PICTURES FINALLY!

FIRST OF ALL: UNCLE STEVE...I have been praying for your speedy recovery and successful outcome on your surgery. Hope you don't mind that the whole world is reading this! :)

Morning sunrise from MOP window

I will introduce you to the children in a week or so. I still have to wait for approval on pictures of where I work and of the children for their protection. I do have some pictures caught candidly from the truck while doing errands with the MOP driver, Medison on Saturday late afternoon. (His name is spelled Medson but EVERYONE calls him "Medison" instead including himself) Medison was one of those boys at the home who is grown up and now working for the Brothers as one of the drivers. Many of the adult boys still come by to help out the MOP Brothers as they feel so thankful for being given at chance at life, food and a safe place to live and schooling. They had a chance in life they would not have had without them.

 I worked my first Saturday this weekend. I missed last weekend due to illness and the weekend before as I had just arrived and needed to take care of things that cannot be done during the week. It is usually a short day (5 hrs), but one gets used to changes in schedule on a regular basis and yesterday was one of those days. Again, the gas gauge was on empty. "Medison!, empty again??? Are we going to get there?" he smiled and replied "I hope so" this is becoming a much too common conversation here. I announced that we ought to say a prayer for a money donation for gas to be delivered to the MOP in the next hour. Medison and Brother Festis laughed..."Isn't that what Fr Raymond just told us to do in the last sermon...C'mon guys! Lets have some FAITH!"

MERCEDES dealer right on the road
to Busega!

Today, the Busega Bethlehem Home was what you WOULD expect from a home with 200 boys all home from school and too much energy to burn! I managed to get some PT done though the little one's I had worked hard with during the week wanted a break from me and I cannot blame them. Christine came by yesterday to see how the Home is going. Christine is a nurse who teaches the junior Brothers basic first aide and nursing skills as the clinics here cannot do much better anyway. It is best for the children in the long run. She came by to show me the Busega medical clinic rooms which has been renovated last year to accommodate outpatients from the community. The plan was for free health care as well as a possible overnight room for very ill patients who cannot travel back home. She was thinking I could use the supplies or rooms there for PT if I needed to.

Most of the supplies that were stocked by a US nurse had already been used. There were sparse cupboards with a couple old rolls of silk tape, a partially used bag of cotton batting, a few cotton balls, some antiseptic solution, a tweezers, forceps and suture scissor. Soap and towels were hard to find. No gloves to be found though Christine found some surgical gloves in a box in one of the back rooms. It would be a good thing I had a tour of the clinic because today, it would be put to good use!

Along the road to Busega

The clinic itself was well designed with a reception, waiting room, staff and separate patient bathroom. There was an MD consult room along with 6 private rooms of good size. There was also the overnight room with 2 beds and a curtain with IV poles next to the beds. Little did I know that this room would be well used today.

The boys were just out of control. There were some playing soccer (foot ball) out in the parking lot and another whole group in a large room making all kinds of happy noise with donated old trumpets, trombones, various drums and other wind instruments all in various states of disrepair. The boys were dressed up and waiting transport (unsupervised as there is limited staff on weekends) to music lessons. They were taking good advantage of their time though it sounded like they were about to rip through the drum tops...the Brass was playing loudly all out of tune and with no music...just joyful noise. I peeked in to find the boys dancing in a line all playing their instruments the way you would expect a large drunken Mardis Gras band!..lots of scrambled noise. The drum tops had already been torn. I went in to ask the boys to be more gentle on the instruments....they played softly until I walked out of the room when the volume again shot up to something I would liken to deafening noise and laughter.

Children who call to us on our way home
"Bye Brothers! Bye Muzungu!"

I was chasing down my PT (Physical Therapy) boys with a line of younger ones running after me calling "Mama...Mama" Especially one 4-5 yr old albino Uganda boy who everyone teases by calling "Muzungu" (white person) Matuko (I don't think this is his real name as it means banana...) likes for me to hold him. He is sweet but needs much TLC. He is well loved by the Brothers though gets teased a lot. He is a bit heavy to hold more than 5 min but he cries when I put him down so I keep carting him around.

The medical day started about about noon when I heard one of the Brothers scolding a boy and bringing him to me "Look at this! Do you see something in his ear???" I looked in and indeed saw something silver shining where it should not be. "What did you put in your ear?" I asked the boy. He just looked at me. I told him that Brother Gabriel should be able to remove it with tweezers. Apparently this was a successful procedure. Yes...he was that 8 year old ish age...I think this is common?

