Story-time!

Hey there! I hope you are all doing well. This is a realllly long post – sorry about that. And on top of yesterday’s too! Craziness. But I thought I should make up for the lack of information, so hopefully you enjoy (maybe over the course of a couple days!) I am having a great time and loving it here. I do miss you all… and the puppies, too, so tell them I say hi! Thanks for the thoughts and prayers… you are in mine as well :)

Activities have included:
1)Medical outreaches and becoming a pharmacist
2)(Our friend) with a gunshot wound
3)Chameleon care-taking
4)Becoming a mechanic
5)A witch doctor burning her pots!
6)Vet-ing with the US army
7)Rejecting many marriage proposals
8)Attempting to get internet… in the strangest ways

1. Most of the time I’ve been here we have been with a medical team. There were two doctors and two nurses who came from the states. With them we did some medical outreaches in the Peace Villages. (The Peace Villages are places where two of the Karamojong subtribes that have been warring and raiding (stealing) each others’ cattle come to live together in peace. There are two now and another in the process of being formed.) They have no accessible medical help or clinics in the villages so it was MUCH needed. There’s a hospital about two hours away, but it’s really hard for people to travel around here. We saw a LOT of things during the outreaches. Many sick kids… a lot of it comes from hygiene issues and just a lack of education on public health. We did training for the Village Health Team (VHTs) before we went out to the villages. We educated them on how to take care of some health problems and how to keep their communities safer/healthier so they could bring that information back to their people. We saw a couple men with leprosy, a girl with really bad meningitis, a boy who broke his femur (we had to take him to the hospital – very bumpy roads, the poor kid), some babies with pneumonia, and many many other things. It was hard when we left because the people were SO desperate. We were running low on medications and they were getting angry. It’s kind of frustrating to deal with but you know how much they need help and always wish you could do more. I was one of the pharmacists, which is funny cause I didn’t know anything about half the meds they were using! And doctor writing is near impossible to interpret. I did learn a lot about human medicine though! If anyone needs to be dewormed just let me know – pretty much everyone got albendezole! They are trying to set up a medical clinic in the larger peace village, but it has no doctor yet, and it’s hard to get working.

2. During the time we were in Iriiri with the med team we had about four people with gunshot wounds. One of them (Mariko) was being taken care of at a church about an hour away. We got the news about him and went to pick him up. When we got there, we hardly walked into the room when the smell almost knocked us over. The wound, which was just above his knee, was about four days old and extremely infected. When we undressed it, we saw that gangrene was setting in and he would have to go to the hospital to have some anesthesia while it was cleaned out. Mariko was quite traumatized by his experiences and mostly refused to talk, looking very dazed and removed from the world. The story gathered over the course of days at the church and what we had found out was that he had been captured by the Ugandan Army. He was probably a raider, coming to steal some cows, and the Army men captured him (edit edit :P). [He was beaten] really bad with sticks – his buttocks were covered with cane marks and his ankles were beaten to prevent him from running. Then they took him to the hospital (which doesn’t make so much sense to me) [edit edit]. Somehow Mariko then managed to escape the hospital… considering he couldn’t walk I’m not sure how that was possible… must have been the adrenaline. But he left and hid in the bush for a few days when someone from the church found him. He was in pretty rough shape… they took him in and fed him and took care of him the best that they could. But the infection was so bad and he was so scared he wouldn’t talk. They called us after a couple days to come and get him (Val is one of very few people who has a car and they had heard about the doctors with us I think). Unfortunately it was so bad we had to take him to the hospital, which he was petrified of because he didn’t want to end up back [with his captors]. We hired a boy to watch him while he was there because otherwise he would probably just run away again. He is now recovering well… we saw him in the hospital today. He still won’t talk much; he isn’t scared of us but won’t communicate with the doctors or people around him. So my adventures have even included harboring [an injured person... haha read between the lines :P]! He wouldn’t tell us his full name… we think Mariko is actually true but he gave us a couple fake names at different points. He should be discharged sometime next week. We’re praying that his mental capacities come back to speed cause he still seems a bit off. Maybe post-traumatic stress disorder kind of thing. He’s young, too… maybe early 20s. There is a pastor at the church who is reaching out to the three patients we have at the hospital. So far, Mariko hasn’t trusted him, but pray that he can break through!

