A little bit of life (blog post)

Ok, so my sister said that all she can see on my new post are new pictures and an old blogpost so I'm going to try reposting the blog again. My new pics are in the blog below.

When I arrived back at Rapha Sunday from a weekend trip to Kampala, Jalia (I talked about her in the last blog) informed me of some very bad news. Over the weekend she had walked to Kikambwe to buy a couple things and on the way there, she saw Salaam's father. She asked him how his little daughter was holding up since she had been discharged from the hospital about a week ago, and that's when he told her that she had died just two days after being discharged. She had been admitted into the hospital because of stomach ulcers that caused her to quit eating and had left her hungry and quite malnourished. In the ward, she had caught my attention because of her extreme malnourishment and also because of the fact that she was the only child there without a mother taking care of her (apparently her mother had abandoned the family and had gotten remarried). That little girl had become quite an important part of my life during her hospitalization (you can read about her in my other posts), and it breaks my heart to hear that she is no longer here on Earth with us. I think, well what if I had taken her in for a little while until she had regained full strength or what if I had gone to check on her everyday, but it is too late for what if's. What if's do not change the past. However, the way I react now can change the future.


For about two and a half weeks now I have been praying through something that the Lord has laid on my heart:starting a Malnutrition Rehabilitation Center here at Rapha. I could not look into these precious little malnourished babies eyes and then ignore their present suffering. Currently, the nearest place for these children to be treated for malnutrition is two hours away in Kampala, a trip quite expensive and unrealistic for people here. Most parents in the villages, because they fear traveling all the way to Kampala for treatment, instead watch their children waste away slowly.


Not only will this be an awesome opportunity to be a part in saving children's lives, it is a crazy awesome place to share the Gospel. Rapha is located in an area with about 50%+ Muslim population, so this Center will be a great avenue in which to introduce them to Christ's love for them (that is most important, after all).


The main reason I went to Kampala the past weekend was to discuss the vision for a Nutritional Rehabilitation Center with my African parents. Since they are the directors of Rapha, it was very important for them to agree to this idea (they did, Praise God!). I am in Kampala again this weekend to meet with them again along with the various doctors and health care workers in the church to get their advice on the best way to start this project and also to lay our vision out so the person who will be writing the Project Proposal will know exactly what the vision for the Center is.


Since we are still in the very preliminary stages of starting this project, I do not have very many details about it to tell yall. My vision and dream is to purchase a plot of land very close to the hospital to build the Center with enough land to garden for most of the foods we will need to feed the children. This vision, though, is one that is quite expensive and until enough money is raised for purchasing of land and also construction, right now we are looking for temporary means by which to house the center. We may purchase a small trailer to house the ward or I may be spending some serious time cleaning out one of the empty rooms at the hospital! (While purchasing the trailer would be easier, doing some serious cleaning and sprucing up of one of the empty rooms here is a whole heck of a lot cheaper!) Some of the other expenses incurred will be purchasing the beds for the children to sleep in, hiring a couple of additional nurses to help with this ward (we are predicting it may end up being the busiest ward in the hospital), purchasing the cooking appliances needed, and getting some toys for these babies to play with while staying here (the least amount of time needed for a child to stay at the Center to be monitored and correctly fed is 3 weeks!). My ultimate goal is for the Center (when it is up and running) to be self-sustaining, but as we are purchasing all of the initial items needed, there is no income to offset the costs.


This is where I need your help...While I wish that my savings account were enough to pay for all of these beginning supplies needed along with paying for the project proposal to be written and the various governmental offices to accept it, the reality is that I need your help. Whether it be having a garage sale, car wash, bake sale, or any other fundraising event, I would be so blessed as to have some people coming alongside of me to help fundraise while I am still here in Uganda. Every single penny donated will make a significant impact in starting this Center. I had not started a Nonprofit Organization in the US prior because I was very unsure of what the specific mission was to be, but now that I have a much clearer vision, I plan on starting the paperwork for one as soon as I get back to the States (beginning of August).


