Story-time!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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