Timothy Kids

These people are amazing! So I was just thinking… trying to figure out what’s been going on in the past few weeks. We’ve been holding retreats for the students that we sponsor in school through the Timothy Project. The students have American sponsors who pay for their school fees… many of them are orphans or kids found on the streets in Kampala begging for money. Last week we had the retreat for Primary students. There were about 80 girls and boys in total. This week is the Secondary Retreat with about 30 or 40 students. We lose too many as they get older. The secondary retreat has a total of about 10 girls because so many drop out after becoming pregnant or getting married. But I was thinking about the difference between education here and at home. Although school is technically required here, many people don’t get the opportunity to go because of the cost or because of home responsibilities. During the first retreat, it was announced that the church was going to donate textbooks to the children. The looks on their faces astonished me. It’s amazing to see children SO excited to own a book… even a textbook! These kids were a range of ages… maybe 8 to 16 or so… but every single one could not wait to get their book at the end of the retreat. Their passion and dedication to learn is amazing… something we don’t see in the states because we just don’t understand how much education is worth. But it’s amazing to see what it’s like here and see how grateful I need to be with where I’ve come from!
We had a couple sponsored boys graduate this year from Secondary School or from College. One has the equivalent of an Associate’s Degree in Crop Management… something that is very applicable around here. He should be able to get a job working with an NGO on agriculture and finally be able to make some money to support the rest of his family. Families tend to be very large here (nine kids or so is not uncommon… they think I’m insane when they hear I have one brother!) and when the parents die or can not make enough to support their children it usually falls on the older ones to help the younger ones. It’s great to see the community… see the sacrifices they make to help each other out, but often times it doesn’t work out as well as we would hope. They have a lot of trouble getting enough to survive let alone to pay school fees and support sick parents or young children. Many families have been torn apart like that because of AIDS which is quite prevalent or because fathers and young men are killed while raiding or protecting their cows.
It was really neat working with the kids a bit during the retreats. They have such amazing stories and to think about what they’ve gone through will amaze you. Through their circumstances, many of them have come to know God, as they’ve seen him protect them through the craziest things. Being in the Timothy Program has also been an amazing blessing for them and they see how God has provided even though life seems SO tough to our often sheltered eyes. They see it so much more than many of us in the States do – we tend to give ourselves all the credit and not appreciate the blessings God provides for us. I love hearing about the kids’ lives and seeing their appreciation as they speak, but I have found it very hard to have a good conversation with them myself. We come from such different backgrounds that it’s so hard to connect! The language barrier doesn’t help… the secondary students were all very good at English, but the accents are really tough for them. So it’s hard to sit down with someone and talk seriously – it’s much easier to just joke around and play. So we enjoy our time together, but I’m praying for God to help me really connect with some people – makes for a much deeper relationship and I would love to see God use me to reach out to people here.
Dr. Val is back in the states now… she is speaking at a mission’s conference in January and enjoying the holidays with the family before then. So for now I am hanging in Soroti with the CLIDE team. I’ve been taking on her role as vet to whatever extent I can, with some of Dr. Moses’ help. It’s been fun… treated a calf with East Coast Fever the other day. ECF is a tick-borne disease caused by a protozoa that invades the parotid lymph nodes (under the ear) and then spreads through the lymph vessels down the body. This one had progressed to the stage where they get lung edema as well. After treatment it has been getting better slowly… I check on it every day as I pass by. It’s now suckling on its mother again and breathing much better, though still depressed. Other animals have included a goat, two dogs and two chickens… maybe more to come!
