Greetings from Soroti!

Well, now that we have no visitors things have been a bit different. We are free to camp in the bush without feeling bad about not taking proper care of visitors (I don’t count anymore :-P), so we spent another night there. We went in the early afternoon and started at the dam. From there we walked to the village and to the army barracks. We discovered that a good amount of people are moving around back there during the day… either gathering firewood or grass for roof-thatching or making charcoal. There are some “paths” that go from near the dam to the village that Punzel must be using to move around. It seems like she’s staying in that area but there’s still no sight of her. The land looks so vast when you’re wandering through the bush… grass up to your shoulders, thorny trees as far as you can see and mountains in the background. Seems like she should be right there on one hand but it seems like she could be anywhere on the other. So we search and search, calling out into the sorghum fields and across the plains. This time we brought her son, Tutu. When we first got there and Val called out for Punzel, his ears perked up and he looked around as alert as I’ve ever seen him. He even stood up from the spot he had found in the shade of a tree… which was quite an accomplishment considering the effort it took us to get him going in the heat of the day. We literally chucked him into the pond to get him all wet where he proceeded to just lay and drink water in that position until we almost dragged him out. Once we got going, though, he was alright and he followed along in the “paths” we created through the grass. After searching around there we proceeded to the Army barracks and wandered for a while to leave Tutu’s smell for Punzel to recognize. We saw a bunch of footprints in the area, but probably the same ones as from last week. As we followed them, they led us in circles and under trees and into piles of rocks or sticks and we concluded that Punzel was getting some hunting in. They had recently burned the grass, which should have released lots of little game (mice, lizards, etc), providing Punzel with, hopefully, some good meals. Tutu would stick his nose right into the center of the footprints and take in the scent of his mother. Unfortunately, he’s not exactly a tracking dog and that’s pretty much where he left it. We’re gonna need someone with some more experience (I hear Val’s sister, Holly, may have a candidate?! Can’t wait to meet you soon! :-P) to help us out in the search…
That night we stayed in our mosquito coffins again. Luckily Limlim decided to keep the rain away :-) and we only got a few drips before we went to bed. We spent some time in the vehicle… on our computers and listening to music. I played a song for Val - Nielly, that’s why I asked about the name of our song… Worth it All by Rita Springer. It was very fitting for the occasion as frustration set in at our lack of success. We don’t always understand why things happen, but God does have a plan and I think He knows a bit more than me anyway :-P Funny background fact for the rest of you… Danielle and I always listened to this song while studying for orgo tests at about 3am the night before. There’s NO way you’re going to know it all and you don’t want to care, but we figured if God wanted us in med/vet school then He was going to take care of it. We didn’t need to overstress about it – just put forth the effort we had and it would be worth it! “I don’t understand your ways… but I will give you my heart, give you all of my praise” So that’s what Val and I did. We know that God knows best – that He will take care of Punzel and He can bring her to us if that’s His plan. But we just need to trust Him and thank Him for what He’s doing and know that… It’ll be worth it! (I would copy the lyrics for you but I have no internet, so feel free to google/youtube it with your super fast connection that I’m jealous of :-P) Anyway… the next morning we couldn’t stick around too long but we did one last loop and then dropped the Army men off because they wanted to help. We dropped them at the dam and they walked back to the barracks from there. Can you picture six armed guys in camo walking in formation through the bush calling “Punzel, Punzel…”?! I think it’d be a funny picture.
Oh, two more interesting facts from that trip. So Val and I have this thing… we need some more research done. During the time we were out, Val got about 28 ticks on her and no mosquito bites. I, on the other hand, found ZERO ticks on myself and got about a thousand mosquito bites. This has been consistent over the whole time I’ve been here. I have a total of one thousand bites on each of my feet (yes, I totally counted :-P) and Val hardly has any. I’ve never once in my life found a tick on me (I will now that I wrote this, but I’m risking it) and Val finds them literally all the time. It’s quite strange. I think someone should do some research on this. And fact two… while we were sitting near the dam letting Tutu get some rest in the shade I decided to play with this little weed that was growing nearby. I broke it off and some white stuff came out (like a dandelion). So of course the (logical?) thing to do would be to smell the white stuff. Okay, so no idea what made me do that, but it’s a good thing I did because otherwise I would have missed out. The second I lifted it to my nose I was transported back to my childhood. I felt like I was sitting at the kitchen table, just getting over a cold, with a bowl of chicken noodle soup sitting in front of me. The weed smelled JUST like Campbell’s chicken noodle soup. I’m not even kidding. (Though I may be about my childhood, cause I don’t really remember getting Campbell’s so often… I think Progresso is much better. But it didn’t smell like Progresso. It smelled like Campbell’s) I looked confusedly down at the weed, broke off another piece and handed it to Val. I could see the facial expression as soon as she lifted it to her nose. Guess what she thought it smelled like?! CAMPBELL’S! I think it’s there secret ingredient. Though since we had that thought, we decided to take a taste. So that was not the smartest idea, because it totally didn’t taste like chicken noodle soup – it was SO bitter and it actually made Val’s tongue hurt for the next couple days. But anyway… it was ridiculous how much they smelled the same. SO random.

