When you put Americans to work at a Ugandan clinic

When you put Americans to work at a Ugandan clinic…

 

First of all, hi Mom! Happy anniversary! 30 years is a such a huge accomplishment. Hope Dad got you something sweet!

 

This morning was a running day for Liz and I. Tuesdays are our "short" day, with only a 3 miler. Our little road was much busier this morning starting out, since it wasn't the weekend. Boda bodas (motorcycles), bikes and kids were everywhere, getting ready for business and school! But only a few minutes in, the streets cleared out, and it seemed as if it was just Liz, the red dirt & I. I still cannot even believe that we are training here. It is such a sweet gift!

 

Today was the day we were taking the "tour" of the Musana Community Clinic that is under construction. Kyemba picked us up (on time) and we started our way down to the school. We were lucky to have Andrea come with us! We drove down and picked up Florence, one of the social workers from Musana. We drove the quick drive to the clinic, and met Haril and Edward.  I noticed Florence and Andrea get some stuff out of the back of the van, but didn't think much. We then started our tour. We heard all about the vision of the community clinic, putting a big emphasis on the community part. They want a safe place for people to come here in Iganga, where there is not quality health care. They first took us through the downstairs portion of the clinic, which will have a small emergency room, the waiting room, records room, cashier, pharmacy, a room for a fluoroscopy (x-ray) machine, a surgical unit and patient rooms.  The second story will consist of a pediatrics & maternity ward, pediatric pharmacy, dental area with x-ray machine, board room/training facility & staff area. The whole place is functional, beautiful, and such a lovely story of God's fruit. Haril said he hopes the new clinic will raise the bar for Igangan health care to bring in more quality facilities & staff. The building is able to add on more stories and they have enough space on the land to expand to 2 more buildings when needed. They will be hiring all Igandan workers and are currently looking for a couple  of American doctors to come help train the employees that will hire, for a year or so. They are really emphasizing the care that these people will receive, not only quality medical care but the compassion and love to go with it.

 

After our tour, those things that I saw strangely appear in the back of the van, came out! For the next 4 hours the 10 (plus Florence & Edward) of us swept (the 3 inches of dirt) with stick booms, scraped up chunks off the tile by hand, swept again, carried water up the stairs, scrubbed, squeegeed, scrubbed and squeegeed some more. It was really sweet to watch us all work, take turns, switch jobs, encourage each other, and help each other to knock out a big 'ol job of cleaning.

 

Today was a beautiful picture of the way God works on us. Here we were, looking this big huge dirt pile in the clinic, thinking it was going to take forever to clean. It reminded me of me. I look at what I have going on, and think, wow, that's going to take forever to clean up! But, little by little, with some shoveling, some sweeping, some scrapping, and a whole lot of people that God brings in my life, it all gets cleaned up. And just like the upstairs of the clinic today, life gets a little dirty again, but we continue, through Him, and keep on keeping on.

 

After the clinic and lunch, we returned back to Musana. Some of us worked on organizing the library, some played with the kiddos, and some went to the market to gather supplies to paint a mural.

 

We are hitting the sack early for a 5:30am wake up call to go hike Pride Rock to watch the sun rise. Can't wait!

Cows, Bananas and Piglets .... Oh My!!!

Happy Monday Everyone,

After a wonderful Sabbath with our friends at Musana, we took on Monday. Today, we were able to travel and see how Musana is empowering the community around them. We started the day with a farm visit. For those of you who have not been to Iganga, it is a beautiful, rich agricultural community. Seriously, I picture the Garden of Eden or the Promised Land looking much like this fertile land. The avocados are the size of a child's head.  OK now back to the farm..... It was about 40 acres and included banana trees, elephant plants, corn and a tomato nursery along with goats, milk cows and pigs. Sue even got to hold a screaming pig. It was amazing to see how efficiently they used every piece of the land.

From the farm we were able to do home visits with the Musana social worker, Edward,  who oversees Project Restore. This a program that walks along side some of the most vulnerable individuals and gives them the tools and resources to be successful. Not only do they provide for the individual but they also educate the family and the entire community on horticulture, hygiene and community programs. We were able to meet amazing people who through God's strength are defying odds and changing their communities. Along the road, we met a mother and her 4 month old baby who had not been nursing for 3 months and had been living on tea. The sweet little girl had a bad rash and looked malnourished.  It was nice being with Edward and knowing he would educate the family and provide them with the resources to help the child regain it's health. 

