Arnold’s story

Once there was a boy called Arnold.  He lived with his brother and sister and his parents and grandmother in a two roomed house made of sticks and mud with a tin roof.  When he was 10, both his parents died of AIDS and his brother moved away to live with a relative so he could carry on going to school.  The family had a small plot of land where they planted bananas, egg-plants, beans, sweet potatoes and cassava.  Arnold’s grandmother had heard of Global Care and applied for sponsorship and as Arnold was in effect the head of his household and a double orphan, a UK sponsor was found for him.

Over the next 4 years the little family unit of Arnold, his sister Betty, and his grandmother struggled to survive.  They had no source of income and the only food they could eat was what they could grow on their land.  Every year they had to work the land and plant whatever they could and hope that the rain would be kind to them.  To vary their diet, Arnold’s grandmother made baskets to sell for a few shillings at the market. 

Betty and her grandmother had one room and the other room was used as a living room during the day and Arnold slept in it at night.  He was given a mosquito net but there was nowhere to hang it so he couldn’t use it.  There wasn’t any money for a mattress and anyway there was nowhere to put it when they were in the house.  They didn’t have a proper latrine so Global Care built them a pit latrine at the bottom of the land.  It made their lives much better but the neighbours were unhappy as they said it was a better building than most of the houses.

Every day Arnold went to fetch water then worked on the land while his sister cleaned and if there was any money, his grandmother made millet porridge.  At weekends the children did most of the washing and the grandmother washed what she could of her own clothes.  After they’d done their chores, they walked the 2km to school, setting off at about 7am.  They both had a meal at school thanks to Global Care and often that was their only meal of the day.

When Arnold was 16 and had started Senior school, he began to feel unwell. He developed a rash and was taken to the local health clinic in Rukungiri by Moses, the Global Care Area Manager.  There were no doctors at the clinic but they gave him some medicine.  For 2 months he was ill, gradually feeling worse even though the rash had gone.  When he started to develop joint pains which affected his walking, he began to be worried about how the family would manage.  It was very painful to dig, hoe and weed, and Betty had to fetch all the water.  He didn’t like her having to go alone in the early morning. Eventually Arnold couldn’t manage the walk to school and after a week, he went back to the Global Care office to ask for help.

Dr Tom from England was staying and he and Moses decided that the best solution was for Arnold to go to hospital an hour’s drive away at Kisiize.  As the Mzungus had a car and driver with them it made sense to go soon and they arranged to pick him up at 6am one morning.  Arnold stayed the night before at his uncle’s, who lived near the main road and the car arrived with Moses and Allen from the office and Dr Tom and Barbara. 

Arnold felt sick and tired and his joints hurt.  The Mzungus were looking out of the window and talking about the sunrise.  Arnold wasn’t sure what that was about – he saw the sunrise every day.  The talked about the beauty of the scenery – to Arnold the land was hard work and often let him down.  He’d been struggling with losing much off his banana crop to the banana wilt disease.  They talked about the children running along the side of the road while the car rushed past – didn’t they realise that’s what he and Betty did every day? Trying not to get dust in their eyes and mouths and sometimes having to jump out of the way of speeding cars, taxis and motorbikes. The road had speed-bumps at first and then it was rough, each bump jarring his painful limbs.

They arrived at the hospital at 7am and luckily were fourth in the queue of patients.  At 8am a drum was beaten to call the staff to prayers and the adults decided they would go to the chapel as Arnold was happy to be left on his own.  He watched the slowly gathering people and felt helpless and worried about his situation.  At 8.30am they began to register patients.  Allen told him that she used to work at the hospital and she had lots of friends there, so she made sure the staff knew that Tom was a doctor by introducing him during the chapel service. 

At 9am someone called his name and Moses went to pay for his appointment.  It was 3,000UgS[i].  Arnold knew that without Global Care there was no way he could have afforded to get to the hospital and even if he’d found a lift he couldn’t have afforded the fee.  Once Moses had paid they were moved to another queue and an hour later (at 10.20) someone said to Dr Tom – ‘which is your patient doctor?’ and Arnold was pushed to the front of the queue and taken in to see the doctor.  It was a scary experience and he was glad he had Dr Tom and Moses with him but by now he was starting to feel thirsty.  Barbara had shared some chappati that the hotel had made for them the night before – but that was at 6.30am.

