Uganda Trip - Day 7

Today's notes from my girls...

Monday, Dec. 6 - 

Today we went to three separate villages to find three orphans. At the first village, we met Sandra whose father died of HIV/AIDS. Her mother, Grace, did not have the resources to care for her or Sandra's siblings. Grace was later "inherited" by another man who gave her a place to live, but due to her financial situation, she still has great difficulty feeding and providing for her children. Sandra loves playing with other kids when they are out of school and she tries hard to count to five in English. She is polite, kind-hearted, and enjoys telling stories to her friends. She loves people and always greets everyone who comes around. She is a good helper for her mother around the house and wishes that someday she could go to school.

Driving to the next village, we passed some people selling food on the side of the road. We stopped to see what they were selling and people from everywhere brought their goods right to our van. We bought some fruit and a popular food in Uganda called sim-sim which is made from roasted sesame seeds and honey. Everyone from our team looooved it except for me. I have to say, I thought it was nasty. It tasted like burned popcorn and it was so dry. To each his own ;-)

We met an orphaned boy named Selestino at the next village. Selestino is the 7th child in a family of 9. His mother married into a polygamous family and is one of three wives. Altogether, the family has 17 children. Selestino was still breast-feeding when his father died of HIV/AIDS in 2006. Later on, his mother fell very ill and was in the hospital for nearly 2 months. While giving birth to her last child in August of 2010, she suffered a stroke, became paralyzed, and remains incapable of caring for her children, two of which are young babies. Selistino's mother is  HIV positive and was told not to nurse her baby so she wouldn't pass on HIV to him through her breast milk. Because of this, the baby is only being fed sugar water.  (We are hoping to come back to this village tomorrow with some baby formula so the baby will have some form of nourishment.) Selestino’s grandmother currently takes care of the family, but she has left her own family of ten to do so. Her family lives over 10 miles away. The others relatives of the family have ignored the family’s plight and stayed away because they believe that they will be exposed to HIV since his mother has it. It has left Selestino and his family very isolated and in need. Also, due to lack of funds and transport, Selestino’s mother cannot make it to the main hospital for treatment.

As we were leaving Selestino's village, we passed some local boys who were playing with a catapult/slingshot that they make from recycled objects laying around. Derk decided to have some fun with them so he brought out a container full of gum balls. He set them at a far distance from the boys and if they could hit it with the catapult, they won a piece of gum. I'm pretty sure everyone was chewing gum by the time we left ;-)

The last village we visited was really far away and very hard to get to. It seemed like we drove for an hour then the dirt road pretty much disappeared so we got out and walked for a while until we finally came to the village we were looking for.

While there, we met an orphaned boy named Amos. He is six years old and the last born in his family of 5. His parents have both died and their graves are actually right next to the hut in which he currently lives with his aunt. He is a very hard working boy and helps make clay bricks as part of his chores.

After we visited with Amos, we noticed a boy whose hand had been amputated. At closer look, we saw it was badly infected. He told us that he recently was up in a tree watching his cattle. He slipped and fell and broke his hand. Doctors tried to set it but it didn't heal correctly so they amputated it. Unfortunately, infection set in and we knew we had to do something to help this boy. We made arrangements for him to be taken to a hospital in Kampala tomorrow. We are praying that he won't have to have the rest of his arm amputated up to his elbow. It's such a sad situation, but what's even more sad is that his parents have disowned him. Because of his accident, he is now known as an outcast and is being raised by his grandparents and local villagers. It's amazing that a parent could do that to their own child. So sad! :-(

On our way back to our hotel, we passed some "interesting" sites.

We saw a large group of men drinking "banana gin"also known as waragi - a favorite past time of Ugandan men. They make this drink, sit around and talk and get drunk and usually end up in a fighting brawl by the end of the night. Look close and you'll see Derk (in the back right) - he just had to go check out the action ;-)

We saw marching prisoners...

And pigs just roaming around...

And this is a picture of our first three widowed house mothers that will be living at Calo Me Lare. They are amazing women and are going to be great caretakers for all the orphans they'll be overseeing.