I Love African Rainstorms :)

Oh Uganda may God uphold thee, we lay our future in thy hands.  United free for liberty together we always stand.

That is Uganda's National Anthem.  It's a TON shorter than ours, don't cha think?

Soooo…project updates?  I think yes. :)

EYE AND DENTAL CAMP:

We are still working on trying to find another way to partner with Mehta Hospital for their camp.  A way that we don’t have to work through Dr. Kigula.  We hope it will work, but we don’t know.  If it doesn’t, we are going to have to organize our own eye and dental campaign somewhere… :/

PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES:

Things are going REALLY well with this project! :D  I absolutely love it and I love all the projects we have been a part of.

Monday and Tuesday we worked on Sam’s chair.  Tuesday evening we delivered the chair to Sam.

Sam's Chair - the finished product!

He was very happy and excited about it. :)  We also asked the parents what their thoughts were.  They said that they think this chair will really help Sam.  It will help separate his legs and strengthen his back and legs. :)

Sam is very happy :)

I am going to go every day and sit with Sam as he sits in his chair.  We are going to start with a small amount of time, and every day increase by one minute or less.  Or maybe just every couple days or every week, increase by five minutes.  We will see which would be best for Sam as we start it.  I am excited!  This is Physical Therapy!  This is what I have wanted to do since I got here! :)

Me, Moses, and Julia with Sam :)

Wednesday, Julia and I went to Kampala and met Daphine, Moses, Elaine, Whitney, and McCall there.  Once everyone was at our meeting place, we then proceeded to the hospital where we were getting Daphine’s prosthetic arm. :)  Daphine is so sweet. :) I love her so much. :)

Once we got to the hospital, we went straight to where we would get the arm and waited.  While we waited, Daphine started communicating to me!  Although it wasn’t Luganda or English words she was saying, she was just making noises and pointing to things.  It was way cool!  :) I helped her eat her lunch because that was what she was communicating to me what she wanted. :)

Finally, the doctor came out with the prosthetic arm.  He put it on and asked her how she liked it.  She really likes it :)  Then he took it off and let me put it on her!

 

The hand isn’t able to clutch things, but it will help her to hold things better and it will help her not be made fun of by children her age because of  her stub arm.  The arm is hard to get the black color, so they spray paint it later.

Victor (the guy who made the arm), Daphine, Julia, Me, and Moses

After getting the arm, we headed home.  Driving through Kampala, I saw something that I whipped out my camera for to take a picture.  Just for you, Shayna :)

On the bus ride home, Daphine kept whispering to me something.  I had no idea what she was saying, and she was acting as if she had to go to the bathroom.  So I asked Moses to ask her if she had to go to the bathroom.  Whenever he asked her, she would say no.  He would ask her in Luganda, so I supposed that she understood him but not me.  But eventually, as we kept riding, I knew she was definitely trying to tell me she had to go to the bathroom.  We were on the bus though…problem?  Yes.

Thankfully we were in a traffic jam, and right outside was a gas station.  The driver let Moses and Daphine off and Moses took her to the bathroom.  I thought they were going to miss getting back to the bus and we would leave them.  But they made it.  Phew! :) But when they got back on the bus, the people who were standing before Moses got off sat in their places.  So I stood up to let Daphine sit, and then whenever I would look over at her, she would look at me, wave, and then kind of glare at the women who took my seat because she wanted me to sit by her.  It was so cute :)

Right as the woman left, Daphine patted the seat and told me to sit by her :)

We got to Mukono and took Daphine to the market where her mother works.  We showed her mother the arm and how to put it on.  Her mother was soo grateful :) She was so happy for her daughter.  Daphine has got a great mother. :)  It makes me miss my mom…I love you mom :)

Daphine and her mother. Her mother works in the market place.

To show her thanks, she gave a bagful of fruit and vegetables.  She even gave us Oranges!  Those are expensive here!

Today Chelsea and I went to Sam’s and met Moses there.  We are leveling the ground outside his house so that when he sits outside in his chair, he won’t tip over because the ground is VERY uneven.  We will also be fixing the roof too, because there are so many holes.  It’s what makes the ground uneven in the first place because every time it rains, it just drips through and makes a hole.  So we will be fixing that soon.