 

He was sent for blood tests and had to give a urine sample. Then he had to go back and queue again.  This was the worst time, waiting for the results and at the same time watching people be carried in from cars and trucks and then taken to the wards by their relatives carrying them in stretchers.  Dr Tom, Barbara and Allen had gone for a tour of the hospital and Dr Tom appeared to say that Moses could go to the hospital staff room for tea and bananas and Dr Tom would wait with Arnold.  At 12 o’clock they went back into the doctor.  Most of his tests were negative (HIV and brucella and his urine tests) but he had a low blood count and the doctor thought he had an ulcer.   They went outside and Dr Tom went to pay for medication and the tests (32,000UgS), which Global Care would pay.

 

He was glad they’d found something that might help and that the tests he was most worried about were negative but he still felt terrible.  Dr Tom and Moses went to queue for the medication and then the first thing they did was to go and buy him a bottle of water.  He swallowed the first lot of pills.  While he waited with Charles in the bus, Barbara bought everyone egg chapattis (1,000UgS each) and he was very pleased when he saw Dr Tom come back with his food.

When he’d been waiting with Barbara, he’d asked her if she would visit his home, so the adults had a discussion and agreed to take Arnold back to his house in the car.   He was still frightened and anxious, but as the journey passed and he began to see familiar places, he started to feel safe again.   The car bumped over the rutted track to his house – not designed for cars, and he wasn’t bothered by the bumps causing pain because he knew he was nearly home. 

As they climbed out of the car and called to his grandmother he began to relax.  If the medicine worked he’d be able to do his jobs around the house.  His grandmother was delighted to see the visitors and he could see that she was moved to tears by the help that Moses and the team have given her family and to have more UK visitors to her home.  She and Arnold sat on the grass and thanked God for the help they had received from Global Care, while they listened to the others debate whether it would be better to buy a mattress for Arnold or mend the leaking roof of their kitchen.   

Then they heard them discussing if they could build a room for Arnold to sleep in. 

As they waved goodbye to the team they thanked them and Global Care for making it possible for them to live.  The team got into the car praying that the doctor’s diagnosis was right and that they would see an improvement in Arnold’s health.

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[i] Currently 4,000UgS to £1

School playtime

Hurray – the parachute came out again today, and we used the footballs paid for by my work colleagues.

We had a lie in this morning – didn’t start work till 9am.  We set off in glorious sunshine driving past houses dotted on hillsides with the magnificent mountains in the distance. We eventually arrived at a smart looking school. There were notices pinned to trees ‘say no to sex’, ‘avoid early marriages’, ‘avoid sugar daddies and mummies’ – these are in the grounds of every school, with similar messages and themes.  Another one today was ‘stay in school until P7’.  That’s primary 7 or top junior class in the UK.

The first school was a government school, Kitazigurukwa Primary School.  We haven’t come at a good time for visiting schools as the P7 exams are next week – the final exam that has to be passed if you want to move to secondary school. The headmaster was rushing off to a meeting about the exams but he took us into the class for the deaf.  There were 3 children of different ages being taught in sign language by a deaf teacher.  The blackboard was divided into 3 – one column for each age group.  The deaf children don’t mix with other children and we couldn’t communicate with them except by writing and drawing on the blackboard.   

We gave the children a ‘school pack’ each with notebooks and pencils in it donated by supporters in Coventry. The children are supported by the charity ‘Mission Direct’, there is also a Global Care sponsored child at the school.

Then we went to play with the 2 nursery classes. They marched out to PE swinging their arms and chanting ‘PE makes a man healthy and wise’…. There were 84 little children, some in scruffy torn clothes but most with shoes.  They were very excited to see us. I couldn’t resist sitting with them which of course meant I ended up playing the game.  The game, Ekibobo – Kiri Munymumba involved running round the outside of a very large (84 children) circle, racing against a child.  I will never be allowed to forget that I was beaten by a 5 year old! 

It was incredibly hot and some of the time we were running uphill. I pointed out that the 5 year old probably walked a long way to school, walked to fetch water, did PE in the hot sun every day and was a bit younger than me. Alllen played a singing game with them, and we gave them a pencil and notebook each.  It was a happy time.

The school is adding an extension for up to 72 CWD and we had a look at the dormitories and impressive wheelchair friendly bathroom.  It’s being built with UK money, and UK supporters go to help with the building. It was an impressive and encouraging visit.  

The next school we visited was Kahororo Primary School.  It was in a more remote area.  We had to stop at one point as people were making bricks at the roadside and were loading finished ones into a truck in the middle of the road.   The car crawled up a steep track – we offered to get out and walk but Charles wasn’t impressed and kept on manoeuvring round potholes and grassy banks.  As soon as we got out of the car we could tell that this was a much poorer school than the first. The buildings were older and less well maintained, there was no water harvesting system.  As the children ran out to meet us they were almost all barefoot. About half had uniforms, the rest were dressed in an assortment of ill-fitting torn clothes.  There are 8 sponsored children at this school.

We walked up to a playground (i.e. large field beside the school.  Also note that Ugandan grass is long and spiky).  The children sang a song of welcome to us.  We had P1 and P2 children – this time about 100 children.  Out came the parachute.  Moses and Allen have been looking forward to seeing how to use it all week and were delighted with it.  Allen even made up a song to go with the game ‘cat and mouse’. We gave the school a football and handed out stationery.  Every few minutes another class arrived until we had 200 children.   

We all worked hard dividing anything up to make sure that in each class every child was given the same things.  When we arrived, we’d been greeted by staring slightly uneasy faces alongside the excited ones.  By the time we left, the children were mostly smiling and laughing and wanting to touch our white skins.  Moses said that the children really appreciate seeing Mzungus because they know that Mzungus support the school but most of them have never seen a white person up close – much less played with one.

It was incredibly hot by now and as we drove back through town we decided to stop for lunch again.  I love going into these places – they are so different from the Western idea of a café and its starting to feel like we’re getting a much better idea of the variety of Rukungiri life.  Today’s hot lunch for 4 came to an expensive £6.  This is about half what we pay at the hotel.   

The hotel staff told us they are paid more than staff at any other hotel in Rukungiri.  In other hotels if there are no guests, the staff aren’t paid because there is no money.  Our hotel is part of a group and if there is no money at one then the staff wages are topped up from another hotel.  Because we have been the only guests for 3 days the staff spend a lot of time in the afternoon lounging in the bar watching unbelievably bad Ugandan soaps. 

After lunch we had an appointment at the Diocese office.  Tom is going to write about the project we went to find about – see drtomgoesglobal.blogspot.com.

As we left the office, it was pouring with rain.  By the time we arrived at our last school of the day, Nyakibale Lower Primary School, the school ground was somewhat muddy and water was pouring in rivulets down the hillside (most of the schools in this area are built on a hillside).  We were visiting the 50 children who attend the school who are deaf.  We stood in a dark (it is raining outside and there are only 4 small windows – the walls are mud, so black), noisy (rain thundering on the tin roof, children screaming outside) classroom, while the teacher translated in English and sign language and the children gave each of us a ‘sign name’.  Mine roughly translates as ‘long nose’ which is apparently the most striking thing about my face…  Once again we handed out stationery but it was impossible to take photos in the chaos and dark.

When we walked back to the car, we splodged through the mud and puddles, and were soaked while being followed  and crowded by barefoot children sliding on the stones and mud.  They weren’t encouraged to go indoors – this was recreation time – so they were outside in thin clothes in the thunderstorm.  Life here is tough for children in all sorts of different ways.  Although most of the schools had books and bookshelves provided by the government, there are few desks and chairs, no safe playing environment (did I mention the barbed wire at calf height round some building work), many children have no shoes or wet weather clothes and they have pit latrines which aren’t much fun in the rain.