Next Wednesday I’ll head to Kapchorwa to spend Christmas with a family in the mountains. They plan to teach me all the ways of the Africans… including more practice carrying water on my head (and up a hill), smearing cow dung in the houses, cutting firewood, cooking and making tea, and I’m sure many other things I could never learn in the states! I’m bringing my vet kit to treat some animals around there, too, so that should be fun. I’ll be eating lots of bananas and maybe drinking homemade coffee (Kapchorwa is, I think, the main coffee growing area in Uganda). They have lots of groundnuts, too (same as peanuts) so that may be forming a sauce on a lot of my food… my fav of course. I’m sure they will make sure I am “satisfied” (aka full) the entire time… or “over-satisfied” as I would consider it… meaning I may be getting even more “compliments” soon. It’s funny how different cultures can be. The insane amount of starches and fried things around here have been getting to me… the locals need the energy, but us mzungus aren’t quite used to it and they like to feed us the same amount that they eat – or more - so it makes us grow. That’s what they compliment you on – the bigger you are the more beautiful… you look “healthy”. It makes sense in this culture… so many people are dying of AIDS and when someone is skinny they are assumed to be sickly. But some of us are not sick but do not need to be so “beautiful” especially when translated into American culture. Here’s a typical day when I’m in the hands of the Ugandans… breakfast, break tea, lunch, afternoon tea, supper. The tea times are not just tea, though. Each time you have to have an “escort” to go with the tea. In other words, it’s an entire meal. I made a bad move somewhere in the beginning of my time here and looked at the nutrition facts of the “glucose biscuits” people eat all the time – it’s a pretty common escort. Each package has 500 calories - and that’s just a snack! But they love us and they want to take care of us so you can’t turn them down. I do appreciate the hospitality… and I think the compliments are funny… but that may change when I switch cultures again!

As a reminder… we’re still raising money to buy turkeys for the peace villages. They are desperate for a good source of protein because they have decided not to own cows or goats to reduce incidents of raiding and promote peace in Karamoja. We have about 260 turkeys paid for so far… thank you SO MUCH if you contributed! We are looking to get 500 by Christmas so please donate if you are able! $10 per turkey… just go to www.cvmusa.org/africavet and click on “animal revolving loans” under “related links” on the left, then scroll down to “Turkeys”. Thanks again!

Peace Meeting at Moruangamion

So last week we got back from our little vacation up in Kidepo Valley National Park, at the Northernmost part of Karamoja, bordering Sudan. We had a great time there and were able to relax and see many amazing animals. On the drive in we even encountered a pair of lions breeding in the road! Then when we pulled up as they wandered off the road, the male was lying about 15 ft. away from my window! That was quite the start to our time there. We proceeded to see many giraffes and elephants throughout the weekend. I’m still waiting on the hippos, but I was quite satisfied by the zebras, water buffalo, water buck, hartebeests (goofy looking creatures!), warthogs, ostriches, and other animals that we saw! We also had a lot of time to spend relaxing and praying and things. We would sit on a rock or under a tree and read and pray during the day and go for game drives in the late afternoons. (We went for the trees after the first day when I got nice and crispy from sitting in the sun for six hours :-P) The view is absolutely amazing from Kidepo, though. There are mountains all around and the sunsets are awesome. It was the perfect place to relax for the week.
Val was also brave enough during our time there to let me drive a couple times. Now this is a very interesting experience considering just a few facts.
1. “wrong” side of the road
2. “wrong” side of the car
3. driving a diesel
4. driving a Land Rover pickup
5. driving with horns blocking your view
6. shifting (standard) with your left hand
7. blinkers on the opposite side of the steering wheel
8. encountering gorges in the middle of the road about every six inches
9. driving through the bush with unseen “footing”
10. turning the key backwards to start the vehicle
Luckily the pedals are in the same places!!
So we had many adventures during our time there… feel free to ask more when I’m home! :-P

Following a week of new staff orientation and transition time in Moroto/Kangole, this past weekend we held a peace meeting in one of the Pion villages. This village has been one of the biggest sources of raids in the area. Deaths have occurred and animals stolen between the Pion and Bokora subtribes, many of which have been traced back to this one village. We planned to meet with the villagers on Saturday. Saturday morning we left early to gather up our “troops”. This included some pastors and a reverend from the Bokora side, our little friend James from Kangole and our Muslim friend, Mohammad, who has been a huge help in the peace process – leading the peace choir in Nabwal and being our official animal slaughter-er at gatherings. We made the drive through Nabwal, picking many members from there (I squeezed in the back of the truck with about 15 other people – dodging thorn bushes by being pushed into some guy’s lap every time they came near) and continued on through to the ‘enemy’ side – the Pion subtribe. Our Nabwal members included both Pion and Bokora people… they have come together in peace to mend relationships and stop the killing and stealing. Many people from Nabwal left early that morning to make the 20-30 km walk to the place where we were meeting, as we would not have enough room for everyone in the Land Rover.
