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 4th
child when she became ill and died shortly after delivering the baby. Charles was left with 3 children to raise
(their 3rd 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment