting of the cake by the nursing faculty and the chancellor…and then the cake was devoured. Here’s what it looked like…

After the cake, it was time for the ‘Cultural Program’. This involved some singing of traditional Bangla songs, a couple of Bangla-inspired hip-hop dances (one to a Shakira song…) and a couple of games. It was fun to spend time with all the students and share some laughs with them – they are really very friendly and are a lot of fun, which is great. The students and faculty all speak English, so that makes it easy to get to know them.

On May 13, we (the visiting faculty – there are 4 of us) went to a big private hospital for their very formal Nurses Day event. This one followed the same format as our students’ program (speeches then the ‘Cultural Program’) but at this event I got to see some more traditional Bangla dancing and singing. Here are some of the dancers…

Happy International Nurses' Day!

Bangladesh!

2010-05-10T19:32:00.001-07:00

Hello from Bangladesh! I am in Bangladesh to complete a practicum for my MPH, and I am working with the International University of Business, Agriculture, and Technology (IUBAT) College of Nursing to teach a course in Community Health Nursing.

I’ve been in Bangladesh for four days now…I arrived on Friday evening, had a day to recover (and do some shopping) on Saturday, and on Sunday started work! I have definitely jumped right into things here.

I knew it would be hot here, and yes, it definitely is! The temperature is in the high 30s, but with the humidity feels more like in the 40s. I get pretty sweaty when I am outside, and it is amazing the amount of water I need to drink to keep hydrated! Fortunately, my bedroom has air conditioning and a fan, as does the nursing office at the university (where I do much of my work). Rainy season hasn’t started yet in Bangladesh, so we’ll see how I like that…

I live in an apartment building that is within walking distance of the university, and I share my apartment with a nurse named Carina. She is about my age, and is from the Netherlands. She’s been really helpful in showing me around, helping me go shopping, etc. We each have our own bedroom and bathroom and then share the kitchen area. Other volunteers and staff live in the other apartments in the building.

Lunches and dinners are provided for us, and are basically always the same meal with slight variations…chicken, rice, lentil sauce, and some type of (often unidentifiable) cooked vegetables. It’s pretty good, although I’m only on day 4 and feel like I could use some variety in my diet! I’m sure by month three I’ll be used to it.

Walking to the university is interesting. There is a ton of construction going on in our neighborhood – lots of apartment buildings are being constructed. In the midst of the construction are homes where families of the construction workers live. So there are lots of kids running around, and they often stop to yell, “Hi! Hi! Hi! Good morning!” regardless of the time of day. I’ll have to take some pictures of my walk for another blog entry.

Well, time for me to get going and start my workday – I teach my first class today. I think I am going to have to lecture sitting down because of the heat…not sure I can stand at the front of the class that doesn’t have air conditioning for two hours…but I’ll let you know how it goes…

Medical Clinics in the Camps

2010-04-08T19:56:00.015-07:00

In addition to going out to Chambrun, our medical teams got to spend time offering clinics in the IDP (internally displaced people) camps. My team spent a day at a smaller IDP camp where there were probably about 100 or so makeshift tents. We used a school bus to transport us and all our stuff around; the bus also served to provide some shade. This is the bus...When we backed the bus into the middle of the camp, within a minute a line had developed. Our translators and a couple of the guys worked on organizing the line and keeping people back so we had room to set up and start working. The Haitians were amazingly patient - once the line had formed, the majority of people were content to wait their turn, even if their turn was a few hours away and they were standing in the sun in 30+ degree weather for that whole time. This is what the line looked like at the beginning...Both nurses and doctors set up stations where we could see patients, in an effort to keep the line moving. Each station also had a translator. I didn't expect that I would see patients as independently as I did, but the doctors were fantastic - any time I had a question, they were happy to come over and see the patient as well. I saw mostly kids and babies, because my specialty is pediatrics and I was definitely more comfortable with them!! (I don't know what to do with adults anymore...)

The patients that I saw during the clinic had pretty unremarkable medical problems - lots of colds and coughs, mild dehydration, and tons of skin infections (usually ringworm). No injuries from the earthquake - most of those had already been dealt with at other clinics/facilities. There were definitely a lot of conditions that were caused or worsened by the stress and trauma people had experienced, though, especially for the adults. Quite a few kids and adults came in with complaints of not being able to sleep since the earthquake. We had a trauma counselor available, and she spent the day talking to people about their experiences during and after the earthquake.

One experience that I had during the clinic sticks out to me. I was seeing kids all day, so this older lady (maybe in her 60s) comes over with a girl who was about 4. She sits down with the kid on her lap at my station. Through the translator, I ask what the problem is for the girl. The lady and the translator get into a long discussion at that point. The translator then tells me that the lady doesn't know the girl and doesn't know if anything is wrong with the girl - she just wanted to be seen quicker so she found a kid in the camp who would stand in line with her.

I felt really frustrated at this point - it was late in the day, I was hot and tired, and I was feeling taken advantage of. I told the lady that I really only know about children, and I might not be the best person to treat her, but she could tell me and I would try. She told me her complaint, and while I don't remember what it was exactly I do know that it was minor. She then starts to tell me that the girl is sick with a cough, which I had a hard time believing since I had just been told that she didn't know the girl! I was getting more frustrated, so I got up and took a break. One of the doctors, Dr. Parkin, was much more graceful than I was and he told me to send the lady over for him to see.

Afterwards, once I had rehydrated, showered, and cooled down (literally and figuratively), I did some reflecting on this situation. I found my response to this lady interesting...her actions may not have been right, but at the same time, I also didn't take the time to look at her situation a bit more holistically - what had she experienced, and what were the reasons for her actions? She was an example of how easy it was for me to forget, in the midst of seeing patient after patient after patient, that all of these people had experienced significant trauma and perhaps needed an extra bit of compassion or understanding from me.

I could keep describing the mobile clinic in writing, but I think pictures might do a better job...

Medical Clinic in Chambrun

2010-03-31T21:02:00.009-07:00

One of the clinics that our team worked at was an established clinic in the rural area of Chambrun. (Half of my team would go to Chambrun, and the other half to the mobile clinic each day.) The Chambrun clinic really felt like it was in the middle of nowhere, even though it was only about a 40 minute drive from where we stayed. The clinic was in a really dry, dusty area, surrounded by fields of cacti. When we first drove up to the clinic I was sure that it wouldn't be a very busy place, as I couldn't really see many houses (or areas where it would look like you would want to put a house) nearby. But apparently this clinic is one of the only health facilities in the area, and so it was quite busy. People walked for a long time to get there, and they must have started at dawn or before because they were all there waiting for us when we arrived in the morning.

The clinic was pretty basic - a couple of treatment rooms with beds (like the beds that are in your doctor's office), a pharmacy area, and an outdoor waiting area. This is the waiting area.

The pharmacy. There was a ton of stuff in it, and we spent a lot of time trying to get it organized.

Seeing patients in the hallway...trying to be efficient!

This little guy was really really sick when he first came in - totally limp and not moving much because he was so dehydrated. We put an IV in him and gave him some fluids and some antibiotics. He came back a couple of times to get more fluids and antibiotics, and by day three he looked great - interactive, playful, and pretty much back to normal.

One of the things that I really didn't expect in Chambrun was how much of an impact the earthquake would have had on people's lives. Chambrun doesn't have a lot of infrastructure, and most of the buildings are single story and made of mud bricks with an aluminum roof. Hardly any (if any at all) collapsed during the earthquake. I knew they would have felt the earthquake, but I really didn't expect it to be so central to their lives since there wasn't the physical reminder of collapsed buildings everywhere you looked.

