I have been meaning to share.

Patrick and one of the kids at his house.

To catch you up:

We work occasionally with our friend Patrick who started a house for street children and abandon kids. Patrick who is 19 years old along with his friend William who are both former street children themselves started taking in kids when Patrick was just a boy himself. Now with 40 children in his house and many, many others still living on the streets. Patrick makes his way to Kisneyi slums twice a week to care for basic wounds and mentor some of the boys and chat with the young girls about life among, many other hardships they are faced with daily. The boys spend the days sleeping in piles of trash, sniffing glue to get high and fighting each other, mostly because they really have nothing better to do. The girls sleep through the daylight, traveling to Williams St. at night to make a few thousand shillings (nearly a dollar) by sleeping with a man or two. As casual as it sounds, it truly is their reality. None know if they have HIV and refuse to know their status. Life in the slum is a side of Africa very few see. A place few “Mzungu’s” (white wanderer) would wander.

As you walk through, you first try to make sense of it all. But you can’t, it doesn’t make any sense. Why should anyone have to live like this? Why should girls as young as 12 years old have to submit themselves to such things? Why should each day young children be forced to serve a death sentence? Why must they go hungry? Why must they be fatherless and motherless? Why does the world look at them as a generation that has no hope?

On some level I feel blessed to be strong enough and bold enough to take a stand against it, on the other I am angry that our world has let this happen. But as my emotions and thoughts run ramped in my mind I am reminded there is hope in the little things.

We were packing up for the day and a group of boys called us over to see one of the children that had a high fever and shared with us that he hadn’t moved in 3 days. They looked at Patrick and said, “Look at all of us standing here, we are all sick, we all need something, but this boy is going to die”. In an instant I was reminded why I am here. Not to say that “I got to do anything” but that I was able to be there today. As a witness to the very things we are wrongfully letting slip through the cracks. I was reminded in some way that now that I have seen I am responsible. We took the boy who was lying in a pile of burning trash to the closest clinic; bought him a juice and he received fever reducer and got a malaria test. He is now on a drip (an IV) and has the opportunity to live another day.

As we were about to leave I asked everyone if we could stop and pray. Patrick translated to Junior (the boy) in Luganda some of the hardest words I could have heard someone speak to anyone little lone a young boy hanging on to the last moments of his life. It was in that moment I realized that tomorrow isn’t promised and that my work here really is day by day. That neither I nor anyone else that comes here will be able to save anyone from the tragedy of this world. But that God will, that he has and he will continue to. That my work here begins new each day.

*photos courtesy of Tess Safty to learn more about Patrick and his organization

Raising Up Hope Uganda visit: www.raisinguphope.ning.com

uganda ♥

have i mentioned lately that i really love uganda?

World... Meet Mercy

The photo was taken the first day we met Mercy. When we first arrived at the Kidz House we were welcomed with open arms and smiles from ear to ear. We weren't there long before we got wind that an abandoned baby was now staying there. At first I was reluctant to hold her, with the fear that I would get too attached.

A few days passed and we heard that Mercy needed to be rushed to the hospital. She had a high fever and severe cough. Carol along with one of our Ugandan Interns named Angel took Mercy to the hospital the following day. They found out she had pneumonia and was extremely malnourished they prescribed her some medication and insisted we start her on formula right away. After the day at the hospital Mercy was taken back to the Kidz House. It wasn't long before the next phone call. This time Mercy had a huge lump on the side of her head. So back to the hospital they went. They found out she had a septic infection and that had most likely started in her lungs and spread to a lymph node on her head. The doctors drained it and sent them home with more medicine.

After returning back to the guesthouse the decision was made that Mercy would stay with us until she was healthy enough to go back to the Kidz House. But before long everyone in the house had quickly fallen in love with baby Mercy. Instantly she had 11 moms and was in constant rotation between, feedings, changing her dressing (for the hole they had to drain), rocking her, changing her diaper and night duty. Loving this baby was seemly a lot easier when at all times someone could figure out why she was crying.

However, I have to be completely honest and say that I held my guard up and stayed my distance. I knew from the first night we had her until now that she may not have made it through and that at any moment she may not live with us anymore. The risks of getting too attached were to great for me to bare. So much so that I didn't even attempt to offer to fed her until right before the girls left to go back home to the states.

Now... it is just Jess and every morning when I wake up to Baby Mercy's cry I am relieved that she is with us. Mercy is not just another abandoned baby to us, she has a name now. She has a group of young women that love her more than words can explain and I am accepting that it there is purpose behind why she was brought into our lives.

Every morning, I pray that God brings a family into her life that can provide for her. I look at her and imagine what she will look like when she is older, I wonder if she is happy, I pray that she always knows she's beautiful no matter where she ends up. Every time I look at those bright brown eyes and hear that tiny giggle I am reminded of where Mercy came from. I am reminded she is not the only one, but she is the first and will not be the last of sick babies that will come into our lives. Mercy is just one of the many reasons we are reminded why our work here is so significant.

to sum it up

To all my loyal blog followers (which is four by the way, five if you include me following my own blog):

I want to apologize for not blogging as much as I should be. I hate using the excuse that I am in Africa and that it is hard for me to use the internet. But in all honesty that excuse is truth and the apology is with all sincerity. Please know that I am always thinking about you (my friends back home) and that I am so excited to get to share all that I am doing.

The last month proved to be unbelievably successful. I got to serve and love with some of the strongest women of God that I know that just so happen to also be dear friends of mine. I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to be apart of them experiencing Africa for the first time and I can’t wait to see where life takes them next and look forward to hearing all about how God uses them now that they are back home. Ladies, know that you are missed already.

Just to give you an idea of all we did in one month and as a reminder to all the girls that their work here did not go unnoticed and is not yet finished J:

Medical Clinic/New School

-Deep cleaned on our hands and knees with disinfectant (btw 3 times)

-Shoveled cow, chicken, goat, and other farm animal’s manure out of what will be the classrooms of the school

-Scrubbed and sanded the front porch

-Total trash clean up in and around the property

-Dug a 6ft by 4ft rubbish pit

-Sprayed the property for fleas and wasps

Village

- Held a Kids Kamp with over 180 children

- Hosted a medical clinic

- Hosted 3 movie nights for the whole village

- Had a football game Come Lets Dance vs. Kailro (we lost)

- Vision cast with Ben

- Cleaned out pig stalls

- Vision cast with Auntie Margaret and discussed plans for working alongside her this summer

Patrick’s House- a home for apx 50 OVC’s (orphaned and vulnerable children)

-Spent countless hours loving on the children

-Taught classes

-Hosted an art day (paintings will be auctioned off at CLD’s Annual fundraiser)

-Hosted a medical day-all kids received toothbrush’s, anti-fungal head treatment and care for basic wounds or ailments

T.O.L. aka Thread of Life

-Build relationships with the woman that work at the shop, empowered them, loved on them, and learned from them.

-Tagged 1,000 necklaces (that will be for sale on your side of the world)

-Deep cleaned the sewing shop-scrubbed walls, floors and the bathroom yay!

-Found 12 new ladies from Katonga slum that will be starting an eight-week sewing class next week!

Farm

SAVE THE KIAPO- the slogan for our farm work the last few weeks.

Kiapo is a plant that will one day be interwoven in our existing termite infested fence. As of now the weeds are taking over the fence line and we are one by one having to find the Kiapo to help save the future of our fence.

Katonga Medical Slum Outreach-

-Almost 200 people showed up to our medical outreach we held.

-Each person was checked in and then directed to a station according to need.

- We offered the following services

1.Eyes-screening

2.Teeth brushing and education

3. Wound Care

4.Head Fungus Treatment

5. Vitamins, Hydration, Dewarming

6. Pharmacy (Thank you Dr. Sara for attending to your long line of patients with “the flu”)

In addition to all of this we also offered our first ever HIV testing station. 25 people were counseled both before and after being tested for HIV.

WOW!!! Just typing it up reminds me of how hard all the girls worked during their time here. Thank you, Sara, Robyn, Catie, Carol, Elli, Kristin, and Teresa for setting the bar high for an amazing summer of volunteers.