Last weekend there was an Ordination at church. CLIDE works with the Church of Uganda pretty often and that’s where Val and I go while in Kangole. So four men were being ordained that day – it was a HUGE celebration. One man was becoming a deacon and the others were lay readers. I don’t entirely know what those mean but they’re pastors or church leaders of some sort. Basically they were completely committing their lives to ministry, which is a big deal because from then on they will pretty much get no income and be very poor. The ceremony was about 6 hours… mostly of speeches and singing/dancing. Val and I brought our little 10ish year old friend, James. He’s the one who we have do random things around the house because he just wants to help out. He also feeds some of our random pets while we’re gone. We give him some food or something little once in a while, but it’s cool how he really just wants to help out – with nothing in return. He speaks very little English, so communication is limited with him, but he was around in the morning before Church started… standing there barefoot in his little ripped up tan shorts and t-shirt – just like always. So we decided to bring him along to the ceremony. He sat next to us in the district officials section. They always make us sit up front with the “important people” so it was cool for James to be able to join us. He is pretty unexpressive, but it was fun to be able to take him past all the other kids and bring him up front. I was thinking how if it was in the US… the kid would have thought you were punishing him for something. He sat there for five hours listening to people talk. I was on verge of falling asleep (then again, I also had no idea what they were saying :-P) but James just sat there listening. During some of the Bible reading, I handed him the Karamojong Bible I had acquired and Val led him through word by word as they spoke. James doesn’t go to school – I’m not sure if he has at all, but it’s very likely that he hasn’t – his family probably can’t afford school fees. It was so neat to see though… when they had finished the reading, James continued to look at the Bible and try to read the same passage. You could see his little brain hard at work trying to decipher the words he just heard.
After the ceremony there was a feast. Which, of course, brings up some interesting foods. They had everything and it was a gigantic buffet table kind of thing (which was good because I could choose a bit what I wanted to avoid). But then Val told me of something I just had to try. I knew this was bad news, but I couldn’t actually avoid it – then what stories would I tell you all?! So it’s called Emuna. It’s a traditional “food” of the Karamojong… they used to make it for their long nomadic journeys because it would stay for a year. (I say the reason it “stayed” was because it was already rotten, but you can be the judge of that). So… Emuna is made by first taking a slab of meat and removing all the fat and tendons from it (not so bad!), then hanging up the strips in the shade outside for three days so it can dry with flies all over it. Then they boil the meat to remove the rest of the fat (or it would go bad), then dry it and pound it into meat powder with a mortar and pestle. After drying it again, you end up with a nice fluffy mound of meat to which you add gee. If you don’t know what that is, it’s fermented butter. Niiiice and oily and… well… fermented tasting. Then you pound cucumber seeds, sesame seeds and/or ground nuts (aka peanuts) into powder and add it. When in season, termites are also pounded and added in for a delicious additional flavor (thank God, they were not in season). Then you add sugar to taste and stir it together for… ummm… a… taste SENSATION. Awesome. And there is your high energy travel food, ready to go on a long raid or nomadic journey!
A couple days later, the emuna may have been put to use when we heard gunshots in the center of town. What a surprise! Raiders had come to steal the hundreds of cows that they gather together in one unprotected area in the middle of town. In the safety of our foot-thick cement walled hut, we listened to the raid go on down a couple of blocks. You can almost see the whole story play out… first there are some real fast one-after-another gunshots from the army’s machine guns. Then a few single shots shot by warriors who have to conserve their bullets. They are not so accessible these days because there is a disarmament project where the Army takes away all the Karamojong’s guns (and then sometimes sells them back to make some money :-P). So they have to get them from Sudan and it is harder than it used to be. So you can tell who’s who pretty easily during the raid. The gunshots would stop for a while and then a few more and then they slowed down as the raiders ran into the bush and hid from the Army amongst the tall grasses. Then we heard an APC (armored personnel carrier) drive by, pursuing after the raiders and the animals they had managed to capture. I’m not sure how many they got in the end but luckily the army did find them before they took all the cows of Kangole. I don’t think anyone got killed, either, so that’s good. But it made for an interesting night, listening to what would be fireworks in the states under a nice protective grass-thatched roof. We did stay inside, though we don’t have any appealing animals in our compound, so there’s not much of a temptation to come in.

So now… a week or so later… we are down in Soroti. Val had some meetings here and then on the way, the vehicle decided to fall apart, so we stuck around a bit longer than expected! The stabilizer bar for the left rear tire just kinda fell off (the bracket broke). So that was when we were about 2 hours from Soroti. We couldn’t really stop there, so we tied it up with rope and prayed that it would hold the tire on! It was a bit of an interesting drive… going about 10mph and we couldn’t turn right or it would pull on the rope and break it. And then after a little, the bar moved forward more and was stuck so we really couldn’t turn right even if we wanted to. And the bearings were all worn out from this little issue, so basically our rear tire was barely held on. About 1.5 hours later we got to the next town (amazingly still with four tires!) where someone was going to rescue us. We parked the vehicle with the police and carried all our stuff to a restaurant where we waited for our ride. Eventually we made it to Soroti, where we’ve been since last Thursday or something. The vehicle finally got fixed… well… “fixed” and was brought back yesterday. It was a miracle they found the replacement part here in Soroti, but it still needs some work, so we’re going to go to Kampala this weekend and get it serviced. Hopefully we’ll make it without a problem! So Soroti has been relaxing… I’ve been running in my running skirt, bringing my Ipod so I can pretend I can’t hear all the hollering as I run by the guys. There are also lots of cute little kids who yell – which is… better… but still not entirely appreciated cause you can’t go ANYWHERE without feeling like a one-person parade! The word “bye” turns into a two syllable word around here. “by-yee, by-yee… mzungu by-yee” I hear over and over. Or “mzungu how are you? How are you?”. So I say “I am fine, how are you?!” and they get SO excited to use their four English words that they know. “Fine!” “goo-d by-yee!” The ladies are sweet because they get really excited/embarrassed if you talk to them. It can be fun… but tiring to do so much interacting when you just wanted to run. Or walk to church about 50 feet away – it can take like 20 minutes to get there!

Anyway… my hope is that maybe with Kampala internet connection I’ll be able to put up some pictures?! Not sure if that’s true, but I will try my best! I hope things are going well back in the states. I miss you guys. Thanks for the prayers and everything!

Everything always goes as planned.

Well… the plan was to drop Dr. Julie at the airport in Moroto on Monday morning, stop by the office for an hour or two to get a few things done and pick some stuff up, head back to Kangole to pack and leave for Soroti to get there by late afternoon, when we would get to the MTN store to try and get the internet working. We would stay in Soroti for a day and leave early on Wednesday morning to get to Ngenge for the afternoon and start phase II of their livestock training.

