Hard to believe that another month as come and gone already! One more day and we will be into Feb – wow! We have had a good week.
On Monday I went into town to spend the day/night/day at the babies home in Kampala. I was back on as nurse☺ On Monday we went to the hospital to pick up two abandoned babies. One was a little boy, 1.21 kg, who was born at a hospital outside of Kampala and because of his size was transferred to Kampala. He made the transfer and his mom did not. She has not shown up at the hospital and no one can find her. We named the boy Evan, which means warrior. We also picked up a little girl weighing 680 grams (1.5 lbs), the smallest yet to come to the home. She is a miracle. She was born in the community and found on the road by the police. She survived being abandoned and her time at the police station before making it to the special care nursery at the hospital, before coming to us.
I have to share a bit about the special care ward at the hospital with you all. There are about 50 babies in one VERY small unit. The nurses on duty range from 1 or 2 depending on if it is the day or night shift – very bad nurse to patient ratio. The nurses don’t do any of the hands on care like bathing, diaper changes or feeding. All of these things are the mom’s responsibility. So if you have no mom these things don't happen. The moms wait out in a tiny, stinky, hot hallway until ‘feeding’ times when they are allowed in for feeding and care and then when they are done go back to the hallway. As for equipment the hospital has oxygen, an old school version of a CPAP machine, a few small portable monitors, about 20 incubators and a couple bili lights. Syringes are often on short supply and when they run out they just reuse them. The monitors are nice to have, but monitors are only as good as those who can respond to them and with two nurses you can only imagine how much they get responded to. About half of the incubators don’t work and the ones that do work are often missing doors etc. There is a bucket by the door, sometimes it is empty and other times you see many bundles of what look like rolls of blankets. The bucket is where they put dead babies, I assume it gets emptied at night. When we were in the hospital to pick up our two babies on Monday the bucket was full.
The ward was busy on Monday when we went to pick the babies up. It was feeding time and so the moms were in the unit. You have to take your shoes off at the door – everyone does. It grosses me out just thinking about it – hospital and no shoes is not sanitary. Anyway, we walked into the unit, to the back, where the level three babies (the sickest ones) live. Looking for our kids you just have to look at the incubators that have white tap laced across them saying ‘I am abandoned.’ They do this so that moms of other babies may see it and feel pity and take time to feed the baby. Both Ava and Evan where in incubators. Ava’s was even turned on, however the doors where your arms go in were broken off so the heat was not staying in. Evan’s incubator didn’t work, so he was essentially lying in a fancy box. We got everything together and left quickly. The whole time we were there I could hear a baby doing the death moan…I couldn’t see him, but I could hear it. As we were leaving we passed a little baby probably a little less then a kilo lying in one blanket on a metal cart moaning with every breath….heart breaking! I wanted to warm, feed and love him. All he needed was a little attention and maybe CPAP, but the incubators were full and the nurses were busy and I’m sure he didn’t make it much longer. Hard stuff to take process. There is no one to blame for such chaos. It’s not fair for the nurses, a 1 to 25 ratio is not fair. It’s not fair for the mothers, they have no education as to what they should be doing. It’s definitely not fair for the babies, that just because they were born in a third world country as sick or premature that this is what they must face. Heart breaking…and it makes me ask myself what am I to do? I feel blessed with the skills and knowledge I have in working with prems. I have had good schooling and fantastic mentoring as a NICU nurse. I have so much more to learn, but the little I do know I feel can go a long way. On Monday, I had so many different emotions, mostly helplessness. We left the special care ward with our two prems and I thought to myself, little steps. For right now I can provide care to these two little people, to the best of my ability….this is a start!
Another baby died this week at the Bulrushes. He was only at the home for just over a week. He was very badly malnourished. He was about four years old and weighed just over 6 kg. That is bad enough, but on top of that he was badly burnt across his entire trunk of his body. It is incredible that one little body can survive and suffer through so much. He died on Friday. He was loved for the last week of his life and will suffer no more. His name was John, he was the first baby that I have seen at the home that would not smile. He had no joy. He now can experience abundant joy!
