Monday, September 27, 2010
9/27 - Monday
Made it safely to Entebbe on a Mission Aviation Fellowship flight. Said a sad goodbye to Val and Heidi but know we will see them again. Val comes to Oregon regularly and we hope to come back to Uganda soon. Heidi lives in New York but hey, it’s in the States at least!
9/26 - Sunday
Sadly our last day in Karamoja – we will miss it. Early church started at 7:15. We were tired from our late night so went to the later service at 10:00. It ended at 2:00, a little longer than usual as they had 84 baptisms! The Anglican Church here only performs baptisms twice a year, each time over 2 consecutive Sundays. Baptism candidates have to complete a several month course first. They baptize by ‘dousing’ (elsewhere known as sprinkling), not immersion, and each person baptized has a parent or ‘God parent’ who is responsible for mentoring them and keeping them accountable. Alcoholism and sexual promiscuity are common here but with strong ties to the church most people give those up and make new friends in the church community. The sermon was very good. The pastor talked about how some churches baptize by immersion and some by sprinkling but what is really important is the change in the person’s heart. Baptism is just an outward sign – the heart change is what really counts.
This particular church was very privileged to have a copy of the Old Testament to read from. There is an elderly gentleman in church who spent 23 years translating the Bible into the local language. The New Testament was published a few years ago and the Old Testament will be published next year. They are currently using his original manuscript in this church! By next year hopefully all the churches will have a complete Bible. In the larger cities in Uganda most people speak English but not in the rural communities – they speak local dialect.
After church we were approached several more times by young boys who wanted to sell us birds they had gotten with sling shots. We had wondered if that might happen after yesterday. Val said they would hunt them anyway and we had not contributed to the demise of the local wildlife population by buying one of them. We decided to decline the rest and let them eat them – none of them were as special as the bird we got yesterday.
We walked into town after church for lunch, about ¼ mile, which took us about an hour as we had to stop and shake hands with and greet everyone we passed. It was fun and great PR for CVM. After lunch evening was approaching and the streets started filling with hundreds of cattle, sheep and goats. In an attempt to avoid the raiders the people had decided recently to bring all the livestock into town every night. For now it is working but Val fears a huge raid in the future that may kill many people due to the large number of livestock in a single location. There is no good solution to the problem aside from hearts changed by faith in Jesus Christ.
Val, Julia and Heidi spent a social evening making a large enclosure for the bird and Liz caught up on the Uganda journal for the BLOG. After nightfall we went cricket and lizard hunting for roller’s dinner. Then we had our last ‘chocolate feast’ on what remained of the stash we brought from the States. We think this was Val and Heidi’s favorite part of each day – they can’t get good chocolate here. It’s pretty much boiled meat, cassava, sweet potatoes and the infamous ‘glucose biscuits’. Val also recounted stories of her experiences with other gastronomic delights here including boiled and roasted mice, hump of camel (solid fat!), 4 days old leg of goat (the lower leg, not the upper leg) complete with maggots and her favorite – goat salivary gland. We have had no internet access for almost a week but hope to send this tomorrow from Entebbe.
This particular church was very privileged to have a copy of the Old Testament to read from. There is an elderly gentleman in church who spent 23 years translating the Bible into the local language. The New Testament was published a few years ago and the Old Testament will be published next year. They are currently using his original manuscript in this church! By next year hopefully all the churches will have a complete Bible. In the larger cities in Uganda most people speak English but not in the rural communities – they speak local dialect.
After church we were approached several more times by young boys who wanted to sell us birds they had gotten with sling shots. We had wondered if that might happen after yesterday. Val said they would hunt them anyway and we had not contributed to the demise of the local wildlife population by buying one of them. We decided to decline the rest and let them eat them – none of them were as special as the bird we got yesterday.
We walked into town after church for lunch, about ¼ mile, which took us about an hour as we had to stop and shake hands with and greet everyone we passed. It was fun and great PR for CVM. After lunch evening was approaching and the streets started filling with hundreds of cattle, sheep and goats. In an attempt to avoid the raiders the people had decided recently to bring all the livestock into town every night. For now it is working but Val fears a huge raid in the future that may kill many people due to the large number of livestock in a single location. There is no good solution to the problem aside from hearts changed by faith in Jesus Christ.
