REHAB OF THE REHAB ROOM!

The original PT room
(the red cement floor hides the red dirt)

WOW! Things have changed! OK...if you remember, the PT room back in October was just a room with 2 steps to access and no sink and dangling bulbs from wires...(which young boys love to throw things at)

You will NEVER see red dust like this anywhere! I swear if they can find a way to use red dust for some business, then Uganda would be the RICHEST country in the world!

The small back storage room once cleaned out
(can you say lemon yellow?)

You might also remember that there was no real equipment save for some broken walkers, standing frames and mismatched crutches for adults. This was my job...to help set up a foundation that would last and be built upon for future volunteers.

I originally thought just a sink would be nice but also thought this was not going to be possible for a while. This was before I met Father Raymond, a powerful, charismatic priest. See picture below...Father and his boys!

Father Raymond is one of those priests one reads about who change the world. He is also what I call a "Renaissance Priest". He is a powerful preacher, writer, artist, speaker and has travelled the world singing. He often cooks for his Novitiates whose house he oversees. He is a designer and builder/contractor. He has made many fabulous changes within the Bethlehem Home, including

Fr Raymond and his boys

remodeling the kitchen, laundry areas and rooms to make them safer, lighter and more efficient. He will go out of his way to help his boys! He is a priest who gets things DONE! He does NOT like to call any attention to himself giving all praise to God. He would not like me giving him these accolades because he is also very humble. He is my inspiration and the inspiration to many others as well.

Not only that, he is a compassionate counselor, so much so, that people from all over the area travel to see him. It is common for Father Raymond to see 300 people in a day. I wonder if he ever sleeps. You will NEVER see anyone work harder and do so with JOY!

I should have known that when he came in to ask what I wanted done, I would soon be on a wild ride! I only asked for a sink....within 1 hour there was a mason in my PT room with a pick axe and drill ready to take out the wall connecting the PT room with the bathroom...they started before I even had an estimate. I had to go on FAITH!

1.75 MONTHS LATER:

Day 1 (BIG HOLE)

We now have ramps from the PT room to the bathroom and out the front door. I have metal railings on the bathroom ramp...there is a metal door that folds open, bolts into the floor to serve as a railing on the upper ramp.

There is a sink in the gym for ease of handwashing.

Outside ramp
(with hole under door)

We have new light fixtures instead of hanging bulbs. The rooms and bathroom are now painted in soft light colors. The artists have started working. The electrician is putting in an outlet in the gym. I even ordered the large rehab equipment from Katalemwa to be built and ready by mid January.

A few things still need to be repaired...no construction renovation is without sudden issues. Ours is not immune to that either.

We have a leak in the roof (slab cement) which we never noticed until the new paint went up. No one has heard of nor has cement sealer here. I managed to shop around and find some mixer that works with cement to make it waterproof. I only need the ceiling to remain intact thought this rainy season as they are going to fix the slab at the end of the rainy season in Jan or Feb. The railings needed to be reinstalled as they were not strong enough for the children's safety as the cement didn't hold. Godfrey made sure they will now!!! Thanks Godfrey!

installing the door

Metal railing installation
(welded to the floor rebar for strength!) 

Alfred (L) and Godfrey (R)
(Godfrey is the amazing welder)

Alfred the painter
(fabulous!!) 

The artists, Nicholas and Dan, are amazing local artists who have done work for Father Raymond already. I had been considering the need for something beautiful but was concerned about the cost of everything and this was not a needed thing. I was sitting in the chapel before Mass early one morning. I was praying for guidance from Mary (as the room is dedicated to Her) I suddenly had a strong hit that I needed to have something beautiful to signify the Virgin Mary. It was one of those hits you don't forget.

I was sitting at lunch that very day, with many new faces present I had not yet met. I was still pondering how I might paint something myself when I asked one of the gentleman why they were visiting that day. He replied "Nicholas and I are artists and we are meeting with Fr Raymond about some work" I nearly jumped out of my seat! I should get used to these coincidences by now as these things happen DAILY!

The first day of adding color

I met with them that day and the next. They mediated for 1-2 weeks to come up with a design fitting for our Holy Mother! It will be beautiful. I gave the Georgia O'Keeffe as an idea. They ran with it. They allowed me to take a few early shots as long as I let people know this is NOT even close to what it will look like in the end. They want this to be the BEST piece they have ever done.