It is now Tuesday night, and let’s see how the plans are coming along. Monday morning Julie had to be at the airport (30 mins away) by 10:30 for her flight. We woke up around 6am, plenty of time to pack things up before breakfast at 7:30… at this point we didn’t know the time of the flight because they only tell you the morning of, and the earliest we would have had to leave was 8:30, so we were playing it safe. Sunday at Church they had announced that an older lady had died the day before, and the service was on Monday. Having one of the only vehicles in Kangole, Dr. Val was in charge of retrieving the body of the lady to bring her to the Church for the service. Luckily these days we have a driver named Lowok Godfrey, who has been extremely helpful. We also were going to be needing fuel because basically all of Northern Karamoja has been out for weeks. There was one place not too far away that had the only supply anywhere in the area and the prices were therefore through the roof. So Lowok left around 8 to do some errands. A while later he brings back a bag of tree sap that someone he ran into gave him to show Val. It is special sap… and the secret ingredient for Coca-Cola that the Karamojong have a lot of access to. We are trying to get woodlots started and turn it into a real business… Coke is requesting it from them by the truckload, but unfortunately it’s hard to harvest enough at this point. This man wanted 50,000 shillings for his kilogram of sap (it’s worth more like 2,000), so Val sent Lowok back to inform the man. He then had to figure out the fuel, but the man wouldn’t sell a small amount because he “didn’t have time for that”. So instead, he came in the truck with Lowok back to Dr. Val to discuss what to do. We ended up just buying 200,000 shillings worth from him despite the ridiculous price… not much you can do when you need the fuel! After that, Lowok went back to pick up the body.
Meanwhile, Dr. Val, Dr. Julie and I are at home finishing up our tea, trying to get the modem-man to help us with our internet issues, and bottle-feeding/medicating the goat kid that we had obtained a couple days before. We discuss all the interesting things happening so early in the morning. Lowok driving back with a dead lady in the truck (probably not in a casket yet) to finish the errands before the service starts. Bathing with frigid water at dawn, cleaning goat feces off of my skirt and then bottle feeding a kid before breakfast. And I almost forgot… how could I forget?! You all want to know what breakfast included, don’t you? Well. The night before we had had a going-away party for Julie. Well, it was that combined with a celebration for Uganda’s independence day (that was Saturday, but we had gotten home too late to roast the goat we had picked up on the way back). We had bought this black, good-looking male goat for 65,000 shillings (about $30). Our watchman is the one who slaughters and roasts our animals for us and in exchange he gets to keep the head and the hooves (don’t ask me how that’s a fair exchange… that does NOT count as payment in my book). We had a fun little party that night. I had a great time because somehow the intestines had gone missing by the time it came out to the table and I somehow got away with avoiding the liver… there wasn’t enough so I was generous enough to share it with the others. But anyway… back to breakfast. The next morning we were looking for a saucepan to warm up the leftover rice with. We were thinking we’d turn it into some version of rice pudding when all of a sudden we found the missing intestines. Turns out they had reserved the best part for the hosts of the party! Awesome. So what do we do with them? We have no fridge so it’s not like we can save them for dinner; therefore, they had to be eaten. For breakfast. I was sitting there smelling… well… intestines, thinking about the rice pudding that had sounded so tasty. There’s also more leftover meat, so we have to get rid of that. Val drops a piece of rumen on my plate and I groan with enthusiasm as I scoop some plain cold rice on my plate to drown out the taste. Some potatoes were cooked in with the intestines, so I mistakenly think it’d be a good idea to have that alongside. Having been cooked in that mixture, they tasted just like intestine juice and are covered in grease… just what I wanted for breakfast. I take some goat meat – sadly a relief from the piece of rumen that I had choked down. I rip through the meat, trying to avoid all the fat that’s left and the leather that surrounds it. They cook it in the skin, and then eat that too. But it literally is leather and trying it once was all I needed. It was still covered in hair anyway… so appetizing. Course two of breakfast did include some makeshift rice pudding… so much better. Topped with semi-alcoholic bananas. We had obtained an entire bundle including about 84 bananas while we were in Kapchorwa the weekend before, and were doing our best to eat them all before they were entirely rotten. We’d been giving them out to people all over the place, but in nearing the end, they had been beginning the fermentation process and were a bit off. You just can’t waste these things with so many hungry people around. So that was breakfast. Then, when we were about ready to leave, we realized that Lowok wasn’t back yet. Julie wanted to pick up some Karamojong items before heading out, but time was running low. By the time 10:00 rolls around (the latest we should have been leaving… and that without having any time to shop), the vehicle wasn’t there and we decided to call Lowok. It turns out while he was out the police decided to take him in. He’s in some way a leader in his community of the village and they had had a problem where an alcoholic lady decided to poison a bunch of people by putting pig feces in the local brew, resulting in many people getting sick. Lowok had been dealing with this issue for quite some time, but now the police wanted to talk to him I guess. So there he was in the police station when we needed to leave to catch a plane that was taking off at 10:30. He managed to get back to a semi-frantic Dr. Val by 10:15 and we rushed off to Moroto. Dr. Val drove because she’s preparing for a future in Land Rover racing through the African bush. We got there in a very impressive 15 minutes. The plane flew in at pretty much the exact time we drove up to the runway. Yeah, that’s how it works… they land, they put your bags in the bottom (NO security) then you fly off. So we sadly parted ways with Dr. Julie.

Wow. That was just the morning! We then headed to the office. I will omit some not-so-interesting detail here for the sake of your day. Basically, we didn’t leave the office until 3 or so. We stopped a couple places on the way out of Moroto to find milk to feed to our goat kid and were too exhausted to stop and get lunch so we decided to have a redo of that wonderful breakfast for lunch. There were stilllll leftovers. When we arrived in Kangole about 30 mins later, we opened the hut to find our little Juliette sleeping… permanently… in her little basin home. :-/ It wasn’t so much of a surprise… she hadn’t looked so good that morning and she had had pneumonia like her twin sister when we adopted them. It was very sad to lose my first two adopted kids, but we decided to do some exploration to find out what had happened. Dr. Val and I took our surgery kit and did a necropsy on the little thing. She still had diarrhea all over her because of the cow milk she had to take since their mom had died after the birth. We found the intestines semi-inflamed, but not bad. The cause of death was determined to be pneumonia due to initial force-feeding of milk by her owner. (Many times we find people who don’t understand the whole swallowing reflex thing… don’t hold the tongue out and pour liquids down an animal’s throat!) At the end of our necropsy and after identifying and evaluating each organ (yes, Niells… we examined the kidney well… and I told Val about your obsession :-P), Dr. Val blew up the lungs. It’s quite a fun experiment next time you all find a dead animal. Just cut out the lungs and blow into the trachea. It’s like balloons! It also showed the pneumonia well. We then gave the carcass to some kids nearby who were excited to have a good lunch to roast up and we moved on to our lunch. A semi-repeat of breakfast except that I managed to avoid the innards and just have the real meat (and a taste of leather). The dogs got all my scraps (LOTS of fat and skin and a femur bone) and the kids (who had been voluntarily doing some work for us) got what was left of the meat. Eventually we got ourselves together enough to leave for Soroti.

On the way to Soroti, around 5:00pm, Dr. Val got a phone call from the Ugandan Army commander. I think I mentioned before that Val lost her dog in the bush right before I got here… about 2.5 months ago. Well, it turns out someone had spotted her again the night before! Which was crazy news… it’s insane that she would have survived this long, but from the descriptions it was definitely her. We happened to be driving by the place Punzel was seen on the way to Soroti and were going to be there in about a half hour. So we met the commander and a bunch of villagers there, including the lady who had spotted her, just as it was starting to get dark. We broke out whatever flashlights we could muster up and searched in the recently burned off grass for about a half hour. No sign of Punzel. We did see some adorable Bush Babies (google them, they’re so cool – though I hear, quite evil). We wanted to search more, but it was too dangerous in the dark, so we decided to spend the night sleeping at the Army barracks. The funny part was that we hadn’t exactly planned this, so it’s not like we had a tent. The closest thing we had were these two “coffin” things. They’re mosquito nets that are tubular and you sleep inside. If you are claustrophobic, you’re in trouble. We set them up in the dark… next to the commander’s tiny hut. Looked quite entertaining… two coffins with net/see-through tops on top of a folded up tarp which we used as a form of mattress. My name being Nakiru (born with the rain) we were worried we might get poured on. Luckily, that morning a lady had given me a second name… Limlim (meaning one who brings sprinkling/light rain) that goes with my first. Oh, we also had no food with us except for some Matoke bananas, so that was dinner… and no water because the borehole had disappeared with the darkness and we couldn’t find it. At about 3am, I woke with a start. Raindrops were beginning to fall on my head. I knew what could be coming and Val and I rushed up and flipped the tarp over our coffins. Great. Now they were essentially flattened and we were going to be rolled up in a tarp the rest of the night. Quite a sight. Luckily, my new name did us some good and it did not end up pouring, which would have created a puddle between the two coffins… probably completely soaking us and our blankets. We managed to maneuver ourselves back into our coffins with our roofs touching our faces… but we both fell back asleep and woke up with the sun at about 5:45 to some minor puddling at either end where the tarp didn’t quite cover. My toes were frozen but it wasn’t so bad. Since we hadn’t brought any clothes for this adventure, we didn’t have to do much. Brushed our teeth with no water… ate another matoke for breakfast and got ready to search the bush with 5 army men. We spread out and managed to find some of Punzel’s footprints. Unfortunately we couldn’t follow them long because the grass then became over our heads. Trekking through in a skirt and sandals, pushing tall grass and unseen thorny bushes aside with my ankles, we searched in procession for a couple of hours. We ended our loop at the local borehole where I rinsed the mud, sweat and a little blood off of myself.
We all walked back down the road to the army barracks with a few kids who had been fetching water. They joined us in the call “Punzel, Punzel!” but still with no avail. Val and I had decided that next we would do a “quick” drive-by at the dam where she had been seen at one point as well. Only problem with that was that the vehicle wouldn’t start when we got back to the barracks. It has two batteries, but one was non-functioning and the other was not doing well either, so we have had issues starting it multiple times. This time we thought we were in luck because we had a bunch of army men around to join in the pushing. We pushed and pushed, trying many times to start it. We got out to the main road and thought we’d be set then. There was a slight slope going down, making our pushing easier, but we still had no luck. Another vehicle drove by a while later, but of course, someone had permanently “borrowed” Val’s jumper cables so that was no help. They still pulled over and tried to help – everyone suggesting different things that were wrong and looking for the battery under the hood (aka “bonnet”) when really it’s under the passenger seat - so they weren’t much use :-P We kept trying and after a lot of groaning and on about the 4000th try, it started! Only problem then was that the fuel started pouring out from the fuel pump. I reached down through the cascade of diesel and tried to tighten the bolt but it wouldn’t turn. We had to turn the vehicle off again. Val got down and removed/replaced the bolt, praying that it would work. Covered in fuel, we tried it again and it started! I looked and saw that the fuel was staying in its appropriate location! YAY. We thanked everyone for their efforts and discussed what to do next. We decided to still go to the dam, but that we would not turn off the vehicle again! Especially because it was a ways off the road and then we would be stuck in the bush far away from civilization.
Finding the dam was an adventure as well. The “road” consisted of a path that Val had made about a month ago by driving the Land Rover through the bush with someone walking in front of her to tell her where she should avoid a stump or a rock or a termite mound or a ditch, etc. So we didn’t want to stray from that path… there was another path made by an APC (armored personnel carrier = tank) that we found first… but discovered it was not the right one when it proceeded to go right over a medium-sized tree that had been knocked over. We turned around and eventually found the partially flattened trail that was Val’s “road”. I got on top of the vehicle to watch for Punzel as we drove out maybe a kilometer or two to the big pond created by the dam. No luck, unfortunately, but at the end we got out and looked down at the water. We were still disgusting and sweaty from our trek through the bush and that algae-covered, extremely turbid water looked quite appealing. We decided that we were actually wearing our swimming skirts (and shirts… and shoes) and went around to where we could check out the water. It smelled a little funny, but not funnier than we already did. The vehicle was still running because we still were not daring to turn it off, but since absolutely no one would ever be back there we didn’t need to worry so much. We jumped in the water and did a few laps. I had to take off my swimming shoes because they were quite awkward but I avoided the bottom. I had to sneak in some butterfly, and Val even made quite the valiant effort considering the amount of drag we were wearing. We both fooled around for a while and called out to Punzel, telling her she should join us. After a while, we returned to the vehicle and changed into whatever other dirty clothes we were able to find… at least they were dry. A few minutes after we finished changing, two men come up to Val’s side of the vehicle (suspicious timing, huh?...). One of them is holding an axe, and they talk to Val for a little bit while I stay on the other side of the vehicle… we didn’t really want to do any bargaining for cows at that point. They talk a little about the dog and rumors about where she’s been and then they leave. Val and I find an orange and an overly-ripe avocado that we had in the truck and give it to them in appreciation of their “information” (basically we just try to make friends with anyone carrying a weapon!). We’re thinking they’ve probably never seen an avocado so I wonder if he tried to bite into it like an apple… yummmm. They didn’t speak English, so we couldn’t do much explaining. They went on their way with no trouble.
Val and I decide to head out after a little more calling and honking the horn for Punzel. We spread some leftover burnt posho around the area that we had found on the ground at the army barracks so Punzel would have some food. I ride on the roof to keep a lookout and make sure our sopping wet clothes don’t go flying off since they were drying on top. We eventually get to the road and decide we need to move on to get to Soroti. After a quick stop at the borehole to rinse off a little and get a sip of hydration (and then help a construction guy load about 20 Jerricans of water into the truck so we could take them down the road for him) we were on our way. We were supposed to arrive in Soroti the night before (Monday night) and start the animal training in Ngenge on Wednesday morning (a 3-4 hour drive from Soroti). God knew we needed a break, though… Val got a phone call about an hour down the road saying that they guy we were working with in Ngenge would rather have the training be just two days, starting Thursday morning instead. We were relieved. We stopped in Iriiri to grab some lunch and met a few hundred people who all knew Val and had questions and requests for her. Eventually we made it out… ate some Chapatis and beans and were on our way. Last leg of the journey… we were going to make it! About 15 minutes out of Iriiri we had to let off some people who had hitched a ride in the back of the truck and some guys came up to the window trying to sell us some sticks. They had very pointed ends and I wondered if they were daggers (why were they selling those on the side of the street?!). As I looked more closely and as Val was looking interested, I noticed that there was a string attached to it and a loop at the bottom. Then it clicked! They were rat traps. I had seen one demonstrated a while before… it’s quite an ingenious construction, actually. Not sure I can explain how it works, but hopefully I’ll bring one home… we got 6 of them (for about $2). Basically you stick it down in the ground, where there is a path that the rats take, and a loop is formed at the bottom that when they get their heads in it, it will tighten around their neck. Then you have dinner! Awesome. I can’t wait to try! :-P Once we bought them we were determined to make it to Soroti.

