Work in process...2 (also in the sandbox...)

Yesterday I went to Soroti hospital to the HIV clinic to get our monthly ARV medicines for all our HIV + children. I took those two pictures from the clinic. The building is going on well, the walls are there, also inside walls have been built up already. They made columns and next week they are building the ring beam. That will be done with iron bars and then it has to set for two weeks. After the two weeks they are going to build the roof. Everybody is excited about the building and is looking forward to the completion of the clinic. In the meantime is the clinic going on as usual. There is not much hinder from the building that is going on.

I had to go for medicines for 13 children. On the table in the front you see the pile of files, all from Amecet children. Last month I came with the children, they were all seen by the doctor, but yesterday I only came with their medical books and the doctor wrote in them and I got their medicines. I went home with a bag full of medicines. I call it a bag full of life, because the ARVs have brought life to our children. If I think back to the days we didn't have ARVs, the children were so sick and I know that most of them would not be alive today if they didn't had the ARV's, including my own 3 children! I thank God for ARVs!

And see here our three musketeers, working in the sandbox!!! There is sand everywhere and they even eat it!!! Left is Rafael, in the middle Charles and at the right Nelson. They are more mobile now and they love to be in the dirt, so they often escape and you see them moving around. They are so naughty and always go in places where they are not allowed. You have to have eyes everywhere. But it is normal for little boys, to be naughty and specially for Rafael it is a mayor development step that he is moving around and walking. So we do not complain!!

Kick polio and measles out of Uganda..

There was this last weekend a mass immunization  going on in Uganda. It was for all children from 0 till 5 years old. They gave polio to all those children and measles to the children from 1-5 years old. They gave quite some publicity to the action and there were various places where you could go with the children. Our local counselor 1 (like a village chief) came to warn us, to take the children to immunize. It was busy, so I thought maybe tomorrow!! Then I read in the newspaper that some parents were arrested because they didn't want to take their children for immunization! I remember that I thought, I better not forget........ And yes, I forgot. Monday was the last day and I was busy and when I was somewhere in town, I heard a car going around with a big speaker on it, telling the people that this was their last call to come for immunization. So I drove home and rounded all the children up within 0-5 year range and of course the staff to come and help me, it was quite an exodus!

And here we sit, we had 12 children  with us. We were waiting under the mango tree for our turn.

 The little baby's are getting polio drops only.

 Not Full house, but Full van!! We were with 11 adults and 12 children in the van! The good thing was that the children were not crying and also in the evening and night, not one of them got a fever.

The First Aid lesson continues..

Last week we got our first Aid lesson from Meri. today she gave us the second part of the First Aid which might be helpful in Amecet.

She talked about choking and what to do if an adult or a big child chokes (on a cow pea or so!!) Of course she had us practising on each other, which brought a lot of laughter!

Then she explained what to do when there is a baby choking and we practised on dolls. bears and monkeys.

Helen our trained patient from last week was there again and Meri explained how to do CPR and she also showed it with a baby (doll).

We had to practise that to on each other and later again on the dolls, bears and monkeys.

This is Amos, and that is the only ting we know from him. He was brought on Thursday by the police. Someone found him in town. We have tried to talk with him, but Amos is the only thing we know, he forgot his other name, doesn't know if he lives in Soroti or in the village. Where his parents are, how he came where he was found. The police did radio announcements, but no response. We took him to the doctor, he had malaria, but he is doing fine now and he is very  good friends with Josh and John. We hope someone knows him and we can unite him with his family. It is a real sweet boy, we think he is around 6 years old. I love his beautiful smile .

I started this blog on Sunday, then a terrible thunder/rain storm came. A tree in our compound broke off, my TV is blown from the lightening and we had no electricity. Since Sunday evening the electricity is on and off, at the moment it is half strength. I think our copy machine has now a problem as well. I use now the solar power, but that is only during the day, because our battery is not charging any more. That is the reason that this message from Sunday is only finished today!

Today is WALKING day!!!

We have four toddlers in our home who are not walking ..... until today!!! On this picture you see from left to right: Charles, 11 months old, Rose, almost 2 years old, Rafael, almost 2 years old and Nelson, 18 months old. This morning suddenly Rose started walking on her own, we have tried to help her, but every time she cried and was afraid. But this morning she stood up and walked! Everybody was clapping and shouting for her, which she really enjoyed and it stimulated her to walk again and again. During or supper (which we have on Saturdays and Sundays at the veranda) Charles started to walk, which gave also a lot of excitement to everybody, and then Rafael did two steps!!! This was so good, we yelled and clapped and he looked around as if he had walked the marathon! Then very quiet, Nelson did two steps as well. So I believe in a couple of days we have toddlers walking all over the place. And it was so good to see all the excitement from the older children, the aunties and the toddlers themselves. It was indeed a day with progress!

Trip to Kumi..

We were going to the Orthopaedic Centre in Kumi (one hour drive) with Apio Ruth. Two weeks ago we went there and she was given plaster again around her leg. We also discovered that there were two other baby's whose legs were also a bit different and we decided to take them along since we were going anyway.