We ended the day at the Buwongo Woman's group. This inspirational group of woman greeted us with singing and dancing. They even got our crew to wiggle their hips and dance a bit. Praise God no one got this little treat on video. We figured out that between the 10 of us we had a total of 12 children. The 12 ladies we met had a total of more than 100. These woman are not only mothers, they are leaders in their community and small business owners.  They shared with us how they had received an interest free loan from Musana and were able to start businesses in sewing, brick making and a piggery. One of the women even built her own house using the bricks produced by her business. We were truly honored to spend the afternoon with these gracious, hard-working women.

So we end the day excited and humbled to see all that God is doing here in Iganga...

- Tamara

A Sunday in Uganda

Hello Everyone,

Today was a good day. We got to worship with the students at Musana's chapel. After an hour of singing and dancing, we had a wonderful lesson from Susan, a staff member at Musana. We read Psalm 119:94-105, and Susan spoke on the importance and blessings of reading God's Word consistently. She did a beautiful job of making the lesson understandable to the kids, but also applicable for anyone else listening. After church, the team had a quick rest and lunch. We then got some really good quality time with the students of Musana. We got to help them sort beans for that week's meals. They poured out bags and bags on the tables and we took out all of the grass and 'bad beans' from the good beans. Honestly, that was one of my favorite parts of the day. It was really therapeutic and I got to make friends with the kids at my table. We got to go to the library later on and read some good books to the kids. I was handed a book on spiders to read to a group of girls. Some of the pictures were a little too much for us. For the scariest pictures, one of the students Sharon would say, "Oh, I have fear!" Could not have said it better. Spiders: yuck. For dinner we walked through the village and went to Sol Café. Once we got back to our little compound at Musana, the team and some other American visitors made a fire and ended the day with some good old smores. Today, God really spoke to me about being at peace in the midst of a busy day. Being calm and not allowing chaos into your heart and actions is a choice. God has blessed our team with yet another day filled with opportunities to build relationships and love on some of His kids (and learn about spiders). Thanks for reading (and hello to my family, I love you!!) - Hannah

 

Agricultural kind of day...

      Today we got to go with some of the kids from Musana to the Agricultural Fair in Jinja, just an hour away from Musana.  On our drive to Jinja the kids on the side of the road if they saw you they would yell "Mzungu bye!!" or just "Mzungu!" it was so sweet.  Also we took Florence, the social worker at Musana, and her sons Tony and Grace, also Betty who watches Grace when Florence works.  Grace, who is 3, would look out the window and smile the biggest smile and just laugh and crawl around people, at one point he stuck his head out the window.  When we got to Jinja none of the kids were there yet so we got to explore a little before they came.  We got to learn how they turn sugar cane into sugar, then we were walking over to the wildlife section and met up with a small group of the kids.  On the way we saw three camels, I really wanted to ride one, maybe next time ;) We made it to the wildlife section and went in it was a pretty small section but not that small, anyway, the first animal was a Leopard, then a Peacock and three Grey Parrots, after them was a Leopard Turtle and the Ugandan bird, which is the Crested Crane,  next a Lioness and lastly an Ostrich.  As we walked around in the section we saw a BIG python!  Sue, Judy and a three of the Musana kids decided to walk over and have the two snake handlers put the python around them!! (i promise this all really happened)  After that we left and when we walked out through the exit curtain and right there was the Nile, maybe not RIGHT there, but close.  Anyway, we took a few pictures and the kids got ice cream.  As we were walking back to the fair we realized Florence wasn't with us, so we stopped and waited.  While we were waiting Sue found a beautiful butterfly, of course she just had to take a picture and so she handed me her water bottle and went into full photography mode.  After that we found Florence and went to find the kids, they had gone to see the different types of Cows, Goats, Pigs and Chickens.  Then we went to see the plants while the kids were still looking at the animals.  At the plant section we saw some corn, snake beans, rice plants and banana trees.  Then we went to go check out the swing rides they had there because Tony and Grace wanted to ride them.  Once we got to the swings Tony hopped in a swing, Grace was scared at first then Betty got in a swing with him he rode the whole ride head down and eyes closed.  When they got off he actually enjoyed it!  He walked back over to a swing and tried to push a little girl out of the swing so he could ride again!  Then one Musana kid came up to us and said he was lost from the group we had no way of contacting the teacher because our phone ran out of minutes.  A short  while after we found another Musana kid so me and Sue decided we should look around.  We walked around the carnival area and found a few Musana kids but they were there with their parents and not a teacher.  We continued our search for about three more minutes but then decided we should head back to the group or else we'd probably get lost.  When we got back we decided to go back to the van and use the other phone to call the teacher.  On the way out we found a group of Musana kids gathering by one of the buses and left the kids with them.  We made it to the van and got in, we headed over to the Source Café for lunch.  After lunch we headed back to Musana, when we got back we went and played with the nursery kids, nursery is like 3 to 5 year old kids.  Three little boys stuck to me and all they wanted to do was walk around and see what everyone else was doing.  None of them spoke but they did smile and laugh and they had the sweetest little smiles and the cutest little laughs.  I called them my posse that doesn't speak :) After playing with the kids for about an hour or more, we came back up to our rooms to clean up for dinner.  Later, after dinner we went back down to watch a movie with the kids, we were supposed to watch Pink Panther the movie, they ended up showing like 2 minutes of different movies, Transformer, then some movie that was in Chinese, and Real Steel.  After all that they finally got Pink Panther rolling.  About 10 minutes into the movie me, Tamara, and my mom Vicki decided to head back up, because I had to blog tonight and my mom got peed on by a little person sleeping in her lap.  And that was the day in my point of view!! - Emily

