Layers of Life Here in Uganda (Update #2)

Wasaayo(good afternoon) everyone!

I hope you all have been well! I truly cannot believe that I am updating you all with less than 2 short weeks left here in Bundibugyo. This summer has flown by and it breaks my heart to think that I have to leave so soon. I feel like I am finally starting to settle into the rhythms of life here, and I absolutely love every minute of it!

We have been in our typical weekly ministry for about a month now. I am one of four interns here, and we each have a slightly different weekly schedule because our ministry placements are a little bit different based on where our passions to serve are. Each week I begin with planning for the environmental camp that we are hosting here on the mission on Tuesdays and Fridays. We put on this camp to teach about 20 local students (COVID limited numbers because Uganda is still in lockdown) about the environment around them, and encourage them to see how Christ is present in creation. The camp is called “Buhangua Camp” which means “Creation Camp” in Lubwisi, the local language. Monday afternoons the other interns and I are being discipled by one of the missionaries who typically works as a pastor for the Christ School students. This time has become so special and important in pouring into us so that we may be encouraged for the coming week! On Tuesday mornings I go to the local village hospital, and work with the BundiNutrition program. This is a 10 week program that implements both preventative and curative curriculum/care for malnourished children in this area. The program provides nutritionally rich food, supplements, vitamins, education, and a Bible message each week of the 10 weeks of the program. The goal is to help cure malnutrition in the area, and then provide mothers with the tools necessary to be educated on a nutritionally stable diet for their children/how to continue to provide that for them. I get to help take weekly measurements for the participants in the program and put together vitamin packets for newly admitted children in the program.

BundiNutrition Program

A few weeks ago we also had the opportunity to help with a mass malnutrition screening at the DRC refugee camp here in Bundibugyo. We are very close to the border, and the camp is receiving about 100-150 refugees per day. In the past week their occupancy has doubled, so we volunteered with a few others to help screen for malnutrition, and admit severe cases into the health center adjacent to the camp for immediate care. I ask that you be praying over this camp as nearly all of the people there have picked up and left their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs. COVID is rampant inside this camp, with very few tests available. They are currently only testing symptomatic people with about a 40% positive percentage. Many of these people then escape back into the camp population out of fear and denial of what COVID could mean for them and others around them. The oxygen supply is slim at all the hospitals. Currently the Bundibugyo district hospital only has 9 of 19 oxygen cylinders available, leaving the supply limited for COVID positive cases, and also in other wards in the hospital, such as the NICU.

While we were at the camp, we were fully dressed in PPE and crowds swarmed around us prior to them even knowing why we were there. Mothers with groups of children were desperate for us to provide any sort of medical attention or relief so lines formed quickly. It was overwhelming and heart breaking. We were only screening children 5 and under, and some moms brought up as many 6 children. This means they traveled at least 35miles across the border with all their children under the age of 5, entirely on their own. As I was measuring the arm circumference of some kids I saw them carrying around the sanitation bags our PPE came in; they were playing with them as toys. I held in a break down as I realized that my trash was a highlight of joy for them. Then, also while I was trying to measure, a few desperate moms pointed to their children, trying to ask me to help them, but between the language barrier and me only being there to screen, all I was able to say was “I am sorry I am not a doctor”. My experience at the camp left me frustrated with the fairness of life, and grieved for these mothers. My inability to help left me feeling inadequate. I was and still am trying to cope with and process what I saw. I still don’t understand how I got so lucky to be born into my own circumstances when there is such a disparity in resources and simple life necessities. I felt guilty that I did nothing to deserve being born in America, and the many blessings that come with that. I still don’t understand this, but God in His mercy and love has brought me to the conclusion that ultimately our earthly circumstances will be washed away. No matter the circumstances we are born into, we are all His children, and His Kingdom is coming. So I am choosing to trust and hope in the truth of the future Kingdom, and the knowledge that it is for all of us, even when things on this earth seem so unfair. The hope is with us and God’s kingdom is coming. Right now I can do what I can. I can share this hope and love in surrendering my life to the will of God, and take with me a greater sense of endurance for sharing the message of the Gospel with all people.

Ok rabbit hole over-back to the weekly routine! Most Tuesday afternoons consist of a language lesson with the other interns and our two amazing language teachers named Thomas and Katu. Thomas is the sweetest, kindest man, and a father of 5! His joy is absolutely contagious and he constantly makes all our days. Katu is 20 years old and about to finish her final year at Christ School with hopes to then attend University! She has become such a dear friend to me, and walks with her one of my favorite ways to spend free time. She has taught me about life and culture here through stories of her family, her life, and her aspirations. Katu is humble, full of grace and she has taught me a whole lot about patience (especially during our language lessons when I just CANNOT pronounce the words right haha)!