Half way we stopped in a little trading centre, to visit the family of Steven. ( read the previous blog)When they brought Steven, there was a lot of confusion, they told us that the mother had died after the delivery, the father had died in November 2011. But we heard that there was a father, so we just called one of the given telephone numbers and asked for the father, and he came at the phone!!! The next day he came with the two people who brought Steven and told me a strange story, he was not really the father, but the half brother to the father and it was just a strange story. Today we travelled almost past his village, so we decided to go and pay a visit. We stopped in the trading centre and asked around, people came to the car and told us freely all the information we wanted to know, one of the men there was willing to bring us to the home.

So here we are waiting for the father Behind our car you can see the home of Steven. The neighbours came and everybody told us the same, the uncle was the real father! When he arrived we had a good talk with him and we told him that it is not good to lie. He felt that he needed a good story, otherwise we might not want to help. he asked us to forgive, so we did and we told him to come and visit Steven.

We continued our trip and the doctor saw the three baby's. With the two new baby's was it not so bad, only one of them we have to bring back in 6 months, to see how she developed. On the picture you can see that they took off the plaster from her leg. It doesn't help her very much. We have to exercise her leg and come back in 6 months. Then they will do an operation on her.  

Ruth is 1 year and 3 months old. She is behind in her development, but the last months we have seen a lot of improvement.She can sit now, she can hold her cup and drink herself, she plays more and she had this week her first visit to the sandbox.  She still has a long way to go, but she is on her way!!

Sad news...

I just got a phone call from the village with the news that Patrick had passed away this afternoon. I was so shocked, Patrick went home on May 2, he was not even 3 weeks home!!! The man, who called said that it was malaria, I asked if they went for treatment, he answered, they tried... so that might mean: no they didn't! I feel so sad about it, of course I asked myself now, did we let him go too early? Patrick has been with us for almost 4 months, he was small, but he had gained and was healthy. Did the family not want him? I feel for this little man, not loved by his family, I remember that the going home did not went so smoothly. At least he was loved in his time with us, he was cuddled, fed and cared for. I know he is in safe Hands now, but I feel angry, sad and I have so many questions. I guess I have to give it a place somehow.

Than the next sad news today: baby Steven, (on the picture above) he is 5 weeks old and his mother died after giving birth, the story is that also his father died in Nov. in a car accident. We were a bit worried about him, because he cries so much and is so tense. Today, Meri took him to the doctor, she didn't trust his eye sight. And she came back with the sad news that Steven might be blind and deaf. He doesn't react on the normal way. He is only 5 weeks old, so the doctor told us to come back in one month. Steven is a beautiful baby, I can't believe that this is true, but yes, he does react different than the others. Maybe that is the cause of his crying, blind and deaf, you live all alone in your own world, only touch can give somehow contact. We had to wipe away some tears, who would care for this little baby without any parents?? But we still have hope, maybe we are wrong, we pray and observe, we care and we cuddle. Steven must feel that he is loved!

Sometimes you feel so helpless, you can do so little and the children are suffering, I tell you a story about what happened on Saturday, it is also a sad one.. The probation officer and the police came by in Amecet to ask if we could help. There were 3 children staying at the police office, there were a lot of problems and they wanted to bring them home in their village. Simon went with them, to help them drive there. The father of the children died in December and after that their mother went crazy. She didn't want to see her children and was mostly away from home. Then the uncles took all the belongings of the family, the cows, goats, the money on the bank, the mattresses and even the household things. The children were sent to Soroti to stay with an aunt. The aunt was not happy with that and the children were not cared for. The oldest girl of 14, went into prostitution and even the second girl from 11 years went with guys, because they were so hungry! There are two more children ( 8 and 4 years old). When they reached the village, the police and the probation officer talked with the family and the local authorities. It was clear that they could not stay there and after all the talks, they brought them back to the aunt. Talked with her and there is a police case now for the family. Who will talk for the children?? Who will fight for righteousness for those innocent children? It makes me sometimes so helpless, so inadequate. There is so much suffering.

Sorry, this blog is a bit sad, but I can't help it, that is how I feel at the moment. We do have many happy moments, but there are also days like today. And we don't give up, we have a good cry and then we go on!!

First aid lessons for the aunties.

Every two weeks we have some training we share with the staff. The training might go about HIV/AIDS, or the ARV medicines, or we talk about fever, diarrhea or coughs. We also talk about things as hygiene and ways to help the children develop. Today we had Meri (our Canadian nurse) share about first aid.

Here you see us standing around the table, don't worry, that are no babies, laying on the table, just dolls! We have our training at the time that all the children are resting, except Helen, she came walking into the room and she was directly promoted to model patient. We had done nose bleeding and here we were talking about seizures. You see Helen laying on the table.

Then we all walked outside to our trampoline. Meri taught us how to support an arm, which might be broken, after jumping on the trampoline. Helen enjoyed being "our patient" and played it very well.

Here, she broke her leg, while jumping on the trampoline, and the staff supported her leg with a pillow and carried her out, to go for X-ray. It made me urge all the staff to keep ALWAYS an eye on the children when they jump on the trampoline.

Then we practised on each other making a good support for our broken legs, while using things that are around us. (baby blankets, skipping robes, aprons etc.) We had also a lot of fun!

Here shows Meri how to lay a child in the right posture, while the child is having seizures. And we practised that on each other.

At the end we clapped for Helen for being such a good "patient" and she received her payment ( a nice lollipop). Next week we hope to do the second part of the first aid lesson.