However, I found it interesting that many of their health problems were referenced to the earthquake. Again and again, people would come in, tell me their complaint, and when I asked how long it had been going on for, the answer was usually "since the earthquake." This was especially true for people with headaches, abdominal pain, and trouble sleeping.

One lady brought her three kids to the clinic, and when I asked what was wrong, she told me that the baby is having trouble walking (the baby was about 18 months old). I asked how long the baby had been having trouble walking for, and the standard reply came back - since the earthquake. So I asked why the baby was having trouble walking, and she told me that the baby was scared of the ground shaking and was scared to walk. The baby looked in pretty good shape, and eventually I saw the baby stand and take some steps, so I knew that there must be more to the story. The translator and I did a bit more questioning, and we found out that the real concern was that the mother was widowed, had lost her mother in the earthquake, and was now unable to provide food for her kids and they were hungry.

My interaction with this lady made me a bit sad...here she is, trying the best she can to get help for her kids after experiencing such huge personal loss, spends all day waiting in line to see us after walking who know how far with three kids, and we couldn't really do much for her other than give her kids some basic medications and connect her with the local pastor. This was the case with many families that we met. To me, she was also a clear example of the earthquake's far reaching effects - she didn't live in a tent camp, yet she had been hugely affected by the earthquake and had similar needs to those that did live in the camps. She and many other people that I met in Chambrun reminded me the importance of making sure that support continues to be offered to those who are in need in all parts of Haiti, not just those in Port-au-Prince.

Thanks for reading! Next up...mobile clinics in the tent camps...

Tent cities.

2010-03-21T22:04:00.009-07:00

In addition to the huge loss of life due to the earthquake, people have also lost their homes. Many homes have collapsed. Some homes are standing but the structure is damaged. And some homes might even be safe to live in, but people are too afraid to sleep indoors. As a result, people have been forced to find shelter elsewhere.

Many Haitians moved to other parts of the country if they were able, but thousands remain in and around Port-au-Prince. Those that have stayed have created tent camps. Some camps are big (thousands of people), some camps are small (hundreds of people) but you see them everywhere.

All the tents are strategically placed so that should another earthquake hit, nothing will fall on them. This is important - at least in their tent, they feel safe.

The majority of the tents are made of sticks and sheets, and some of them are covered with tarps. Real tents are making their way into Haiti, but the need is far far greater than the supply.

The make-shift tents, even if tarped, are not exactly waterproof, and that means that rain gets everything wet. The tents are also extremely close together and many people share each one.

As you can imagine, hygiene and sanitation in the camps is and will continue to be an issue (and a bigger and bigger issue as time passes, especially during the rainy season). The first big rainfall happened on Friday, March 19 - check out the story here. Sounds awful (and that seems like an understatement). A fresh water supply is being provided in some of the bigger camps via water bladders from Oxfam.

A couple questions often come up when I tell people about the tents. While I can't give definitive answers, I can tell you my thoughts...

Why are so many people tenting in the city? Why don't people just leave Port-au-Prince?
It's their home... Their life is there, their friends and family are there, their family members and friends are buried there. There is no guarantee that life would be better elsewhere. And many of them have hope for the future - for the rebuilding of the city, for the rebuilding of Haiti. The buildings may have fallen down, but the people have not given up hope...

Where are the real tents? I/we've given money...
Good question! I can only hope they are coming...that somewhere in the world, people are frantically making tents (if tent supply is really the issue) and they are being shipped to Haiti as fast as possible. There are a few camps that have been supplied with real tents, so I can see that it is achievable... Hopefully media coverage of the rainy season will pressure governments to get moving on this.

Next up...medical clinic stories! Thanks for reading!

First Impressions

2010-03-06T16:20:00.009-08:00

A few thoughts about my first impression and experiences in Haiti...

My team of 17 flew in to Haiti from the Dominican Republic on a United Nations Humanitarian Air Services flight (piloted by Canadians that day). It was a bit of a panic getting on the plane, as we were only allowed one 20kg bag each and most team members had packed huge hockey bags of medical supplies. So our medical supplies stayed in the DR overnight (and fortunately made it to Haiti the next day without issue). Here's me and two of my teammates getting ready to board the plane.

Flying over Haiti, I expected to be able to see evidence of the earthquake as we neared Port-au-Prince. From the air, though, all we could see was the occasional tent camp (the bright blue tarps over the tents made them easy to see) and a huge Red Cross hospital ship in the harbour. Other than that, Port-au-Prince looked pretty unremarkable from the air.

We landed at a UN compound, which was interesting. No immigration, no customs - just got off the plane, walked across the tarmac, and went through a little portable building to enter Haiti. That is probably the only time I will ever have such a straightforward experience entering another country!

Driving to our accommodations, I expected to see destruction everywhere I looked. However, while there were some collapsed buildings, many appeared unharmed from the earthquake. As I began to look closer, though, I could see that while many buildings were standing, lots of them had huge cracks running up the walls. Fences and walls were often leaning at unusual angles, and piles of bricks were everywhere as cleanup was already started in the area (we were in Tabarre). Here is a picture of one of the first buildings that I saw that was completely destroyed - this was a hotel.

While I expected to see more destruction during my first few hours in Haiti, I knew that there was probably a lot more to see and experience that would go beyond my expectations. This was was true. Two things that were beyond what I expected were the epicenter area of Port-au-Prince as well as the Haitian's stories about the impact of the earthquake on their lives (more to come on these topics...).

Thinking back to that first day in Haiti, I realize that at that point I was focusing on the wrong part of the story. My initial focus was to look for destruction, and I was wrongly assuming that if houses were standing the impact of the earthquake on its inhabitants wouldn't be as great as it was for those living in tent camps. In fact, the impact on everyone in the Port-au-Prince area is great - greater than I really anticipated. And while collapsed buildings are dramatic and shocking to see (in person as well as in photos), I found that after a few days I had almost stopped noticing the destruction along the roads we frequently traveled.

While pictures illustrate the destruction more powerfully than I can describe in writing, I hope to communicate some of the stories of the survivors in posts to come...not only stories about loss and struggle, but also stories about resilience and hope.

Haiti - where to begin?

2010-03-04T21:35:00.010-08:00

Over the past two weeks I have seen and experienced so much...and I'm not sure I'm ready to put all those experience to words just yet. So, I will start with some pictures...

Signs like this are all over the place. Many of the smaller IDP (internally displaced people) camps will post one, and the cell number is usually for one of the camp leaders.

The plants still growing on the porch of this house/hotel stuck out to me...

Collapsed building, market stall...

An IDP camp...most of the tents in this camp are made of sheets and sticks, with the occasional tarp. (I'll post more on IDP camps later...)

Soldier, public transit (Haiti style) and UN trucks. There is a pretty heavy military and United Nations (UN) presence in parts of Port-au-Prince right now - lots of military vehicles and blue helmets (UN soldiers) driving around.

More pictures and thoughts to come...

The 'beyond'...

2010-02-07T18:48:00.003-08:00

I just realized that my blog is titled, 'Africa and Beyond...' Well, as of Feb. 18th, I am off to experience the 'beyond' as I travel to Haiti.

Disaster relief work was something that I wasn't sure I wanted to do...my experience to date has been more focused on development work rather than on people in the midst of crisis/disaster. But an interesting set of circumstances came about a couple of weeks ago, and I find myself now with a flight booked to Haiti! I was chatting with my mom about Haiti and relief work, as she had been considering going on a trip. That conversation got me thinking...thinking about whether this was something that God was asking me to do, and whether I was using excuses to prevent myself from considering going..."I have school"..."work is too busy"..."my passport just expired". That night, I saw that a friend of mine had changed his facebook status to read something like: "Global Aid Network is looking for nurses and doctors to go to Haiti. Email Lindsey for more info". So I did!