Val, Julia and Heidi spent a social evening making a large enclosure for the bird and Liz caught up on the Uganda journal for the BLOG. After nightfall we went cricket and lizard hunting for roller’s dinner. Then we had our last ‘chocolate feast’ on what remained of the stash we brought from the States. We think this was Val and Heidi’s favorite part of each day – they can’t get good chocolate here. It’s pretty much boiled meat, cassava, sweet potatoes and the infamous ‘glucose biscuits’. Val also recounted stories of her experiences with other gastronomic delights here including boiled and roasted mice, hump of camel (solid fat!), 4 days old leg of goat (the lower leg, not the upper leg) complete with maggots and her favorite – goat salivary gland. We have had no internet access for almost a week but hope to send this tomorrow from Entebbe.
9/25 - Saturday
We started the morning with a few dogs showing up for deworming, a goat which had aborted, and 2 dogs shot with huge, metal, barbed arrows by ‘would be’ raiders during the night. One arrow was retrieved; the other went all the way through the dog. Incredibly they were just flesh wounds in the backs and did not enter the chest or abdomen. They were already infested with maggots (knew you’d want that detail) but we expect them to recover with our treatments (antiseptic flush, antibiotics, and something to kill the maggots).
We were approached by some boys on the street who had been hunting birds with a sling shot. They eat them as a protein source to supplement their starchy diet. They wanted to sell this one to us Muzungo’s (Ugandan for ‘white people’). It was a beautiful green and blue bird called a Rufous Crowned Roller (Liz always has her bird book with her). We hated to see such a gorgeous bird get eaten and it only had a broken wing so we paid the requested 2000 shillings (a little less than $1US) and took it home. We made a nice wire cage for it and named it Corey. It seems quite happy being fed crickets, geckos and sugar water.
In the afternoon we made the trek back to Iriiri to treat more TVT dogs – about 7 I think. One female dog, who should have weighed about 30 lbs. instead of the 20, was in very sorry shape with a HUGE vulvar mass. Liz was not sure it was worth trying to treat her but they don’t euthanize their dogs here and wanted us to try. When we spayed her she had a mass on one uterine horn about the size of a large lemon. Another male had a ‘debulking’ surgery done and the rest were just treated with Vincristine. We always spayed and castrated the TVT dogs so they would not continue spreading the disease. Iriiri seems to have many cases of TVT and we were told about many dogs that had died of it. Julia and Heidi were doing so well at their tasks we let them each perform a castration under careful supervision. This was a highlight for them and they did a great job. Julia did her surgery last thing and got to finish the second half in the rain. Our host was again Alfred, from 2 days ago. He served us lunch before we started and dinner when we were done. It is considered very rude not to eat at someone’s home when it is offered and the food was good but was enough for about 10 people, not 4. Val insisted we had to finish most of it or they would think we did not like it. So part of our ‘work’ was stuffing ourselves with as much cassava as we could without exploding!
We were approached by some boys on the street who had been hunting birds with a sling shot. They eat them as a protein source to supplement their starchy diet. They wanted to sell this one to us Muzungo’s (Ugandan for ‘white people’). It was a beautiful green and blue bird called a Rufous Crowned Roller (Liz always has her bird book with her). We hated to see such a gorgeous bird get eaten and it only had a broken wing so we paid the requested 2000 shillings (a little less than $1US) and took it home. We made a nice wire cage for it and named it Corey. It seems quite happy being fed crickets, geckos and sugar water.
In the afternoon we made the trek back to Iriiri to treat more TVT dogs – about 7 I think. One female dog, who should have weighed about 30 lbs. instead of the 20, was in very sorry shape with a HUGE vulvar mass. Liz was not sure it was worth trying to treat her but they don’t euthanize their dogs here and wanted us to try. When we spayed her she had a mass on one uterine horn about the size of a large lemon. Another male had a ‘debulking’ surgery done and the rest were just treated with Vincristine. We always spayed and castrated the TVT dogs so they would not continue spreading the disease. Iriiri seems to have many cases of TVT and we were told about many dogs that had died of it. Julia and Heidi were doing so well at their tasks we let them each perform a castration under careful supervision. This was a highlight for them and they did a great job. Julia did her surgery last thing and got to finish the second half in the rain. Our host was again Alfred, from 2 days ago. He served us lunch before we started and dinner when we were done. It is considered very rude not to eat at someone’s home when it is offered and the food was good but was enough for about 10 people, not 4. Val insisted we had to finish most of it or they would think we did not like it. So part of our ‘work’ was stuffing ourselves with as much cassava as we could without exploding!
9/24 - Friday
This was the real surgery marathon day. We lost count. About 20+ we think. This time we did a lot of castrations as well as spays. Heidi and Julia have become very experienced assistants and did all the IV catheters, anesthesia, surgery prep and recovery. Liz just had to cut. Val figured out what people needed, treated sheep and goats that showed up, and helped Julia and Heidi with difficult dogs. We are becoming a ‘well oiled machine’ together.