It was a good day but reminded us of the challenges faced by children in this country.  There is supposed to be universal primary education, yet many government schools charge fees and the children have to wear uniforms. Many of the children have to work before and after school and it was noticeable that class sizes are high in P1-5 (did you know the average teacher:pupil ratio in Uganda is 1:100?), but numbers fall significantly in P6 and 7.  Many children go to school for the first 5 years then for a variety of reasons fail to complete their primary education.  It is hard to find and keep good teachers, especially in more rural locations.  Most children walk to school – often several kilometres through the bush or on dangerous roads.   Many adults in this area are illiterate. 

As an aside, Allen asked me today if I’d like to spend a night at her house. I’m not sure I would cope.  I managed to find an excuse and promised I’d do it if we go back but in all honesty it terrifies me –  but as she pointed out, if I really want to experience Africa I have to do more than just eat in local cafes!

A day in the life of a Global Care volunteer

I wake to the sound of squawking birds.  I have a cold or tepid shower. Today we walked down to the centre after a breakfast of fruit, eggs and chapatti.  We enjoy the sounds that accompany our walk.  There are 2 schools on opposite sides of a road and they seem to have a morning assembly competition to see who can sing the loudest.  We gave our morning greeting to the boda-boda boys on the corner waiting with for passengers for their motorbike taxis. 

We arrived to find a queue of children with disabilities (CWD) – this was at 8.30am!  The guardians had heard about the meeting yesterday and wanted to come and tell us their own stories.  We met a sick grandmother with HIV who brought a 2 year old girl with cerebral palsy.  When the grandmother goes to work digging neighbour’s fields, she makes a hole in the ground for the child to sit in.  She is looking after 9 children altogether as she cares for her dead sister’s children too.  One of the children is sponsored.  We met a baby with a deformed foot, a deaf girl, a girl who suffers with fits, a 4 year old who is deaf and dumb and is HIV+, and a boy with spina bifida.  Once again we listened to stories of poverty, inability to get work because of the CWD, little food, no money for medical care (many of these children don’t have an official diagnosis) and met grandparents who are single surviving adults in families with many children.

After this we collated the results from the HIV discussions yesterday and then set off for the prison.  We stopped on the way to buy some bars of soap which Moses cut up to give to the women prisoners. The soap comes in long slabs at 45p each.  We shop at our friend Rev Moses’ shop – The Come Again Shop.  We took some baby clothes with us too which had been donated by friends in the UK.

We met the prison governor first.  He was welcoming and pleased to see us and appeared to have compassion and concern for the welfare of the prisoners.  The women were gathered together and they sang to us and Tom & Moses spoke to them and I was asked to pray for them.  We also got a chance to talk to some of the prisoners so this is a mixture of comments from both the governor and the women! 

There are 20 women and 2 children and 1 pregnant mother.  They all share two metal huts, 10 adults in each, squashed together with a mattress each (no mosquito nets).  The mothers have to share their mattress with the children as they cannot afford to buy the child one of their own (they cost about £4).  They similarly have to share their food and soap. The huts are very cold at night and unbearably hot in the day. They all share a tiny compound with hardly room for them all to sit on the floor. Most of the women are in prison because of committing murder – their husband/boyfriend, relatives, and neighbours over land disputes.  Medical help is poor and there is none for the children, only the women.  The babies born in the prison are not vaccinated.  They sang to us, we talked to them, we gave them soap and baby clothes and we left. 

It was encouraging to meet the women – one of them told us she’d learnt a lot and would come out a better person.  And as for the children… It was heart-breaking.

We went straight from the prison to TASO to discuss the results of yesterday’s survey and to see how GC can work with TASO.  We met the manager and told him how many children needed testing for HIV.  It was an excellent meeting, the outcome is that Moses must send a formal letter and then they will arrange a full programme of sensitisation, testing, counselling and referral as necessary.  We all felt like we’d actually managed to achieve something significant so Tom took us into town for tea and snacks.