Sam using his chair :)

We borrowed a wheelbarrow, two shovels, and two hoes.  Then we went to a dirt pile that Moses had received and started hoeing and shoveling!

The local kids wanted to help us!

We would transport the dirt to his house by the wheelbarrow and it became a good process.  I got blisters all over my hands…they really hurt.  One of them has already burst open. :(

But it was good. :)  Our last load of dirt, the wheelbarrow wheel came out on us.  So we carried the wheelbarrow of dirt to Sam’s house and dumped the dirt.  Then we fixed the wheelbarrow.

After fixing the wheelbarrow, we started leveling the ground with these huge sticks with a flat piece of wood at the end of it.  You lift it up and slam it down on the ground…it was fun :)  But right as we started doing this, a HUGE rainstorm came and stopped our progress.

Chelsea and I tried to continue through the rain, but the mud started sticking to the stick and it wasn’t working.  Then some dishes blew away across the street, so Chelsea ran into the rain to gather the dishes for the people who they belonged to.  After that, guess what!!  It started to HAIL.  Yes.  It hailed in Africa :)

Hail in Africa. :)

It was the craziest thing I have seen since I got here!  I took a quick video, and then Chelsea and I decided to run out in the pouring rain. :)  BEST DAY EVER!

It was soo fun!  Everyone called us Mulalo (crazy) but we didn’t care!  We started dancing, jumping in puddles, and just had so so SO much fun!  We ran over to Musana to say Hi to the women there.  They were surprised to see us out in the rain and called us crazy :)  On our way back to Sam’s, we noticed someone’s clothesline had fallen because of the intense wind that accompanied the rain storm.  So we stopped and helped fix the line!  It was just metal wire, so I pulled the line with the clothes tight, and Chelsea grabbed the wire that was attached to the wood post and we pulled it together and she twisted a knot into the wire.  The woman was grateful for us fixing it. :)

We then ran back to Sam’s and noticed there was a HUGE puddle filling up right in front of the door.  Uh oh.  We didn’t want it to flood the house, so Chelsea and I started to dig a moat.  It was as if I were still a little kid playing in the mud with my friend!  Making moats around the anthills to get rid of them… ;)

We made the moat, drained the water, and then made a dam so that it wouldn’t be a problem anymore. :) I got very muddy and Chelsea almost started a mud fight…thankfully we didn’t.  That would have been VERY messy!  That mud was hard to wash off my hands!  haha :)

We fixed that, and then washed off all the mud in the pouring rain!

Chelsea got stuck across the street in the storm

We then helped fill some tubs for Ester who lives across from Sam.  Her legs don’t work, and so she walks around on her hands and is able to make a living by weaving baskets.  We also helped clear the water that was gathering in front of her door so that it wouldn’t flood her house!  We swept that water away and then we walked around looking for more service opportunities we could provide.  We helped a man catch his cow that had started wandering down the street.  And then we helped an older woman who was filling up her tubs and buckets with water.

It was fun playing in the rain, and it was awesome that we could provide service while playing in the rain too!  It was the best :)

Playing in an African rain/hail storm: CHECK! :)

WORTH IT MOMENTS

• Daphine was communicating to me this week!  Although she can’t speak, she kept making noises and would point to things to help me understand.  I was able to help her the whole day because she trusted me and was comfortable enough with me to communicate to me.

Sam really likes his chair that we finished for him!  He and his parents both like it a lot and they all know that it will help Sam a lot. Today while we were with Sam, Sam said that he feels the muscle strains and it gives him energy and he knows it will help strengthen him.

• Today, Chelsea and I played and danced in puddles during a HUGE rain/hail storm.  It was the best ever!!  We were also able to help 5 people during the rainstorm, so it was really good! :)

Tomorrow, Chelsea, Julia, Whitney, and I are headed to Mbale to help with their projects on Friday and then hike Sipi Falls on Saturday!! :) I’m super excited!! :)

I LOVE AFRICA!!!  Especially their rainstorms :D

Quote of the Day! :)

"Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather."

- John Ruskin