The first sketches

We have had to make a strict rule about keeping the boys out of the gym for now...they are soo curious about the work and what the workers are doing. Unfortunately, they tend to get into things...like paint...like stepping on boxes with my light fixtures, like tracking paint on the floor after jumping on the tarps...AHHH...sigh...must be what it is like to have boys....

softer colors
(the small room is light blue green
versus lemon yellow) 

The usual crowd of secondary
supervisors-curious room destroyers

Get a load of the softer cream color of the bathroom versus the stark white...although I accidentally ordered the wrong color compared to the sample I chose, it worked out even better!

Joseph the electrician

The main reason...the ONLY reason that all of this is being done is for the boys....these little amazing souls, mischievous and loving...heart warming and talented...they need the chance at a life of their own. This room is one way the Brothers can begin to give them this chance! 

They are here to teach us the meaning of
LOVE! 

THE TWO MONTH WOOD PILE!!

OK...2 months has come and gone...what has been done you ask???? Well, let me just tell you! God continues to be the master contractor, planner and designer...here is what HE has managed to do this last month (using all of us here in Earth as the extension of His hands of course)

Miriam (L) Alex (driver) Grace (R) 

1) The PTs and I are now meeting every 2 weeks to review plans and needs for the PT renovation project at Busega Bethlehem Home. We even managed a fun outing as a department celebration, visiting the shores of Lake Victoria for a lunch meeting. 

2) Meeting nearly every day with the new Medical Officer, Douglass, at Busega. He has been a gift to the children. Though trained as a Medical Officer, Douglass was in medical school but had to hold off for now due to funding. He is brilliant and has the heart of Mother Teresa. I pray he is able to find a way to finish school.

Douglass and his helpers

I have ordered much needed equipment for the M.O.'s thanks to the generous donations of friends which will be arriving from the States at the end of the month! THANK YOU David K and Paul K!

ROBIN
(organizer extraordinaire)

SPECIAL THANK YOU
goes out to my dear friend Robin Bush in Portland, Oregon! I could not do this without her! She has been invaluable in organizing the donated and shipped items, managing the donated funds, making sure things get where they need to go, when they need to go, packing and repacking and weighing bags, getting the word out about the wonderful work being done here, and keeping the lines of communication going between myself and everyone else!

3) The seamstress was able to make the bean bags and the waterproof aprons to protect the clothing of the Brothers and Sisters during their work day.

Happy Music rings out!!! 

4) The drum group is in full swing practicing for the Christmas Pageant and they plan to do a recording in the studio next week thanks to the funding of the Brothers!

5) English classes are in their 4th week starting next week. I am teaching 2 different classes every morning from Monday through Saturday. The goal is for the Brothers to be comfortable and confident in preaching the word of God. THANK YOU Mom and Cathy Streiner for being my Google.com and answering the harder English grammar questions I have had! ( have you ever known what you do but not why you do it??? hmmmm)

6) I was told no one local volunteers in Uganda (I was hoping to recruit a team) I wrote about Florence last month. Now we have 3 other more permanent volunteers. Wilson, another highly intelligent, caring and motivated young man who has graduated university in counseling and social work. He is looking for a job but wanted to be useful in the meantime. I try and convince him to stay with us! The children LOVE him. He has a particular fondness for Ivan, who he works with for 2 hours when he comes. There is also Jane and Beverly who are lovely and never tired of helping the children with even small things. I then recruited a young lady from the Sadolin Paint Store (due to my many many trips there) She asked if she could volunteer and wala!

Douglass keeps laughing as new volunteers are showing up out of the woodwork...he thought it was me, I told him it was GOD! I just put the request out there and there you go!

Mulago Hospital

7) I have visited 3 rehab and hospital departments. Katalemwa (the biggest inpatiend rehab) and Mulago Hospital (the Uganda national hospital with over 4,000 beds!!!) Both rehab departments were dark, had old equipment ripped, torn or in disrepair. The rehab department in Bai Hospital closed due to lack of private pay for this service (generally no insurance here remember)

Mulago Hospital

Our disabled, forgotten and abandoned children will have the BEST and NEWEST and MOST WELL DESIGNED rehab in all of Kampala! I will be placing the order next week for the big equipment while some of the smaller items are coming from friends arriving at the end of the month.

Door being installed

Railings!!! 

8) The PT room renovation is now in the finishing work phase though a new floor will most likely need to be installed: we have a walkway and ramps from the gym to the bathroom and the main door to the outside, railings on the ramps, a metal swing away door that locks open to function as a railing on the upper ramp, the hole under the main door fixed by the carpenter, the rooms now painted, the light fixtures installed (I don't know what it is about boys tossing things at dangling lights but this was too great a temptation for them which needed to be corrected) A sink (AND A TOWEL RACK) installed in the gym. The artists have just started this week...ohhh..gives me goosebumps!