It was not long before a group of kids run up to me saying Brother Gabriel needed me in the clinic. I went up there to see how I could help shlepping Matuko in my arms and Vincent in tow behind me pulling on my shirt. Vincent is a young boy with hydrocephalus that was untreated before he came to MOP; this resulted in an double than normal malformed skull and delayed motor skills. He was not able to walk until Patricia, the PT that volunteered for a few months this year, worked with him. He can now run and climb stairs but also tends to get teased.

I arrived to find the room packed with boys hovering around the desk. Brother Gabriel was very calmly treating one young boy with a bad toothache. The only thing he could do for the boy was given him some pain medicine and have the boy hold cool water in his mouth. His little eyes were watering but he didn't cry until I bent down and rubbed his back cooing "Ohh honey, I know it hurts, you are being so very brave" the soundless tears just streamed down his little cheeks. Brother Gabriel needed some more immediate help with one of the boys who cut his thumb while peeling potatoes. The boys all work when they are not in school. They have knives only, no potato peelers to use. Most are very adept at using the knives as I had watched them amazed thinking, I could not have done that at 7 years old!

The brick layer finishing for the day
(along the road to Busega)

Unfortunately, the boy had sliced a good way through his thumb. I could see the nail bed was 1/2 cut as well as along the radial side of the thumb and well across the pad on the volar side. It had been bleeding quite a bit per Brother Gabriel who was applying pressure with the cotton batting and needed an extra pair of clean hands to help him. I looked at the thumb over Gabriel's shoulder. It's deep he said. I responded "Yes", he is going to need stitches". The Doctor had been called but hadn't shown up. The boys would run back and forth from the office giving report. Turns out we had to transport him there (which I thought was a good idea).

This time another boy came limping in with a bleeding foot. His baby toe-nail was hanging off. He had been playing soccer when he scuffed his foot along the pavement to kick. The kids go barefoot most of the time unless they are in school. Clothing is very expensive and so the kids cannot play in their school shoes. Brother Gabriel removed the nail and I played nurse while helping to bandage the toe.

I had to run to the office to find more gloves, the younger one's running after me crying because I was not carrying them. I came to a screeching halt when I saw shards of glass everywhere. I had to corral the young ones (who thought it was a game and kept trying to get past me) so there wouldn't be bleeding bare feet to fix on top of everything else!

Along the road to Busega
(it's afternoon so no one is out)

I could not find the source of the glass but found it scattered even as far as the dining room. I ran back up to the clinic and ordered the able bodied boys to grab brooms and start sweeping the glass out of the main walk areas (I had already cleared 90% of it but wanted to be sure) They were hesitant until Brother Gabriel scolded them for not listening. Sweeping glass is boring...they all wanted to see blood and tears!

It was about this time that the boy we sent out for stitching returned to us with the same bandage we put on. He said they told him he didn't need stitches. I was upset but Gabriel said the clinics in Uganda are pretty basic and they might not have known how to do them anyway. The boy was no longer crying...he was intrigued with what was being done to the toe of his dorm mate.

Shops along the main road home 

Only the boy with the cut thumb cried and not even that much to tell you the truth. The others were pretty stoic. These are some tough kids used to pain of all kinds. It was a good thing the transport was over an hour late...there was no way we could have left any earlier.

It was an exhausting day with little PT done BUT the boys who were waiting transport to their music lessons were happily off. The boys who were treated along with the other boys were busy watching a soccer match from an old TV mounted near the ceiling (out of reach)

The only major loss was the new soccer ball I purchased for therapy last week. Alas, it bit the dust when I left the PT gym unlocked for 15 minutes. 1/2 of the ping pong balls and 1 of the tennis ball was also missing. RATS...I have to go shopping AGAIN!

We did get more gas for the truck in the long run. I am sure there was a donation waiting at the MOP as we had prayed for, but I bargained to have Medison drive me in the truck to do errands if I fill up the tank. Brother John said "NO NO use the truck but only put in what you need!" I was adamant about filling it as I knew there was wear and tear cost on the truck AND it was really nice to have a driver I knew and ride in a truck! Medison also told me "NO, don't fill it all the way up". WHY NOT? I asked....he laughed and said, because it will cost over 300,000.00 shillings (about $120.00 US dollars) I almost croaked..."You're kidding me!!!". Turns out we have NOTHING to complain about in the US....Try living in a country where you are lucky to make 200.00 dollars a month and you have to pay out the nose for gas! Then on top of that...drive an old gas guzzling truck. HMMM.

Don't let BULL get in your way on the road of life! 

The pictures were taken from the car window so many are off center. I hope to get out and about and take some decent ones in the coming months. This will give you a small taste of my New Home and the last picture, my parting thought!