This country has so much beauty in it and yet there is brokenness everywhere! I guess this is true with most countries, it’s just the brokenness shows itself in different forms.
I digress; enough about me…Matt had a good week. Working hard at the production unit. He is still pretty consumed with all projects babies home. He has also been starting doing drawings for their new projects. He is very good at this. He did one at home yesterday, he is a perfectionist in many ways and because of this has pretty perfect drawings!
Matt also started with his volleyball on Sat. He had over 20 kids out. We had brought two volleyballs over from Canada and it’s a good thing. He headed out yesterday to practice with his two balls and those were the only two balls they had for the entire practice☺ He said that the kids have never really played volleyball at all so he started with the basics. They didn’t even have a net, next week they will. They practiced for over two hours and Matt said that when he was done a few kids stayed longer to play. I think Matt loved being active – he misses volleyball.
I think that’s it for this week. Tomorrow we are off to Tanzania for the week. It’s VISA renewal time again and we have picked a tropical destination…African style! We will get to swim in the Indian Ocean! We are excited about a little R&R!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Just Another Week at the Office
All in all we have had a fairly uneventful week. We are still loving having our own little apartment here at Suubi. The babies home has kept me busy over the past week. Everything is slowly coming together. I never know what I’m going to get when I walk into the building in the morning…makes for interesting days☺ The building continues to be worked on, the more I walk through the better is it looking, give it six months and it will look great!
The babies are doing well. I have a cute crew out here! Toddlers are such a different world for me. I love the toddlers but am finding myself really missing my prems!!! I like toddlers, but I have found that I am passionate about premature babies…weird I know, but also nice to solidify my job choice☺ I find myself getting phone calls from town about new sick babies or prems and being slightly jealous that I’m not there to care for them. But back at the home front, I really do have a lovely group of kids and nannies and all is well at Suubi Babies Home!
Matt remains busy making cabinets for the babies home – they look beautiful! He also has a found a new opportunity to coach a little volleyball while we are over here. He met today with Coach Ken and he will start next Saturday with practice. The boys he will be coaching are middle school aged. He is very excited about getting to play a little volleyball again!
Side note for those of you who know Meg…she reached 3 kg this past week!!! She has quadrupled her birth weight in 4 months! Feel free to have a party in her honor!
Blessings to you all!
The babies are doing well. I have a cute crew out here! Toddlers are such a different world for me. I love the toddlers but am finding myself really missing my prems!!! I like toddlers, but I have found that I am passionate about premature babies…weird I know, but also nice to solidify my job choice☺ I find myself getting phone calls from town about new sick babies or prems and being slightly jealous that I’m not there to care for them. But back at the home front, I really do have a lovely group of kids and nannies and all is well at Suubi Babies Home!
Matt remains busy making cabinets for the babies home – they look beautiful! He also has a found a new opportunity to coach a little volleyball while we are over here. He met today with Coach Ken and he will start next Saturday with practice. The boys he will be coaching are middle school aged. He is very excited about getting to play a little volleyball again!
Side note for those of you who know Meg…she reached 3 kg this past week!!! She has quadrupled her birth weight in 4 months! Feel free to have a party in her honor!
Blessings to you all!
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Life in Suubi...
We have lived on Suubi Mountain for a little longer than a week and it has been wonderful. Both Sarah and I are able to walk to work, which means I save myself 4 per day that was previously spent in a matatu with 14 of my not so close but close in proximity friends. Sarah saves herself a ton of money by not having to take special hires to work. Avoiding the taxis alone makes the move worthwhile. We have also been able to enjoy peace and quiet, which Kampala knows nothing about, and fresh air, which is also scarce in Kampala. Cooking for ourselves has been another perk since moving out to Suubi. We definitely missed cooking and eating what we want when we want. Shopping is especially challenging in a foreign place with foreign currency without a personal car. Side note – a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese cost about 10 000 Ugandan shillings which is equal to about 5 US dollars. Luckily for us a few boxes made their way into Dan’s suitcase when he came to visit.