Intro to Musana

Intro to Musana

 

We started this morning with our morning devotion and prayer.  Then we were off to Musana to hear the story of how this ministry began and the vision of the future of Musana.  We learned that Musana believes in empowering their community to create sustainability. They have created a craft room to teach local women the art of sewing, and using a knitting machine.  They have recently opened a small bakery to serve in their community.  We toured the students' dormitories and how they are teaching the children order and respect of property and also the importance of good hygiene to improve their lives.  There is so much more and too much to write about all of it.  So we encourage you to look on their website for the full story.

 

While we were in waiting, we sat on a porch with elementary aged children who were shading (we call it coloring) from coloring books.  We joined in on their fun and made many new friends.  It wasn't long before paint was introduced and the children began to paint one another, then us, and then they began to paint our toe nails and finger nails, smiling from ear to ear!  They were so happy to paint on us as well as themselves.  From there we went to observe a team of photographers and videographers here doing a project for Musana.  They placed tape on one of the buildings spelling out Musana, and with their logo, then the students splattered paint on the building over the tape, creating a beautiful arrangement of color.  The kids had such a great time with this project.  We even were able to participate.

 

We were served lunch with the teacher and the women from the craft ministry.  We were served rice, chicken and fresh avocado.  Before lunch we did see our chefs carrying several chickens and Sue asked for them to stop so she could get a picture of their chickens, little did we know that they were carrying our lunch.  What?!  We did get to eat in the teacher lounge, that was a sweet time of fellowship.  After lunch we were blessed to play with the nursery (what we consider preschool) aged children.  This was a real opportunity to stretch our imaginations.  We played duck, duck, goose, sang songs,  Julie taught them a new games, "Red light, Green light" all of this with a slight language barrier.  However, love has no barrier and fun was had by all! 

 

Then we were invited to join all of the Musana students and teachers into their church for a warm welcome from the school choir.  It was such an honor to receive such a warm welcome.  Then the kids wanted to build relationships with us and came to greet us, then some took us by the hand to give us their grand tour of their school with much pride.

 

Shalom,

Vicki

A Never Ending Journey

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

 

Today our journey finally started. This trip has been in the planning stages since December, a few short months after I returned from my last trip to Uganda. It seems like forever ago since we had our first team meeting in which nine other women expressed interest in going. This is the first time in our churches history we have sent a team of only women and as our Pastor described us we are a strong and mighty group, topped with compassion and gentleness. I'm very interested in seeing what we do in a male dominated country where women don't even qualify for second-class citizenship. Our day started very early as we had to be at the airport at 4 am. Because the summer rates are so much more expensive then other times of the year we opted for the least expensive flight, which started by sending us to LA! We then flew back over the US on our way to Amsterdam. Before we started the second leg of the journey we had almost left behind one suitcase, I'd taken the wrong carry-on off the plane (fortunately it belonged to a team member), two team members got turned around in the LA terminal and had to go back through security and we'd eaten enough food to feed a Roman army! I had started a book on the flight from SA to LA, just gotten into it and left it on the plane! The good news is that we all got on the plane and are now four hours into our nine and a half flight! I am so excited to be going back. I can't wait to see all the people I know. Each one of them holds a special place in my heart and I really look forward to reuniting with them. I also am very excited to see who God places in our path and who I will come to know during this visit that I don't know now. One of the college girls on our team, who lives in the next town over from me, I met for the first time in Uganda five years ago. We both knew the other looked familiar and couldn't figure out where we had met before. To realize it was half the world away is always amazing to me.

