Thank you US Med Students!!

Hello again friends!
This is Sarah again writing from Uganda. If you haven’t read Brin’s last post you definitely should go read that now!

Ok, now that we’re all on the same page let me tell you about three awesome individuals… Connor, Anne Marie, and Jennie. These are 3 medical students that are volunteering with ELI (the organization that Brin came to Uganda with 2 years ago). They have been working in a hospital in Iganga, Uganda. Brin met them when she was here a couple of weeks ago, and they jumped on board at the chance to come out to the school and do medical exams on all 200 kids! What a blessing!
So last Tuesday we all loaded up in a car and made the journey out to Orange Giraffe. We set up a make shift clinic in the school’s small office, and the kids piled in. We saw a lot of scrapes, cuts, worms, and fungi. We also saw a lot of smiles, joy, and hope. After the kids were examined, I handed each of them a little piece of candy. You would have thought I had handed them a million dollars by the looks on their faces! It was so precious! 6 bottles of hydrogen peroxide, 200 feet of gauze, and 8 hours later every single kid at the school had experienced their first medical exam. I’m happy to report that no one had anything so serious that required being taken to a clinic. The medical students do want to follow up with some kids and distribute some medicine to help kids with ringworm and other infections. I’m also happy to report that the 2 sweet boys that we took to the clinic a couple of weeks ago are doing much better. Both of their legs look better, and they said they had less pain. We still have some more treatment to do, but the improvement is incredible! That’s my observation of the school in general… we still have lots of work to do, but the improvements that we’re making are unbelievable. I can never say thank you enough to Connor, Anne Marie, and Jennie!

African Emergency Room

This is Brin once again. Sorry for the long wait, but this has been a hard blog to write. Currently, I am sitting in the Nairobi, Kenya airport on a layover, waiting to board my flight to Bombay, India. If you’re wondering why I’m not staying in Uganda, we might be in the same boat. Deep down inside, I really, really wanted to stay, but alas, my reason for leaving is simple. While in Uganda visiting the SOUP site, I was also researching a small niche of Econ Development, which you can read about further in my other blog. I am traveling in Europe, Africa and Asia on a grant funding by my university (Berry College). Enough of that boring intro, it’s time for me to explain the purpose of this blog entry.  
 
Two blog entries ago I explained the severity of health problems in Isiti, Uganda. The lack of medical care given to people is simply astonishing. The average family in Uganda has 8 children. However, in the village that number is sometimes double. Can you imagine? That’s a lot of sharing. Family planning is important, but never truly stressed. Therefore, children are not given proper medical treatment (among other things) due to lack of finances.
 
In that blog I explained my reaction when I saw a girl with an untreated bacteria above her ear. I vowed to purchase ointment for the girl to prevent her from undergoing any type of social stigma for having such a visible problem. Then, a teacher explained that every child in the village drank well water and therefore had worms. Appalled by this realization, the SOUP will now provide tablets for each child to eradicate the worms. But more importantly, Sarah Thomas (SOUP-Staff member) will gather the women of the village for a day of training. She will teach them basic ways to prevent worms, like boiling the water for instance. She’s also planning other things, but I’ll let her explain later.
 
This is where I really want to STOP writing… but I will continue.
 
The second day I went to the village, Sarah joined me. We spent the morning playing with the kids, eating lunch, talking with the teachers, and interviewing old students. A pretty perfect day.
 
As we were about to wrap up our day I saw a little boy limping away from school. I called him over and saw a wound on his left leg. Without hesitating I brought him into a private room and asked a teacher to join me. “My name… it is Adam,” said the little guy. The teacher explained to me that Adam broke his left leg 5 years ago and the village doctor fixed it. But, my friends, it was not fixed. It was healed, but it was not corrected. He walked very differently than his peers, especially considering the difference in length between the two legs. But this actually wasn’t my main concern. He also had a very large and infected wound on the back of this very leg.
 
“Are you in any pain, Adam?”
 
He looked at me and responded very clearly, “Yes.” He tripped in January (probably due to the previous injury), and injured himself. The wound was never treated. It is now June and an infection clearly exists where the wound first occurred. This is NOT OKAY.
 
Immediately I asked the headmaster to call every injured child in the area to meet with me.
 
About 15 out of our 242 students came forward, but they were mostly in pain from topical and very treatable wounds. Except for one. Ronald.
 
Ronald was also walking with a small limp. I asked him to show me the problem. He lifted his pant leg to show me his left knee. I was appalled. His knee was exactly twice the size of his right. Infected from the inside out. (This is pretty graphic, so refrain from reading if you feel uncomfortable.) From his knee, a small hole leaked fluid. Slowly, but constantly. “How old is this wound?” I asked. The headmaster responded, “We’re not sure...maybe 5 years, but the parents do not want to treat—they think it’s cancer.”
 
Without thinking twice I responded, “We’re taking Ronald and Adam today. Right now. Let’s go.” Sarah nodded her head in agreement and after Michael spoke with the parents we were off.
 
We arrived, after an hour's drive, to a private doctor, where I was treated for Malaria 2 years ago.
 
“If you had waited any longer this leg would need amputation,” said Dr. Musa. I wanted to cry, I wanted to scream, but I just stared at little Adam. “Okay, Doctor, well let’s fix this.”
 
We went back to the operating room and the Doctor poured alcohol onto his wound and scrubbed the infection. I held Adam as the doctor scrubbed. He screamed and squeezed my hand; his little African arms beat the table as big tears fell from his little face. I lay beside him and cried silently as I prayed. Finally, the doctor finished scrubbing and gave him an injection to kill the infection.
 
After everything, my strong little Adam wiped his face as I carried him to another room.
 