Another perk of living on the mountain is that we are now close to and have time to visit and have guys from the shop to our new home. Yesterday Sarah and myself met up with a fellow named Richard, for you faithful blog readers you will remember that Richard was the man to teach me to take the taxis to and from work. Richard and his wife Agnes recently gave birth to their first-born child Lillian on December 21st. Sarah and I, well really just I, mentioned that we would like to meet Lillian and sure enough 4 weeks later there we were in Richards living room meeting Lillian and Agnes. This was the first time that I was able to see where and how my “co-workers” lived. It was a neat experience and I was actually quite surprised at how nice Richard’s house was. It was a simple 2-room place, a bedroom and a living room (cooking is done outside), complete with furniture and a stereo. They were thrilled that we would take time to visit their home and their daughter and at one point left us alone in their house as they went out to buy us soda and cookies. Ugandans are quite hospitable people. Today I was able to have Rashid over to our new how for the afternoon. We took it easy, chatted, looked at some pictures of Canada and our family back home and played some cards. In just 60 minutes I was able to teach Rashid how to play Crib. He beat me his first time playing let alone seeing Crib. Beginner’s luck I guess.
The new Suubi babies home opened this week and 19 babies and 12 staff joined Sarah. Since much of the construction has not yet been finished this has made for an interesting opening. While the babies could care less and are too busy checking out their new home and surroundings, Sarah has had to deal with construction workers, exploding cookers, bad wiring, power cuts and at times no water…all of this on top of her day to day worries like the babies and the staff. Needless to say, it has been an interesting opening. Amidst all of the chaos God is doing amazing things through both Sarah and the babies home. Sarah is an exceptional leader and will without a doubt get this new home off to a wonderful start.
With the opening of the new babies home, cabinets among many other items are required and that is where the shop comes in. The past week has been quite chaotic to say the least. With cabinets, concrete countertops, railings, shelves and doors for the babies home on top of our regular work load for the villages, the guys have been BUSY working overtime. While the guys work without stress or worry, Gerry and Donna are not as fortunate as they are responsible for making sure everything gets done and gets done well. Please pray the guys work diligently and accurately and that Gerry and Donna might find peace and opportunity to rest. I hope that I am able to take some of the load off both Gerry & Donna and the workers at the shop.
Sarah says that this has become a very long blog so I will leave it at that. Take Care!
Another perk of living on the mountain is that we are now close to and have time to visit and have guys from the shop to our new home. Yesterday Sarah and myself met up with a fellow named Richard, for you faithful blog readers you will remember that Richard was the man to teach me to take the taxis to and from work. Richard and his wife Agnes recently gave birth to their first-born child Lillian on December 21st. Sarah and I, well really just I, mentioned that we would like to meet Lillian and sure enough 4 weeks later there we were in Richards living room meeting Lillian and Agnes. This was the first time that I was able to see where and how my “co-workers” lived. It was a neat experience and I was actually quite surprised at how nice Richard’s house was. It was a simple 2-room place, a bedroom and a living room (cooking is done outside), complete with furniture and a stereo. They were thrilled that we would take time to visit their home and their daughter and at one point left us alone in their house as they went out to buy us soda and cookies. Ugandans are quite hospitable people. Today I was able to have Rashid over to our new how for the afternoon. We took it easy, chatted, looked at some pictures of Canada and our family back home and played some cards. In just 60 minutes I was able to teach Rashid how to play Crib. He beat me his first time playing let alone seeing Crib. Beginner’s luck I guess.
