Triplets United.....

As I wrote about the triplets in my last blog, in the evening, the third baby was discharged from the hospital and joined her sisters. But there was some confusion: the grandmother had brought the two baby's 4 weeks ago, she told us they were the first and the second baby, so their names were Mary Apio and Elizabeth Acen, the third baby, who stayed with the mother, was Adongo Grace. There is a certain order here in naming twins and triplets, the first one is always Apio and the second one Acen, when there is a third one they call her Adongo. But when they are boys, it is different, it will be Opio, Ocen and Odongo. Now we discovered that the grandmother had made a mistake, we had the second and the third baby, so the one in hospital was the first baby, so all the names are wrong and they had to be changed.... All the papers had to be changed, but also our staff had to be trained in the changes of the names. 

 We gave each baby a different color string at the wrist.

 For the "bonding"  they share the bed, and we gave name tags and which bottle we use for which baby. They do fair, the middle one, Elizabeth, is drinking very well, the other two still need a NG tube, but they start to drink better and better. 

I was so blessed today by the grandmother of Catherine. The mother of the baby had passed away after giving birth and Catherine was brought to Amecet. We always give them 2 months, then the baby goes back to the family. And today it was exactly 2 months!!!! Very often, we have to call and call to remind the family to come for their child, but this grandmother came on the exact day!!

And she had bought little socks for Catherine. I was really touched by the lady, she was prepared for the baby, and she had bought little pink socks...... It was so nice to see and to know that Catherine is wanted and will be cared for....

A difference of 410 gramms......

In our blog of October 6, I wrote about the two little girls, part of triplets, that had come to Amecet. We have been caring for them, seperate from the other baby's, in our medical room. Observing extra care and hygiene for those extreemly vulnerable girls.

They are doing good, but gain very slow. There is a difference of 410 gramms between Mary (left) and Elizabeth. I feel it is amazing what 410 gramms does, Mary is much bigger and she can drink by herself, we removed the NG tube and she drinks very good. Elizabeth only drinks half of what she is suppose to drink, so we have to give the rest by the NG tube. At the moment she has some diarrhea, so we keep a very close eye on her.

Mary came as a small baby of 1.5 kg, today her weight is 2.280 kg.













Elizabeth weighed only 1.3 kg when she arrive in Amecet, today she weighs 1.870 kg.

This week the aunti came to Amecet. The older sister, the first born of the triplets, was admitted in the hospital. Deborah and I went to take a look at them, the baby had been the biggest of the triplets, but not anymore. She is now the smallest and she was on oxygen. The mother was with her, but she is still weak and has hardly breastmilk. We helped with some of the medicines they needed for her. The way it looks now is that we will also take this baby into Amecet when they are discharged from the hospital. The mother can take some rest and get her strength back for the time the baby's will come home from Amecet.

Up to the Trade show.......

 Every year the Trade show comes to Soroti. All kind of clothes and bags etc. are there to buy. We went with the older children to this event...

 There is a small zoo, with a few animals like a Lion, Monkey, Ostrich, Leopard, a big snake and some birds. Many of the schools around also visit this trade show and they get explanation about the animals. The children liked it, even Patrick came with us and Michel with his crutches.

 There were two camels and the children could sit on them to make a small walk. But only Kenneth, Cathy and Patrick were brave enough to try..

 Some guys walked around to paint the faces, you must be alert, before you know, they have painted your face. They did that to Helen, but she felt too old for that so she refused, we had to get the purple paint from her face!! But later Helen agreed with a flower on her arm...

 Kenneth was a happy butterfly!

And we had a happy group with us in the car!!

At the back from left to right: Kenneth, Jennifer and Cathy

in the front: Michel, Maliamu, Patrick and Helen.

Next year again!!!!

Visitors from Holland....

Last week we went to the airport in Entebbe to pick two visitors from the Netherlands: Theo van Teylingen and Cor de Rijke. They came to meet us and see the work afresh, they are part of the Dutch Foundation: de Figurant. Theo is also my brother, so it was for the girls and me a special week.... 