There were a few hurdles to get through before I could apply...the first was getting the time off work. My boss wasn't initially all that excited about me going, and took 24 hours to decide, but finally approved the time away! The expired passport was another hurdle. So I went to the passport office Thursday am, and my passport was renewed by Monday. I was also a little worried about missing classes for school, but then realized that the trip dates were exactly during my school break (universities are closing for 2 weeks during the Olympics). After all that, I submitted my application, and found out last Friday night that I had been accepted to go!

So this is what I know so far... Global Aid Network is a humanitarian organization affiliated with Power to Change (aka Campus Crusade for Christ). They have been working in Haiti for a while doing development work, and now are focusing on earthquake relief (mainly medical clinics and clean water initiatives). They have had medical teams on the ground since right after the earthquake. Our team is made up of 17 doctors and nurses, mostly Canadians and a few Americans. We will be working in a medical clinic outside Port-au-Prince as well as offering a mobile medical clinic in some of the IDP camps. It is a short trip, but I expect it will be busy - long days in the clinic. The main concerns that people are coming to the clinic with seem to be dehydration, respiratory illnesses, anxiety-related illnesses - essentially, illnesses related to living outside in makeshift tent cities, not necessarily injuries related to the earthquake.

So that is my story so far...I'll be gone from Feb. 18-28. I hope to post one or two times more before I go, as I get more details about my trip and reflect a bit more on it! Thanks for reading, and thanks also for praying! Very appreciated!!

Where I lived...and a frightening experience!

2008-09-17T22:10:00.014-07:00

Some of you have asked what my living accommodations were like when I was in Uganda. Here are some pictures...This is the outside view of the guest house (the black building) and part of the medical clinic. Shaun stayed in the guesthouse, we shared the kitchen area, and I stayed in the clinic building. Here's the kitchen, after we made a huge mess cooking dinner...
The kitchen had two propane burners, so basically everything that we ate did not require refrigeration and had to be able to be cooked in a pot or a frying pan! Pasta, tomato sauce, and canned corn was the default meal if creativity was lacking (which it often was!)

So, now to the frightening experience! A few weeks into my time in Uganda, Shaun and I headed to Kibaale to spend a couple days with our friends Jeff and Shannon. Shaun decided to head into Kampala with Jeff and Shannon for a couple of days after our time in Kibaale, but I decided to head back to Mpigi as I had some things I wanted to do in preparation for the upcoming clinic day. So I got on a taxi in Kampala and traveled back to Mpigi on my own. I arrived no problem, and spent much of the evening with the kids (that was the night of the baby fashion show). The kids went to bed, and I went back to the guest house.

At 10 pm I decided to head to bed. The generator had just been turned off, so the guest house was lit by solar power. I went into the bathroom, closed the door, and then I noticed something unusual. In the corner behind the door there was a black object, kind of coiled up. At first I didn't pay that much attention...the lighting wasn't great, and I was tired. But I looked again, and then I saw the coiled-up thing move...and then I clued in!! It was a snake of some kind...and one that looked black...which was not a good sign. (A note...Ugandans are very, and justifiably, afraid of snakes, as there isn't really such a thing as a harmless snake in Uganda).

I got out of the bathroom as quickly as I could, and willed myself to think of what to do. I grabbed my cell phone, and called the property manager, Mulumba. It was late, so I wasn't sure he was going to pick up...but after the phone rang and rang he finally answered. I managed to get out, "Mulumba, it's Rebekah. I think that there is a black mamba snake in my bathroom!" Mulumba said something to the effect of "oh, goodness", and then said he would call someone to come and help me. (Mulumba lives about a 5 minute drive away from the property).

So I hung up the phone, and then tried to think of what else to do. I then called Shaun, and at that point I started to lose it! I was practically gasping out through sobs that there is a snake in the house...and fortunately, Shaun was thinking clearly since I was not anymore! He wisely suggested that I actually leave the house (I was still standing like 4 feet from the bathroom) and go down to Pastor Geoffrey's house (Geoffrey and his family live on the church property). So grabbed my headlamp and went to wake Geoffrey up. By the time he was out of bed I also heard some boda bodas (motorbikes) coming up the road. It was Mulumba and a few others, armed and ready to get the snake! They had sticks with nails poking through the ends, as well as a bottle of kerosene to drown the snake in if necessary. So we headed up to the guesthouse to get that snake...I think there were 5 of us in total!

Once we got inside, I opened the bathroom door to show Geoffrey where the snake was. However, it was not there anymore! I started to worry that maybe I had just imagined it, and I had gotten all these people out of bed for no reason. I was sure they were going to think that I was just being paranoid and getting over-excited about nothing, and I would just reinforce the stereotype of mzungus not being able to cut it in Uganda!!

As I am starting to think this, I hear Geoffrey moving things around in the bathroom. I then heard Geoffrey yell out, and I hear smack, smack, smack, smack, smack of the stick on the concrete floors. After a few seconds, Geoffrey emerges from the bathroom with a dead snake!! I felt relieved (mostly because I was thankful I hadn't imagined what I saw, and also because the snake was now dead!) I found out that it was a baby cobra, and Mulumba figured it had managed to get in under the door while we were away for those few days since it was pretty small.

So it wasn't a huge snake, and thankfully it wasn't a black mamba (which are extremely deadly), but still!! Thankfully I found it when I did, and didn't accidently step on it in the middle of the night! And I was very thankful that so many people came to help me out that night - they definitely went above and beyond:) We did one final sweep of the house to make sure that there were no mothers or sibilings of this baby cobra hanging around, and then I headed to bed (amazingly, I slept pretty well that night!)

So that was my frightening experience...which now I find quite humorous:) Oh, and don't let this story deter you from going to Africa...I'm sure cobras aren't really all that dangerous, and it was only a baby, after all;)

Life in Zungwe

2008-09-17T22:10:00.005-07:00

The Peace Portal Community church property is in the village of Zungwe. I spent an hour or so every few days just going for a walk through the villages near the church property, which was really interesting!! The locals eventually started to get used to the fact that I would just walk with no specific destination in mind - I had lots of people ask me if I was lost! (I was walking for exercise, but that concept is somewhat foreign to the average peasant farmer in rural Uganda who gets more than enough exercise just trying to survive!!) One man, as I passed by him for a second time (on my way back), called out to me, "Mzungu! Where are you going?" I replied, "For a walk." He looked at me, paused for a second, and then said (somewhat incredulously), "You are walking, and you are carrying nothing??" I nodded, and in apparent disbelief at the craziness of mzungus, he headed off to do something more purposeful than what I was doing! That experience made me laugh...although there were a few kids following me at that point, so I didn't laugh too loud!

I really wished I could speak Lugandan fluently when I was walking around the villages, as I am sure I would have had some really interesting conversations with the women I met on my way. In Ugandan culture, even if someone is practically shouting distance away it is expected that you say hello. So I would try to greet most people I met along the way in Lugandan, and often the women would respond in Lugandan and attempt to ask me more questions...which I didn't understand and couldn't answer. Next time, I will have to make more of an effort to get my conversation skills in Lugandan a bit more proficient!

Here are some pictures I took while I was walking around...

A pretty average village road. Uganda is very green...I loved the banana trees that were pretty much everywhere! I had kids following me when I took this picture...they would run to get close behind me, then as soon as I would turn around they would try and hide and pretend that they weren't following me:)

This is 85 year old Vincent, one of the men from the church, working in the quarry that is just down the hill from the church. Working in the quarry involves using a make-shift hammer to smash large rocks into gravel...not the easiest job. (I saw both men and women working at this). This is how Vincent makes money to support his grandchildren (two of his grandchildren live in the children's homes now, which helps).

This is one of the nicer rural homes that I passed regularly as I walked - it was always really well kept!

Medical Clinic

2008-08-24T19:34:00.005-07:00

As promised, here is the first of a few blogs posts about my time in Uganda! There were so many things that I wanted to post about and pictures that I wanted to share, but often, getting to a computer that had decent internet access was a challenge! There was an internet cafe in Mpigi town (the town closest to the village where I was living) so I attempted to get access once or twice a week. But often, after walking 15 minutes, hiring a boda boda to take me in to town (about a 10 minute ride), and waiting to get on a computer, I would open my first web page to find out that the internet had gone down, or that the power had gone out, or that the internet was so slow that it was going to take me an hour to load one picture on my blog!! But at the same time, it was nice to not feel so attached to computers and the internet...I learned that it is actually possible to go more than a day without checking my email!

The primary reason for my trip to Uganda was to do some work with the medical clinic that is offered through Peace Portal Community Church. Using funds from Peace Portal Alliance in Canada, the church in Uganda offers a one day per month medical clinic as a community outreach. The goal of this clinic is to demonstrate the love of Christ in a very practical way to the surrounding community. As the clinic is only offered once a month, it is designed to treat non-emergency conditions...the kind of things you would go to your family doctor or a walk-in clinic about. In Uganda, people tend not to go to the doctor for minor conditions, especially since they usually have to pay for the drugs that they might need. The Peace Portal Clinic offers the drugs free of charge, so it is very well received by the community and it helps to prevent minor health problems from becoming larger problems!

I spent some time with the pastor that oversees the clinic as well as the doctor to find out how the clinic has been going over the last year, and to begin working on some plans for how the clinic can be changed and improved. Overall, I was really happy with how things are going, and it was encouraging to see how much can be done for so many people with a relatively small amount of money!

Here are some pictures of the medical clinic...

The pharmacy area...

The nurse giving medications to some of the patients...and
Patrick (the one with headphones in) helping out!

The waiting room!

Goodbye Uganda!

2008-08-07T12:11:00.001-07:00

Hello from Swaziland! I’m here for a week visiting my cousin and her family (husband and their four boys) who are serving here for the next two years. I figured that since I was already on the continent, it only made sense to stop in here for a bit before heading home!

So my time in Uganda has come to an end, unfortunately…I would have loved to stay longer, but at the same time I am also looking forward to coming home. When I came I wasn’t sure if I would come home in August, and was prepared to consider staying here longer, but I definitely am feeling that Canada is where I am supposed to be for the next little bit! So while I will be sad to leave Africa (I love it here), I know that Canada is where I am supposed to be this fall and I am looking forward to discovering what the next few months will have in store for me!

But there are definitely more stories still to come from Uganda…lots happened during my time there that I haven’t yet had a chance to blog about! So to save you having to read one really loooong blog post, I will be attempting to update my blog over the next few weeks with shorter posts about different things that I had a chance to do…the medical clinic, going on safari, more stories from the 10 acres, and some reflections on my time in Uganda! And I’ll also be putting my pictures up on Facebook once I am on a computer with a decent internet connection!

This trip has definitely been a great experience for me, and I am now starting to process how I can and should live when I return home to Canada. As this is my fourth trip to Africa, I know that I could very easily just fall back into “normal” life in Canada and it could be just like it was before I left…but that is what I really don’t want to do! I still haven’t quite landed on how this is going to look…so it will be an interesting journey for sure. Thank you also to those of you who have been praying for me while I was in Uganda…I really appreciate it, and God has definitely answered your prayers on my behalf! So thank you again!

So, more to come in the next few weeks…and I will see you soon! I arrive in Vancouver on August 14th at about three in the afternoon, so feel free to give me a call anytime after that! Take care!

Baby Fashion Show

2008-07-28T02:53:00.005-07:00

The children’s homes here in Mpigi house 52 kids. While the target age for the kids here is 3 and older, there is one baby who is about 14 months old who is living here as well. He was rescued from a difficult home situation, and the kids and the house moms here love having him around! His name is Zwa, but the moms have renamed him Mokisa, which means “fortunate one”. They feel like this baby has been given a second chance at life, so they felt that this new name was more fitting! It has been great to see Zwa grow and develop in the time that I have been here…he is definitely starting to thrive in this new environment.

However, Zwa didn’t have many clothes when he came here, and most of the donations that we get are for older kids. When I was in Kibaale, I found a bunch of second-hand baby clothes for sale at the market for 500 shillings each (that is like 35 cents). So I picked up a few shirts and shorts for Zwa.

I brought the clothes over to Suubi house to give to the house mother, Mama Rose. She was so excited! She made me go get my camera, and then we did a baby fashion show…she started putting outfits on Zwa, and then getting me to take pictures of him…it was hilarious! All the other kids were just loving it…they were cheering, and laughing, and just so happy for little Zwa. Here are some pictures of the fashion show…

Zwa posing in outfit number one…

Zwa and Mama Rose…and Zwa loving being the centre of attention…

All the kids cheering for Zwa!

Kibaale

2008-07-25T04:51:00.003-07:00

I had a chance to spend a few days with my friends Jeff and Shannon Dyck (and family) where they live in Kibaale. Kibaale is about 120 kms southwest from where I am staying. In Kibaale I was able to visit the clinic that operates on the property, and also went on some outreach community visits. Outreach visits are when the clinic staff travel to a nearby village and provide immunizations for babies. They also go and visit people at their homes and make suggestions as to how they can improve their home and the surrounding area to help improve their health. Here are some pictures from my time in the village…

Handwashing station that they encourage all families to build…

Random guy showing me how to row a boat…

Immunizing babies!

Music Video

2008-07-21T04:49:00.003-07:00

I got a great welcome back from all of the kids and house moms on the property when I returned from my week at Sanyu. I love living in community here – people are interested in everything that is going on, and are constantly checking in on how things are going. Pretty much every time I leave the property, even if it is just to go to the market to buy vegetables, someone wishes me a “safe journey”, and when I return everyone I see welcomes me back. I think this is something that I will miss when I return to Canada!

I spent most of last Saturday hanging out with the kids, and then at 5pm tons of people started showing up on the property. I asked what was going on, and they told me that we were going to watch some music videos in the church!

Let me backtrack a bit…when I first arrived in Mpigi, the church was being used constantly – people were singing and dancing in the church building all the time. I found out that one of the musicians from the church had written some songs and was making them into music videos. So one Monday, a producer and cameraman from Kampala came to Mpigi to film the music video. The church was packed, people were in costumes, they were dancing and singing, and trying (unsuccessfully) to convince me to dance in the video!

So last Saturday we had a chance to watch the completed videos! Everyone showed up at 5pm, and we were waiting…and waiting…and waiting…at 6:30pm we all moved in to the church to wait some more. People weren’t impatient…instead, they used the time that we were all waiting to start up an impromptu dance party! There was one little guy who was probably 4 or 5, and he was the star of the show…probably one of the better dancers I have seen in a long time! Finally, at about 8:30pm, the video arrived with the producer from Kampala and the show began!

It was great to see so many of the church community members in the videos…and whenever one of them appeared, the whole crowd of about 120 people started cheering! The videos were great…totally done Ugandan style, which is hard to explain in a blog post, but I am hoping to be able to get a copy of the DVD to bring with me back to Canada!

Music videos in Uganda…an unexpected but very fun evening!!

Here's a picture of Segawa picking up the dry laundry...

Sanyu Babies Home

2008-07-21T04:33:00.006-07:00

Hello from Uganda!

Time is going by quickly now…I only have about two weeks left in Uganda (and then a week in Swaziland), which is hard to believe! I feel like I am finally just getting settled in to life here, and already I feel like it is time to wind down.

I spent a week at Sanyu Babies Home, which is an orphanage for babies and kids up to 3 years old in Kampala. (For those of you that know Jeff and Shannon, Sanyu is the orphanage where they adopted Mazzy from!) It was fun to spend time with the little ones, and I met a bunch of interesting people from all over the world who were also volunteering there (from Australia, the UK, Holland, Norway…)

Here are some pics of my time at Sanyu…

The little babies… Playtime...

Meal time…

Out with new friends…

A challenging word...

2008-07-03T23:43:00.006-07:00

This past Sunday at church, I had the opportunity to hear a very challenging message from Pastor Geoffrey. Geoffrey is one of the full time pastors here at the church, and as I write this, he is spending the day in the church in prayer for the community here. Geoffrey, his wife Rose, and their three kids Esther, Isaac, and Praise live here on the church property. Here is a picture of Praise:

So this is the text that Geoffrey preached on:

2 Corinthians 8:1-4
And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints.

He also used a couple of verses from Proverbs:

Proverbs 28:27
He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses.

Proverbs 21:13
If a man shuts his ear to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.

Geoffrey’s encouragement to the congregation was to give from what they had, following the example of the Macedonian churches that were joyfully giving out of their extreme poverty. Listening to this message in a church full of people, many of them unemployed, or single parents, or elderly and struggling to meet the needs of their grandchildren, or parents who can barely afford the rent of their dirt hut and school fees for their children definitely got me thinking!! It is one thing to hear a message like this delivered from the comfort of a North American church, but in this setting I found this word much more challenging to hear.

Here are some things I have been thinking about following this message…
-do I give joyfully?
-what does it mean to give as much as I am able, and even beyond my ability?
-is giving a privilege for me?
-how should I respond to the cry of the poor?

This message will definitely keep me thinking for a while!!

And just so you can see that I really am in Uganda…here are some pictures of me with the kids, playing...you guessed it…memory!!

And one more picture of the kids playing taxi...using some leaves and ropes tied together and some sticks!

That's all for now! Take care!

Hospitals and taxis...

2008-06-26T04:48:00.003-07:00

Hello from Uganda! It has been an interesting week since I last posted, so I will try to fill you in on what I have been up to.

One of the things that I wanted to do while I was here in Uganda was to develop a better understanding of the Ugandan health care system. As most of you know, I have been involved in the planning and oversight of a clinic here on the church property in Mpigi, so I wanted to gain a better understanding of what health care services are available here, and how the clinic at the church fits into the bigger picture of health care in this area.

Here’s a bit of a side note…just so you know what I am referring to when I say Mpigi! Mpigi is the name of one of the many districts in Uganda…similar to regions, such as Metro Vancouver, in BC. And also in Mpigi district is Mpigi town, where the market, internet café, taxis, and other shops are located. Mpigi town is about a 10 minute boda boda ride from the church property, which is in the village of Ziwangwe (not sure if that spelling is even close to correct, but you get the idea!)

So, step one was to meet the woman in charge of health care services in Mpigi District, Dr. Ruth. I had emailed a contact from my trip last year, and she had let Dr. Ruth know that I was coming. After a couple of awkward meetings with Dr. Ruth at the Mpigi Ministry of Health offices, which involved a lot of waiting and a lot of long (and for me awkward) silences, I had in my possession a letter of introduction to the in-charge at a few different health care centres around the district, so that I am able to go and see the facilities.

So the first place I went to visit was Gombe Hospital, where I have spent 3 days during the past week. Gombe Hospital is about a 45 minute taxi ride from Mpigi town. So the first morning, I showed up to the taxi stop at about 8 am. Taxis in Uganda are vans that are designed for 14 passengers – two up front by the driver, and then 4 rows with 3 seats per row. However, it is extremely rare for a taxi to only carry 14 – average is probably closer to 22, and often even more than that. And that is not counting babies and kids, bags of produce or animals, and other random supplies that people need to transport. And the other thing about taxis in Uganda is that they don’t leave until they are full…and full for the Gombe taxi is at least 18 people. So unfortunately, that first morning, I was one of the first people to arrive. So I waited…and waited…and waited for the taxi to fill, and by 9:30 the taxi finally left. Along the way we continued to pick up people, cramming them into every available space in the taxi. It was the same story pretty much every day that I went…although one day was especially bad, as I had to sit with my knees practically to my chest as there were two large rolls of sheet metal underneath the seats! Oh, and did I mention that I was the only mzungu (white person) in the taxi?

This is a picture that I took while I was sitting crammed in the middle of the taxi…

Anyways, I survived the taxi trips to and from Gombe (going home was not usually quite as bad, but still was pretty full!) My first day at Gombe was spent at the HIV outpatient clinic and touring the pediatric ward, and I spent the next two days at the maternity ward. The midwife that was working there, Christine, was very friendly and helpful, and I learned a lot! On the second day, I was able to see two births, which was great!
Hospital care is definitely different in Uganda compared to Canada!! For example, the pediatric ward has a typical nurse patient ratio of 2 nurses to 40 patients. The maternity ward is about the same. However, families are involved in much of the patient care, so that is helpful. The maternity ward does not have any running water, so water is stored in big barrels and scooped out as necessary. And there is definitely a lack of resources throughout…for labour, each women is expected to bring her own plastic sheet to cover the bed where she will deliver, as well as sheets for the baby to be cleaned off with after delivery. And after the baby was delivered, the midwife turned to me and said, “In Uganda, we improvise.” She then ripped the cuffs off of her latex gloves and used the bits of the glove to tie off the baby’s umbilical cord! Yet overall, in spite of a lack of resources, I was very impressed by the care that was provided to the patients at the hospital. The other birth I got to see was a C-section…but I’ll spare all you non-medical types the details!

So that’s a bit about what I have been up to since I have been here. And although life is very different here, I am learning a lot and definitely being challenged by what I am experiencing …both in the health care system as well as in daily life in the community. But I’ll save all that for another post, since this one is getting long!

Thanks for your emails and comments…I love hearing what is going on back home! Oh, and for those of you who have been on trips to Mpigi previously…the people here have definitely not forgotten you (pretty much daily someone asks me if I know how someone from a previous trip is doing), so if you want to send a message of greeting to anyone feel free to do so through me…they would really love to hear from you!

Here's a picture of some of the kids playing memory...

That’s all for now…take care!!

Hanging out in Mpigi...

2008-06-18T03:45:00.005-07:00

Hello from Mpigi, Uganda!

So, this is my second week here in Mpigi…and I am enjoying being back here. Culture shock hit me a bit harder this trip than it has in previous years, but I am starting to adjust to life here! The biggest challenge for me is letting go of my need to fill every second of time…I am learning to just be, which is surprisingly difficult at times!

I have also been spending lots of time playing with the kids on the property…they often seek me out and request, “Rebekah, game!” We have been playing the card game Memory quite a bit, as well as some dominoes…they love it! They will play for hours at a time…it is great!

Here are some pictures of the kids (they love the camera!)

Christine is one of the younger girls here. Last year she was pretty quiet and reserved, but now she is chatty and playful and is even learning a few English words!

Wasswa and Kato are identical twins who are tons of fun. They have been living in the Children’s homes since the first home opened, and it has been great to watch them grow over the years. They are much less clingy now (some of you who have been here before may remember that about them), and they are always talking and laughing and wrestling, like brothers do!

Sandy is another one of the little guys here…he is a character, and has a pretty constant pout unless he is the centre of attention! I caught a smile in this picture…

That’s all for now…hope you enjoyed the pictures! Take care!

(oh, and Cheryl...definitely no Jungle Oats for me...right now, my breakfast of choice is Fruit Loops;)

In Uganda!

2008-06-10T05:02:00.000-07:00

Hello from Uganda!! Today is the first day that I have had a chance to get to the internet café…so here goes my first blog post! I arrived in Uganda on Friday morning. Fortunately I was pretty well rested, as I had a chance to sleep for a few hours at Yotel in Heathrow Airport – I would highly recommend Yotel if you have a layover that is longer than four hours…so worth it! By the time we made it to Mpigi, though, I was starting to feel the jet lag…but the kids here figure that if they see you walking around, you are well enough to play football (soccer) with them! It was fun – the boys in the children’s homes spend much of their free time on the field playing, and they are pretty good (definitely better than I am, and the jet lag wasn’t helping me at all!)

I’ve been spending lots of time with the kids as I get settled in here and as I let my body adjust to the new time zone and the humidity here. On Saturday it poured rain, so I spent a couple of hours in the older girls home as we all attempted to stay dry. The girls put me through the Ugandan version of “Are you smarter than a 5th grader” by writing out their lessons from school and getting me to do them…then they would dutifully mark what I did and write a comment such as “v. good”. I also did a puzzle with them – with 10 girls working on it, the 100 piece puzzle kept them busy for a good hour! For the last two nights the girls have been putting on performances at their house in the evening – songs, dancing, and skits – it is very fun!

I am also attempting to learn Lugandan (the local language here). Most of the kids on the property only know a few English words, so after I say, “hello, how are you?” and they respond “I am fine” the conversation pretty much stops. So now, the kids walk around with me, point things out, and say “In Luganda, enkoko (chicken)”. One of the older boys, Lawrence, has started to make me a Lugandan-English dictionary in one of my notebooks – so far, we’ve covered body parts, plants, animals, and are starting some phrases like “Todduka ogya kuggwa – don’t run, you are going to fall down.” (apparently they think that is an important phrase for me to know??) In the previous two times that I have been here, I really haven’t attempted to learn Lugandan, so I think I definitely should give it a good try this time!

That’s all for now…I will do my best to get another post up in the next week or so. And no pictures today…that will have to wait for next time (and hopefully faster internet!). Take care!

Off again!

2008-06-02T23:19:00.004-07:00

In less than 48 hours, I am off to Uganda again! I fly out of Vancouver on Wednesday night, and I can't believe how fast time seems to have gone leading up to this trip. While I think I have everything I need for the trip in my possession, I am definitely not even close to packed...that will be tomorrow's job! And I started saying goodbye to friends this evening, so the reality of leaving is starting to set in.

I will aim to update this blog weekly while I am in Uganda, so you can check here for pictures (as long as the internet cooperates) and stories about what I'm up to during my time in Uganda! And I will do my best to keep up with what is happening back home via facebook as well! For those of you who I won't have a chance to see before I leave, have a fantastic summer and keep in touch!!

Okay, off to start cleaning my room and packing...

Home...

2007-07-04T18:45:00.000-07:00

So it has definitely been a while since I posted last, as I am now back home in Canada! The last time I posted we were getting ready for the team from Peace Portal to arrive in Mpigi. Once they arrived things got very busy, time and opportunity to get on the computer decreased dramatically, and by the time I was able to get on the computer it had been badly infected with viruses so I was unable to post! The team was in Uganda for two weeks, and then we all headed to Kenya for a couple of days for a safari debrief, and travelled home from there.

I'm going to try to do some more posts about the events of the past two weeks, but that will have to wait until the jet lag clears a bit and the rest of my pictures are recovered from my memory card (I am now wishing that I used film for my pictures...less opportunity for technical difficulties!) Oh well...not much I can do about it now! I do have a couple of pictures for you, though...the one above is me, Carling, and Lavonne at the Uganda equator, and below is a picture of Jamie reading with the kids as they waited their turn to see the doctor!

It's been a while!

2007-06-12T10:08:00.000-07:00

Hello from Uganda! It's been a while since I have had a chance to post anything...it's been a busy week for sure! I spent Tuesday and Wednesday of last week in Kampala showing a group of UBC students around, and I also had a chance to meet with the head of the school of nursing at Makerere University. Then, on Friday, I went to Kampala with Jeff, Shannon and kids to relax, see the source of the Nile River (and a crocodile), and to watch Brent bungee jump!! The picture above is me and Brent on the boat that took us to see the source of the Nile. (the source of the Nile is where Lake Victoria meets the Nile River, which is actually much less impressive than it sounds! But you can't go to Jinja without going to see it!) In Jinja, we also visited Amani Baby Cottage, which is an orphanage for babies and toddlers. I almost took this little guy home with me...so cute!!

Now I am back in Mpigi, getting the medical clinic ready to go. Yesterday I went into Kampala and bought over a million shillings worth of medications and medical supplies, and today I have been trying to get it all organized...it has been a lot of work, but I'm making progress!

I am definitely getting used to the bugs and other creatures here, but these bugs are taking some time to get used to!! (especially since they look more like a crab than a bug!!) They frequently hang out by the medical centre, which is where I sleep, and this morning one joined me in the shower! Good times...the geckos no longer bother me...one is running around the ceiling above my head as I type, and I am still sitting here, so I am definitely making progress:)

So that's a little bit about what I have been up to this past week! I really appreciate your prayers and your emails/comments on facebook...even if I don't get a chance to respond, I love hearing from you! The team from Peace Portal arrives on Saturday, so you can be praying for them as they prepare and travel over here. Take care, and I will be in touch!

Hello from Kampala!

2007-06-05T10:00:00.000-07:00

Hello from Kampala! I'm here showing a group of students from UBC around, and tomorrow morning I am going to meet with the head of the school of nursing at Makerere University here in Kampala. This post will be short, because I only have about 12 more minutes on this computer!

Yesterday was an eventful day...I went with Michael to visit the district director of health services in Mpigi, and by the end of the day the deputy director and the health inspector had come to the 10 acres to see the clinic building. This is a key step in having our clinic registered with the district, and getting Ministry of Health support for our activities. I also met with Andrew, one of the doctors who we will be working with for the clinic days in a couple of weeks, and we got a lot of planning done. Now I just need to order the supplies and drugs that we will need.

Yesterday evening, we had a hilarious time going through some medical supplies that some Finnish doctor donated to Michael a while ago. In the supplies was this old army bed/stretcher, which was all in pieces. So there I am with six Ugandans trying to figure out how this old piece of equipment goes together...it was really funny (okay, I guess you had to have been there:) The bed is very functional, but it looks like it comes straight out of MASH...quite funny:)

So that's a little bit about what I have been up to since my last post! Sorry, no pictures this time...I left my transfer cable back in Mpigi! Take care!

Hey hey!