We arrived at Moruangamio (good luck with that one! ;-P) and saw a group of men sitting under the trees there. They were having an akiriket… a traditional meeting with the elders and the young warriors. There is usually a reason to have these meetings – they didn’t say exactly what prompted it but sometimes it can be to plan a raid or for cleansing after a raid or if someone has killed a person. The young warriors were blessed by the elders and the meeting was coming to an end when we arrived. Some of our men went in to talk to the elders at that point – women are not allowed near the meeting, so we waited in the vehicle. There was some confusion about when we were having our meeting, so they were expecting us on Sunday instead. Since everyone was already gathered they told us we could meet once they were done, but additional people would be coming the next day to meet with us and we decided to wait so that we could have a bigger crowd. In a normal situation this would have been a problem – we hadn’t packed anything to stay overnight – no toothbrush, no clothes, no shampoo… it was a stretch for some of us :-P But we knew what we had to do and as the time went on we saw how God was working in this situation. Because of the ekiriket, all the important elders and opinion leaders were in the area. We had brought elders from Nabwal… some of whom had family on the Pion side and others who didn’t. But because we couldn’t exactly return home and come back the next day, everyone was going to have to find a place to stay for the night. Karamojong culture is very welcoming… people think of them as fierce warriors, but they have such soft hearts as well. The Pion elders stood up after a small discussion where the decision was made that we would meet the next day and they went over to our Nabwal guys and introduced themselves. They then proceeded to pair up and host their “enemies” for the night! It was amazing… we were able to give them some money for food and they all were able to have a good night of getting to know each other. Val and I and some other staff members went to the one guest house that was about a half hour away. The rest of the day, the word was spread throughout the villages that there would be a meeting the next day and by that time more than 500 people showed up! Sunday morning, Val and I grabbed a branch from a “toothbrush tree” so we could feel a little more human – wearing the same clothes as the day before and feeling the dusty sweaty grime covering my hair and body. The toothbrush tree was quite the experience… I tried it once before, but last time it wasn’t dry season. During dry season, the “toothpaste” qualities are even more concentrated and they don’t exactly taste like mint. It was difficult to endure the extreme bitterness that got my teeth clean, but worth it in the end (I think). Basically you chew on the branch for a while to make it “bristley” and then brush your teeth with it. So that morning we had a couple mandazis and African tea and then proceeded on back to Moruangamio.
The meeting ended up going so well! We started with a short prayer service complete with much singing and dancing and me being dragged into the middle of the circle by some tall guy so I could jump with him in front of everyone. As we sat in the shade of some trees, the scent of freshly slaughtered bull coming up the hill, some political leaders, tribal elders and pastors held a discussion about the current situation. There was no accusation going on, it was fully understood that there were still raids and there was no need to go into the specifics. Instead, they talked about the need for peace and how to recognize conflict before it goes too far and what to do to prevent it. Pretty soon after the start, one of the Pion elders suggested the idea of forming a joint krawl for the cows. At night, after grazing for the day, the animals are all taken to a protected location to try to prevent raids. By bringing together Pion and Bokora animals, there would be a greatly reduced reason to raid - The animals would be identified easily and they would just end up back on the other side. It was really neat that they came up with this because Dr. Val and CLIDE have had this idea for a long time and were waiting for the people to be ready for it. It was amazing that they came up with it on their own! So they discussed organizing that… we will be able to provide some veterinary care for the animals as they settle in and we are going to help with identification by doing ear-tags and branding and ID cards to better keep track of the animals and even discourage raiding. Peace choirs from Nabwal as well as two Pion villages formed intermissions in between speeches by singing about how much they love each other and how amazing peace is, etc. Another reason it was so cool to wait until Sunday – because the Nabwal choir had been practicing all night, some of the young Pion girls joined in and sang with them! As the meeting closed after about six hours or so, it was time to eat the two roasted bulls! Everyone gathered into groups and it was distributed without any conflict. Our little boy, James, and I guarded the sodas and water (which were for the “big” people – political leaders and such) as everyone ate. Somehow none of the CLIDE staff even tasted any meat but we enjoyed watching everyone bonding. Poor James, though… we had already unintentionally kidnapped him for the night and then we didn’t feed him allll day. And he probably expected to be living the good life hanging with the mzungus all weekend! Luckily he did get a soda, but that was it until about 7pm. After fighting the mob and taking some pictures of the cool tribal singing and dancing, we headed out, crowded in back with all my clossse friends of the day before.