We drove a couple hours and were getting close when we saw a lorrie that had driven off the road. It’s not an uncommon scene, but this didn’t look good. People were gathered and the lorrie was sideways in a swamp/pond down from the road. We opened the window to ask what was going on. They said all the people were out but they needed help. As we pulled up, I saw why… it had been carrying a bunch of cows. They had been tied up in the back of the vehicle… packed in – maybe about 15 total. A number of them had gotten out and some were swimming to shore as we came over, but there were about 5 still stuck. We locked the vehicle and Val ran down to try to help… her veterinary oath kicking in. I shut the window in back and as I was catching up to Val, I saw a woman standing there shaking from the cold – she had been sitting on top of the lorrie with a bunch of other people and had been thrown in the water when it went off the road. The driver had already run away from the scene, knowing how much trouble he would be in, leaving all his passengers to fend for themselves and to try to rescue the cows as well. I wanted to help this lady but now the car was locked so I run to find Val and get the keys. When I get behind the lorrie, Val is already in the middle of it all and she’s yelling for me to bring a knife. I take the keys and run back to the vehicle. I unlock the door and find my knife. As I’m about to leave I quickly find a towel to give to the lady. Relock… and run to the scene, wrapping the lady with the towel as I run by. Val is nowhere to be seen as I get to the back of the vehicle, so I follow suit and jump into the water… with my second swimming skirt of the day. People yell, warning me it’s deep and telling me to be careful. I, of course, ignore them (I think I might be able to swim :-P) and slide down the slope in my sandals and skirt right into the water. It’s up to my waist as I walk around the side of the vehicle (well… the top… which had become the side as it sank into the pond). As I turn the corner, the scene is quite amazing. Val takes the knife to free one of the cows whose head is barely above water. There were five or six total and they were all tangled in one another and in the frame of the vehicle. Val hands me back the knife and I put it in my pocket (covered in manure and swamp). She tells me to hold up the head of the cow to keep it from going under again while she and another man try to pull at various legs and tails and free it from the mess. I hold it up by the nostrils (surprisingly, quite a good grip) and as I’m standing on one bar of the vehicle and the side of another cow that was already dead, they extricate it enough for it to be freed. There was one more living cow, but it was under some dead cows and in a very awkward place. I hold it’s head out of the water and then pull on one of its legs while Val and the man move another dead cow and try to get the other end free. I hope that it doesn’t decide to kick me and try to stand far enough forward that it won’t be able to and eventually it is able to struggle its way out of the mess. They pull it to shore while Val and I determine that our work is done. We follow the cow’s path to get out of the water. As I’m following Val, climbing up the hill behind her, the men yell for the knife again. Not sure why, I quickly pass it up to them and when I reach the top I see why. They were slaughtering the first cow we rescued to sell the meat! There were at least 3 or 4 dead ones and we wondered why they were killing the one we went through so much to rescue. Eventually we discovered that it had collapsed when it got out of the water, so we felt better. I guess they can get more money for the meat if it’s slaughtered, as opposed to it dying by itself. During the rescuing process, we discovered that the men didn’t know that cows breathe through their noses or something. They kept letting the heads fall underwater and that last cow had been dunked a few too many times. The man who was slaughtering it kindly went down to the water to wash the blood off my knife and returned it to me. We headed back to the truck… taking a few soaked passengers who were also headed to Soroti. Unfortunately the lady was going the other direction, but we were able to help a few guys, one of whom had a pretty good gash in his arm. Our duty done, we start on our way. Unfortunately, Val’s towel had been the one closest to the top, so I may have given it away to that lady :-P But we found some things to sit on and laughed about how ridiculous our day had been. We were… for the second time… covered in nasty swamp. And this time, we both smelled like cow manure on top of it. As we continued to Soroti, we decided that instead of going home right away, we should go into town to get there before all the shops were closed. We needed to go to a store and get the internet fixed since we hadn’t had any in about two weeks. We were quite the sight going into that store – I picked some swamp grass out of Val’s shoes and got some manure out of my hair before entering. We got the modem fixed at the last second – they were very nice to let us in the store when they were trying to close! And then we headed home. There’s even electricity in Soroti so we heated up some hot water on the stove and Val took a bath while I bathed mug-style with my nice hot water :-) And it was good. So as usual, that day went just as planned!

Internet is back!!! Catch up time...

Dr. Julie Kyle from Vermont came in last Monday (okay, that’s three Mondays ago now… what little internet we had before died for a couple weeks) to work with us. She is planning on doing long term missions and is checking out a team with Africa Inland Mission (AIM) in the Western part of Uganda (Mbarara). She came a couple weeks early to learn from Dr. Val and see the work she’s doing up in Karamoja. So this past week has been a bit different… the few days after she got in we were doing some rabies vaccinations for the dogs and cats of the area. Tuesday was International Rabies Day so the DVO (District Veterinary Officer) had organized for a big vaccination day in Kangole (where we live mainly).

I have made a few local Kangole friends. They’re actually going to school in Kangole – a couple of them are from different parts of the country. But I met them at the borehole (where we get water). Normally we have a lady who works for us that does the cleaning and water-getting and things like that but she was sick for a while and so I was hired to fetch the water. Yes… I carried it on my head! And yes, I entertained the whole town! I have heard that when people go into long-term missions their first goal is that for the first year they are there to entertain the local people. Basically you are supposed to attempt the language and the culture and that will result in MUCH amusement for the locals. I have already accomplished this goal in large part. Every time I go to the borehole there are tons of kids around getting water. They all have a Jerrican (plastic – normally 20L or 5 gallon capacity that weighs about 40 lbs) according to their size – it’s cute. The little little kids, even the 4 and 5 year olds have their mini Jerricans that they even carry on their heads. So the first time I tried it I dropped it in about 20 meters. People have been impressed that I can carry it but I have NO idea how they can balance it without hands. They use NO hands. It makes NO sense!! I need both hands and I’m using them constantly… by the end my head and neck are fine but my arms get so tired! After that first drop I have been much more successful – it is getting better balance-wise but I still can not at all picture being able to balance it without hands. Also… I tried carrying a gigantic bundle of bananas today and I’m pretty sure it is a disadvantage to have such slippery hair. The bananas were harder than the water – they totaled about 50 lbs probably! But I did succeed – they tried to get me to stop and take it from me a couple times but I was determined to make it to the car! And I did :-) But I will from now on be using my slippery blonde (“corn silk” – which, as I’ve told you, mom, is not very accurate as that is extremely sticky stuff) hair as an excuse for not being able to balance things on my head. So anyway… our time in Kangole was good. There was one little puppy that had been punctured by a stick a while before and it’s omasum was coming out of its abdomen. That would normally not be a good thing – and wasn’t – but the puppy had been doing a fine job of sealing it off. Meaning it was nice and necrotic by the time we got it. We gave it some ace and local anesthetic – it was definitely still awake but was semi-okay with the procedure. Then we carefully started pulling at things to make sure they weren’t intestines and sewed it back up. Gave it some antibiotics and it was on its way with its owner the Mzee (respectful word for an old man) who was a sweet man and knew no English. He looked like he must be blind the way his eyes were half closed and shrivel-ey, but he waited so patiently for us to attend to his puppy and when we were done carried it away in his arms. We were able to go see him the next day and the puppy was trailing on his heels as he walked and sitting on his feet when he stopped. The pup was doing well after surgery :-) We were actually in his area of the village for another interesting call. A couple nights before some warriors had come into his home to try to steal some animals… Many people have dogs in the area, but they are almost never for pets. Their purpose is to be guard dogs and almost all people are scared of their own dogs and they beat them and things. But this time the warriors had come in with an ax and had axed the dog on the head. We were called to check on it, but no one could catch the dog so we only saw it from a distance. Unfortunately we couldn’t treat it from that far (if anyone has a dart gun up for grabs maybe that would help :-P) but we did see the wounds on his head, neck and back end. We may be able to help him at some point when we get back if he needs it. Oh, another fun/interesting one we had a bit earlier… There were two dogs that had been shot with arrows (same sort of deal with the warriors. One still had the arrow in it and we still have it as a keepsake. The wounds were on their backs – one went all the way in and out of the side and the other just went in but both were pretty shallow and didn’t go into the abdomen which is really good. We flushed them both out and helped them continue draining. Gave some meds to get the maggots out and hopefully they will heal up well. We saw the one that went all the way through a few days later and it was looking good – but that one would drain better so I hope we can see the other sometime to check on him. They started this thing in Kangole where at night they bring all the cows and goats and sheep into the center of town. That way if warriors come they can’t enter from both sides – there is only one way in that they can guard. The army is refusing to protect the animals like they used to so this is the “best” solution at the moment. Not sure that’s actually the case considering the attraction thousands of cows would be to a bunch of raiders but we will pray they don’t decide to come try and take over the town one night! Luckily that’s why we have cement walls and a guard and a big compound (with no attractive animals… so don’t worry) :-)

Anyway, we decided to spend the weekend up in the mountains - in Kapchorwa. We needed to go meet up with a couple of people from the US working as missionaries with some Christian coffee organization. I think it’s funny that that exists but it may not only be for coffee… but one of their ministries at least works with the people of Kapchorwa who grow lots of coffee. They have a disease this year that we are going to try to help them with. Dr. Val has been doing work with the Karamojong with Ethno-Veterinary Medicine – she works “together with” (that’s a very common phrase that I find entertaining) the traditional healers here. Over the years they have come up with lots of treatments for their animals using the plants that grow around and now they are doing research to make them into modern medicines. It’s actually REALLY cool. There are meds for things like retained placenta and microplasma pneumonia that are really effective and we don’t even have in the states. There’s a ringworm oil that we are going to try to use for the coffee disease. It’s a fungus called “Leaf Rust” that is destroying the crops this year. It’s very possible that our ringworm oil could work. We’re going to look into making a spray that they could use. The problem is that the only other treatment they know of is some sort of copper/heavy metal treatment that would be detected in the beans and cause them to be rejected leading to huge problems from lack of income in the already impoverished area. The ringworm oil would cause no problems in the beans so we are praying we can get things together and help them out asap! So they’re working on getting about 20 of the Karamojong medicines patented and on the market. Problem is that it is a really expensive project – about $1000 per medicine and no one has that sort of money around here. There are more than 200 potential drugs right now but they have narrowed it down to 20 to pursue… eventually – once we manage to get funding!
So Kapchorwa was SO beautiful. You are on top of a big mountain and Sipi Falls is there. There are three different waterfalls actually on the Sipi River. We hiked to two of them. I really wanted to go swimming but the water was too high at the first fall – you couldn’t walk down far enough unfortunately. The second time we were hiking I forgot to bring my swimming skirt! It was really sad :-( Yes, you have to swim in a skirt. There are some tourists around that area so it wouldn’t be quite as big of a deal there but we try to blend in with the culture and it would not have been acceptable to be in any form of a bathing suit! So we hiked down the mountain and through a cave that went behind the falls in our skirts and sandals and with a gigantic hiking stick (essential as a third leg because of the muddy/slippery paths). We got some interesting pictures of that I think. There’s a photographer, David, with us now doing some documentary kind of stuff so I’m sure he got some good ones!

As a quick summary/update because I now have two posts to put up as there has been a long time with no internet… we went back to Ngenge (bottom of the mountain from Kapchorwa) the next week to do an animal training with the people. They were a great group – very enthusiastic to learn about their diseases, ways to prevent and general health issues. It was part I of a two part farmer training… the next one is more details about each disease in the area. One fun story… while I was working with my group of about 8 guys, we were wandering through the village deworming their animals and we came across a lady who had a sick goat. I had to bring Dr. Val back to look at it later, and after carrying the old think outside we noticed that it was verging on giving birth. She was having no contractions and couldn’t stand up because she was so weak. We gave her some food and calcium and multivitamins to revive her a little and get the kids moving. Dr. Julie did a lot of assisting but eventually they came! The first was an adorable little thing… tricolor spotted goat. The second was mostly white but also had some color and maybe would have more as she grew. The next day we came back to check on them and to hopefully adopt the kids. Val and I had talked… the goat mom had no milk and couldn’t even stand for the kids to suckle if she had had any. The owner was going to have to feed them cow’s milk every four hours, which she didn’t have the time or money to do. So we decided she would want us to take them off her hands! We dropped by on our way out of town to see and sure enough, she did! The mom was on verge of death – she was really old and had had many successful kids, but it was her time to feed the family now. We took the adorable little babies home and started bottle-feeding them. They were both having some issues… the lady had kind of force-fed them the milk by pouring it into their lungs, so we soon discovered the pneumonia was really bad. The little one (named Chorwette meaning Friend in the local language) especially was not doing well. We medicated them the best we could, but unfortunately my first kid did not make it through the night. The next one (named Juliette after Dr. Julie who had delivered them) was looking much stronger than her sister. She would wobble around the ground and started to suckle enthusiastically on her bottle though her breathing was still a bit off. Her story will continue during the next post…

UCVM Outreach

Okay, I wrote this about a week ago and haven’t had annnny internet
access since then so I haven’t been able to post this. Since… I have
been up in Soroti and then in Kangole doing small animal outreach
stuff with Dr. Liz and Julia. We are trying to educate people on
Transmissible Venereal Tumors (or TVT) which is very common in dogs
here. So mainly we are doing spays and neuters and have treated a few
real nasty cases of TVT surgically, debulking their tumors (which are
generally on the genitals) and then giving them chemotherapy which Val
and I will go back and do a few more times in the next weeks. I have
learned a ton… can successfully put in catheters (most the time :-P)
and give IV injections… sedation, treatments… shove pills down dogs
throats… neuter (:-O), suture (well… I was having some issues), etc!
It’s been AWESOME. We got a new pet yesterday. Some kid shot a
Rufus-headed Roller with a sling shot so we wanted to save it cause it
was pretty :-P He was going to eat it for a little snack, but we
figure he can find some other protein source with the money we gave
him (2000 shillings… less than $1 American – but that’ll get you
dinner around here!) The little boys hunt birds around here all the
time so now that we bought that one they keep bringing different
things to us… haven’t obliged to any others yet but they’re kinda fun
to see. Trouble the chameleon is still doing well but has not had her
babies. We are currently assembling cages for her and the bird so
hopefully that’ll help. Dr. Liz and Julia leave tomorrow, but then we
have some other vet named Julie coming in on the same flight (if she
makes it… someone stole Val’s phone the other day so communication
will be… well… pretty much impossible if there are issues). So things
are crazy busy, but good :-) Having a ton of fun and loving Uganda!!!
We had church this morning which is the most ridiculously hot and
crowded building ever… about 80 people were baptized at our service
(after a few month long discipleship program) and about 60 were
baptized in the first service… and it was the same last week. It’s
amazing :-) But there are probably about 400-500 people at each
service… in quiiite a small building. But every time they sing and
play the drums I almost melt (I suppose that isn’t really a compliment
considering the last comment) but it sounds soooo cool. I could sit
there for hours despite the heat just listening and watching it. But
anyway… here was my update as of last week:

So… lately we’ve been doing veterinary outreach stuff. Two doctors
from the states came with various family members to join us for a
symposium put on by the Ugandan Christian Veterinary Mission (UCVM).
The first part of it was an outreach in two different villages in the
western part of Uganda. The team split up… I went to Bushenyi with
Val, Dr. Liz Hoffmann, her daughter Julia, a couple doctors from the
vet school here and another student we took from Soroti named Joseph
(or Lobai or Kateok depending on which name you want to use… but since
you won’t know how to pronounce them, I’ll go with Joseph :-P); the
team with the other vet went to Arua.