 

In the words of Judy Howitt, "After flying to LA (a 2 hour flight), a five hour layover, a ten hour flight to Amsterdam, an eight hour flight to Kigali and an hour flight to Entebbe, with all of our luggage, we are finally here. Here being Musana! That after Kyemba forgot to pick us up at the airport, Banana Village didn't answer their phone, and we found the three nicest cab drivers in all of Uganda to take us to our hotel for the night. So after getting up early, watching the monkeys play like little children, we ate breakfast, packed the car to the brim, drove to Kampala where we ate lunch with Haji (our former driver), exchanged money, and 2-1/2 hours later ended up in Iganga. We are so thankful to be here safely with all our luggage. It was great to see both Kyemba and Haji again and then to see Andrea, Haril, Yvonne and Sarah at Musana. Haji hasn't changed at all. He was as excited to see us as we were to see him!! He is just an awesome man! We hope to see him again on our way out of town.

 

On a personal note Judy has decided that Dave is not getting a t-shirt. Instead she is bringing him back a puppy and a goat! (Dave you might want to have words with her; from her talk and her expression she is mighty serious!) Sarah's little boy (a real chunck) is named Evan. Evans you can take that any way you want to! We spent the afternoon passing him around. Not a one of us wanted to give him up. Now we are at Sol Café waiting for Trivia to begin (Liz and Vicki have put together the questions) and Andrea and Haril just walked in with Dezi. Cody and Sam you will be glad to know that no one even acknowledged the adults!! But the baby drew an abundance of attention! And yes, we love the parents as well!! But the baby is so darn cute!

 

Julie's perception of the day, which is how we started the day with Tamara leading us in devotion is wonder and freedom. I've been here six times before and every time I look out I see something new to find wonder in. The beauty of the country. The hills and hills of tea growing in a beautiful shade of green. The sense of community. And then to arrive at Musana and see little Grace on the steps. It was like time had stood still. The children waving and yelling "Mzungu, Bye". The red dirt. The sights, the sounds, the smells. And the team has already jelled so well.

 

In closing, again in Judy's words, "Thank you Jesus, for safe travel, getting our luggage, the opportunity to partner with Musana, to love on the kids here, to help the staff and to see our friends and spiritual family across the world. We look forward to the days ahead and what God has in store for us.

Fwd: Ready to Go

Hello everyone! Tomorrow our Uganda mission team heads to the airport to begin our service! Our team is so happy to be going to Uganda this year, many of whom are going back! We will spend most of tomorrow and Wednesday traveling and will arrive there Wednesday evening. This year we have a mission group made up entirely of women, which will be a fun adventure! I am very blessed and excited to be going with this group. Both Julie Page and I (Samantha Dickey) have never been to Uganda, so this will be a new experience for us! Thankfully we have such a wonderful and supportive team to help us along the way. I cannot wait to see how G-d uses our team in Uganda. While our team has been more than helpful in preparing us for this journey, I know that there is still so much that can only be experienced. Although I'm filled with some nerves for what's ahead, I am extremely ready for this life-changing event that G-d has for us. We will be doing a lot of great work with Musana and Phil's kids, along with spending time in the community. I am happy and anxious to serve in whatever way G-d leads me, although I am hoping for plenty of time with the kids! I've had the chance the past few weeks to hear more stories from my teammates, who have been to Uganda before, about the wonderful people they have met and worked with there. Hearing these stories and learning about the different people I will meet and all of the kids I will get to spend time with makes me ready to go! Yesterday after the 11 service at Riverside, our team spent some time packing supplies and doing several checks between ourselves to ensure that everything is ready. Since then all the packing has been finished and there isn't much to do except get some rest before our early morning (4 AM!!) Thank you all for your prayers and we will keep you posted with what G-d does with us!! 

~Samantha

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