This is for my Mum… African tea comes in a flask.  It has a few tea leaves, hot milk, cinnamon and a lot of sugar.  You would hate it.  I don’t mind drinking it as its so great to be sitting round a table chatting with local people and experiencing a bit of Rukungiri life.  People come and go and sit wherever there’s a space and mugs appear in front of them followed by the flask of tea.  I had a samosa – it was very good.  Tom’s treat for 5 of us cost him the princely sum of £1.40.  The Ugandans said it was cheaper than buying the ingredients and making it themselves – but they would never normally go out for a tea break.

When we got back to the office I wrote up the HIV report for the UK managers.  I’ve just realised I probably emailed it in a format that means no-one can open it.  Hey ho.

While the others went out for lunch, Tom and I stayed at the office while a queue of people gradually arrived outside.  There was a boy who needs to go to hospital (we’re planning to take him on Thursday) and three women who had heard that the Europeans were here to give out help and came to ask us to sponsor their children.  Moses went into action explaining that there is a waiting list and the children will be assessed for sponsorship on the basis of vulnerability and specific criteria.  There are 200 children on the waiting list so at the minute they can’t take on any more names until they get more sponsors. 

Having discussed the enormity of the problem with lack of sponsors and hundreds of orphaned children in vulnerable situations, we went on to discuss what we had learnt from the people who had brought CWD.  We started summarising the problems: bad attitudes of others, exacerbated poverty, lack of medical treatment, lack of medical diagnosis and consequently no treatment and inappropriate prognosis or expectations, rejection of mothers and children, lack of support agencies, problems with communication with children who are deaf, dumb and/or blind, lack of equipment including walking aids.   We kept going back to individual situations and the enormity of what the guardians and children face. There are only 2 GC workers in Rukungiri, and 192 sponsored children – so they are faced by a huge challenge to come up with proposals to support CWD or the children in the prison.  However, we felt we came up with some practical proposals for them to present to ‘Head Office’.

The rest of the day was spent sorting out things to take on school visits tomorrow, making the inevitable trip to the ATM and then coming back to the hotel.  We’re the only people staying here and we know the names of most of the staff. They greet us with ‘Welcome back Tom and Barbara’.  We ordered our supper for later and collected the room key. 

Now we’re back in our room dressed in warm clothes (i.e. long sleeved T-shirt and fleece!) because it has rained a lot today and we’re cold. We’ll go up to the bar for supper – the staff watch endless English football so Tom might stay up with them for a bit.  I’ve ordered chicken stew, rice & chapatti.  I’ll write my blog and try to upload it if we get Internet; I’ll get the footballs ready to take to the schools tomorrow then we’ll put up the mosquito net and go to sleep. 

I suspect when we reflect on today, our main thoughts will be around the guardians of the CWD who are depressed and broken, and feel powerless to do anything.   They can’t even tell you what they need or what would help them as they cannot imagine any way out of their situation.  We’ll think of the little girl we met in the prison, being brought up in total poverty in an institutional environment, and we’ll think of ways to try and recruit more sponsors and raise funds for the work here.

Tough reality

I’m sitting on our bed listening to the rain outside and feeling shell-shocked after today.   It has been an interesting and challenging day but so much has happened it’s hard to put it into one blog.  I’ve decided that I will tell you some of the things we have done and seen today.

·        We walked to the centre for 8.30am while Charles took our bags in the car

·        We saw queues of people outside, some old or sick, some without shoes, some with walking poles – but all guardians of sponsored children

       I played Frisbee and sang songs with about 50 unexpected children while Tom, Moses and Allen talked to the guardians about the proposal to have all the children tested for HIV.

·         

       Tom and I played with these children plus more while Moses and Allen registered consent for HIV testing from the guardians.  We played with the parachute and a ball made out of old plastic bags that we found on the floor (along with a dead frog and sundry bits of rubbish).

·        Tom played his whistle and we taught the children to play musical statues and bumps.