**This post has been edited for safety purposes :P**

3. While doing the VHT training in Iriiri, Jennifer (a missionary nurse living in Soroti who helped with the medical outreaches) and I encountered a chameleon in the middle of the road. It was not looking good. She was mouth-breathing and not moving at all. We picked her up and brought her to the newly-formed ICU (in the back of Val’s truck) for some emergency care. Upon evaluation, Val determined that she had some broken ribs and bad internal injuries. Every breath she took that part of her side would suck in instead of expand like they normally would. This is usually a very bad sign which would involve inserting a chest tube, but I have not yet encountered a chameleon chest tube, so she was gonna have to stick it out. We watched her closely and kept her comfortable, and to my surprise, she was still alive that night! (I had kind of thought I would be dissecting her… which would have been fun… but I would much rather she pull through, so it was good ) We have had her for about a week and a half and she is recovering well. She also had a broken right front leg, which we constructed a splint for out of sorghum stalks and tape. We feed her flies and grasshoppers and some other insects we can get. It’s fun to watch her catch flies… her tongue goes out about 6 inches and sticks a fly on it like a frog! We can also see eggs inside her and we think she’s about to give birth. We made a home that should be conducive to birthing while she’s still under observation while her leg heals. We are learning as we go… we aren’t sure if she’s going to give birth to live young or lay the eggs. She has had them in her for a while and it depends on the type of chameleon I guess, so we’ll see what happens! Hopefully chameleon care will help me during vet school!!

4. So the vehicle is always an experience. In the middle of nowhere there does not exist something called a “mechanic”. The people who do things like that have no idea what they’re doing and tend to cause more harm than good. Hence all the current problems. At one point “they” took apart the whole engine to fix something and put it all back wrong. The other day the fuel line broke. This part had been replaced at one point, but with the wrong tube, so it decided to rupture and spray gallons of diesel all over the ground. Unfortunately duct tape dissolves instantly upon contact with diesel, so that was not a good fix, even temporarily. We tried to find tubes everywhere (without being able to drive anywhere, so basically I mean within our houses and medical things). The one that almost worked was made from the drip part of an IV. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite long enough. Eventually we were able to get to Moroto (thanks to some US army guys we were working with) and we got a piece of a garden hose (still no hope for an actual tube that would work). After much trouble we got it on. There are very possibly little pieces of rubber floating around the engine now, but hey… the car started! (after some pushing since the battery also decided to die) We had to have a boy go get fuel from the other side of town (thank God it was actually there that day cause that’s not always the case!) since the tank was pretty much empty by that point. We also had to change the tire in about a foot of mud this morning when we woke up to an entirely flat one. By the time I get home I may have a new career ready for me!
Oh, and I forgot to mention last time that our vehicle has cow horns on the front! Hopefully a picture will come sometime, but for now I’ll just tell you  The horns were put there to be able to identify the vehicle. Sometimes people will hide in the bush by the road in wait for a car to come by to ambush. After encountering problems a couple of times, Val asked why people were doing this (everyone in the villages love her cause of the work she does). They told her that she needed to be identifiable so they knew who it was – they didn’t want to ambush her. So after discussion they discovered that the best way would be to put cow horns on! The Karamojong love their cows so that was she could she that she did too, and they would know it was her. Since the horns she has not had any issues. A couple of times she has driven past an ambush site and the men jump up and make a horn symbol with their arms, smiling and waving instead of waving around their AK47s. lol. So the horns are a necessary and good thing. Besides, they make Brutus look SO cool!

