Oct. 18 - The trip home starts

Our last morning in Africa.  Got up early again for a morning bird walk in a botanical garden just down the road from the hostel we stayed at.  Got a few more species to add to our bird list including the pygmy kingfisher and white-throated bee eater, more of God’s creative handiwork.  Now we are off for 2 days of flying to get back to the US.  We once again have a 24 hour layover in Houston, TX, where we get to visit our good friends the Przybyszewskis again.

Oct. 17 - Hipomower

We were “lulled” to sleep last night by the sounds of the Red Chilli Rest Camp ‘lawnmower’, one of the hippopotamus’ that relished the nice grass around our banda.  Amazing how much noise that 2 foot wide mouth makes!

Woke up early again to fairly clear skies and set off for the top of Murchison Falls.  The falls cascade over a 40 foot drop with a huge volume of water.  Quite spectacular especially with a full rainbow in the spray!  Next stop was the ZIWA rhino sanctuary, a 70 square kilometer area set up to breed the white rhino for reintroduction to the wild.  Uganda had a large white and black rhino population that was decimated by poachers during the reign of Idi Amin.  The horns are valued in oriental countries for supposed health and aphrodisiac properties.  By 1986 only 5 white rhino were left in Uganda and those too were poached.  We met a lady on the plane to Nairobi who told us her husband liked to hand out bumper stickers that read “save a rhino, take Viagra”.  The sanctuary started with 4 white rhino from Kenya and was given 2 more by the US.  Since 1993 those 6 rhino have produced 6 offspring.  We were lucky enough to get to see one of the females with her 8 month old, 300 pound calf.  The white rhino are very docile and not a threat to humans.  They are hoping eventually to breed and reintroduce the black rhino but that will have to be done on the game reserves as black rhino are very aggressive and would kill people if they escaped near human habitation.  Next was the not quite as long drive back to Kampala, about 4 hours.

Oct. 16 - Sprecken Zi (sp) LORD!

Woke up to clear skies!  Had a 5 hour game and bird drive.  Saw about 15 new species of birds plus giraffes, hartebeast, jackals and a small antelope called an oribi.  Also saw all the ‘usual’ animals: elephants, Ugandan Kob, waterbuck, warthogs, etc.  Took a boat trip on the Nile in the afternoon to the base of Murchison Falls – pretty spectacular.  Over dinner we met several German youth who were here on a 1 to 3 month mission trip working with children and orphans.  Great to meet young people from other countries serving the Lord.

Oct. 15 - Surprise by Hippo

A long drive today from Queen Elizabeth National Park to Murchison Falls National Park.  A long, long drive – 10 hours to be exact.  Got in after dark at 7:30pm and it was pouring with rain!  Took late showers.  The rain had actually stopped as we were walking from the shower to our “banda” (cabin).  We rounded a tent to come and Andy came within two feet face to face with a startled hippo.  Not sure who was more startled but he sure made us jump when he snorted a hippo sized snort.  We provided a lot of entertainment for the people around us when we jumped and yelled in surprise.

Oct. 14 - Lions and Wart Hogs and Kob Oh My!

Got up at 5:30 for an early morning game drive.  Saw a lot more of God’s amazing animal creation: lions, elephants, hippopotamus, crocodiles, monitor lizards, and lots more waterbuck, water buffalo, warthogs, African kob, baboons, monkeys.  We took a boat ride on the Kazinga canal which joins Lake George to Lake Edward.  Saw an amazing array and number of birds along the shore intermixed with hippos, elephants and water buffalo.  The cloud formations are spectacular here.  It is still the end of the rainy season so there are clouds every day.  They seem to stand out crisper and more distinct from each other than we have ever seen before.  It must have to do with the equatorial sun and atmosphere.  Andy has lots of cloud pictures as well as birds mammals and scenery.  Still don’t have enough bandwidth to upload photos so you may have to wait till we get home.

Oct. 13 - Loooonnnnggg Ride!

Forgot to mention that the last night we spent in Karamoja we saw the most amazing shooting star.  It was the brightest one we’ve ever seen, you could actually see the meteor, and it went across at least half the sky.  Another demonstration of God’s power and sense of beauty.

This was the first day of our “mini-safari”.  Most of the day was spent driving from Kampala to Queen Elizabeth Park.  The principal lakes in Queen Elizabeth are Albert and George.  Farther north is Lake Albert.  Gee – wonder where they got the names?  Saw some cool stuff along way: African Kob, an antelope and the national mammal of Uganda; Grey Crowned Crane, the national bird of Uganda; Water Buck; Water Buffalo; Warthog; Baboons and a variety of birds.  Had the nicest shower we’ve had since leaving Val’s house in Soroti – a hot solar shower at Simba Safari Camp.  After dinner we are ready to retire to our tent for the night.