The new Suubi babies home opened this week and 19 babies and 12 staff joined Sarah. Since much of the construction has not yet been finished this has made for an interesting opening. While the babies could care less and are too busy checking out their new home and surroundings, Sarah has had to deal with construction workers, exploding cookers, bad wiring, power cuts and at times no water…all of this on top of her day to day worries like the babies and the staff. Needless to say, it has been an interesting opening. Amidst all of the chaos God is doing amazing things through both Sarah and the babies home. Sarah is an exceptional leader and will without a doubt get this new home off to a wonderful start.
With the opening of the new babies home, cabinets among many other items are required and that is where the shop comes in. The past week has been quite chaotic to say the least. With cabinets, concrete countertops, railings, shelves and doors for the babies home on top of our regular work load for the villages, the guys have been BUSY working overtime. While the guys work without stress or worry, Gerry and Donna are not as fortunate as they are responsible for making sure everything gets done and gets done well. Please pray the guys work diligently and accurately and that Gerry and Donna might find peace and opportunity to rest. I hope that I am able to take some of the load off both Gerry & Donna and the workers at the shop.
Sarah says that this has become a very long blog so I will leave it at that. Take Care!
Sunday, January 10, 2010
New Year, New House, New Role
Well we have had quite a busy week – lots of changes!
Dan left us on Wednesday and we were sad to see him go. We thoroughly enjoyed the time that we were ale to spend together on this side of the world. It was such a treat to have Dan here for the holidays and share with him our Ugandan life. The Ugandans loved meeting him. We will miss him!!!
Our lives are changing a little bit over here in Uganda. As of yesterday we moved out to Suubi village. This is the village that Matt has been making his two hour commute to every day for work. We now live about 5 min from where he works. I too will now be working at Suubi. Watoto is opening a new babies home at Suubi. It is huge and will be able to accommodate more babies then the one in town. The building is ¾ of the way complete and we are partially opening this next week with 20 babies in two units. There will be 8 units in total when the building is complete. I believe that in the end the building will hold 150 babies and toddlers from ages of 4 months to 2 years. We are still waiting on funding and the completion of the construction in order to open the rest of the units.
Amidst the construction workers, painters and electricians we will have 20 babies running around and I will be ‘in charge’. For the next four months (or until they can hire permanent people) I will be the on site administrator for this babies home, this is both a blessing and a LARGE challenge. Please be in pray over the home, the babies, the staff and of course Matt and myself. Matt will remain at the production unit, but since he is married to me and is such a wonderful husband he will often be at the home as well.
As for our new home, we are the 4th and 5th Mzungus to live on the mountain. This contrasts greatly to the guesthouse that we lived in for the past 4 months as it was full of Mzungus. We moved all our stuff out yesterday and will spend today cleaning and settling in. We will be cooking for ourselves again, which I am very excited about! So we need to remember how to cook and learn how to shop for groceries in a different country and in a different currency. Another challenge and blessing is that we are about 45 min out of Kampala. This is a blessing as we are far away from the city, the noise and the pollution. This also posses a problem as now we cannot just pop in and out of the city.
We are excited about the upcoming year. May God be glorified in us! Thank you for you’re your continued prayers - we appreciate them VERY much!
Dan left us on Wednesday and we were sad to see him go. We thoroughly enjoyed the time that we were ale to spend together on this side of the world. It was such a treat to have Dan here for the holidays and share with him our Ugandan life. The Ugandans loved meeting him. We will miss him!!!
Our lives are changing a little bit over here in Uganda. As of yesterday we moved out to Suubi village. This is the village that Matt has been making his two hour commute to every day for work. We now live about 5 min from where he works. I too will now be working at Suubi. Watoto is opening a new babies home at Suubi. It is huge and will be able to accommodate more babies then the one in town. The building is ¾ of the way complete and we are partially opening this next week with 20 babies in two units. There will be 8 units in total when the building is complete. I believe that in the end the building will hold 150 babies and toddlers from ages of 4 months to 2 years. We are still waiting on funding and the completion of the construction in order to open the rest of the units.
