More updates

So this week has been very busy for us. We had our shallow watewr well meeting and a safe water outreach yesterday and it went very well. We have sold five bottles of water guard which will help destroy any bacteria or viruses found in the water.

We are trying to do as much as we can in the short time that we have here and make it sustainable at the same time. I'm not going to lie that sometimes it is very frustrating because we have soo much we want to accomplish but if we don't do it right everything we try to build will fall apart. Sometimes our team has it's downs when we feel like we can't do everything that we wish we could. So I ask for your prayers that we can have strength to even make a little change sustainable. We do not want to have to bury more children. We need to stay strong.

Seeing the people here is so humbling and you don't realize what we really have back in the states. These children are the happiest children I have ever seen and they have no toys what so ever. They are lucky if they have two shirts to wear. They love soccer and to play they roll up plastic bags and tie string around it to make it into a round ball. But they are always smiling. It makes me think of all the people back home that have everything in the world but are still miserable. I ask myself, what makes these people so strong, so happy? But the answer is simple, they hold onto their faith and their families. They take nothing for granted. They rejoice in the little things in life. In a place where we buried three children in one weekend. WOW is all I can say. I am amazed by them. At one of the burials the preacher said, "Don't be sad, because death is just a part of life and the Lord in heaven must have his reasons." There must be a reason for all of this, for me being here. I have been touched by so many lives and I only hope to change a few myself.

Okay enough of me ranting for now

love you all!!!

ps. mom don't forget to call me tomorrow at 1:30pm est and press+256, drop the first zero and then the rest of the number

pps. Andrea I bumped my toe harder the other day!! ahaha

ppps. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JASON I LOVE YOU!!!!!

Adventure weekend

Hello again!!





So this weekend was our adventure weekend which involved white water rafting and bungee jumping. I participated in both and it was absolutley AMAZING!!! I was so scared to jump but I did it anyway and screamed the entire way down. It was the best rush ever!!! To just let go and fly out over the nile is the most liberating feeling.



Jason and Eric, you guys would have loved rafting. It was so awesome, I flipped out of the raft a total of four times and floated down the rapids in my life jacket. We went down grade five which is the highest you can go. Luckily our raft didn't flip ever but everyone was pushed out by waves at one point or another. It was so much fun and an amazing experience.


So down to business. We had our first Malaria outreach this past week and it was a success. We sold a misquito net and spoke to over 100 people and ways to prevent themselves from getting Malaria. They seemed attentive, hopefully we will be able to help stop the spread of this disease. This coming week we are going to be very busy. We have a meeting to plan the start of our shallow well so hopefully we will be breaking ground within the next two weeks. Then we also have a safe water outreach to educate about the importance of properly cleaning the water so that people won't get water born diseases. We also have to plan a HIV/AIDS testing day in our village with our local health center. So lots of meetings and teaching sessions, we are going to be very busy.

So that's all the updates for now. love you all ttyl

ps. Andrea: I have bumped my toe, not stubbed it completely but bumped it. I can't divulge any other information at this time but I just wanted to let you know.

pps. Thank you to all of you for your support when we had the deaths in the village it was very difficult to witness and I appreciate all the comments, you guys rock.

ppps. I am learning more of the language everyday, but I still get laughed at for my accent.

Okay signing off!! BYES

A moment of silence for those we have lost

Hey everyone!!

It would be a lie if I said that this past weekend was not difficult. We had three children die in our village of Bugabula from what is suspected to me Malaria. They were eight, three and one and a half. We went to two of the burials and it was the saddest thing I have ever seen. The only thing you could hear was the wailing of the grieving mother. These events have just made our group want to work harder to prevent anymore children from getting sick. We can only hope and pray that we can help save the children of this village.

So, enough of sad news, this past week as been very busy with more interviews. Our outreaches begin on Tuesday with a Malaria education session. We did visit a health center level 2. Which was basically a house that gave out medictions. Granted they did not have any medications to give out. They were suppose to receive a new supply in March but it never came and the malaria season is already approaching. We also found out that they offer birth control and condoms but it is taboo to use them. The only way a women can protect herself from pregnancy is by getting the shot depo provera in secret so their husbands don't know about it. And a woman can have anywhere from 8 to 10 kids, that they can not take care of.

We also went to the maternity ward at the health center 4 which doesn't have much. Not even feeding tubes or oxygen. If a baby is in distress they have to send them to the hospital in Iganga. There are always women lined up to get antenatal checkups. The lack of supplies blows my mind.

Oh, I also found out that my name in Lusoga means charcoal so now all the children call me that instead. But I do have a Lusoga name which is Jubulingi, apparently it means loved or something like that.

Okay that is all the time I have now, next weekend I will be white water rafting on the nile so I don't know when I will update.

Miss you guys, hope everyone is well.

ps. mom if you need to call me (which you should cause I miss you) make sure you dial + first or it won't go through

pps. sergio, justin and kriselle, make sure my picture doesn't get too dirty, although if you rolled in the dirt it would resemble more of what I look like right now; dirty. I can't wait to take a real shower.

ppps. I have finally mastered the pit latrine!!! yay, I'm not sure if I should be too excited about that but I wanted to share.

Kaale (okay in lusoga) see you later!!

Greetings from Uganda!!!

Hey everyone!!! So it's been a week so far and I'm still alive yea!!!! There is so much to say and so little time to say it in so I will try to type as much as I can because we can only use the internet for so long. Anyway, it is absolutely amazing here, I don't know what other words to use to describe everything that I have seen so far. Even flying into Entebbe was an adventure. Normallly when you fly into an airport you see the city illuminated below you, but here it was pitched black and the airport was the smallest one I have ever seen in my whole life. The scenery is beautiful, as long as you look past the barefooted children roaming the streets.

All the volunteers are cool too, it seems like we have know each other forever and we get along really well. My group members, Matt and Katie, are really nice and we have a lot in common.

Iganga town is so different, there is only one paved road everything else is dirt. And there are so many people!! They are everywhere, we learned that 50% of the population is under 14!! That's insane. The food here is good, but all we eat is beans and rice and fruit. But the fruit is delicious mmmmm the best pinapple and mango ever!!

We've been in our village for a couple days now and the people are soo welcoming we always have children in our yard that want to play with us, which makes it difficult to get any work done but they are too cute to ignore. We play soccer with them and sing songs. They like to teach of lusoga words and laugh at us when we misprounounce them. The language is hard to learn but we are doing okay, we have the basic greetings down. Good thing we have a translator.

We have already begun our work, we have traveled to the health center and looked at the records to see the most common diseases. I was astonished by what I saw. Page after page after page of malaria diagnosis. A worker at the clinic said that 80% of the population was infected and of that 50% have complicated malaria that doesn't respond to first line drugs and the clinic has no stock of second lines drugs to treat that form of malaria. We have a lot of work ahead of us. We have started interviewing the village and they all say that we are very welcome in there village and they are happy to see us.

Oh guess what!!! I had my first marriage proposal!! It was so weird!! He said he wanted to court me and asked if I was married. Then he told me he loved me and wanted to get married. I had to say no of course but he didn't understand why. It was interesting and hopefully it won't happen again. :) don't worry andrea no one stubbed their big toe ;)

So that's all the time I have right now to update and I dont' know when I will be able to again but I love you all and ttyl!!

ps. congrats kriselle on getting cleared.

pss. I don't think I will be able to send post cards:( sorry guys it's too expensive and I don't have the money I hope you can forgive me!!

okay that's all love you