Oct. 12 - Back in Kampala

Today is the last day of our mission portion of the trip.  We fly to Kampala later today in preparation for our 5 day Safari starting tomorrow.  More dogs and cats arrived for treatments this morning so we spent part of the morning treating and vaccinating.  We saw the little dog that had the eye removed today – it is doing much better.

We are finally able to send the last week of Blog postings today as we are back in Kampala,  There was no internet available in Karamoja.  Most of the prayer request are outdated I am afraid but everything has worked out well.  Do please continue to pray for Val’s vehicle.  She was able to get some of the parts she wanted in Kenya and a mechanic should be arriving today to install them and hopefully get it running.  It has been very inconvenient and expensive hiring a driver.

Oct. 11 - Brucellosis Testing at the Kraal

We got up early and went to a local kraal (area where livestock is kept at night) to collect blood samples for brucellosis testing on sheep and goats.  Brucellosis is a big problem in the cows, sheep and goats here and humans contract it from the animals.   The project is to help determine exactly how and from what animals the people are contracting it.  We also treated a number of sick cows.  Cows here get nasty ear infections – that was new to Liz!  We returned to our huts to find more animals lined up for surgery!  We did 4 surgeries and processed the brucellosis samples.

Oct. 10 - Dr. Val Arrives!

Val texted us this morning.  She is on her way on the bus from Soroti!!!  Liz and Julie spent all day doing surgeries again – lost count again.   Liz got to use her teaching skills again to supervise Julie doing several surgeries.  Julie is a large animal vet and said she had not spayed a dog in 10 years!  Andy worked on various doors that were not closing or latching.  We got done before dark and Val arrived at 5:30!

Oct. 9 - HAPPY 50th UGANDA!

Got up early and went to the 3 hour service at 7:30am.  Great message from the book of Leviticus about the year of Jubilee.  The pastor related the Ugandan Jubilee to the Jubilee the Jews celebrated when all the property was returned to its original owner.  He likened it to turning control of our lives over to God and giving back to Him what is due.  Ivory, Val’s lab, decided to join us for church.  He wandered down the aisle getting petted by various people, laying down in the aisle periodically to rest.

We told the people yesterday that we would start surgery again after church, thinking there were 2 services again.  When we got out at 10:30 they were already lined up as it turned out there was no second service today!  We asked them to at least wait till we had breakfast.  Did another 13 surgeries today.  One was a rather forlorn little dog belonging to 2 young boys.  It had been hit in the face with a stick some time ago and had the remnant of 1 eye with the lids adhessed into it.  It was very uncomfortable and teared constantly.  The other eye had a huge ulcer on it.  Liz spayed it and removed the remnant of the eye and sutured it closed.  Sent it home with antibiotics, eye ointment and pain meds.  The little boys seemed very grateful.

Life is hard here.  Most of the children and many adults have no shoes.  Many have missing toe nails.  There is a nasty parasite here called jiggers that lays its eggs under the toenail.  Except on Sunday and special occasions most of their clothes are very tattered and dirty.  Those who can afford to go to school have a school uniform and some have a nice set of clothes for Sunday.  We heard some friend’s stories recently.

-         Joyce, who cooks and cleans for us, has 5 children and 1 grandchild. The oldest is 29.  Her husband was shot and killed several years ago.  She struggles to raise her  children on her own.  She attends church and is very helpful.

-         Charles, a CLIDE employee who has been helping us every day, looks like he could be a professional in the US.  He has 2 university degrees and has worked for CLIDE for 5 years.  His first wife died of a combination of Brucellosis and Typhoid.  She was pregnant with their 4^th child when she became ill and died shortly after delivering the baby.  Charles was left with 3 children to raise (their 3^rd child had also died).  The baby was very sick for a long time and they did not think she was going to make it but now she is 8 and going to school.   The wife of his step brother was widowed when her husband was killed in a warrior raid.  Her family decided Charles should marry her as neither of her husband’s brothers were suitable candidates.  So Charles dutifully married her.  She already had 1 child which he is helping to raise and they have 4 more of their own.  Charles looks like he is in his 30’s and now has 8 children, ages 1 to 16 to provide for.  He is a very cheerful and friendly young man and a strong Christian.

-         Dorcas is 15.  She has come several days with dogs for us to do surgery on.  She speaks English well and has acted as an interpreter for us and has helped install catheters.  She is already teaching preschool to earn money to help support her younger siblings.  She finished grade primary 7 a couple of years ago then her father died.  She can no longer afford to go to school. 