5. While we were doing our outreaches in Nabwal (the larger of the two peace villages), we had fellowship time at night. We actually just started singing as a small group (the ~7 Americans and the ~10 African members of CLIDE we work with). When people heard they all came to join. After about 10 minutes there were probably about 70 new people there. It was cool and lots of fun. I LOVE the African songs. Jumping is huge around here… it’s their form of dancing and they actually make me join in sometimes! So we were singing and dancing/jumping. Oh, and the ladies do this trilly-screamy thing. Sounds strange… and it is… but I LOVE it. It’s so cool. There was this little girl who was so into it. It was adorable – I have no idea how they make that sound. Someday when I have a soundproof room I will try it :-P But anyway, after maybe 15 minutes, one of the ladies, Anne, from CLIDE went to the middle of the circle to speak (with her baby, Jessie, on her back). She basically gave the salvation message. I don’t remember exactly what she said, but she gave people the opportunity to accept Christ, and we had 44 people give their lives! It was so cool… it started with a couple of the warriors. Young men who wear these FUNNY hats that they knit in crazy colors – they’re top-hat kind of shapes. Then they stick a feather in it (if they’re “available”). But these guys are the tough ones. And they came kneeling in front of Anne before anyone else! Then some ladies and children followed… old and young… so cool. After praying with them they had them go to the side and write down their names so some of the pastors could talk to them and teach them the next day. We counted 44 in total. The next morning there was a gathering off to the side of where we did the clinics. I didn’t know what was going on but there were a couple of clay pots in the middle and a lady standing next to them. She spoke for a while with an interpreter and gave her powerful testimony. After years, she had decided to give up her witchcraft and follow God. I didn’t get the entire story, but she had been one of the VHTs we were training and we had done devotionals each day of the training. At some point, she was convicted and decided to accept God. She wanted to renounce it all. It was a very powerful little ceremony when she lit the pots on fire (with kerosene) and crushed them under her feet. A couple kids who were watching nearby had some stuff smeared on them that was supposed to protect them from evil spirits that were supposedly attacking them. We took them aside and prayed for God to release them as no witchcraft could. We took off their clothes and washed them clean. I’m not sure how much of the whole thing they understood, they were young and probably didn’t know entirely why it had been put on them in the first place. So please pray that God gives them understanding and that He will protect them from whatever was going on to make the people think they were being attacked.

6. The past couple of days we have been working with the US army to do their “Vet-CAP” program. They have an equivalent program called “Med-CAP” that they do some places as well. I think they’re trying to improve relations with the Ugandan military – I’m not entirely sure why they do it; but it’s good! They help to train the local animal health workers and supply them with vet medicines and tools. They use organizations like CLIDE to help with the training because they know they aren’t able to connect and communicate with the people as well. So basically they supply lots of medicines and things which is very helpful! After doing some of the ‘classroom’ training with them, we worked a couple of days at a nearby village (can’t say exactly where :-P). It was the ‘practical’ part of the training for the locals. I got to learn a LOT as well! Saw some East Coast Fever, Anaplasmosis, lots of mastitis, foot rot, etc, etc, etc! We also sprayed all the animals for ticks and deworming. Did some castrations - the tradition for many of the people is to do a half-castration, which is funny because it doesn’t actually do anything – they still produce enough testosterone! It’s supposed to leave them fertile (which it does) but calm them down (which it doesn’t)… but we still tackle the bull and do it – risking life and limb to make them happy :-P Dr. Val got kicked in the face by one of the cows who had mastitis – nice swollen jaw now, the poor lady! We had a bit of a mess the second day. After the kicking injury and one of the army guys getting his arm pummeled by a bull, we were evacuated early. The village had gotten news that a raid was coming. We couldn’t see or hear anything yet, but a guy had gotten killed down the hill a ways and we thought it better not to have a couple hundred cows gathered in one place for treatment when there were armed men coming for the sole purpose of stealing cows. So we packed up and moved on, allowing the locals to disperse and hopefully get the cattle (and themselves) out of the path of the raiders.

7. I have gotten offered quite a range of bride prices. I think it’s been from 5 cows to 200. Those were actually pretty equivalent offers considering the guy who offered five was in one of the peace villages, where they don’t allow any cows (to prevent violence and temptation to raid) – so that was quite a high bid for him. At first, we were avoiding my getting married off by asking for a ridiculous number of cows. Usually the highest offer you can get is about 100 – that’s a LOT of cows around here. So we would refuse ‘because’ we needed at least 200. As people got closer to offering that amount we had to up the ante, so we added 100 goats to the price. For the last one we went straight for 300 cows, which was a good decision because he was the one who offered 200. Don’t worry, though, I’m not going to take ANY of them up on the offer. I’m not going for the multiple wife thing and I think I’m happy where I’m at ;-)

8. Internet is QUITE a challenge. The other day, Val was trying to send some emails and had to put the computer on top of her head to get it at the right level for the signal. Even then it didn’t work well, but at least the emails sent after about 20 minutes. The next night we moved the vehicle close to the tree (for some reason the tree seems to make the signal better) and sat on the roof. This worked about as well as the head and that way you didn’t need two people… one to watch the status and click things and the other with their head occupied. So these sorts of issues are the reason for this REALLY long post after a long time without much. Those two days were the days it was working WELL, so it can be pretty much impossible when it’s not!