That name comment brings me to another point which I keep forgetting
to mention. So I have been called MANY things since I’m been here.
Any time I introduce myself, I get a bunch of reallllly blank looks.
NO ONE can say my name correctly (unless they’re American). So…
during our trip to Bushenyi we were working with Dr. Michael who has
probably had the most issues with my name. For a while it wasn’t so
bad… he was calling me Heid-a, which was pretty close. But then… the
problem is, here they don’t do the whole last name thing. Any name
they ‘own’ is a name they can be called… they are all equivalent. So
like Michael – you think it’s funny that an African has a name like
Michael… but that’s because his other name is Kanssiime… which he is
also called. Moses Otim… Kateok Joseph… etc. And they can all be
switched around which gets confusing at times. So… I always avoid
saying anything but Heidi, but while we were in the car, someone was
putting my phone number in his phone and asked what my second name
was. I proceeded to explain the American system… how it’s a family
name and not a second name and people don’t use it… but I knew it was
a risk. The thing was… they guy I was talking to was very
understanding – he got it. But Dr. Michael, who was driving,
completely missed the point. From then on I was things ranging from
Heid-a Jud-y to Jud-a to Heid-a and Heid-a Judd-a, Jud-y Heid-a and
who knows what else. I get a lot of Heid-a… and I have luckily still
avoided anyone knowing/attempting my middle name. No amount of
explaining or clarifying by me or Dr. Val could reverse the damage.
Dr. Michael’s not always one for listening very much anyway so there
was no changing it back. When I’m up in Karamoja… people, of course,
still can’t say my name. And everyone thinks there should be a second
name anyway, so you usually end up being named by the locals. My name
came about when I was in one of the Peace Villages… Nabwal. After
attempting to marry me (he offered five cows… a lot for the Peace
Villages where they aren’t allowed any cows) this man who spoke no
English kept saying one word. Of course I had no idea what he was
saying… eventually (after a long time… and actually I think it was
even later in the day or the next) some lady came over to rescue me
from marriage (actually that’s totally not why… she was African and
was probably just trying to help along the negotiation) but anyway –
she spoke a miniscule amount of English (more than the guy) and tried
to explain to me what was going on. The guy had given me my African
name! Now I am Nakiru Heidi (though with the ‘Heidi’ all
mispronounced if they actually attempt it). So in Karamoja, Val often
introduces me with both names… and the Africans always use Nakiru. It
can be pronounced a bit differently by different people… the first one
used a maaaajorly rolled “r” and he turned the whole thing into two
syllables – kind of missing the “i”. A lot of people say it probably
how you are saying it – though the “r” is rolled a bit or “flipped” as
I like to call it (the cheater roll… my version :-P) My name means
“one who comes with the rain” or something to that effect. It was
funny how rapidly my name spread. As soon as I got back from the
Peace Village I was hearing it everywhere… and seeing that guy in
random places that I didn’t understand how he got there. But anyway…
in Karamoja that’s what I’m called… and down here (in Kampala) I am
usually called Heid-a. Anyway… that was quite a long aside.

So my team went to Bushenyi… a seven or so hour drive from Kampala.
On the drive we saw a Uganda Cob (antelope kinda thing) and some
ZEBRAs!! They were adorable. Then there was one on the side of the
road that had been hit a while ago and was teeeeming with maggots. SO
cool. Of course I went over and took lots of pictures (while holding
my breath) :-P We then stopped at a market kind of thing and some
people shoved sticks with beef and liver on them in our faces trying
to get us to buy them. We hadn’t eaten lunch (it was about 4:00 by
then prob) so I got a beef stick and the guys got us all roasted maize
and roasted bananas. The maize is… funny. It looks like it’ll be so
good… but that’s thinking in terms of sweet corn (which looks very
similar). But basically it’s realllly dry and tastes a bit like
popcorn. It’s actually not a baaad taste… I think it’s kind of fun,
but it’s so filling and it makes your jaw tired chewing on it. Just
think about munching on some Indian corn – the kind we decorate with
in the states. It’s the same thing (though the colors aren’t so
exciting here). Anyway… we proceeded on to the village. First thing,
we had to go to a radio station to speak because they were giving us
an hour of free airtime to do some public service kind of stuff
(talked about a few zoonotic diseases) and to introduce the exciting
news of the year – that the muzungus were in town!! So the next
couple of days we treated animals… huuuuundreds of goats, lots of
cows, sheep, pigs, dogs and a few cats. Dewormed and acaracide
(flea/tick killing) sprayed pretty much all the animals and treated
the sick ones for various things… pneumonia, trypanosomiasis, east
coast fever, anaplasmosis, foot rot, wounds, etc, etc, etc. During
the outreaches, we would take a break and talk to the people. We
would share Christ with them and about five people came forward to be
saved. The first guy… it was cool… he was probably late 20s – I’m not
sure. But when he came forward both Val and I really felt like he was
going to have a ministry. He just had such boldness to come in front
of the group and really accepted God and prayed. Val brought out the
“Evangi-cube” (funny name…) which is an evangelism tool – just kind of
a guideline of the story of Jesus that is in one of those little flip
cube things that you can open in different directions. So she showed
him how to use it and gave our last one to him. She really saw some
potential in him and I totally agreed – it was cool to have
confirmation like that… we talked about it that night. So pray for
him! :-) Then there were some little kids the next day and lots of
appreciative people which was cool.

One story I just heard today actually… we were staying at Dr.
Michael’s house – the house he grew up in. They had had neighbors for
a looong time who were Muslim and refused to associate with any of the
neighbors. They wouldn’t even go to anyone’s funerals (funerals are a
very big community thing here) and wouldn’t let anyone have anything
to do with them. One of the mornings, the neighbors brought their
animals over for treatment! They had missed the first day of
treatment and had decided to actually come into the compound of the
home (where they had refused to set foot before) the next morning. We
didn’t know anything about this during the time, but Dr. Michael was
talking about how amazing it was that they came. Their animals needed
treatment, and we were able to show them the love God has for them in
helping them just the same as all the others. We even had gotten out
early in the morning because they were waiting. It’s cool how we can
reach out to people through the profession. We never would have
gotten to talk to them and just help them with their animals if we
didn’t have that connection. Now we’re praying that that relationship
can continue and grow and that they can see the love that we (and God)
have for them (no matter how they feel about us)!

The radio station had us give another hour on Saturday, and they even
taped us so we could get on TV! Big news… muzungus + free vet care!
Now we’re back in Kampala and I’m staying at Dr. Michael’s house. Val
had to head back up to Karamoja to search for her dog that got away
about a month ago. There have been several sightings and Val had seen
her footprints about a week ago, but it is so tough to survive out
there in the bush (and one of the most dangerous areas, too), so it’s
hard to know if she’d still be alive. It would be SO amazing for Val
to find her, though… she means a LOT to her. Please pray that God is
protecting Punzel and that Val can find her and/or be at peace about
the whole thing. It’s been hard because there’s been so much going on
that she hasn’t been able to search really at all. I’m staying in
Kampala to help out with the rest of the symposium.