The initial sketches

9) The Good Shepherd Home in Mango will have to wait until the space for a room is available. This remains in the works! This is good...I think God took pity on my limitations as I couldn't do 2 renovations as once (unlike some people I know)

10) The initial forms for the PT charts have been printed out this week. We had to wait for the donation of a printer before this could be done. This will start after the gym is completed. A bit too much to do in the meantime. Douglass the M.O. is much farther ahead of me on this and has his charts already printed and in the process of being used.

SO, the progress continues. More details to come this week re the renovation and resulting funny stories.

LOOK at all the wonderful work all of you have done...the world is a hologram...all your thoughts, gifts, donations, prayers and support (mentally and emotionally with myself or any of my family and friends) are the workings of God through you to help the poor of the world!

THANK YOU ALL! 

“Whenever you did this to the least of my brethren, you did it to me” -

Matthew 25:40

IF you are interested in helping out at all in any small way with the Christmas dinner for the children, please contact:
Father Henry Lozano, Missionaries of the Poor superior at:

MISSIONARIES OF THE POOR

Our Lady of Good Counsel Monastery

Plot 96, Sembule Street, Mutundwe

P.O. Box 28813

Kampala, Uganda, East Africa

Tel: (256) 752-272112 / 750-332244

Skype: mopkampala

Email: mopkampala@missionariesofthepoor.org

Website: http://www.missionariesofthepoor.org/uganda-kampala.php

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO THE STUDENTS OF SAINT MARY'S in New Jersey!!

I must send a HUGE HELLO and HUG to Master Matthew and Miss Anna Hayden of St. Mary's school! I understand your classes may be reading some of the stories of the children here in Kampala, Uganda.

I THANK YOU for your prayers! The children here feel your love and caring!

I thought I would share with you some of the traditions of your counterparts here to give you an idea how they celebrate Christmas.

This may only be from the ones who I have interviewed and may not be how ALL children celebrate BUT....We start preparing during the start of Advent (which was last Sunday). The weather is cooler (60-75F) during this month and rainy..no snow...so as a result, there are no "sleigh bells" types of songs. Most of the children have never seen a horse, snow or know what a sleigh or a snowman is.

We have started playing some Christmas songs over the overhead speakers. They are some of the same songs we all sing at church (Oh Holy night, Silent night, Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel) Some of the songs are in their own native tongue of Luganda. the music here is much more upbeat, faster and include lots of drums!

There are no decorations except in the church and chapel (usually candles and greenery but no evergreen trees) as the focus is on the birth of our Savior. Generally in the community, people go to church Sunday morning (Christmas morning) then come home and have a feast as we do. Most Ugandans do not eat sweets as these are not a needed item and are often too expensive. They have not heard of Christmas cookies so I plan to bake some now that I found a propane oven in the Monastery.

The feast includes traditional foods but primarily FISH, rice, matoke (a plantane/banana which is steamed in banana leaves and feels and tastes more like thick mashed potatoes) the matoke is served with geenut sauce (ground nuts like peanuts) which is very yummy!!! there is also usually a wet stew of sparse veggies (peas and carrots) along with potatoes for the rice. beans are also on the menu.

The adults usually rest (nap) after Christmas feasting. The kids open presents (usually only a couple if any) the following day, which is called "boxing day". Most families here in the slums (where I live) cannot afford presents at all let alone a Christmas meal. The Brothers here at Missionaries of the Poor serve the children a feast following Christmas Mass. I was told there are up to 2,000 children or more who come.

You would think that they would be sad about this wouldn't you???? So did I! BUT NO! THEY ARE NOT!

What these children lack in needs, God fills with bountiful gifts of other things that are much more special! He fills them with a love of His Son, so much so that children wear the best clothes they have to spend up to 4 hours at church every Sunday!

Can you imagine sitting through church for 4 hours? I used to get fidgety after 30 min. The children sit listening as if to the best story they ever heard. They do not fidget and yet they have to sit on benches with no back support! They stay quiet unless they are singing. When they sing, the lights of the church become brighter because you have never heard such love turned into song!

These children have pure JOY in their eyes! They do not complain of small things. They share even the little they find with each other. They care for each other even if they are not related. God has given these children the PEACE of knowing that the Father above cares for them and loves them each very very much as He does you. This is their gift to the world, for when you are with them, you begin to feel the same way and it is WONDERFUL!