It was maybe 5:00 or so – we were going to get back late enough even before the challenges arose. After about an hour, we were in the middle of the bush to Nabwal when smoke starts filling the vehicle. Land Rover batteries are located under the passenger seat and we have two of them there. Because of the roads and constant bumping the wires had been rubbing together and chose that time to touch each other and create a fire. Val yelled to evacuate the vehicle and sacrificed her fingers as she opened the cover and managed to get the wires apart. Luckily, diesel engines don’t explode like others, so it wasn’t quite as risky. It took a while but after disconnecting one of the batteries and moving some wires around, we got the vehicle going again and proceeded on our way. Only one more mishap on the way home – and this one we were used to! After dropping people off at Nabwal we were driving the road back to the Bokora side and got a flat tire. It was now pitch black, but luckily we had a good amount of passengers still and between our driver, Lowok, and some other people, it didn’t take so long to change the tire. At that point it was about 8:00 maybe and I was feeling very bad for little James. I discovered a pretty decrepit granola bar in my bag and gave it to him. I’ve hardly seen his face light up so much… I think he was hungry! We made it back to Kangole at around 10:30… thinking we must be done for the day. Because it was so late, we couldn’t send James back home and he stayed with a staff member for the night.
Then as we were driving home, a small group of people on the side of the road flagged us down. They had a really sick kid and had to get him to the hospital. We couldn’t exactly refuse that request so we quickly dropped some things at the hut and grabbed a granola bar and proceeded to the nearest hospital about a half hour away. The kid was really sick… they had said he had malaria but that’s pretty much how they’ll describe anything here :-P As we were driving the boy (about 2 years old) starts coughing and half-breathing. You could hear the pneumonia from about a mile away. We got him to the hospital as fast as we could with the roads in the condition they were in and rushed him inside. There were no doctors around and just a few nurses. They eventually… after about a half hour and poking every limb (literally) about 3 times… got a catheter in. They gave him valium to stop the seizures he was having from lack of oxygen and gave some fluids but weren’t allowed to give any antibiotics to treat the pneumonia because the doctor wouldn’t come – he was tired. It was quite frustrating to watch knowing you and the doctor that’s with you could help the boy when the hospital can do nothing. We left after a little while… his seizures had stopped from the valium, but he wasn’t at all breathing well. He’ll probably have some mental retardation at least from waiting until the morning for treatment. We haven’t had any updates but we’re praying he made it through and the doctors were able to help in the morning! While we were there another baby who was basically a skeleton came in. The grandmother was the one taking care of him and she wasn’t feeding him at all. There’s even a program at the hospital to nourish starving children but she wouldn’t bring him there. So pray for that boy too – that maybe he can find a home with someone who is able to take care of him. So… it was another adventurous and long day! We got home around 12:30 and had become un-tired by all the adrenaline. We stayed up and had some tea and meat that some elders had given us to take home then went to bed.