I’ve had requests for the basics, so here goes!

Food:
STARCH. lots of rice and potatoes (called “Irish”) and posho (corn starch pastey stuff that you make by “mingling” it with water in the pan) and chipatis (which I think are of Indian origin… bread/tortilla kind of thing) and matoke (mashed up bananas… but they’re cooking bananas and don’t have much flavor… don’t taste like bananas). Always with some sort of soup on it... often beans... or questionable meats. A lot of the time the meat will be beef or chicken. It’s not usually chewable though… you have to get all covered in it and rip it apart with your teeth to have any hope. I’m slowly becoming more carnivorous. Everything is eaten with the fingers (traditionally... sometimes we're lucky and they'll give us "muzungu"s utensils – though I try EVERY time to cut apart the meat and it is IMPOSSIBLE – then I get made fun of and forced to use my teeth!). Kidney tastes pretty horrible, but other than that I haven’t had too many problems except for the meat stuck in my teeth hours after eating (which many of you
will know how much I would love that). Liver is a funny texture but doesn’t have too much taste (at least relative to the kidney). Val has been teaching me anatomy at meal time. Last week I had some sacrum… we’ve had a good amount of lymph node… you have to first identify the body part before eating (Nielly, you would LOVE it! :-P). Oh and also, LOTS of tea. At least twice a day, but usually more. It’s good… lots of milk and sugar added. Sometimes for breakfast we have chipatis with cinnamon and sugar which is SO good! We had a fresh pineapple the other day that was amazing! Man, it’s good to have food that hasn’t been imported from other countries. Though it started to ferment (we don’t have a fridge) and we may have taken in some alcohol by the end of it! Also… did you know that cheese can last at least a month and a half without refrigeration?! (unopened
that is) And it’s not bad that way, either! Water: I have been trying to transition to bore-hole water. The
water is not bad from there… technically clean… but still not tap-water (and for those of you who won’t even drink tap water… you better stay there in the US!). So the transition is going well… I haven’t had too many stomach issues yet! But the cipro is on hand… it is pretty commonly used with the muzungus around here. Dr. Val drinks the water, but even she has to have cipro sometimes! I haven’t resorted to it yet cause I think that would make my transition have to start over. We’ll see what happens.

Living arrangements:
I have a “mattress” on the floor of my hut that I sleep on. The circular hut is made of cement around the outside and has a
grass-thatched roof. You always sleep under a mosquito net that hangs over the bed and you tuck it under the mattress at night. There’s no electricity so we have kerosene lanterns that we light and we use flashlights a lot! (thank you Alex! :-P)

The Essentials: (well… YOU think they’re essentials :-P)
Bathing… (not essential)… but we have a bathing shelter that has some sheets of metal set up in the shape of a square. No roof. You take a basin with some water (usually QUITE chilly water) and a plastic cup/mug to dump the water on your head with. This morning I had some heated water to add to my basin, though… and it felt like home!! It was amazing. :-P “Bathroom”… called a latrine here… it’s just a shelter with a hole in the ground. Also called a squatty-potty by the most dignified people (Nielly… think I heard that from you first :-P). You have to take toilet paper (or tissues) anywhere you go if you want to have it cause if it’s left somewhere it WILL be stolen within about 10 minutes. There is never any soap anywhere… oh how I love Purel!

Driving:
VERY few people around here drive or have a car. People walk SO much I am quite impressed. Usually they are carrying at least 20 pounds on their heads too… a Jerry can of water or who knows what else. I’ve seen gigantic barrels… piles of mattresses… heavy suitcases… anything can be carried on the head! (though only girls do it… guys go for the shoulder… no, actually, they just have the girls carry things! :-P) No wonder so many people were complaining of neck or back pain during our medical clinics… necks were made to carry a HEAD! We have a Land Rover truck that we drive. It has two fuel tanks and two batteries. His name is Brutus. And it fits him well! It’s AMAZING the roads he gets us through… SO many other cars get stuck and we can help them out or pass on by as necessary. We are also almost always carrying about 50 people in the back of the truck (slight exaggeration). Everyone wants a ride cause they walk SO far!