Val is not coming today either but at least she is back in Uganda.  She got into Soroti too late to get the bus to Karamoja.  She will come tomorrow.

Oct. 8 - Surprise, Surprise... More Surgeries.

Julie and Liz did 18 surgeries today.  There seems to be an endless supply of them.  We ran out of vaccines (brought 100 doses of each) and are close to running out of flea and ticks meds.  All the animals have lots of fleas and ticks and often lice.  We have seen a number of cases of TVT (transmissible venereal tumor).  Surprisingly Kadafi and Osama are popular dog names, not surprisingly so are Simba and Rocket.  Most notably we got done just before dark!  Our helpers decided to limit the number of people and dogs in the compound and have the rest wait outside.  That was extremely helpful.  We prayed with each group as they came in and did not feel as overwhelmed as the day before.  There was no school today either so there were lots of children watching surgery.

Andy has been starting on projects on the ‘compound’ here as the concrete projects are not going to work due to $$.  He is making progress but had to deal with a CLIDE member trying to ‘help’.  Let’s see; he succeeded in bending most of the nails, breaking off the screw and nothing was square.  Andy was very patient.

Tomorrow is Ugandan Independence Day and this is a special one.  It was 50 years ago that Uganda obtained its independence from Britain.  Most officials have gone to Kampala for the big celebration.  Here they plan to have an all night singing and prayer service at St. Mark’s then a regular service at 7:30 in the morning.  We joined the festivities for about an hour then went off to bed.  We heard them singing and ululating well into the night.

Oct 7 - St. Marks... Liturgy with an Africian flair

Sunday:  Went to the local Anglican church, St. Mark.  Anglican is the church of Uganda, also known as Episcopal in the US.  Here it is a very alive church, a mix of Anglican liturgy and African enthusiasm.  Lots of singing and prayer.  The pastor is great and puts a lot of humor in his sermon.  The services last 2 ½ to 3 hours.  Fortunately for us the early service is in English.  The later one was in Karamajong.  We did more surgery in the afternoon, about 13.  We are getting really good as shaving with a scalpel blade as there is no electricity for clippers.  Andy is becoming a fine surgical assistant.  He helps Julie put in catheters and prep for surgery while Liz cuts and sutures.  We finished at 7:30.  What was that we said about not working after dark????  There was a bit of a breeze so the bugs weren’t so bad.

Val is not coming today as the bus she took to Kenya broke down on the road for 11 hours and she did not arrive in time to buy auto parts.  Will have to wait till Monday and hopefully come to Karamoja on Tuesday.

Oct. 6 - Veterinary Theater in Kongoli

Another busy day for Liz and Julie.  They had a huge audience today as there was no school.  It got pretty hectic with 20+ patients and twice as many people all crowding around the surgery table at any given time.  We treated 31 patients today, 14 of which were spays and neuters.  There were more to do but we told them to come back tomorrow afternoon after church.  The animals came with various forms of ‘collars’ and ‘leashes’ including ropes, wire, plastic bags and pieces of clothing.  Most of the cats came in feed sacks but one came with a leash made of fabric strips and was tied to its box carrier.  It spent quite a while calmly sitting in or beside its box but then it decided to go for a walk.  The box followed.  So it went faster.  Still the box chased it so it finally ran up a tree, cardboard box and all!  Quite a sight!  Fortunately the owner grabbed the box before it went too high and pulled the frightened cat out of the tree.

Ugandans must be among the most patient people in the world.  Some of them waited 8 hours for us to work on their dogs and some who waited almost that long were told they needed to come back tomorrow.  It was 8:30 when we finished the last surgery by headlamp.  The light was fine but we decided not to do surgery after dark again as Liz was close to frantic with all the bugs attracted to her headlamp.  Hard to swat bugs when you are trying to maintain sterility.  She enlisted Andy as chief de-bugger which helped some.  She was careful not to suture any bugs into the incisions.

Andy made some progress in figuring out what he is going to do with the concrete projects.  He spent a long time talking to a local engineer, also named Andrew, who is familiar with the type of projects.  We did surgery on 3 of his dogs today.  Andy also assisted Julie in catheter placements, got suture for Liz, and took lots of photos.

More wildlife in the hut tonight – a scorpion.

The stars here are amazing at night.  One advantage to no electricity available is the brilliance of the night sky.  We’ve never seen the Milky Way so clearly.

Prayer Requests:

-         safe arrival for Val here tomorrow, Sunday

-         the projects Andy is to work on – plans and $$ for them

-         That we would continue to be a blessing to the people here.