Staying at Dr. Michael’s is fun(ny?). It’s amazing… two adorable
(though semi-crazy) little kids… his wife is awesome (and cooks SO
well) and they are very welcoming. But I am eternally discovering
more about Ugandan culture. The way it works with girls is
interesting. Usually we are treated as visitors around here… which
means they alllways want to serve us and take care of us… and that’s
definitely the case in a way. But in a way, Dr. Michael really enjoys
treating me like a daughter. Sounds great… homey… part of the family
and all… but what that really means is that I should get everything
for him. He actually doesn’t do it all the time – just he’ll have
periods where it’ll be one thing after the next. “Heid-a go get me
tea.”; “Okay, now I need dry tea.”; “Jud-y everybody wants the tea
outside”; “Can you believe I don’t have any tea??!” (talking to his 3
year old daughter Esther… hint hint!); etc. It’s funny because a lot
of the time I think he’s kidding. Just the way he says it – if
someone said that at home they would be completely sarcastic (or they
better be!). But that’s not how it works here. He actually expects
it – and you can’t be slow! (which is difficult when you don’t know
where anything is and when the water is not boiling yet) There have
been many times when he says things… like the last time – I had just
made him a mug of milk tea – it was very complicated anyway for
various reasons – involving the tea bags and loose tea and confusion,
etc. When he finished it he says “Heidi… okay, so now I need some dry
tea” – holding up his cup – I was pretty convinced he was kidding and
I gave him a kind of blank look while laughing… but he kept talking to
someone else… holding his cup and expecting me to take it. Luckily I
caught on, but there was no water. And the kids were playing with the
tea and licking the jelly top and the sugar spoon… being as unruly as
usual. It was quite the adventure and I even failed (NOT for the
first time) to get everything together. But there have been many
blank looks – me not understanding that he’s actually serious (“this
time he must be joking”). Don’t get me wrong… he’s a very nice guy…
that’s just how it works… he sits on the coach and other people get
him things if that’s what he wants. (Just to support my statement
that he’s not so bad, he just asked me if he could get me a glass of
juice :-) so sweet.) But it’s fun stuff.

I’ve had lots of expectations for interesting foods… I haven’t had
anything too bad though I have had a few adventures. One of the US
guys got a cockroach in his food for lunch today though. Not such a
surprise – they’re little ones – and they’re all over… but that’s how
things are. There’s allllways a fruit fly in the sugar and rice and
occasionally a worm-like thing in the beans… or some other surprise.
They’re all nice and cooked… can’t hurt. I had cow tongue yesterday
for dinner, which I figured must be semi-normal because I’ve at least
seen it sold in the states. It wasn’t bad at all. Wouldn’t choose it
out of a pile of (what I would call) “Real” meat but it was acceptable
– a little bit above liver… which is way above some other things! I
also tried sugar cane while we were in the village! That was… … an
adventure. I must say I could NOT handle the texture. It’s fun to
eat cause you have to rip the outside of the stalk off with your teeth
and you tear some sugar cane off and chew out all the sugar water then
spit the stuff on the ground. I’m def glad I had the experience, but
between the super super sweetness of the liquid and the feeling of the
pulp stuff on my teeth… I was not a big fan. The kids watching me
were entertained though as I attempted to eat my first sugar cane…
smacking myself in the face with the stick (which was about 3 ft.
long) and all :-P

Oh, one last thing before I let you stop reading! I have OFFICIALLY
applied to vet school! I submitted my application to Cornell last
night (with mom’s help doing it over phone cause I had no internet)!!
But that means I am DONE :-D Which is nice… but please pray for those
admission people… His will be done! I’m gonna try not to think about
it too much now – not sure when I find out but I’m thinking maybe
January? I dunno, but hopefully it’ll work out well :-)

Thanks for reading! And thanks for your prayer! And your support!
Love ya and miss ya all :-)

Heidi

Chameleon Food

Oh my goodness. Who thought it could be SUCH an ordeal to bite into a cheese sandwich… well… not exactly a cheese sandwich, but it still would not seem possible to take about 45 minutes to eat a roll about the size of a White Castle Burger bun (are those all mini? I mean the kind that Tristen used to eat if not… the mini frozen variety). Yeah… that size. And yet… at least 45 minutes while writhing around on the bed like the snake we killed last week. The problem was… there was an added crunch to my cheese sandwich. I would love to say that after the initial challenge of biting in it got better. But that would be a lie. After about 20 minutes convincing myself (with Val’s encouragement and much to her enjoyment) that I should do it, I managed to chew (at least a little) and swallow. The initial swallow was exciting. The biggest hurdle had been cleared (or so I thought). But then I looked down for the next bite and saw something that is now plastered into my mind’s eye. The eyes of a grasshopper were staring up at me. Much to my chagrin I had not miraculously swallowed all the grasshopper pieces that were in the midst of my sandwich and the worst was yet to come. It turns out the first bite only had maybe an abdomen… it was slightly chewed with one or two minor crunches but then was easily swallowed within a bolus of also partially chewed bread and cheese (appetizing, right?). The next bite turned out to have multiple pieces… a good number of them… and they were plenty crunchy. The piece could not be swallowed nearly whole like the last, but I was going to have to bite down, not knowing when I would hit one of the crunchy little morsels. Every hit was like a blow to that snake’s head… a convulsion would overtake me as my teeth landed on the chitinous body of what should have been my chameleon’s dinner. Every one was also an ENORMOUS source of enjoyment for Val, who sat dyyying of laughter on the other end of the bed while I underwent the most traumatizing dinner experience I can think of. Once I caught my breath, I proceeded to look at the rest of the sandwich. This was the one with the eyes. Sure the others all had eyes and antennas as well, but this one was staring at me. I had decided not to lift up the top bread on the last bite… not wanting to know what all I was in for. Now about half of the sandwich was left, but I knew that things would not end well if I had another experience like the last. I saw the one gigantic grasshopper that might as well have jumped out at me and realized that in a minute that creature would be between my teeth. Then I made the biggest mistake of the night. I lifted the bread. As it rose, I saw something dark that contrasted strongly with the light Gouda cheese constructing the rest of my sandwich. It was… a thorax. Well, I think. The thought of consuming more than that one gigantic, people-watching, grasshopper was daunting and I immediately collapsed on the bed in despair. I decided to eat the rather large section of sandwich all at once, knowing that I could not undergo much more of this torture. At least it was my last piece. I had been trying to avoid anything but the bread touching my tongue during this whole process, with some success. But this guy was so long that there was no way. To get my teeth in a position where they could accomplish anything remotely useful in eliminating this creature from my mouth, there was no way to avoid him from sensory stimulation via the taste buds. Fried with onion, that was by far not the worst part but now I could feel his mouthparts (which I had been watching earlier when his cousin munched on some sugar cane in the chameleon’s cage) as they rubbed up against my tongue. I could picture the skull, which I now had to crush between two molars in order to swallow it. A final crunch resounded through my head before I hid the pieces within chunks of wet chewed bread for immediate passage down the esophagus. FINALLY it was over. I will never look at a cheese sandwich in the same way again.



Anyway… yesterday a couple vets arrived from the states and we left Kampala with them to go to a small village on the west side of Uganda, working with UCVM (Uganda Christian Veterinary Mission) through Uganda’s vet school. So now we’re there and we will be doing an outreach through Sunday, treating people’s animals and doing the whole Gospel thing at the same time – you think that’s a strange combination, but trust me… it works! These people rely entirely on their animals for food, milk, and a living most of the time, so we are able to show them God’s love through the profession. Yesterday we were even on the radio! So I’ll be here for the rest of the week and then back in Kampala for a symposium that goes with this whole thing. Val won’t be with me in Kampala later, so I think I can even get out of eating more grasshoppers!! (YAY :-D)

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!