Wildlife:
I got my first parasite already!!! (mom and dad… remember the close-toed shoe thing? Well… they are over-rated.) Parasites aren’t so bad… the locals know how to get them out real well. It’s called a “jigger”… a little worm-y kinda thing that burrows into your feet to lay its eggs. Mine got pretty big… you don’t feel them the first time you get it until it’s big cause after that one you have an allergic reaction and you know it’s there cause it gets itchy. Val and I had them at the same time, too! So they were both removed… you use a safety pin and kinda dig around it and squeeze it out. The key is to make sure it stays intact and the whole egg sac comes out. Or you’ll have a LOT more to remove! I also saw my fist scorpion the other night! It was really cool looking… not so big. Unfortunately Val said we had to kill it :-/ I guess they don’t feel so good when they get you!
We also “removed” a snake from my hut this morning. I am 99% sure it wasn’t venomous… and just a little thing. But given the fact that we’re in Africa… policy is you have to kill them… who knows. I wanted Frank there to identify it for me!
As for ‘real’ wildlife… there hasn’t been too much yet. The big things we generally think of don’t hang out so much in Uganda… especially Karamoja. In large part because of all the target practice previously done by the warring tribe. But eventually we will make it over to Kenya and go through a safari  Then we will see the cool stuff (and name a giraffe “Danielle”!!)! For now there are a LOT of birds. Real neat ones… I wish dad and Thomas were here to identify
them! There was a baby baboon in one of the peace villages last week. They had probably killed it’s mama for eating their crops, but they didn’t want to kill the baby cause it was cute… so it was tied to a tree. Probably didn’t make it too long though… it kinda needed milk still :-/ But it was fun to play with… friendly (until it gets bigger!)


So my time here has been amazing. You may not think that all that sounds like fun, but I would have to disagree - It’s like 8 months of camping!!! That wasn’t very descriptive with what we’ve actually been doing… I had to set the scene first. I’ll give you some brief stories in my next post (sorry for all this to come at once, but I’ve got some time to make up for!)

SO SO SO literally in the middle of NOWHERE!!!

There’s a definite lack of internet service around these parts! Wrote this a while ago, but now I can post it :-P Sorry about the lack of information... wish I could do more!!! I'll keep trying.

I got in on Wednesday morning (that is… Tues night for all of you – 7 hours difference). I landed in Entebbe, Uganda which is about an hour from Kampala (Uganda’s capital). I was picked up at the airport (with all my baggage!) and drove (on the “wrong” side of the road) to a “guest house” aka hotel in Kampala. It was nice because Dr. Val wasn’t arriving until that evening so I got to take a nice long nap. AND a shower! They even had running water  and electricity :-D. So I’ve been doing pretty well and jet-lag hasn’t been too bad. Thursday we stuck around Kampala because Dr. Val’s niece and friend had been visiting for a month and they flew out that night. I heard mannnny entertaining stories from them. I got the inside scoop on Dr. Val’s tricks of things she tries to get you to eat and all sorts of fun stuff. Anyway, it was really fun to meet them… I won’t make things boring for you later on by telling you all their stories… I’m sure I’ll have similar ones soon! So anyway, on Friday Val and I spent the day driving to Karamoja. This took 12 hours. And you have to try to picture the roads on that drive. Karamoja is located in NE Uganda (Kampala is in the South) in the MIDDLE of NOWHERE. It was a great drive. Once we passed Seroti… about 3-4 hours from Karamoja, the roads (which had already been quite holey) turned into the Rocky Mountains on miniature scale. There were peaks and valleys and rivers and lakes… okay, it was actually pretty dry, but I don’t think I’d ever gotten whiplash from a car-ride before! Oh and also… on our way, we passed some people selling chickens and guinea fowl. Val has wanted guinea fowl for a while so we decided to check them out. After QUITE a bit of bartering (which Val demonstrates great skill and practice in) we left with four new pets! They tried to sell them to us for 75,000 shillings each (about $40) which is absolutely insane… by the time we left we had two pairs for 60,000 total! Now they’re my new project… hopefully they’ll start laying lots of eggs soon but we’ll see what happens. They’re living with our chickens.

Yesterday (Saturday) we had a day of cultural training and some language learning (ha!). Dr. Val was saying that her first year as a missionary, people told her that her only goal should be to be the people’s entertainment. Basically, she was supposed to form relationships… and what better way to do that is there than to make a fool of yourself and make them laugh?! Haha… so I attempted to speak some Karamojong this morning. There’s a lady (Joyce) who works doing some cleaning and taking care of the animals for us. She doesn’t speak much English so this morning I said “Alakara” (meaning thank you) to her for feeding my little guinea fowl and got quite the chuckle - she found it funny. So eventually maybe I’ll be able to expand my vocabulary. There isn’t exactly any similarity between Karamojong and English, German or Latin… so it’s gonna be a slow process!