Another thing to let you all know… we’re doing a program with the Nabwal and Nakayot (peace village) people… they want to start incorporating some animals into their villages again now that they’re becoming stable enough. Most of the children are protein-deficient and could really use some meat so it’s a very good step for them. We’re going to do a “Turkey Blessings for Karamoja” project. We’re trying to supply the village with as many turkeys as we can and hoping to raise money for 500 turkeys by Christmas! There are about 12,000 people in Nabwal at this point and 3,000 in Nakayot so the more the merrier! They will cost $10 per turkey and if you would like to donate a turkey or two (or more!) then you can do so on the CVM site. Go to www.cvmusa.org/africavet and then on the left side under “related links” there is a place that says “Revolving Animal Loans”. Click on the option that says “turkeys” and the amount you would like to give and you will end up feeding some very needy peace villagers. Thank you for your help ahead of time!! (The option for turkeys should be up soon but if it’s not when you try feel free to pick “chickens” and we’ll assume it means turkeys until we get the site updated)

From Civilization to… Kidepo

So after Soroti we headed down to Kampala for the weekend to fix up the vehicle (for good!) and get it serviced. We were planning on leaving Friday night, but as you could probably have guessed by now, that didn’t work out. Val and I went into town on Thursday to pick some dinner [up]  that part of that phrase is not used around here… you just pick things; you don’t pick them up. (I LOVE this language… it’s SO funny!) When we were trying to leave, the vehicle wouldn’t start and then it began POURING. Anyway… the issues ended up delaying us until Saturday morning, when we drove down to Kampala (without turning the vehicle off so as not to risk getting stuck along the way). We ended up having to wait around in Kampala until Tuesday because it took a while to do the servicing and everything.
But it’s crazy… Kampala is pretty much real civilization! We even got ICE CREAM! Actually it was gelato… I had stracciatella and hazelnut and it was SO good. A real Italian man owned the place… looked and sounded straight from the mafia :-P So that was quite the treat… and we may have gone there multiple times over our three days in the city. We also went to a MALL! Okay, so it wasn’t quite Crossgates (or any other one at home), but it wasn’t so bad. There was a theater and we saw a movie! A real movie too and I think they even play(ed) it in the states… Eat, Pray, Love. The theater was pretty Clifton Park-esque… not the most up-to date, but the seats were actually pretty comfortable and it wasn’t so bad! The only real difference was the fact that the movie turned off about five times during it and it did look a bit like the 1980s or something – not terrible but a little grainy. Came back on every time though! There was also a PIZZA place in the parking garage of the mall. It was called “I Love New York Kitchen” – made by some Mzungu… The pizza was pretty good but I don’t think they knew they were supposed to add some sort of seasoning… I’ve never had to put salt on a pizza before, but it definitely helped. So Kampala was fun :-) Since our vehicle was out of service the whole time, we traveled on Boda-bodas. The ones in Kampala are motorcycles, so you sit sideways behind the driver (if you’re a girl), holding your bags tightly on your lap and trying not to go flying or hit your knees on the cars they are weaving between. A couple of times Val and I squeezed onto the back of one together, which was interesting as I had a gigantic heavy backpack on and only about half of me was actually on the motorcycle… it was fine until going uphill or speeding up… then Val would grab me and make sure I didn’t disappear off the other side. Normally we took two, though, and tried to get them to stay together so we wouldn’t lose each other. We got some very good drivers and even managed to get to all our destinations! Eventually, by Tuesday night, the vehicle was ready and after negotiating down a ridiculously high price to a mostly ridiculously high price (well for here… for home it would have been cheap :-P) we left Kampala to go to Mbale.
Mbale is about five hours from Kampala and is still pretty close to civilization in atmosphere! We were meeting with the rest of the CLIDE team there for a spiritual retreat. Wednesday and Thursday we spent bonding with the others and hearing from a Bishop/Pastor/Reverend. The theme of the time was from the book of Jonah… I’ve never studied it so deeply so it was very interesting. We all really enjoyed the Bishop… God was definitely speaking through him! So we were all very encouraged/challenged by the retreat and I was really able to get to know the other CLIDE members better, which was good :-) We were staying in a place that was like a real hotel while we were there! It was so nice… infinitely nicer than the place we stay in Kampala (with no running water or even walls between the “bathroom” and the actual room… only the best for us :-P It costs a total of $8 per night for both me and Val in a room) But the place in Mbale had a FLUSHING toilet and a pseudo-shower (one of those removable heads that had no mount to hang it on). It even had a refrigerator! We had to leave early… it was supposed to go through Friday, but we had another visitor (a photographer/journalist) coming into Soroti on Friday morning, so we left early that morning to pick her at the ‘airport’. She works with an organization called MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship). They selected an organization that uses their services from each country to use as promotion for both them and for the selected organization. They chose CLIDE and so the journalist (LuAnne) came to visit and we brought her to the peace villages.
