Saturday A.M. at Garden City Mall

Now that I have a Weds. post for this week thought this would be shorter, but you know how I love to "talk". Left this a.m. at 6 a.m. The matatu took off at 6:25...he overloaded as usual but hardly anyone got off in Mukono and he had to "bump" people since they are careful about not having more than 14 passengers on the way to Kampala! Got to the mall stop at 8 a.m. Great time - the grocery (Euchimi) was open and the internet cafe opened at 8:30, book store opens at 9 so it's going well...when I'm done here I go down to the old taxi park and get another matatu to the site of the PCV Frisbee 4th of July get together! Going back in the afternoon but will stop by to see everyone and eat lunch.

Yesterday Holly and Shari worked all afternoon to supplement the dinner for the Duke students. There are 8 Engineering students from Duke here for 6 weeks working with Shari's organization...helping with water projects, internet, vocational school, and an assortment of projects engineers like (portable oil press for nuts, etc.)..they are young (19-20) and VERY smart!! The place where they are staying supplies their meals but the girls wanted to add some American touches - deviled eggs, guacamole, garlic mashed potatoes, cheese and crackers, and sugar cookies and a cake!! The baking is done by putting one large pan over another to make and "oven" and cooking (carefully) on the gas hotplate...it was delicious!! Quite a treat!

Forgot some things on Weds. Weds. a.m. when I got to PH the animal manager was out running around the grounds with the new calf (who thinks he is his mother) - so cute. Also, when I said chipati were made "on the street" I meant by street vendors on charcoal stoves!

Holly is not going home for her mom's surgery - it was a really hard decision for her but the air fare was astronomical! She's pretty depressed about it so the dinner and today will be good distractions. She brought back some mail for me when she returned from Kampala...lots of pictures, magazines and goodies...I feel SO special!

English class went well, but short because the nurse came for the Epilepsy Clinic...we were reading a newspaper article I wanted to talk about. The bookkeeping teacher "borrowed" my red pen so now I'm using an assortment of colored pens to correct assignmetns - green, blue, pink, purple - makes the kids crazy!

Note on recycling - everything here gets used and re-used...except for plastic bags which are the curse of Uganda (they are technically outlawed, but no one pays any attention to that). Food garbage goes outside - I throw mine across the path off my "veranda" in the plot I hope to talk Sr. into letting me use as a garden - it's a few flowers, but mostly weeds now. Paper is used on both sides, used to light sigiris (stoves), wrap chipati or vegetables and eggs at the market, jars are used for storage. The call for food at PH (and the noviates 5:15 wake up call) is accomplished by banging a piece of pipe on a hangine old metal tire rim! (at 5:15 a.m. it makes the dogs howl!).

Epilepsy Clinic went well - Florence (the psychiatric nurse who comes from Butabeka Hospital in Kampala is a saint). Some are doing very well, but some sad stories...one young lady, who is very quiet and makes beautiful baskets comes with her mom. About a week ago she had a seizure and fell into the open fire and burned her right arm and hand terribly...it was all black and bubbly w. pink meat showing. Mom is a widow and couldn't afford any treatment. Felt SO bad for her. Sr. Sara (one of the interim nuns at PH and w. some medical background) gave her some antibiotics and mild painkillers from our supply but it must hav hurt a LOT! She just sat there. Another sad one was a 6 year old girl (new patient) who is deaf (and mute) and having seizures...cute little girl! Florence said it all could be a result of her having had many bouts of malaria and long periods of high fevers - she's actually been hospitalized two times which is really a last resort here - or, if she took a lot of quinine as treatment for the malaria it could have affected her hearing.

Malaria doesn't get nearly the press or the $$ or the star appeal that HIV/AIDS gets but it's a much bigger problem here - it's the biggest killer in Uganda and most deaths are children under 5 - and IF they survive the fevers they get epilepsy, hydrocephalis, deafness, blindness, mental retardation, etc. Just a trail of misery. Most people can't affort to treat the repeated outbreaks people of all ages have and the parasites never leave their blood system. It saps their energy and eventually erupts as high fever, chills, nausea and horrible headaches. The kids are absent a LOT from school - especially in the rainy season - for malarial episodes. Bed nets would help but in heavy areas of infestation mosquitoes can get you when you're not in bed (really bad closer to Lake Victoria). Any fever needs immediate attention at a health center but who can afford that? If you have a malerial outbreak you are supposed to take meds but if you're out in the village and a subsistence farmer or just poor that's impossible. Antiretrovirals (for HIV) are often free (thanks to the large number of foreign donations) but Coratem and Quinine are not. AIDS has really been reduced in Uganda and that's great, but they ignore malaria!

Florence saw 26 people and some are doing very well - esp. if they take their meds as they should. I had told Sr. Goretti that Florence is from northern Uganda an not a matoke fan - tho' she never complains - so Sr. G cooked a special lunch - millet bread (a northern staple), liver in a great tomato sauce, spaghetti, ground nut sauce w. greeen in it (delicious) and matoke for Moses the CBR volunteer who is our interpreter and thinks matoke is essential! She said she likes to cook and she's good at it! Very thoughtful.

Had a nice walk THursday nite w. Holly to decompress - she's actually running and I backtrack - training for the Uganda marathan in December! When we got back to the hospital I was able to catch Sr. Speciosa and ask her about selling our shoes in the Sister's store in Nkokonjeru (they just opened a school supply/whatever store in town to raise $). She said YES!! She wants a set price tho' - no bargaining and we'll give the store a small commission for shoes that sell. At last, a marketing strategy.

Power was out Thursday and part of Friday - so I go to bed by 9:00 (instead of my usual 9:30). I'm getting into the routine of being w/o electricity - have the gas hot plate and lantern/candles/flashlites/headlamp - and it makes me appreciate it all the more!

Friday I did some laundry early - no electricity/no problem! Bunch of PH kids got sent home for non-payment of school fees (mid term). All the secondary schools here are private - fees for non-boarders at St. Anthony's for example, are $100/term (3 terms in a year). The government has legislated UPE (Universal Primary Education) and it's supposed to be free but it is grossly underfunded (sound familiar - but I mean grossly),, so the schools charge fees for books, uniforms (an essential), lunch, porridge, sports, etc. It adds up! Sr. G and I went around and think we got it settled...still not sure about St. Anthony's but they're back today!

PH got another milk cow - gift from a nearby priest. But now cow food is a crisis! They cut grass(preferred is elephant grass),but all the near grass is cut and they neglected to plant more. Also, when you feed European/American breed cows just grass they don't produce much and they get sick more than the wandering African cows.
Sr G's plan is to sell some milk and eventually get a bicycle for the manager so he can get grass farther away - and plant some (but it's getting dry).

Finished up Friday running around working on ideas for tailoring class (hopefully we'll get the material this week),and marketing shoes. Who would have thought that would be my "job" a few months ago? I should have been writing reports (3 mos in) but that didn't sound like as much fun!

Which brings me up to being here in Kampala and saying goodbye. Hope you all are well and enjoying the holiday weekend. Thanks again for everything. Hope you had a happy and safe 4th of July!!!