2007-06-03T09:39:00.000-07:00

Hello from Mpigi! Just wanted to give a quick update on how things are going over here! I'm still enjoying life in Uganda, and am getting better at remembering people's names! (it is hard, because everyone knows who I am, and I have met most of them before, so I am at the point where it is almost rude to ask again!!) Clinic work has slowed somewhat...I am working on getting an order ready for the drugs and supplies we are going to need, and I need to arrange a couple of more meetings with the doctors who we will be working with. I am also wainting to hear back from the District health services director...in order to purchase medicines, we need to be registered with the district, so I am having to wait on that right now. You could pray that this would happen soon!! Yesterday we (me, Shannon, Jeff, and kids) went into Kampala to do some shopping, and then today was church. This week I will be heading back into Kampala for a few days to meet some students from UBC, show them around Kampala, and then I will head to Jinja to see the Nile river from Thursday to Saturday (not sure if I will river raft yet...what do you think?). Jinja will be a good time to sightsee and relax before a week of hard work before the team from Peace Portal arrives!

Hopefully I will be able to post a few more pictures with my next post! Take care!

Keeping busy!

2007-05-31T08:27:00.000-07:00

Hello from Uganda! I'm loving life here so far...and things are going better than I expected as I plan for the medical clinic! There is a very strong desire from the church to get this clinic going, and they already have a lot of the groundwork done. And today I can actually upload pictures, as the internet seems to be cooperating!

On Tuesday I had the opportunity to meet with the women of Mpigi to talk about health...there were about 40 of them, and we had a very lively discussion! I was impressed with the level of knowledge that the women had about the prevention of various diseases...it seems that they have the knowledge (ie. they know to use a mosquito net to prevent malaria), but they are lacking some of the resources necessary to actually do this (most of the women don't have mosquito nets, and can't really afford them). It was a really beneficial time, though, and I feel like I have a much better picture of how life is for the women!

On Wednesday I went to the Mpigi Health District offices with Michael...we met with the public health inspector, and dropped a letter off with the director of health services. We are trying to keep the district informed about what we are doing, so that potentially in the future they can use our facility.

Here is a picture of my room (which is going to be the medical clinic)!

This is a picture of my room with the newly constructed wall, dividing the doctor's area from the pharmacy/nurses area.

This is Wasswa, playing. Wasswa and Kato are a little bit bigger now, and they talk a little more than they did last year! (wasswa means older one, kato means younger one...all the twin boys in Uganda go by wasswa and kato!)

Kennedy and Cissy are getting water from the tap near the water tank.

The kids are sorting beans in preparation for dinner.

Today I took a taxi into Kampala with Pastor Alice and Alice Masambe. I was definitely the only mzungu (white person) on the taxi...fortunately, the taxis I took today only had 17-18 people in them, and no animals! (you can see up to 24 people crammed into one taxi). Once we got to Kampala, we took a boda boda (motorcycle) through the city, which was a little crazy...Kampala traffic is very unpredictable, and the bodas just zip in and out. By the time I got off, my eyes were stinging from all the diesel exhaust and dust in the air!! We then visited a few of the pharmacies to get their price lists for medications. After this, we made our way back to the taxi park, which is where pretty much every taxi in the city leaves from...again, I'm pretty sure I was the only mzungu in there. Alice and Alice stayed with me, and none of us got run over by any taxis, and we all made it home in one piece with all of our belongings!!

So that's a little bit about what I have been up to! Uganda is a beautiful country, and the people here are very welcoming! I have been impressed with their integrity as well...two of the men that we hired to do the construction on the medical clinic have come back to us to either return extra money that we gave them for supplies or lower the price...incredible!! The next couple of days will likely involve a trip or two back to Kampala, and getting an order ready for all of the medical supplies.

Hope things are well with all of you, and I will be in touch! Take care!

Here are Wasswa and Kato, drinking from the water tap! (You can see the medical clinic in the background...)

Getting stuff done...

2007-05-28T06:09:00.001-07:00

Things are well underway here on the 10 acres! My time here kicked off with church on Sunday morning, which apparently had way more people than normal and much more energy because I was there... And of course, during the service, I had to get up and bring greetings from Peace Portal Alliance to the church in Mpigi. Michael then told the community that I now have a new name - Masawa Rebekah, which means nurse Rebekah in Lugandan. I was hoping to keep a lower profile than that in these first few weeks, but that's not the way it goes here!

Today, we have hired a few people to finish the construction inside the medical clinic...we are adding a wall, some shelves, a light, and a table/bench. I am staying in the medical clinic, so now my bedroom has turned into construction zone with people in and out regularly! Things don't happen slowly here...once we say that we need something built, someone shows up on the property within about 15 minutes and is ready to start work within the hour. Today, the light has already been installed and the wall will be complete before dark.

I also took a boda into town and met with the doctor who will likely be working in the clinic, and we had a very positive meeting - he seems very thorough, and very personable. Tomorrow I am going to meet with some of the women of Mpigi and have a discussion with them about health in their community...this information will help as we plan the clinic.

So that's a little update on how things are going!! I am getting used to sleeping with geckos and mice and spiders running around my room, and I am also starting to get used to the noise of Uganda...the birds, bugs, and other wildlife make much more noise at night than you would think! I am hopeful that tonight I will just see geckos and spiders, as one of the guys working on the property killed a snake that contained the mouse that lives in the medical clinic (or so I choose to believe!!)

Sorry, no pictures...and unfortunately, no facebook...the internet connection doesn't really allow for that! Hopefully I can upload some pictures when I go into Kampala on Wednesday or Thursday. Take care, and I would love to hear from you by email!

In Uganda!

2007-05-26T07:40:00.000-07:00

I arrived in Uganda early today, with no diffculty...Jeff and Shannon and Michael Masembe were all there to meet me at the airport, and then we spent some time shopping in Kampala before heading back to Mpigi.

Lots has changed on the 10 acres, which is awesome to see...a few more buildings, and lots of gardens planted. And, of course, more kids, as the second children's home is built. The third children's home is well underway, and we should be welcoming about 20 more kids within the next few weeks.

Picture uploading is going to be a bit of a challenge due to slow internet, but I will try and post some as soon as I can!

Starting to say goodbyes!

2007-05-15T00:36:00.000-07:00

I started saying goodbyes to people tonight...tonight was the last young adults event at church before I leave, so there were quite a few people there this evening that I now won't see until July. I am saying goodbye only for a time, since I do plan on coming home at some point! However, I know that the experiences I will have when I am away will change me...so the person that says goodbye now is not going to be quite the same person that says hello in July. This is a good thing, I think...this trip is going to stretch me in new ways, and although it won't be comfortable I am confident that I will grow because of it. I have this sense that I am going to be changed profoundly by this experience, which is both exciting and scary at the same time.

Tonight I am realizing the importance of community. I am travelling to Uganda alone, and will be met by Jeff and Shannon when I arrive. I will be staying on the ten acre property with them, working alongside them but still working somewhat independently on the medical side of things. It is hitting me tonight...without the prayer support of my community, I am alone...the task I have been called to do is impossible and overwhelming and daunting, and will not succeed without prayer and without the support of community.

I feel convicted by all of the times I have said, "I'll pray for you" and then haven't...by the times I have listened but haven't really heard, by the times I have offered support but never followed through. Community...caring for one another...listening and hearing...sharing each other's burdens...definitely not easy. I am also so appreciative of the people who have taken the time to listen to me, to pray for me, and to support me...there have been many of you who have offered these things to me in this period of preparation, and for that I am so thankful!

Two weeks and counting...