Now the peace villages are quite different from real civilization :-P We started at Nakayot (because the road is more reliable) and we stayed in a couple mud huts they built for us. It was a really good time… we did some dancing (jumping) with the villagers in the pitch black night and we checked out the water situation because they are having some issues. They only have one borehole in the area (for 1000 homes) and it has been broken for a while. They are supposed to be getting around five more, but the organization that promised them (about a year ago) hasn’t gotten around to it. So for now the people walk about three or four kilometers to get water from a pool that collects a ways down the mountain from a spring. I went with another CLIDE person to go check it out, and we saw how dirty the water was. There is funny colored algae growing at the bottom of the pool and lots of sediment… it is not safe at all and is one of the reason almost all the kids have really bad worms (to go along with their malnutrition). Despite the walk, the people were so nice… they went and filled our jerricans so we could bathe and cook some tea in the morning. Saturday night we went to the other peace village, Nabwal. They are also having water problems and they have to walk about six miles to get to a working borehole. Life is so tough out there! We stayed in tents near a tree there and on Sunday we went to a makeshift church they have formed there. The pastor (who comes when he can make it down the road on his bicycle… he’s gotten ambushed in the past and almost killed) is absolutely amazing. The people LOVE him and God uses him SO much. He is planning on moving to live in Nabwal (a HUGE sacrifice) with his family, he just needs to get a house built first. So hopefully it’s not so long – it’s really hard for him to get there now. So we had a great time there… they pray in a building that was just completed recently for a school. Nakayot is a year younger than Nabwal and doesn’t have a health clinic or a school yet… it’s 25km away from the main road – in the previous no-man’s land between warring subtribes… so none of the children are able to go to school yet. Nabwal is a bit further along… their school just moved from a UNICEF tent to a real building and they have three volunteer ‘teachers’ from the area for primary years 1-3. The school has no chairs and they have a total of about 6 books – a math primary 2, English primary 3, things like that – references for the teachers to teach from. It’s amazing the effort those men are putting in to help the children learn with SO little, though.
After ‘prayers’ (they never refer to it as church… you ‘go to prayers’… ‘where do you pray from?’... etc) we had a meeting with the Peace Council. I learned how to cook rice and some other things for more than 60 people during the meeting. Had some close encounters with the fire and with messing up the rice by “mingling” it instead of “rotating” it. But all worked out and after the meeting there was a gigantic feast with two goats, some rice and “Irish”, posho and cabbage. The meeting went really really well, too. We haven’t been able to get to Nabwal so much because of the roads (it will be a bit easier now since it’s the dry season), so the people decided they needed to take things into their own hands (which is our goal, so that’s perfect!). They had come up with an ‘action plan’ and presented it to Val regarding how to deal with one village that has been a big contributor to the raiding in the area. I’ll let you know what happens after a couple weeks when they go through with the plan, but basically they’re going to go confront the elders and have some peace talks. They invited us to come along and bring some bulls (somehow… we’re not sure how we’re going to get them yet… so be praying for some provision!). We’re excited to see what happens… it could kind of go either way, but something is going to change because of it. A couple years back someone from this same village killed the main peace builder organizing Nabwal. It was a huge deal and after a pretty long story… an elder ended up giving his own son (who was responsible) to the mercy of the police and allowing the peace to come back. So it will be interesting to see what will happen this time.
After Nabwal, we came back up to Moroto, treated some animals the next morning in Kangole for photos and then LuAnne flew [out] and a couple more visitors (pastors from Oregon) came in to lead a Pastor Training Conference for leaders in Karamoja. Val and I are heading out today to go to Kotido and then Kidepo up in the more northern part of Karamoja, right near Sudan. There is a wildlife park up there so I can’t wait to find some giraffes and other cool things!! :-D It is an eight hour drive on the worst roads in Karamoja, so there probably won’t be anyone else there. Not exactly the best tourist destination. I’ll let you know more about that when we get back! :-P

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)