Amidst the construction workers, painters and electricians we will have 20 babies running around and I will be ‘in charge’. For the next four months (or until they can hire permanent people) I will be the on site administrator for this babies home, this is both a blessing and a LARGE challenge. Please be in pray over the home, the babies, the staff and of course Matt and myself. Matt will remain at the production unit, but since he is married to me and is such a wonderful husband he will often be at the home as well.
As for our new home, we are the 4th and 5th Mzungus to live on the mountain. This contrasts greatly to the guesthouse that we lived in for the past 4 months as it was full of Mzungus. We moved all our stuff out yesterday and will spend today cleaning and settling in. We will be cooking for ourselves again, which I am very excited about! So we need to remember how to cook and learn how to shop for groceries in a different country and in a different currency. Another challenge and blessing is that we are about 45 min out of Kampala. This is a blessing as we are far away from the city, the noise and the pollution. This also posses a problem as now we cannot just pop in and out of the city.
We are excited about the upcoming year. May God be glorified in us! Thank you for you’re your continued prayers - we appreciate them VERY much!
Friday, January 1, 2010
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Guest writer Dan here!
Sarah Jane requested/forced upon me the blogging duties for the week…although, it is great to be here and to be able to do so! As one who also used to read these blogs, it is incredible to actually now be here and experience the things we have all been reading about since Matt and SJ have arrived.
This last week has been very eventful! We had been attempting to get into the Christmas spirit however we could, but it isn’t all that easy when it is sunny and 30 degrees outside, even with Sarah’s relentless playing of Christmas music! We were able to attend Watoto Church’s Christmas cantata, and I think it is safe to say that it was the first time any of us had truly been in the Christmas spirit. It was an amazing performance including actors, dancers, live band and live choir – 200-member cast in total! It was beautifully done, full of Ugandan humor and countless carols with heaps of African flavor! There was a great Christmas message of salvation running throughout the whole evening, which I believe will have an amazing effect as the performance ran 16 times and was viewed by over 2000 people each time! God is doing amazing things through this church.
Christmas eve day was spent working at the baby’s home, and was also one of the first full days that I had been able to spend there. It was great to see Sarah in action, and also to meet all the little faces that have been the focus of so many of their photos. It is pretty easy to get attached to those little critters! On the Eve of Christmas, in our continued quest to feel Christmassy in Africa we watched ‘Home Alone’ …what a classic. Christmas Day was again spent at the baby’s home, and in the evening we were able to attend a Christmas party for all the ‘Bullrushes’ volunteers. It was a wonderful night full of eating, dancing, games, conversation, and more eating – it was quite the experience to be around the world with Matt and Sarah for Christmas, along with so many other individuals from all corners of the globe.
On Boxing Day we boarded a shuttle and drove to the town of Jinja in order to do some camping along the source of the Nile River. The tents were fantastic, and the views were even better. We spent a lot of time lazing around in the sun, reading, playing games, hiking and exploring around. We had the best of intentions to simply relax while we were there, until we saw the video of the white water rafting that is! Sunday was spent rafting for 5 hours along 30 kilometers of the Nile – 12 rapids in total – five of which were grade 5. Each rapid contained three different ‘lines’, or paths of getting through them. They three were: chicken shoot, medium route, and hardcore. Much to Sarah’s dismay, Matthew and I opted for hardcore every time…and she has the bruises to prove it! But in the end we all had an absolutely unbelievable time cruising the Nile and basking in the sun.
Currently Matt is still on holidays from the production unit and is trying his darndest to get papers done and books read. Consequently, that means I also am on holidays from the production unit and am trying my darndest to distract him from his schoolwork and go on adventures with me. Sarah is a trooper and doesn’t really get holidays; she’s taking care of several very small very sick babies, prayer is always very welcome.