Oct. 5 - Lots of surgeries

Liz got her wish today.  She and Dr. Julie were very busy with surgeries, in fact they lost count of how many dog and cat spays and neuters they did not to mention the puppy deworming and vaccinations of animals that did not need surgery. They did surgery under the shade of the tree outside the huts in the morning.  The occasional breeze caused leaves to flutter down into the instrument tray and surgery table.   Fortunately none made it into the incisions.  After a hot and dry morning they were interrupted in the middle of the day by a fierce wind and rain storm.  They were able to finish after it abated but had to move into the motorcycle hut as it continued to sprinkle on and off.

Andy had the frustrating day today.  All the projects he was slatted to work on have ended up costing a lot more than was planned for.  Discussion is happening as to how they might proceed on the projects with limited funds.

The ticks don’t seem to be as selective here.  Only Liz got ticks in Soroti.  Here everyone is getting them.  Wild life in the grass roofed hut we are staying in – a camel spider, quite venomous.  We promptly dispatched it.

Prayer Requests:

-         Safe travel for Val and success on auto parts shopping

-         Guidance for Andy’s projects and the finances to fund them

-         Opportunity to witness to the local Karamajong.  Very few of them speak English.

Oct. 4 - Karamoja bound

Spent the morning at devotions, packing and shopping for supplies.  Liz led devotions and picked “Jesus and Food” as her topic.  3 of Jesus’ miracles involved food, He used meals as teaching opportunities, His last time with His disciples was over a meal, He proved His physical resurrection with food and we will all one day feast with Him at the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Thank you for your prayers.  We made it safely to Karamoja.  There were truck size ‘pot holes’ but very little water in them.   Ten days ago they were filled with as much as 4 feet of water and the road was impassable at times.  The drive was very pretty but Andy was tortured by not being able to stop and identify all the bird life we saw in passing!  We even arrived just before dark.  We have left the land of flush toilets, hot showers and electricity.  We have a ‘squatty potty’ (alias pit toilet), took a refreshing lukewarm ‘cup shower’ tonight and lighting is kerosene lanterns.  It was great to wash all the dust from the drive off.  There is no AC in the cars here so we drive on dirt roads with all the windows down in the heat of the days.

Dr. Val stayed behind in Soroti to finish some paperwork there then she is going to Kenya to get vehicle parts.  She will be joining us here on Sunday.  Our new team consists of Julie, Andy and Liz.  Melissa had to leave for a chicken project and Daniel and Rachel are living in Soroti.

Prayer Requests:

-         That we would function well with her absent and the other CLIDE members would be successful at organizing work for is.

Oct. 3 - Watching Sunrise from Ocholoy

Got up at 5:00 to climb Ocholoy, a rock formation nearby, and watch the sun rise.  It was lovely.  We could see for many miles and the sky was beautiful.  The sun rises and sets very quickly here so you could watch the sun rise over some distant mountains very quickly.  Lots of lizards came out to bask in the early morning rays.  Val must have been laying in a lizard trail as several ran up her leg and over the top of her!

We met several young children as we were leaving the rock.  One was 4 or 5 and was carrying a baby on her back.  Another was no more than 8 and was carrying her little brother piggy back.  Children get a lot of responsibility very young here.  Their parents were quarrying rock by hand from the base of Ocholoy.  The children will probably never get the chance to go to school or learn to read or write.  Liz talked to Jennifer, the nurse missionary, about them.  She said parents will send children that young out to tend the cattle and goats by themselves all day.  She sees a lot of snake bites in children.  The cattle stir the snakes up and the children following get bitten.  Most snakes here are very venomous and most of the children don’t survive.

Andy spent the day finishing up projects at Val’s house. Liz spent several hours doing computer work for Val in the morning.   In the afternoon she went with the rest of the team to visit women and children who had received goats, sheep and cattle in a revolving animal loan project.  The people are given a goat, sheep, or cow and must give the first offspring back to the project to be given to another.  Local pastors select the people who are to receive the animal based on need or opportunity to reach them with the Gospel.  We dewormed the animals and treated them for various ailments.  Many of the people had just received their animal 2 weeks previous.  We handed out Bibles to all who could read.  It will be the only book most of them will own till they get to secondary school.  One lady started with 1 goat in 2005.  She showed us the brick house she had built over the years with the proceeds from breeding that goat.  Another lady showed us the new metal roof she had put on her house thanks to the goat she had received several years ago.  Another told us about the business she had been able to start with the proceeds.  Usually the animals are given to the children in the family so that should the mother every marry another man he can not claim the animals for himself.  At dusk the pastor invited us to his home for sodas.  As it got dark and we talked the sky was filled with shooting stars.  Another expression of God’s majesty and power. 