They were both staying in our home, so we started the busy week with a pancake breakfast in our garden! De Figurant has been a enormous blessing to Amecet, Theo speaks and sings a lot in churches and other groups, he always tells about Amecet, there are a lot of financial gifts for Amecet, coming in through the Figurant. They wanted to refresh their vision again, by seeing the ministry and visiting Amecet. As a leadership we have had 3 meetings with them, sharing the vision and discussing the future plans. 

We also had made a programme for them to visit the different aspects of our ministry. They went with Simon to the village, to visit some children and their relatives and they went with Elias to visit several of the older children in secondary school, they are all sponsored by the Figurant (Tante Suus project).

Simon organized a visit to the Harmony primary school, where they sponsor around 40 school children. On this picture you see Theo and Cor talking with the children, most of them are orphans or they lost one parent and the family is struggling to pay the school fees. several of the caretakers or relatives had come as well to meet Theo and Cor. 

We also took them to see the Pediatric HIV clinic in Soroti hospital. This clinic is build with the funds of the Figurant and it was special for them to see the clinic at work. They had a talk with the doctor and could see with their own eyes what a blessing their gift is to the community of Soroti. We took them along to see the malnourished children in the Feeding Project, we visit that project every week to bring a small nutritious supplement and to see if we can help in other ways. after the hospital we proceeded to the Soroti Prisons. A team of Amecet visits the mothers with children in the prisons every week. we give there also porridge, sugar and soap..

In between, Theo and Cor were at Amecet, playing with the children and holding Baby's. They are both fathers, so they felt at home!! 

We ended their visit on Thursday afternoon with a Thanks giving Party!!! In December, Amecet will exist 16 year and now having the Figurant with us, we wanted to invite people we work with and people who are our partners in Soroti, and together, give thanks to God, He has been so faithful, so supportive to Amecet. We looked at our small beginning and where we are now, having ministered to more than 340 children. Some of the first children were among the people, so it was so good to say together a big Thank You to God our Father!!! And to speak out our trust in Him for the coming years......

Elias brought them back to the airport on Friday morning. It has been a busy week, but it was a good week and I am sure that we will see the fruits of this visit..........

The dentist came to visit.....

 Last week a team of three dentists came to visit Amecet. They came to give free treatment and were able to stay for three days.

They stayed in our other house, Amecet n' Amun and also used a room there to give their treatment. We mobilized our children, our staff members and also the YWAM staf members were notified. The teachers of the Pre-school and the Primary school were also welcomed. And some of the pupils of the Primary school came as well.

Around 70 people came for help. The dentists did filling, but from many people the teeth were beyond filling and had to be pulled. Joseph, the boy on this picture, got 6 molars and teeth extracted, I felt for him, it was good that they gave injections to help with the pain...... The people who came were thankful (even they had a painful mouth...) with the help they got and the dentists were happy that they could help so many people....
And now we have to brush ..............

Ugandan celebrates 55 years independance...

 It is a public holiday, so the children are free and Calvin moves with them through the compound. For us it is a working day, so we celebrate with a special meal.....

 You take 7½ KG. rice and 6 kg. meat, onions, tomatoes and special spices and you have Pilau. On this picture you see auntie Grace cleaning the rice...... 

 At the same time, they frying the meat on a wood fire, as you can see this is teamwork!!

from left to right: Pauline, Beatrice, David, Mary and Grace!

Some time later a big pot with Pilau is carried into the kitchen. The children have been waiting for it, they are excited: left to right:Jennifer, Cathy, Kenneth, Ruth, Maliamu and Michel

They are the first to be served!! Of course the bottle with soda can not be missed at this occasion!!

 We are all enjoying the special meal, there is enough left for the evening meal. So tonight we will be eating Pilau again, only the baby's, they just enjoy their bottle with milk.

Two tiny baby's....

