Train Wreck!!

OK - here it is... I had no intentions of falling in love with Uganda and was not anticipating the intense train wreck heading straight for my heart. I was really excited to serve and explore a new country, having never traveled outside the US (with the exception of Canada) I was nervous - having read extensively about the country and the blood soaked reign of Idi Amin, but still really wanted to go.. Here are some of the things I found out about the country:

 Uganda is a country of stunning beauty and heartbreaking history of persecution. It is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by Tanzania. The southern part of the country includes a substantial portion of Lake Victoria, which is also bordered by Kenya and Tanzania.





Between them, Ugandans speak an impressive forty or more different languages. This is a result of Uganda’s ethnically diverse history, and the adoption of English as the main language during Uganda’s colonial years. Uganda is a fascinating country, with a complicated history far too often involving bloodshed, violence and betrayal. Yet the people are among the most welcoming and determined to be helpful that you could meet anywhere in the world.

However, what soon became transparent to me was that Google failed to mention a single thing in any of the articles I read, about the kindness, hospitality, service, joy and love I would witness at every corner we turned. I had no clue reading from my Google notes, that the children who are suffering atrocities on a daily basis, could still have such sweet, innocent hearts.







My heart was immediately lost to the wise eyed children we encountered everywhere. Due to the AIDS pandemic, (AIDS was first discovered in Rakai, Uganda) There are multitudes of child headed households. Children of 10 taking care of younger siblings and struggling to survive. In the Rakai district alone, there are 40,000 child head of household families. Incredible. We soon learned, that the children of Uganda love to sing! They sing doing their chores, going to school, playing, worshiping… and even at bedtime. The emptiness of their bellies and the bleakness of their existence does not hit you when they are singing and dancing and are so happy to see you.. it did hit me hard, though, as our team traveled back to have a good meal at our lodging, and to fall asleep in a mosquito netting covered bed, while those precious children were going to bed hungry and lying on hard packed soil. What we are so used to taking for granted here in the United States is something never experienced by these children.. so please....







Join me in celebrating the heartbeat of a country that is rich in spirit and love and unlike any place I have visited on earth. I hope that by reading this blog, and becoming more informed about 'the pearl of africa', that you fall deep deep in love with Uganda, too. My goal is to finish nursing school, obtain midwife training, and move to Uganda to serve full time in ministry there.







Come Along With Me!

Mulago Hospital III and Health Care in Uganda

There is definitely a huge medical need in Uganda. Most of the people do not have access to any type of health care or medication.

People and children die every day from treatable illnesses such as malaria and respiratory infections. Malaria is easily treatable with $5.00 worth of medication available over the counter, and fluids. However, Malaria is still the number one killer in Africa. To us, $5.00 seems a paltry sum, to those who don't make that amount in a month, and have families to feed, it is impossible to come up with.

Parasites are another medical issue that is easily treatable with medication. The majority of children suffer from worms, which grow inside of their stomachs and can make any attempt at helping with food and nutrition become insignificant as the parasites absorb whatever the children eat.

Ugandan hospitals are incredibly different than those in the Western world. I visited Mulago Hospital, in Kampala, and spent a day touring and visiting with patients. I have written about how deeply I was affected, and will post those writings, soon. For now, though, it was one of the darkest, and most heart wrenching places I have ever seen. Although there are incredibly gifted doctors and nurses, they often suffer from frustration - whether it be having zero pain medication or only two working respirators - and the power may go out.. I saw family members physically operating a hand respirator - with no signs of any other one coming - cancer patients with no cancer fighting drugs available.. women giving birth on a concrete floor, a tiny baby one mother handed to me with spina bifida - hoping I would take her with me to help her before she died - there were no options for surgery.

One interesting fact about Ugandan hospitals is that they do not provide meals for their patients; instead, the family or friends are expected to bring them food. If there is no family - there is no food. A patient could literally die of starvation.






This is just a snapshot - so much more to tell..

Soap and Water

The child in the arms of her father was skin and bones. Her face was hollowed out, her skin shrunken, in a state of dehydration, whimpering in pain and agony. He asked for help, his daughter had been ill with stomach problem, diarrhea for days, she has had this before, but this was the worst it had ever been.



There are not facilities for medical care like we are used to and take for granted here in the States. There are no emergency rooms in slum and rural areas.. sometimes there are mud huts where desperate people come who have no money, no hope.



The girl’s name was Elizabeth and she was five years old. Her parents lived in the slum of Kibera that houses nearly a million desperate people existing on next to nothing, lacking the very basics of life such as water, food and proper shelter, but this slum was home for Elizabeth and others like her. She was moaning in pain and there was nothing for her father to do.. it was too late, another child became a statistic for the World Health Organization and UNICEF.



Each year over 800,000 children like Elizabeth die needlessly in Africa, they die before their time, die of something preventable - that could and can be prevented with a simple antidote such as soap and water, the miracle is not some modern medicine, but the washing of hands, sadly, too late for Elizabeth whose lifeless body laid upon the roughhewn table. Her father cried, why was Elizabeth born in a part of the world where things that we take for granted, like clean water, soap, food, medicine, health care are just not there??

It is estimated that children in this part of the world have at least five bouts of diarrhea per year most often accompanied by under-nutrition and childhood diseases like measles. It is the leading cause of death in children in Africa and all is needed is water and soap a few times a day before eating. 20% of Africa’s children die before the age of six from diarrhea, dehydration, malaria, measles, pneumonia, etc, things that in the west would be a simple thing to deal with.

In Kampala 60% of slum dwellers do not have access to pit latrines or toilets and the result is plastic bags being thrown onto roofs to waste away, children simply go anywhere, disease and childhood illnesses abound.

Water like in most slums in Africa costs money and is carried away in plastic jerry cans where mold and mildew can easily grow in. Washing of hands becomes costly, since water costs money.

The result is never ending illnesses and death in children that could be avoided through the inexpensive use of soap and water.


Sources:  New Vision Online

I am a child in Africa

Life in Africa is a struggle for anyone but the life of a child is even harder.

Imagine, growing up in a world where you lack the very basics in life, food, clean water, medicine, shelter, safety, a bed of your own. Beyond that, there are no toys, no dolls, no soccer balls, no sweets and treats, at best, a bed of reeds to sleep on.

School would be wonderful to attend, the path out of poverty, but there is no money for school fees, so you stay home and wait for a miracle, but for most there is none, life is simply survival, staying alive.

Death is very common to you (20% of Africa's children do not reach the age of six). Life is hard, and yet, most of the world is unaware of your plight or of any of Africa's children. They are amongst the voiceless of the world, needing others to speak on their behalf. .