9/23 - Thursday
We went to work with the Army again this morning. Val worked with the cattle, sheep and goats mostly and Liz was called over to help with a dog that had been castrated by a Ugandan using no anesthesia or suture! It was hemorrhaging profusely. By the time she got there a Ugandan vet student working with the US Army had found a suture kit and had the bleeding fairly well controlled. Liz did a spay and a neuter on the tailgate of the army pickup with the vet student watching then helped the student perform 2 fairly bloodless castrations complete with anesthesia! The student was pleasant and bright and she did a great job after Liz showed her how to do it properly. She joked she was sent to Karamoja to work as penance for bad behavior in school!
Next we went the village of Matany where CLIDE has a number of street children in boarding schools that they are sponsoring. They were children who were originally from this area but had ended up in Kampala begging on the streets. A church in Portland, Oregon, has provided a sum of money to provide for very basic needs until individual sponsors are found for each child. Of the ~150 children about 90 now have sponsors. Julia wanted to sponsor a girl in primary school and we got to meet her. We had trouble finding her at first as there was no one there by the name we were given. Here when one is baptized in church one takes on a Christian name if they don’t already have one. Julia’s sponsor child had been baptized and took the name Esther, which is also Julia’s middle name. That was very cool. Esther got to meet Esther. Nikiru Esther is 13 and is in 4th grade. Ages are often mixed in grades here as school is not mandatory and not all children have the opportunity to start school at the same time, if at all.
If anyone is interested in sponsoring a child please let us know and we can put you in contact with the appropriate people. It varies from $150 to $500 a year depending on the grade level of the child (primary to university). Generally if you start sponsoring a child at a certain level you continue with the same child as they move up the grades and possibly into university. The money pays for school fees, room and board, uniform, shoes, supplies and whatever else the child needs.
In the afternoon we returned to Val’s village of Kangole and did 6 more surgeries, including 1 of Val’s dogs. Liz got to do another dental extraction, this time with rudimentary dental tools, and take off a skin tumor. Julia and Heidi also go to perform their first IV catheters and both did very well.
We decided to stay with Val and Heidi in one of the concrete walled, round huts here. When I asked Val why hers were concrete, not mud or all thatch like most of the others we saw, she replied “bullets don’t penetrate concrete as well as the other building materials around”. We felt much safer with that explanation.
Next we went the village of Matany where CLIDE has a number of street children in boarding schools that they are sponsoring. They were children who were originally from this area but had ended up in Kampala begging on the streets. A church in Portland, Oregon, has provided a sum of money to provide for very basic needs until individual sponsors are found for each child. Of the ~150 children about 90 now have sponsors. Julia wanted to sponsor a girl in primary school and we got to meet her. We had trouble finding her at first as there was no one there by the name we were given. Here when one is baptized in church one takes on a Christian name if they don’t already have one. Julia’s sponsor child had been baptized and took the name Esther, which is also Julia’s middle name. That was very cool. Esther got to meet Esther. Nikiru Esther is 13 and is in 4th grade. Ages are often mixed in grades here as school is not mandatory and not all children have the opportunity to start school at the same time, if at all.
If anyone is interested in sponsoring a child please let us know and we can put you in contact with the appropriate people. It varies from $150 to $500 a year depending on the grade level of the child (primary to university). Generally if you start sponsoring a child at a certain level you continue with the same child as they move up the grades and possibly into university. The money pays for school fees, room and board, uniform, shoes, supplies and whatever else the child needs.
In the afternoon we returned to Val’s village of Kangole and did 6 more surgeries, including 1 of Val’s dogs. Liz got to do another dental extraction, this time with rudimentary dental tools, and take off a skin tumor. Julia and Heidi also go to perform their first IV catheters and both did very well.
We decided to stay with Val and Heidi in one of the concrete walled, round huts here. When I asked Val why hers were concrete, not mud or all thatch like most of the others we saw, she replied “bullets don’t penetrate concrete as well as the other building materials around”. We felt much safer with that explanation.
9/22 - Wednesday
We got up at 4 am today and despite 1 flat tire, rolled into Moroto at 10:30 am. Karamoja is mostly grassland and scrub with trees here and there but it has some swampy areas also. There are scattered mountains and rock formations as well. We are in the short rainy season so the area is fairly green. We think it is very beautiful here. Birds, rabbits and frogs are very common and we are told there are some antelope and occasional leopards here. The frogs make a beautiful metallic tinkling noise at night which is nice to fall asleep to.