2007-05-10T02:07:00.000-07:00

Things for Uganda are starting to come together!! I am two weeks and a day away from taking off...I keep telling myself that, but it hasn't really hit me yet that I am actually going. People keep asking me if I am ready to go, and I feel more like I am...my physical preparation is pretty much complete (just need to put everything into my backpack), planning for the clinic is about as complete as it can be at this point, and Jeff and Shannon have agreed to pick me up at the airport when I arrive in Uganda, so it's all good!

I have a cool opportunity to do a couple other jobs/tasks while I am in Uganda, which I am excited about! I am involved with the Centre for International Child Health at BC Children's Hospital, and our group has a partnership with Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. Right now, the partnership is focusing on improving the education of Ugandan medical students (future doctors), and I have the opportunity to meet with the head of the nursing school at Makerere to talk about how we can also support nursing education...basically, the goal is to help improve nursing education so that will in turn lead to better health care and therefore better health for Ugandans! (if that makes sense...)

The other thing I get to do while I am in Uganda is be the contact person and local "expert" on life in Uganda for a group of undergraduate students from UBC! (little do they know I am far from an expert, but oh well!! At least I have been there before!) The students are coming over to do some type of dental education...I actually don't know much about what exactly they are doing (I think they will be singing lots of songs about brushing teeth, etc). I have been asked to meet them at the airport, help them find a taxi, show them around Kampala, teach them how to barter/negotiate prices on food and stuff, and do a bunch more things which I have yet to be told about!! This "little favour" for UBC is turning out to be a bit more involved than I thought it would be, as it will take up a couple of days of my time, but it should still be pretty interesting! Fortunately, the only cost to me will be time...UBC is footing the bill for the rest of the stuff. I met the students who are coming to Uganda earlier this evening, and they seem cool and pretty confident, so I think we'll have fun. This was totally not an opportunity that I was looking for, so it will be cool to see how God uses this experience during my trip!

Now it is time for sleep! Tomorrow I think I need to make some space to be quiet and rest, and begin to prepare spiritually for this trip...this has been my biggest challenge as I prepare to go. Somehow, the physical preparation always seems easier for me to do! I know I will be changed and challenged by this experience, so I want to be ready to hear and to be obedient...

One month to go...

2007-04-25T21:47:00.000-07:00

One month from now, on May 24, my plane will leave Vancouver and I will begin to make my way to Uganda!! Preparation for the trip is going well...although it has been a little slow in the past few weeks as I have been working a lot at the hospital.

Life has been so busy that I haven't had much time yet to process what I am going to be doing and experiencing when I am away. Right now, I think I have an idea of what the trip is going to look like, but I am also expecting to be surprised and challenged! This trip will be very self-directed in the first few weeks, which will be quite a change for me. Every job that I have held has not really allowed me much leeway in deciding what I will or won't do during the day...lifeguarding and nursing in a hospital setting don't really allow for that (and for good reason!) My sense is that this project in Uganda will be refreshing, as it will allow me the freedom I so often crave in my current work, and challenging, as I will have to choose how to structure and prioritize each day's work. I'm starting to process all this as I am writing, and I am realizing how much I am going to need His guidance each day while I am in Uganda!

Getting ready to go back to Uganda...

2007-03-08T15:02:00.000-08:00

I booked my flight back to Uganda a couple of weeks ago...and time is already flying by...less than three months till I leave!! I am leaving Vancouver on May 24 in the evening, and will (probably) return on July 3 after a short debrief period in Kenya. (I say probably return because there is always that possibility that I just might not be able to leave!!)

My task during this trip will be to work on the development of a medical clinic. This is a huge project, and I am finding that in this period of preparation I am often overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problem and the task at hand...where do I start? One of the most difficult aspects for me in this initial period is dealing with the expectations of others in regards to this project. I don't want to disappoint them, especially those who have contributed finacially, but I also want to be realistic about what is actually doable in the six weeks I am there, and also sensitive to the needs of the community in Mpigi...what do they want and need? How can a medical clinic best serve their community? Maybe it isn't in the way that I (and others) think...so I want to be open to that possiblity as I go to Uganda to work on this.

I had a good meeting this week, though, with another nurse who was in Uganda with me last summer, and I feel like now we are starting to develop a more realistic plan for this project. It is great to see this coming together! And although the task can seem overwhelming at times, I am excited as well...I think God can and will do some amazing things through this clinic, in spite of the broken vessels He has chosen to use to do this work!! Please pray for this!!

The Medical Clinic

2006-10-29T15:16:00.000-08:00

Our team, which had three nurses on it (including me), worked with a Ugandan doctor one day holding a medical clinic in Kyally. (Kyally, pronounced 'Charlie', is a village in Mpigi that is about a 20 minute drive away from the church). People came from all over...we saw about 200 patients that day. This is a picture of the waiting area.

Medicine is very different in Uganda compared to Canada...it was a steep learning curve for sure! We saw many, many people with malaria, but within the first hour we had run out of the correct medication to treat it. As our medication supply became depleted, the best we could do was to give them 3 days worth of Tylenol to treat the fever.

These kids watched us through the window all day!

Here I am preparing medications for a patient. We worked non-stop that day...I think I took about a 10 minute break to eat a power bar, and a short break to do an interview for the Ugandan national television, but otherwise we saw patient after patient all day! Soon, a medical clinic will be built on the 10 acre property that belongs to Peace Portal Community Church. This clinic will provide much needed regular access to health care for the people living in the villages near the church.

Around Mpigi...

2006-10-22T18:32:00.000-07:00

Jen and Morgan are riding on a boda-boda, which is one of the primary modes of transportation in Mpigi. Basically, you just flag one of these guys down, negotiate a price before you get on the bike, and then go!

This is Mpigi town, where the shops and market are. The crowd of people are gathered around a witch doctor, who was shouting into a loudspeaker trying to sell herbal medicines to the crowd.

When we didn't take a boda-boda or a taxi, we walked! This is the road that leads to the church property.

We had a Uganda vs. Canada soccer game, which was really well attended! It is pretty unusual to have such a large group of mzungus (white people) in a rural area like Mpigi, so this was a big event! And yes, that really is a chicken walking across the soccer field!

This little guy came straight from church to watch the game, Bible in hand and in his Sunday best!

A typical house in Mpigi.

The Preschool

2006-10-22T18:05:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite pictures!

The kids played with a soccer ball made of rags tied up around a rock (at least, that is what it looked like). We were able to give them a real soccer ball, but the one we gave them is probably not nearly as durable as the one they are using in this picture!

Skip rope was one of the favourite activities!

Snack time at the preschool - the kids are drinking some sort of maize-based, hot, porridge-like drink...looked almost like glue to Canadian eyes!

The 10 Acres of Peace Portal Community Church

2006-10-21T11:01:00.000-07:00

A view of the church building from the road leading to the 10 acre property.

Sunrise.

When it rains, it pours!!

The school kids welcomed us with a song and dance outside the church. There were probably about 100 people from the church and community there to welcome us - African style!!

Kukiriza House

2006-10-20T21:04:00.000-07:00

One of the orphans - we were unable to determine his name despite our best efforts!! Every sub-team called him something different!

Yvonne and one of the twins...

Each sub-team got to spend time with the kids at the children's home...the kids at the home are a variety of ages, ranging from age 3 (the twins) up to about age 11. We all had a great time together, as you can see!

Bath time (a daily occurrence) outside the children's home. The building that you see is the kitchen, where Rose, the house mother, does all the cooking.

My sub-team with all 10 of the orphans. My sub-team was also known as Team Living It Up (Team LIU for short), as even in rural Uganda we were able to find ways to get our hands on Coke, chips, and various other "luxury" items that made the rest of our team very jealous...we were on "probation" for pretty much all of the trip:)