Wednesdays are one of my favorite days because I get to go to the hospital and shadow the missionary here that is pediatrician! As fascinating as it is to watch and learn on these days, they are long and emotionally draining. I am never fully prepared to witness the conditions and the need of the district hospital. There are few beds, and it is overcrowded daily. With no waiting rooms and open walkways between the wards, families must sit outside on the pavement with their own blankets while their sick relatives lay inside. The patients who do not have beds are on the floor inside the ward, and power for the hospital is frequently unreliable. Getting to follow Dr. Jennifer around has been the biggest blessing. She teaches me about compassion and authority for change. She has made amazing strides for advocacy of protocols at the hospital. She is patient in her teaching in a way that has allowed me to learn more than I ever thought I would in this short time-including how to balance the emotional toll of working in the hospital with empathy for the patients. There aren’t words to describe what it is like there, but it makes me feel simultaneously broken hearted for the families and patients,but also hopeful/passionate about the work that is being done here to create improvements.

Dr. Jennifer teaching the Somali Interns and I at the District Hospital about premature baby care.

Wednesday afternoon, Thursday, and Friday afternoons the interns and I take part in other various projects around the mission depending upon what needs to be done. We have worked through a couple things like painting Christ School and organizing the church library for the students and children when they are able to return after lockdown. All of our free time in the afternoons are filled with time to spend with the local kids that come around to “shade” (what they call coloring), playing football (soccer), or going on walks with our new local friends. My favorite time in the afternoons is getting to shade dinosaurs with two of the little boys named Chauncey and Joshua! If it’s an extra special day they help us cut down a jackfruit from the tree in our yard and we all take a piece as it gets dispersed to all the little groups of kids hanging around our yard(side note- I HIGHLY recommend trying jackfruit if you haven’t- it is, in my opinion, the new superior fruit and very underrated:)). By the time we get to the evening, the other interns and I come together to cook a meal together, and sit around our table to update each other on the day. The days here leave us exhausted and often times with little words to reflect, but there is never a shortage of laughs and crazy stories from the day!

Svitlana (another intern) and I with our friends- Chauncey, Ilijo, and Jaymu.

My time here is hard to explain, and I wish more than anything I could take you all here with me. From walks to the Nyahuka village market down the road, to learning how to drive a boda( little motorcycles here), to family style pizza nights on Thursdays with the whole team, I am constantly overwhelmed with the joys of life here. I think I came in expecting a lot of “huge” things to happen right away, but what I have found is a whole bunch of little moments that show me Gods love throughout the day. Life here is absolute chaos, but somehow completely slow paced, and relationship focused. We leave for everything 15 minutes early to allow time for the many greetings (the 2minute-1hr long conversation you MUST stop to have if you pass someone you know) we will probably have on our way to our destination, even if the destination is just across the street because the culture here will never dismiss a person for a task. I have encountered God in the mundane here, but the mundane is what I have fallen in love with. The mundane of life here feels like eating the best blueberry in the world- it’s tiny but you bite into it and it shocks you with how much sweetness and goodness explodes out of it. There are so many layers to this life and what the Lord is doing here. The layers are the little blessings stacked on top of one another that make a huge cake of God’s faithfulness. The masses of 12 year old boys on our back porch every afternoon show me God’s love in shading out of old coloring books, making chai (Ugandan tea), and in singing Hakuna Matata from YouTube clips of The Lion King. The days in the hospital are teaching me that there is endurance in the fight to know His hope, and His light shining in the darkness even when it’s hard to see. The families on the mission are teaching me that God is sufficient in using my weakness for His glory, and He is placing exactly where we are for a purpose.

Full team photo!

Layers upon layers of learning, and yet there are not enough words to explain it all. Each time I think I can wrap my head around this time in Uganda, the more God moves me out of my comfort zone. I have decided that for now I am ok with not having all the right words, and maybe never having enough to do justice to these stories. I am praying that the next few weeks are filled with more layers that challenge me and more of my weakness, because God is pouring His grace over it all. Please be praying over the last few weeks in Uganda, and how God chooses to move in ministry here. Please be praying over the depth of my relationships here and how Gods love is evident through them, but also for peace in leaving the people I have come to love so much. Please pray that when I leave it is Christ’s love that is remembered and that I am able to have humility and surrender through the end. I love you all sooooo much and am incredibly grateful for your prayers and support!

Additional Prayer Requests

COVID lockdown is still active here, along with an enforced curfew. The cases are still on the rise with slim resources and near no vaccines. Please be praying for life to return to normal here, for the number of cases to remain manageable, and for vaccines/oxygen supply to be able to reach here.