Val was waiting for us when we arrived, and after a short tea break we went to work on cattle, sheep and goats with the US Army. The Army is here for 2 months doing VETCAP they are mostly National Guard and Reserves providing animal health care training, animal treatment, soccer camps and other good stuff to the local people here. Part of the purpose is humanitarian, part PR and part cross-cultural training for the military personnel. They were doing the practical portion of a refresher/advanced animal husbandry course for local animal health care workers. The workers had completed a 6 week course from Val and CLIDE previously. At the end of this course they will receive a certificate and a veterinary kit to get them started in their own business. They often work together with Val as they like to utilize programs that are already set up if possible it is a mutually beneficial arrangement. The army personnel were great to work with very nice, helpful people. There is still cattle raiding and ambushing of vehicles on the road occurring fairly regularly so we are glad for both the US and Ugandan Armies presence.
In the afternoon we went to Iriiri to treat 2 dogs with TVT (transmissible venereal tumor). The male had been afflicted with the tumor for over a year and it was huge and he could not urinate well. Liz slit the sheath open and excised most of the tumor as we thought it would take a very long time to treat it medically. The surgery went well and the dog did not bleed to death! Alfred, the dogs owner, really liked the dog and was very thankful we could help it.
Most people here have dogs primarily to act as warning signals for intruders. Many are handled very little which makes treating them difficult at times. Some people really did like their dogs and considered them companions which made it much more fun and rewarding to treat them. Cats are primarily for catching rodents but many are also enjoyed as pets by the children. Most of them were surprisingly easy to handle.
It was night when we headed back to town, and we got to encounter many drunken people. They grow sorghum here and use most of it to make beer which is fairly high in alcohol content, about 6%. When I asked Val if all the women with large bellies were pregnant or if some were protein deficient she replied that many have liver cirrhosis and ascites (fluid in the abdomen from liver failure) from chronic alcohol consumption. When we stopped to buy diesel Julia and Heidi encountered their favorite drunk man, he kept smiling at them and licking and kissing their window!
We spent the night at a fairly rustic guest house. Liz took a cold water wash in the evening and Julia took one in the morning. Half an hour later the maid showed up with a pitcher of hot water for our morning bath -oops!
Val was waiting for us when we arrived, and after a short tea break we went to work on cattle, sheep and goats with the US Army. The Army is here for 2 months doing VETCAP they are mostly National Guard and Reserves providing animal health care training, animal treatment, soccer camps and other good stuff to the local people here. Part of the purpose is humanitarian, part PR and part cross-cultural training for the military personnel. They were doing the practical portion of a refresher/advanced animal husbandry course for local animal health care workers. The workers had completed a 6 week course from Val and CLIDE previously. At the end of this course they will receive a certificate and a veterinary kit to get them started in their own business. They often work together with Val as they like to utilize programs that are already set up if possible it is a mutually beneficial arrangement. The army personnel were great to work with very nice, helpful people. There is still cattle raiding and ambushing of vehicles on the road occurring fairly regularly so we are glad for both the US and Ugandan Armies presence.
In the afternoon we went to Iriiri to treat 2 dogs with TVT (transmissible venereal tumor). The male had been afflicted with the tumor for over a year and it was huge and he could not urinate well. Liz slit the sheath open and excised most of the tumor as we thought it would take a very long time to treat it medically. The surgery went well and the dog did not bleed to death! Alfred, the dogs owner, really liked the dog and was very thankful we could help it.
Most people here have dogs primarily to act as warning signals for intruders. Many are handled very little which makes treating them difficult at times. Some people really did like their dogs and considered them companions which made it much more fun and rewarding to treat them. Cats are primarily for catching rodents but many are also enjoyed as pets by the children. Most of them were surprisingly easy to handle.
It was night when we headed back to town, and we got to encounter many drunken people. They grow sorghum here and use most of it to make beer which is fairly high in alcohol content, about 6%. When I asked Val if all the women with large bellies were pregnant or if some were protein deficient she replied that many have liver cirrhosis and ascites (fluid in the abdomen from liver failure) from chronic alcohol consumption. When we stopped to buy diesel Julia and Heidi encountered their favorite drunk man, he kept smiling at them and licking and kissing their window!
We spent the night at a fairly rustic guest house. Liz took a cold water wash in the evening and Julia took one in the morning. Half an hour later the maid showed up with a pitcher of hot water for our morning bath -oops!
