Sept. 27 - Batman in Soroti

This was a frustrating day for Liz and a very productive day for Andy.  There were about 12 surgeries scheduled for today and by 11:00 no one had showed up.  We finally got a ‘tumor case’ (turned out to be flea bite allergy!) and a cat abscess in the afternoon.  Later found out this was a special market day and everyone had gone to the market without bothering to tell us.  Guess God thought Liz needed more instruction in patience.

Liz did pick up some more interesting facts about Uganda in conversations today.  There is a nurse here, Jennifer, who comes to CLIDE in the morning for devotions and brought us animals to work on.  Uganda has the highest AIDS rate of any African country and AIDS started in Uganda.  It is perpetuated by misconceptions about how it is spread and by an attitude of acceptance that it is a normal part of life.  The culture is still highly influenced by witchcraft which contributes to misunderstandings about AIDS, even in the church.  One in 13 women die in childbirth, primarily from bleeding complications and the death rate in infants is even higher.  The primary means of birth control for many people is still abortion although we have noticed many billboards advertising and encouraging family planning and various means of birth control methods.  At lunch Liz and Melissa stopped by a local craft store and upon talking with the proprietor discovered it is run as a fund raiser for Silent Voices, a Christian organization that seeks to educate about the dangers of abortion and encourage women to keep their babies.  They are allowed into all the local schools to educate the students.  They have been focusing on secondary schools but see the need to begin education in primary schools.

Andy began the day with batman (alias Paul) finishing the ladder so they could access the bat attic.  They were short on nails so made the ladder rungs 16” instead of 12” apart.  Andy continued to work on plumbing while batman disposed of bats and cleaned bat guano out of the attic.  Last count was 14 boxes of bat guano and counting!  Liz had the cleaning lady clean the room we are sleeping in as a fine mist of bat guano had covered everything.  As for Andy’s progress we now have a leak proof sink with running water, a shower that works that should have hot water by tomorrow and a toilet that does not flood the bathroom every time it is flushed.

Tonight we will join the Grahams for fried fish and chips and a game night.  The fish here is tilapia and you can get is filleted and breaded or the Ugandan way in which the entire fish is just dropped in hot oil and fried till crisp.  No breading or anything.  It is delicious.