Vignettes

Dear Friends,

First of all,*it's hot!* *And humid!* The weather had been on a cooling trend and I thought winter was just around the corner, now it's as hot as when we first arrived. Blistering sun, sweltering shade.

So I thought I'd just give you some short vignettes of what I've noticed,so here we go.

AIDS. Three days ago we arrived at Boke camp and I saw a woman -- very thin -- laying on the ground outside a hut. Adelitus learned from Evaster that she has HIV/AIDS and has been returned for "home care." That is, there's nothing else the hospital can do for here, so they've sent her home to die.

Malaria. It takes just one bite from an infected female anophiles mosquito to give someone malaria. Babies are most prone, but anyone here can get it. So I take my medicine and sleep under a mosquito net every night. It can set in within a day, or it can set in up to a year after the bite. And the medicine is no guarantee against getting it. All that said, It'snot a big worry.There's lots of medicine to counteract it, and for those on the medicine, almost no one come down with it.

Boke Bouquet. Adelitus has been on the warpath at Boke camp for them to clean it up. He's tired of the sick babies caused by bad public health. He's had them clean up the latrines and pick up the feces spread all around. We piled two big heaps of trash and burned them. The last coulple of days he's had them clean up the old mud bricks laying around. The good ones they've stacked up and the rest they've broken ino dirt again. Where old huts used to be, they're going to plant vegetable gardens. Adelitus has saved many lives here.

Demonstration. Rosette and Monichave been here from Jinga for five days on their own. They both went through Ken's training last October. They decided that the people must *own* the stoves and know how to use them, so they been talking to the camp residents about how to use the stoves. But that brings up an interesting point. They *can't* talk directly to the residents because they don't speak the same language! Although English is the official language here, most people speak a local language -- Lual here. Monic and Rosette, coming from over a hundred miles away, speak a different language.

MSF. There's a Dutch film crew here doing a documanetary on Medecines sans Frontiere -- Doctors Without Borders. The group here is sponsored by the Dutch. We've personally had mixed reactions to MSF. We took a four day old baby to them that had stopped eating, but they refused to take her because she wasn't close enough to death! We usually go to the Pentocostal Assemblies of God Hospital. They won't turn away anybody, but to keep from being overwhelmed, they require a $2.50 entry fee plus the cost of medicine. Although they will eventually let a patient out that can't pay, they demand to be paid before release. Just part of the system. When you see that the hospital and staff are so overwhelmed, you understand they have to have some rules to protect themselves.

Water and Power. We have power outages here almost every day. I didn't nderstand why until I read a headline in the local paper saying that another power plant will come on line and that the rolling blackouts will be stopped. Now the power was out at the Dutch women'shome for a different reason. The landlord didn't pay the bill-- over USh 1,000,000. Judith spent a day on the phone to the landlord and the power company and they reattached the line -- but there was no electricity anyway. The water has been off at Mathew's home because the main valve is broken. Mathew returned from Kampala after three days and fixed it himself. Ofc ourse the Internet itself occasionally goes out as does the cell phone network. TIA -- This Is Africa :-)

Another demo. I'm so proud of Christine! she's helped Mary with a cooking demonstration at Erute camp -- a very complete performance with lots of information. She's also desigened an "aten," the local word for a spacing bracket to go on top of the stove so that a pot doesn't sit right on top of the flame. She's also made a sample ceramic stove cover to see if the local potters can make them cheaply enough. She and Mary, Rosette and Monic have made a couple of hay boxes. The idea is that they stuff a cardboard box or basket with insulation -- cotton, newspaper, pine needles, grass. When they cook beans, for instance, they get the water boiling for about 10 minutes then put the pot in the basket with an insulated pillow on top. The food continues to cook, saving much fire wood.

Drill Sergeant. Mathew is very interested in getting clean water to the camps. He'sdrilled over 200 100-foot-deep wells with his very small rig. Ken has an idea for a cheap rig that will be run by a motor scooter. So he held a seminar for the well drillers, metal workers and other interested people. Christine had several good questions that brought about a couple of design changes. Another pat on the head for her!

Soccer. The people here are fan-atics about soccer. When there's a couple of good *English* teams on, the hotel fills up with people who come to watch on television and cheer. There are a few beers consumed, too. There are good African teams -- also televised -- but it's the British teams that draw the audience. Most of the day, the television is on CNN.

Servants. The employees at the hotel are like hotel workers in the U.S., but they start about 7 a.m. and work until 9 or 10 p.m. They are quite solicitous and come by often to ask if there's anything they can get us. The room cleaners (both men and women) always greet us with a "good morning" and a smile. Although they bow and scrape a bit, it's different from the bowing and scraping at the camps. The camp residents (tried calling them "campers" one day, but that just doesn't seem appropriate) have lost a lot of their self respect and dignity. The treat us as their saviors. But we're not! We've come to make stoves and help out a bit, but we can't feed them or heal them or clothe them or restore their souls. The employees at the hotel are a long way up the ladder, even at their low pay and long hours.

Mathew in Kampala. Mathew was in Kampala for three days attending to ANCC (All Nations Christian Care) business. They received a container of drugs that he had to work at to get since someone tried to re-direct it to another group. He met with several government leaders and bought some equipment to repair wells. Someone donated a small pick up truck to another group here, so Mathew packed it with his stuff and drove it back for them. We got to use it for one day.

Reptiles at home. All the hotel rooms open to an open courtyard with a garden in the center, mulched with rocks -- a perfect place for lizards to play. They lie about on the rocks and scamper down in between them when we walk by. The large bright orange and bright blue are my favorites. There must be five or six varieties altogether. At night, it's a different story. There are light fixtures along the wall with a conduit coming down into them. I didn't notice for several days, but under that conduit is a perfect place for a gecko. It's warm, food comes righ to them and they're pretty safe. But if you watch them too closely, they scamper up the wall into some metal louvers. Out of the reptile category, but still in the bug eaters category, are the fruit bats. They hang by the hundreds in the trees along the road and are like a large flock of seagulls coming out at sunset.

Predators. There is a flock of about 100 buzzards, standing about 4 feet tall, that hangs out in the hotel grounds and on the large parade ground across the street. There are also a lot of African crows. Have I mentioned that Petra and Judith have two pet chicks? They're just about three months old. They are basically house pets, but they get outside to peck bugs every day.Two days ago Judith came outside to find blood and feathers but no female chick! A crow had come to breakfast. Judith was very practical about it saying that at least it's part of nature's plan.

Lori. We had a visitor all this week -- Lori Uyeno -- a surgeon young from San Francisco. She's assessing the staffing at the local health facilities as part of an ongoing program to help get good doctors and health workers here. We showed her our projects and took her to the Rachelli Center where the rescued children are rehabilitated. She returned to Kampala today where she is based. She joined our merry gang for meals and conversation. Last night she went to the local dance joint with Judith, Chuck and Monic. Her last name is similar to our friend Jun's last names -- Ueno. She told us it a sort of Ellis Island thing where her family got her name changed by the U.S. Immigrations Service.

Christine, Adelitus and I leave here next Friday already! We'll be home on the 25th. I'll try to send a couple more epistles, but I'm low on time,so I'll send this now.

Thank you all again for your support.

Peter