9/21 - Tuesday
Today was a lesson in patience, not uncommon on mission trips as Liz has discovered in the past. We were SUPPOSED to travel to Moroto in Karamoja today to meet up with Val and start work there. The how of the getting there has been under discussion for several days. Val was unavailable to come and get us and The MAF flight was not an option as they are currently not flying that route. Even though Liz suggested several times the idea of traveling on the local bus, it was vehemently vetoed by our Ugandan hosts they obviously felt they were saving us from a horrible fate! They tried having a CLIDE vehicle repaired yesterday which stretched into today and now into an undetermined period of time. Val even sent us a driver on the night bus who arrived at 6am. Unfortunately we had no vehicle for him to drive. Next, Moses contact YWAM (Youth With a Mission) they have a huge work in Soroti. YWAM was happy to provide us with a vehicle but wanted their own driver to take us there. The driver, Andrew, was nowhere to be found and is currently without a cell phone as he recently dropped it down a pit toilet. About 5:15 pm Andrew was located, but it was decided making the 5 hour trek to Moroto that late was not wise.
Liz occupied her day bird watching, catching up on Bible reading and doing some financial paperwork she brought from home. Julia went butterfly and cricket catching and did some Bible study and Bible reading. Heidi hung out with us and joined in our Bible study as well as working on her own. We all went to see the house Moses is building for his family and to harass the auto mechanics (politely of course) in hopes they might get the vehicle fixed.
So the current plan is to leave at 5am and God willing (literally) get there about 10am to start the work Val has lined up for us. If we make it, it is unlikely we will be able to post on the BLOG again until we get to England as INTERNET in Karamoja is rarely accessible. Keep praying for us!
Addendum to yesterdays BLOG entry Liz was responsible for the grammatical foible. No, we do not expect our patients to bring their own dental instruments (the wording in yesterdays post went something like We extracted a tooth in a dog without dental instruments). We just wished we had some! We did check on the patient this morning and she was, most importantly, alive and also hungry. Prior to our surgery (OVH and extraction) she had not been well for several weeks, had aborted puppies 2 weeks ago and had not eaten for several days. Amazingly she even wanted to eat as soon as she woke up last night found some scraps we put out for another dog and ate them, bones and all. Dogs here are tough! We did discover, however, that she does not like carrots! Oh - and power outages are common here. We did part of our last spay by headlamp at 11pm last night.
Cultural note: Barrack Obama is VERY popular here. The Ugandans claim him as being from their country as the location his grandfather was from in Kenya used to be part of Uganda before the borders were changed. When he was elected as the 44th US president there was a national celebration in Uganda. The feeling here was a black man from Uganda now rules the world. There are stores named after Obama, Obama calendars, Obama posters and Obama clothing. Dr. Kasiime bought Julia and me Obama flip flops as souvenirs!
Liz occupied her day bird watching, catching up on Bible reading and doing some financial paperwork she brought from home. Julia went butterfly and cricket catching and did some Bible study and Bible reading. Heidi hung out with us and joined in our Bible study as well as working on her own. We all went to see the house Moses is building for his family and to harass the auto mechanics (politely of course) in hopes they might get the vehicle fixed.
So the current plan is to leave at 5am and God willing (literally) get there about 10am to start the work Val has lined up for us. If we make it, it is unlikely we will be able to post on the BLOG again until we get to England as INTERNET in Karamoja is rarely accessible. Keep praying for us!
Addendum to yesterdays BLOG entry Liz was responsible for the grammatical foible. No, we do not expect our patients to bring their own dental instruments (the wording in yesterdays post went something like We extracted a tooth in a dog without dental instruments). We just wished we had some! We did check on the patient this morning and she was, most importantly, alive and also hungry. Prior to our surgery (OVH and extraction) she had not been well for several weeks, had aborted puppies 2 weeks ago and had not eaten for several days. Amazingly she even wanted to eat as soon as she woke up last night found some scraps we put out for another dog and ate them, bones and all. Dogs here are tough! We did discover, however, that she does not like carrots! Oh - and power outages are common here. We did part of our last spay by headlamp at 11pm last night.
Cultural note: Barrack Obama is VERY popular here. The Ugandans claim him as being from their country as the location his grandfather was from in Kenya used to be part of Uganda before the borders were changed. When he was elected as the 44th US president there was a national celebration in Uganda. The feeling here was a black man from Uganda now rules the world. There are stores named after Obama, Obama calendars, Obama posters and Obama clothing. Dr. Kasiime bought Julia and me Obama flip flops as souvenirs!
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