Prayer Requests:

-Pray for good weather as we travel to Karamoja tomorrow.  It has been dry there for almost a week and much of the damage done by the rains to the dirt road has been repaired this week.

- Val’s vehicle to be fixed soon.  The computer checked out OK and she has an idea what may be wrong

Oct. 2 - Another day in Soroti

Awakened at 5:30 to the sound of Emmanuel, the resident ‘grounds keeper’, trimming the hedge with a machete whilst walking around on the corrugated metal roof of the shed in the back yard! I don’t think he understands that Muzungos are usually asleep at that hour!

Another day in a long lesson on patience for Liz.  Guess God thought she still needed work.  It has not been nearly busy enough here in Soroti for Liz’s liking.  We are spending much longer here than expected and things are not very organized for treating the animals.  A lot of it stems from Dr. Val and Moses being gone for 3 days at the board meeting.  Val’s Jeep is still not repaired so transportation has been difficult.  So far they have repaired some wiring and changed the fuel filter but it still won’t start.  Currently the computer board is in Kampala for diagnostics.  Hopefully that will show something but it will not be repaired in time for us to use on this trip.  We had planned to leave for Karamoja today but there are problems with organization there also.  Of the 4 key organizers one is AWOL, perhaps out of the country, one is sick, one is away at a funeral, and the last in headed down to Soroti for supplies today.  There are surgeries to do and large animals to treat there but it will be a matter of getting the people organized for it. 

Melissa and Liz did get to do one TVT surgery today.  Melissa and Liz have been getting up early each morning to jog/walk for 45 minutes and riding bikes into town each evening to pick up fried fish, Liz’s favorite.

Andy on the other hand is continuing to have busy and productive days.  Today they finished wiring and worked on curtain rods and doors that did not work properly.  Andy is up to 3000+ on picture taking.  Andy went into town with Batman today for lunch.  He noticed a man staring intently at him who then motioned to his beard.  He was from Sudan and was fascinated with Andy’s facial hair.  He took Andy’s photo then came back shortly with several friends who all filed by to look at the strange Muzungo.  The children all want to ‘stroke’ Andy’s arms.  Africans do not have much body hair and they are all fascinated with Andy’s arm hair.

Tomorrow we are, hopefully, heading to Karamoja.

Prayer Requests:

-         a vehicle and safe travel to Karamoja

-         that the community will be mobilized with lots of animals to treat

-         that there will be many hands to help Andy in the projects he has to work on : retaining wall, foundation, and water catchment.

-         Speedy repair of Val’s Jeep

-         Many opportunities to witness to the Karamajong people and encourage the church there.

Oct 1 - Getting Wired

Liz did surgery with Melissa and got to use her teaching skills again.  Melissa did a spay and a neuter with Liz merely giving advice and hovering.  We treated a couple of male dogs for TVT, transmissible venereal tumor.  This is a unique cancer as it is spread by direct cell transmission during breeding.  It mostly occurs on the penis of male dogs and the vulva of female dogs.   It is only found in the tropics.   It can metastasis and male dogs can bleed to death as the tumors get quite large and hemorrhagic.  Liz cut most of the tumor mass off, treated them with vincristine, a chemotherapy agent, and neutered them so they would not continue to spread the tumor.  We also did another surgery on Lolly, Daniel and Rachel’s little dog, as she had more dead bone on her foot from the dog bite a week ago.

Julie arrived today, a large animal vet considering long term service here.  She is going to hang out with us for a while then go to a different area of Uganda where she is considering working to get a feel for it.

Andy moved on from plumbing to electrical wiring as many of the lights in Val’s house did not work.  An electrician came and they worked together most of the day.  Batman and Andy replaced and painted the ceiling in the bathroom.  We had our 3^rd consecutive day of hot showers!  Val said it had been more than 2 years since the hot water worked.

Sept. 30 - Sunday

We went to church this morning, Rock View Baptist Church, where several of the CLIDE team are members and leaders.  Church here lasts about 3 hours. 

We have now ridden on motorized boda bodas!

We noticed some of the schools here, even primary schools, have signs at the entrance that read “Don’t give free sex for gifts”.  The number two killers here are AIDS and TB.

Today was Melissa’s 22^nd birthday so we had a party for her in the evening.  We had home made pizza for dinner.  Liz made brownies and the rest of the team made chapatti ice cream sandwiches.  Chapattis are like flour tortillas.  There is no refrigeration here so the ice cream was more like a milkshake but everyone enjoyed it a lot.  Melissa got a few gifts and we all played Pandemic again.