All right enough news about the Rehabilitation Center, now on to what I have been doing the past week.


This past week has been A LOT of fun, considering that I have had plenty of firsts. I traveled for the first time to Kampala from the hospital and back all by myself via taxi (those are the local buses used). While it is kind of uncomfortable being in a bus with people who for the most part are speaking a language I don't much understand, it is always an adventure and motivates me to study Luganda more rigorously. On the way to Kampala, the people on the bus knew (somehow) that I understood and could communicate some Luganda, so the whole bus greeted me when I got on haha. As one lady was getting off the bus, she even called me by name which was weird because as far as I know, I've never met that lady before. I guess when you're the only white person around for miles, people are bound to talk about ya. On the taxi ride back to the hospital from Kampala, I sat beside a young Muslim girl named Sarah. As I began talking with her about her religious beliefs, she confided to me that she wanted to become a Christian because it was “easier” than being a Muslim. That opened up a door for me to share the truth of the Gospel with her and to also talk with her about her (very interesting) belief that Christianity was somehow easier. She never came to accept Christ on the way home, but I believe that one day it will happen. Please be in prayer for Sarah, that someone else will come into her life to speak more truth about Christ into her life.


On Tuesday, I WATCHED someone slaughter a chicken. I would consider this to be the first step in my ultimate goal of killing one myself haha:)


At the hospital this week, I got my first glimpse of what is in your uterus when you are pregnant. The women around in the villages know we don't give abortions at Rapha, so they opt to have them done locally in the villages by either eating certain raw foods or other means, but when there are complications afterward they always come to the hospital for help. Sometimes, the women end up bleeding uncontrollably after the abortion and it's either we help them or they die. So, the lady I was around to see was 2 months pregnant and claimed to have had a miscarriage while using the bathroom, but everything didn't come out so the doctor had to remove the rest of the bloody mess right in front of me. To say that I wanted to throw up after seeing that was an understatement ha....


As for my time at the school, it has been filled with many firsts as well. I ate my first meal traditional african style (with my hands) on Tuesday. Trying to eat posho (millet flour poured into boiled water with the consistency of grits kept out too long) and beans with your hands is quite the challenge, but it's been really fun eating like all of the other teachers and students(they used to give only me a fork).


It has been a joy getting to know some of the students there as well while working in the classroom and also teaching PE. I have caught the nursery class students peeking through windows at me on multiple occasions, in awe of my foreign, white skin. On Tuesday, I was in charge of teaching the Primary 4 class English and Math. After taking so many upper-level math classes, it has proven to be quite the challenge teaching elementary mathematics. I tried teaching long division to the P4 class, and while some students caught on, I hate to admit that I probably left some kids more confused about it than they were before haha.


The trip back to Kampala from the hospital yesterday was quite the adventure as well. I traveled with 3 employees of the hospital, and on two separate occasions the taxi drivers tried to drop us off before the mutually agreed upon time. For about ten minutes Stella, the administrator of the hospital, argued with the taximen in Luganda. The entire time I was laughing so hard because Stella and the other employees were having such a heated argument, and I didn't even know what the heck they were saying. I just had to put in my two cents as well, but I'm pretty sure those taxi drivers couldn't understand what I was saying ha. After all of the arguing was over and the taximen finally agreed to take us where we needed to go, it started pouring rain, so when it was time for me to be dropped off by the taxi to the gas station near my home, I got to spend some quality time under the overhang there for about 20 minutes. There was a little kid about 3 years old under the overhang with his mother, and I guess that kid had been staring at me for a while but when I made eye contact with that poor child he started SCREAMING and grabbed his mother's leg to hide his face. I have NEVER seen a child so scared for his life. Everyone around me thought the situation was hilarious, and while I did too, I felt some sympathy for that little boy as well.


Well, that is all for now. Please be in prayer for all that I wrote about above and also that the Lord will reveal to me which children desperately need help in paying their school fees so I can match up the 4 new sponsors with a student. Please pray for Sarah, Salaam's family as they are mourning, and Rapha.