Sit back and close your eyes....think about how wonderful it is that the only thing that matters is that you are LOVED, you are SPECIAL and you are unique to God and your family. You have gifts and talents to give the world! God loves you all so much just because. All the silly things such as who pushed you yesterday, who got the larger piece of pizza, who might have said a hurtful thing,...these things do not matter.

The children here say..."just smile because smiles are Magic and are free to give!" Try it out!!! just turn to your neighbor and smile right now, go ahead, turn and smile!...try giving your biggest smile! I dare you not to laugh! I dare you! Try it! Then go home and smile as big as you can to your family! Do not say anything else...just smile big and don't stop until they smile back...for some who are worried or busy, it may take a few minutes but keep trying! You have to do it all evening until you get a smile back...then check in with your heart....ask yourself "How did this make me feel?" I'll bet it will feel like the same Peace and Joy the children here feel. This is their gift to you. Then try it with your neighbors and the world....just see what magic you can make! I am curious to see what happens!

HAPPY ADVENT SEASON from the children of Busega Bethlehem home.

“Whenever you did this to the least of my brethren, you did it to me” -

Matthew 25:40

Adults: IF you are interested in helping out at all in any small way with the Christmas dinner for the children, please contact Father Henry Lozano, Missionaries of the Poor Superior at:

MISSIONARIES OF THE POOR

Our Lady of Good Counsel Monastery

Plot 96, Sembule Street, Mutundwe

P.O. Box 28813

Kampala, Uganda, East Africa

Tel: (256) 752-272112 / 750-332244

Skype: mopkampala

Email: mopkampala@missionariesofthepoor.org

Website: http://www.missionariesofthepoor.org/uganda-kampala.php

PREPARING FOR CHRISTMAS

Do you see what I see? Way up in the sky, or across the ocean in the slums of Uganda, do you see what I see? A star, a star!... in fact many stars, dancing in the night! We now enter the profound time of the birth of our Savior into this world of great need. There is so much more I see.

 I see these forgotten children show me true caring. I see Shaffique, who is still learning to walk, totter around the dorm carrying a bucket with toothbrushes. I curiously watch him leaning over the bed of a disabled child who is blind, deaf and paralyzed. I see Shaffique gently brush his teeth. I see the child lay there quietly with this mouth open. This child normally clenches and grinds his teeth. It is unusual to see him so still while Shaffique cares for him. They do not know I SEE them. 

Do you hear what I hear? Ringing through the world…a song amidst the pain and the poverty. I hear Lokilo singing his heart out about the love of his God while beating a tune out onto the table…I hear autistic Tusubira laugh one of his rare laughs for no reason today…I hear Trevor giggle when one of the brothers tickles his belly. I hear Ivan ask if I can help him walk and then clap wildly when I say YES!

We should respond with a loving voice as big as the sea!

Do you know what I know? In your homes warm and cozy, do you know what I know? I know too much and yet I know its not even close to the reality of most of the world’s poor.  A child, a child shivers in the cold, or from lack of love or from lack of family or from hunger.

These children know the pain of abandonment, yet they smile and laugh and never complain. They know what it is like to be without family, yet I see Misoke, a 3 year old albino boy, squat down next to Peter, a 5 yr old with cerebral palsy and gently wash Peter’s face after lunch.  I think they might know more than I.

Let us bring them gifts of silver and gold (gifts of LOVE to everyone around us; gifts of COMPASSION to our own dear ones; gifts of GENEROSITY to our own poor)

For unto us a child is born, in fact many children…OUR children, the children of the world…for they are ours! What we do to the least of our brothers…

See them cross the sky with their bright pure souls, hear them whisper the most profound loving things in your ear, know that they are still children and require our protection (it takes a clan…) Let us bring them the basics but first and foremost....      let us bring them LOVE.

For unto us a child is born!

You can help the Missionaries of the Poor serve the poorest of the poor abandoned and disabled children at Christmas!

“Whenever you did this to the least of my brethren, you did it to me” -

Matthew 25:40

Contact: Father Henry Lozano, Missionaries of the Poor Superior at: 

MISSIONARIES OF THE POOR

Our Lady of Good Counsel Monastery

Plot 96, Sembule Street, Mutundwe

P.O. Box 28813

Kampala, Uganda, East Africa

Tel: (256) 752-272112 / 750-332244

Skype: mopkampala

Email: mopkampala@missionariesofthepoor.org

Website: http://www.missionariesofthepoor.org/uganda-kampala.php