·        After nearly 2 hours of games we sat and chatted to people still waiting and realised that a group of carers had arrived with children with disabilities (CWD) as they had misunderstood the radio announcement and thought they should come at 8.30am instead of 2.30pm

·        We got out the bag of sensory toys donated by our friend Katy and tried to keep the more disabled children amused.

·        When all the guardians of sponsored children had left, we sent Moses and Charles to buy bottles of soda (pop) and a bread roll for each adult and child who had been waiting for 4 hours to talk to us about CWD (21 adults and 25 children) – we couldn’t bear that they had nothing to eat or drink.

·        We took this group into the large hall where we all sat on the floor and Moses explained that we wanted to understand more about their lives so that Global Care could better work towards identifying ways they could support CWD.

·        While Tom and Moses and Allen talked to people, I played ball with a 3 year old girl with Down’s syndrome, read with several children, provided more sensory toys for blind and deaf toddlers, and made badges with those old enough and able to make them.  

·        I met Fred, a lovely little boy. He’d played with the parachute with us earlier, and Tom and I took turns to stand behind him for support, or lift him up, while he clung onto the parachute with his stiff slow little hands and tried to balance on his tiny bent legs.  He was a joy to be with – full of smiles and laughing at the other children.  We think he had cerebral malaria and during surgery when he was 2 he suffered a brain injury.

·        I met Faith, who has spina bifida. Her legs were covered in sores and she had pronounced hydrocephalus.  Her mother wants to take Faith to a neuro-surgical unit, but the nearest one is in Mulago near Kampala 400 km away.  She can’t possibly take Faith there. Faith needs a wheelchair but there aren’t any. Her mother has to carry her on her back (what happens when she gets too big to carry?)

·        I talked to the mother of the girl with Down’s syndrome.  She said that people (including her husband) think that time spent with CWD is wasted because they are useless children.  They say, ‘you’re running around all the time but you are not doing any work’.  She was told her daughter would never walk or talk before she was 6 years old.  She’s doing both…

·        I met the father of a girl who was born blind and has fits.  The father thinks the fits are a sign of witchcraft so he takes her to the witch doctor.  He has never taken her to a medical doctor because he thinks there is no point.  I listened while the ladies around him explained to him about epilepsy.

·        I met Mary, a bright girl who had a botched repair of congenital dislocation of the hip.  She asked if she could borrow a book to take to read to her sister. I said yes!

·        I met Grace, a 3 year old who was born with HIV.  They didn’t know what was making her sick and she became very ill and when we saw her she had brain dysfunction and severe squints.  Her mother ran off when she was born so her grandparents looked after her.  Eventually they took her to TASO and now she has anti-retrovirals (ARVs) and is beginning to improve.  She could shuffle on her bottom.  We gave the grandparents (who appeared to be very old) clothes for an 18 month old.  She was poking into everything.  They can’t afford to buy her the food she needs so her chances of major improvement are limited. We all thought that with time and treatment she might well walk.

·        In the middle of all this we went into town to a café where they were only serving cow or goat and I ate cow meat with soup and rice while Allen had goat stomach and matoke.  She was impressed by my reaction.

These people have limited support.  They live with no running water and have to go out to work to pay for food.  What do you do with a CWD if you go to work here?  There are no day care centres in Rukungiri.  They have little help with their disabled children apart from limited support for health care from the local diocese – and that isn’t available to everyone.  They have no transport and no walking aids for the children so they walk with children of all ages strapped to their backs.  We heard of people unable to go to church because the church can’t cope with the child’s behaviour.  I haven’t told you about everyone we met – its too much to take in.  No-one spoke in the car on the way back to our hotel – because at the minute we feel like we’ve met the most vulnerable children and can do nothing to help.  Now we have to digest what we’ve heard and try to help Moses and Allen think of ways they could support these families.  For more stories see https.drtomgoesglobal.blogspot.com

 

We paid about 25p per person for a drink and a piece of bread.  Next time I go out for coffee and cake I hope I remember today.  And maybe we can find a way to make it easier for some of these people to feed their children

Tomorrow morning we’re going back to TASO and to visit the women’s wing of the prison – another challenging day I suspect.