My time with Matt and Sarah Jane is quickly coming to an end here in Uganda - it has gone unbelievably fast. As I said above it has been amazing being able to experience everything they experience on a daily basis, and to be part of several unforgettable adventures with them. I wish you could all be here and see it for yourself, but mostly I wish you could be here to see how much the Ugandans love Matt and Sarah. To see how the men at the production unit love and respect Matt and how they get so excited whenever he enters the shop. And to get to experience Sarah being her crazy self with the nanny’s and the volunteers all the while teaching them and guiding them along; and to see the faces of the little ones light up every time she enters the room. But then again you all know them very well, and I am sure it doesn’t take much imagine, and you wouldn’t expect any less!
Over and out for me from Africa…Its been a slice.
Sarah Jane requested/forced upon me the blogging duties for the week…although, it is great to be here and to be able to do so! As one who also used to read these blogs, it is incredible to actually now be here and experience the things we have all been reading about since Matt and SJ have arrived.
This last week has been very eventful! We had been attempting to get into the Christmas spirit however we could, but it isn’t all that easy when it is sunny and 30 degrees outside, even with Sarah’s relentless playing of Christmas music! We were able to attend Watoto Church’s Christmas cantata, and I think it is safe to say that it was the first time any of us had truly been in the Christmas spirit. It was an amazing performance including actors, dancers, live band and live choir – 200-member cast in total! It was beautifully done, full of Ugandan humor and countless carols with heaps of African flavor! There was a great Christmas message of salvation running throughout the whole evening, which I believe will have an amazing effect as the performance ran 16 times and was viewed by over 2000 people each time! God is doing amazing things through this church.
Christmas eve day was spent working at the baby’s home, and was also one of the first full days that I had been able to spend there. It was great to see Sarah in action, and also to meet all the little faces that have been the focus of so many of their photos. It is pretty easy to get attached to those little critters! On the Eve of Christmas, in our continued quest to feel Christmassy in Africa we watched ‘Home Alone’ …what a classic. Christmas Day was again spent at the baby’s home, and in the evening we were able to attend a Christmas party for all the ‘Bullrushes’ volunteers. It was a wonderful night full of eating, dancing, games, conversation, and more eating – it was quite the experience to be around the world with Matt and Sarah for Christmas, along with so many other individuals from all corners of the globe.
On Boxing Day we boarded a shuttle and drove to the town of Jinja in order to do some camping along the source of the Nile River. The tents were fantastic, and the views were even better. We spent a lot of time lazing around in the sun, reading, playing games, hiking and exploring around. We had the best of intentions to simply relax while we were there, until we saw the video of the white water rafting that is! Sunday was spent rafting for 5 hours along 30 kilometers of the Nile – 12 rapids in total – five of which were grade 5. Each rapid contained three different ‘lines’, or paths of getting through them. They three were: chicken shoot, medium route, and hardcore. Much to Sarah’s dismay, Matthew and I opted for hardcore every time…and she has the bruises to prove it! But in the end we all had an absolutely unbelievable time cruising the Nile and basking in the sun.
Currently Matt is still on holidays from the production unit and is trying his darndest to get papers done and books read. Consequently, that means I also am on holidays from the production unit and am trying my darndest to distract him from his schoolwork and go on adventures with me. Sarah is a trooper and doesn’t really get holidays; she’s taking care of several very small very sick babies, prayer is always very welcome.
My time with Matt and Sarah Jane is quickly coming to an end here in Uganda - it has gone unbelievably fast. As I said above it has been amazing being able to experience everything they experience on a daily basis, and to be part of several unforgettable adventures with them. I wish you could all be here and see it for yourself, but mostly I wish you could be here to see how much the Ugandans love Matt and Sarah. To see how the men at the production unit love and respect Matt and how they get so excited whenever he enters the shop. And to get to experience Sarah being her crazy self with the nanny’s and the volunteers all the while teaching them and guiding them along; and to see the faces of the little ones light up every time she enters the room. But then again you all know them very well, and I am sure it doesn’t take much imagine, and you wouldn’t expect any less!
Over and out for me from Africa…Its been a slice.
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