Last week Mary and Elizabeth were brought to Amecet, they are part of triplets, 3 little girls, one baby was left with the mother and they brought the two smallest to Amecet. It is quite intensive care what they need. Every three hours we take their temperature, change them and feed them, first we try  the bottle by mouth, but they are very soon exhausted, so we do the rest by NG tube, We keep them in the medical room, with the windows and door closed, we also feed them there and I tell you, it is quite tropical in there. Very warm, but so good for the little girls, who have trouble keeping their body temperature stable. On this picture, Immaculette and me are feeding them. 

 We found a bag with premature diapers in our closet. I remember seeing them before, and I never thought that our baby's would use them; so small....I even said to the children that we might use them for the dolls, to play with... But I am happy we did not do that, we all used them. Dominique made this picture, left is our normal diaper and at the right, the premature diaper, a very big difference. But now they are finished and we use the "normal"  diaper now, because we can't buy the premature diapers here...

This picture was taken today, they are now together in one bed (for the bonding😏) and our little blue monkey is keeping guard. Left is Mary, she gained 250 gram and her weight is now 1,750 kg. and at the right is Elizabeth, she gained only 100 gram, her weight is now 1,400 kg. It is amazing at a difference the 350 gram makes between the two of them. Please pray for them, they do fair, no vomiting, no fever, no diarrhea, but they do have to gain more and to get more strong, to come out of the danger zone....

Trip to Kampala....

The day after we buried the little Asianut Helen, we had planned to go to Kampala with 3 children, to 2 hospitals. We left at 5 am and we arrived in the Heart institute at 1 pm. The children had done well during the trip, we were also with enough staff. Sharon cared for Mary, Peace cared for Martha, Deborah cared for Patrick, Elias drove and I did all the running around and had Cathy with me (I didn't want to leave her in Amecet, she had already cut the hair of Ruth, the other day!). 

I wrote about Patrick in the previous blogs, he was found abandoned in town at 11 pm. He was quite sick and malnourished. The picture left is how he came. He has changed a lot, he eats everything what he can find..but he is still not talking. The doctors had heard a heart murmur, so they advised us to go to the heart institute for a Echo of the heart. We had planned to go for Mary and Martha, so we took him too. They couldn't find anything wrong with the heart, so that was good news, he is still malnourished, but gaining good.

Then we took Mary also for a Echo of the heart. That was a different story... Mary is in Amecet since July 2017. She was referred by another organization. Mary is 1 year and 5 months old and her weight is still 3.8 kg. She gained  since July 1 kg. She has also a heart murmur but also other problems. The outcome of her Echo was not good, she is born with a big hole between the left and right side of the heart and the aorta is in the right ventricle instead of the left ventricle. She needs to be operated!!! An open heart surgery, we saw the surgeon as well and he told us that they can do it in Kampala, I was send to the accountant to get the invoice... 

The next day we went to the pediatric neurologist with Mary again and Martha. We had slept the night in a guesthouse.

He also saw Mary and felt that she has a serious problem, he examined her very good and he thinks that it has to do with the chromosomes and that she has a serious brain damage as well. we had to go for a lot of blood tests and wait for the results, but he said that the operation might not be good to do, because of her other problems......

Martha is 1 year and 2 months old and her weight is just over 5 kg. She came in Amecet in February 2017, weighing 2.9 kg. She was very malnourished and not able to swallow, very weak and it looks as if she has no muscles, she can't still keep her head up by her self. But she can smile and she can be very annoyed with you.... The doctor also examined her and asked for several blood tests. he was sure of brain damage but wanted to wait with a diagnosis until the results come back...

So after this all, we jumped back in the car to drive the 8 hours back to Soroti, where we arrived at around 8.30 pm.  We were tired, but it was good that we did this, we have been worrying about the children and it is good to get a diagnosis, so we can know what to do (or not to do).

You hope for good news, we got that for Patrick, but for Mary and Martha it might not be so good.....

When we arrived back in Amecet we heard that we have two new tiny bay's, there was a mother who gave birth to triplets in the village health centre. The two smallest baby's they brought to Amecet and the biggest they left with the mother... Two little pretty girls weighing 1.3 and 1.5 kg!! Life goes on!!