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!