Well now we’re going to be heading to Iriiri for a while. We’re there for four nights with a medical team that came in a couple days ago and we did the training with yesterday. There are two doctors and two nurses from the US who are going to hold some medical training for local health workers. I’ll let you know how that stuff goes, too! We’re hoping to be getting more internet access soon… Val is trying to modernize by using a new wireless router thing. So far it has backfired… but we’re hoping to get it working shortly!

Not too many more than TWO MINUTES till I leave my house! (hadta stick with the theme :-P)

I'm leaving SO SOON! Been quite crazy getting things together today. But I'm so excited for the trip :-)

After my morning of...

Printing a few more pictures

Quick stop at Wal-Mart... and one at Best Buy on the way down.

Bank

About 100 phone calls

About 1000 text messages

Some Facebook responses

I'll be on my way!

Thank you for all the prayers... I'll be in the air by 7:45 tonight :-)

MISS YOU ALL!

Love,

Heidi

Two DAYS!!!!

AHHHH! So I have been running around like that famous chicken... with no head. About every 10 minutes I think of something I need to go shopping and get. Supposedly I'm done with that now... but... yeah right! I'm sure I'll be thinking of plenty of things tomorrow... and on the way to the airport on monday. It's really hard to know what to pack for eight months in the middle of Africa!

My plane flies out at 7:35 Monday night. I arrive in London the next morning and spend the day there doing... not sure what yet! But seeing the sites :-) Then I fly out of London at night and arrive in Entebbe the next morning. Supposedly someone will be meeting me there... and Dr. Val will catch up in the evening. Four other people are also coming in that evening and we'll be starting off with a medical mission in the peace villages. So right into ministry!!!

I am expecting God to do some amazing things :-) Really excited to see... but I hope the transition isn't too bad - the airport's gonna be rough!!

Thanks again to everyone who has supported me... in all ways. Prayers have been appreciated SO much and financial support is always important :-) (and still possible at https://www.cvmusa.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=1630 :-P Just find my name "Heidi Judd" under designation)

Thanks for thinking of me! I will update this as much as possible while I'm in Uganda! Shooting for once a week. And maybe I'll get one more in before I leave!

Oh my Goodness: Less than TWO WEEKS to go!!!

AHHHH! I will be leaving in officially... 11 DAYS! That's insane. I am super-excited... a bit nervous... not looking forward so much to the airport and saying final good-byes for EIGHT MONTHS. But I can't wait to be settled into my little hut :-P

But today I get my hair cut. I'm going to practice posting pictures... which could be interesting... so you will see them soon! I've got before and after pics as well as some fun entertainment pics!!

Pre-Uganda: less than two months to go!

Hello!

So today I am testing out my blog page! :-P This is where I'll be writing some "short" notes (we'll see about that) and hopefully posting some pictures and videos while I'm in Uganda! Internet will be choppy... so no guarantees on regularity, but I hope to post about once a week when I can get access.

Right now I am working on the logistics of the trip. Just reserved my plane tickets. I will leave August 9th and arrive in Entebbe, Uganda on the 11th. I get to spend an entire day in London on the way there!! I guess people usually aren't excited about 12 hour layovers, but I am thinking positively and optimistically will say that that means I'll get to wander around the streets of London for a while. (I have heard some less optimistic reports saying I may have to carry my gigantic suitcases around or that I won't be able to get out of the airport or find my way to the city... but I remain optimistic) Might as well start looking on the bright side now, when I'm not washing my hair with a mug of water, eating goat, and wearing skirts all day (if you know me at all... you know that that may be the toughest part :-P)

Anyway... things are coming along. Long way to go, but we'll get there... Fundraising is probably about halfway there at this point... although expenses keep coming up! So I may be increasing that budget. But people have been SO helpful so far... thank you a TON for your support.

(the link to donate is https://www.cvmusa.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=1630 then find "Heidi Judd" under Designation in case you'd like to know! :-P)

My body has officially been convinced that it has contracted... let's see... polio, Hepatitis A, rabies, and Yellow Fever... so I should be over that by the time I get there. :-P

Working on my visa now... and lots of other paperwork kind of stuff... Can't wait till it's all done!

Thanks again for all your support!

~Heidi