Rest assured, he will be okay, no amputation necessary. J
 
Ronald was next. If the infection in his knee had grown any larger the doctor would have required amputation. However, Dr. Musa took Ronald into surgery almost immediately.  
 
I sat through the surgery, which is a normal for mothers in Uganda. J It was disgusting, but everything went well. It was not cancer, but rather a really imbedded and really infected internal wound.
 
Post-surgery I brought them both ice cream and watched them smile as they devoured ever drop.
 
I would also like to mention that Sarah Thomas was a champ throughout this entire time. AND the girl is a praying machine. She has stamina.
 
We ended up paying for everything on the spot as well as purchasing prescriptions and further injections for the weeks to come.
 
To prevent this from every happening again I made an agreement with Michael and the SOUP teachers. If a child is EVER suffering or even sick, provide treatment for that child immediately. These kids were suffering from preventable pain; if treated earlier it would have never been an issue.
 
I ended up meeting three American med students from the Universities of Florida and Ohio who are currently interning in Uganda. I have coordinated with them to visit our school as soon as possible and do physicals on every child over a 2 day period.
 
Also, a wonderful woman and her daughter have offered to provide mosquito nets for each child at our school. That is 242 mosquito nets. Pretty rad.
 
We purchased medical supplies and will continue to treat Ronald and Adam until they are completely healed.
 
Each child, regardless of color, background, parental situation or whatnot shall not suffer.
 
The SOUP has big BIG plans for this village. More than just fixing all our babies, first and foremost, we will make each and every one of them well.
 
 
Brin
 
PS: if you have any questions or suggestions, please email me at TheAfricanSOUP@gmail.com
 
 
 

Some SOUPer Babies Need Our Help!

Today completely rocked my world. But before I start, I need to explain a few things. Right now, I’m sitting under a mosquito net, I am in a bed, and I am in a room with four walls. The walls are nothing special, but they are strong, dry and reliable. But right before I came into this room I sat on a wooden couch and ate rice and beans with my African SOUP partner, Michael. But WAY before dinner or bed-time I sat on a plane flying through the stratosphere sipping cola out of a very clean plastic cup. A nice woman handed me this cola on a napkin with an additional option of either cookies or crackers, but I kindly declined because of the filling previous meal. Fast-forward.  Here I am sitting in this simple African setting. I do not have wi-fi or the capability to stalk on Facebook, but my mind is on overhaul.

Today I went to the SOUP's new school/orphanage site. As I arrived, 200+ shy, yet eager children came out to greet me.  They jumped up and down and a little one latched onto my leg. :-) I started to feel a bit emotional. These kids looked different. I couldn’t quite grasp the difference, but it seemed so evident. Then it hit me. These kids were being fed, educated, and cared-for. BEING CARED-FOR! They each lacked a lot. They lacked a few very obvious things, but as of right now, these children are whole, happy kids! This almost took me off guard; it was as if I was expected the same scene I ran into two years ago when I first visited the site. I was wrong and I am so overwhelmed. It was in the moment that I realized a very important lesson: our African staff, the SOUP staff, little old me, and all of our donors put together could have never made this happen. This was only made possible with the complete encouragement, grace and love of our mighty Savior.  How beautiful!

The new land we purchased last year (about 1 mile from the current school) has also made momentous strides. We have a building! It’s within weeks of finishing. It will be a new school with plenty of room for our beautiful kiddos to learn. We also dug a 30-foot latrine for the future bathroom facilities. Soon our kids will transition from the last location to this new one.

Now that I have stated the steps we have made forward I need first explain what we are lacking (if you have a weak stomach, please refrain from moving forward and flip on a Lifetime flick).  At the very beginning stages of the SOUP we planned on just meeting the physiological needs of the children (especially the completely orphaned children) in a very rural and impoverished community in Uganda. We basically wanted to feed them, clothe them and send them to school. However, as we began, we realized that our call was more than just providing the basic for the kids.  We needed to do more and so we committed. We committed to building a new school, with a standard far higher than the first one, but more importantly, to build homes and families for these orphaned children. To clarify— Our charge has not changed. However, I’m afraid I overlooked the fact that every child in this community lacks so much. SO so much.

As I sat and spoke with the teachers in a very broken English conversation, I noticed a rash on a little girl’s head. I called the little girl over and asked what happened. The teacher said that the parents could not afford any ointment for her head, which was infected by a bacterium that left the right side of her head bald.  In a confused, yet very angered tone I asked why we had not taken the call to fix such a problem. He smiled and responded, “There are far worse health problems here, that one would just need to wait.” Slightly perplexed I asked what else was wrong with our children. “None of these kids sleep under mosquito nets, so many fall sick with malaria and each of them have worms from their water at home,” responded the teacher.  “WHAT?!?!”

I felt so terrible. These beautiful children were sick and I was doing nothing. I was clueless of such a serious threat to these kids. He noted that this was common and nothing personal. But it was personal. It is personal. These kids are no longer lost and forgotten-- WE, those who strive for supporting the least of these, will not allow that to happen.  So before we move forward with building, each child needs a mosquito net and each child needs to be treated for worms. Michael and I will go out tomorrow and get the prices for these two items, along with ointment for that little girl.

As I sit in this modest room in Iganga, Africa, I sit under a mosquito net, protecting me from malaria and other diseases. The very, very least I can do right now is also provide that opportunity for someone far more important than myself.

I did not want to report my visit without being completely honest, so please do not think that such a terrible realization ruined my visit. We have come so far! It’s amazing the things that have been done in two years, but like I said we can do so much more! These kids deserve it. They are full of joy and full of life.

Two years ago I journeyed to a village on a field visit, now this village has a name a purpose and 200 faces. I don’t need cookies or cola or clean plastic. I just want God’s purpose to fill each of us. To feel an ounce of His pain for the “least of these.”  There is no turning back. :-)