Amy, 3 weeks old.

Babirye with a hat. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Gift in his hat. On my way to Uganda someone gave me this hat. I gave it to Gift and now all the kids want to wear it.

Gift sleeps in his hat.

Some of the little kids getting ready to sing.

Amy Joy Kisakye, born March 31, 2011

Girls giving Nakato a bath.

She is getting very clean.

Ruth, the director of Another Hope.

Baby Amy was three weeks old on Thursday and is growing like a weed.  She takes 2 – 4 ounces of formula at a time and usually wakes three times during the night.  I have gotten a pretty good system going so that I can feed and burp her without her waking up too much, most times she easily falls back to sleep.  Thank the Maker.  The director has said she will email me after her 6 week check-up as I am very interested in how much she has grown.  I have been having some of the older girls feed her and carry her around during the day so she will get used to other people.  Hark, I can hear her crying now.

I took two of the children in to Kampala to have lunch at a restaurant a few days ago.  Twaha, the child I sponsor, and Leticia, a lovely 14 year-old girl who Twaha had chosen to go with him.  It is so enjoyable to take Twaha places, because he doesn’t have the opportunity to do a lot outside the area of school and the home.  He is amazed by what I think are simple things, the elevator, fountains, the restaurant menu.  I finally had to make a lunch choice for him because the menu offered so many choices he could not make up his mind!

The twins are doing better and better every day.  They have been getting liquid vitamins for almost two months now and their general health is improving.  They still do not talk in words that make sense to me, but chatter at each other a good bit, especially when sitting on the baby potties.  Babirye has no trouble walking around and she and her sister follow the older children everywhere.  Sometimes, when she has slowed down to walk over a rough, uneven patch, Nakato (her sister) stops to make sure she is still coming along, or even goes back and takes her hand.

Today is Easter and the church service was very joyful, lots of music.  We have church here at the home now, under a tent.  The pastor comes to us, makes it much easier than walking the mile or so to church as we were doing last year.  Easter lunch was a giant feast of which I only ate a small portion as it was so much.  Chicken, and when I say chicken I mean they were alive last night, beef (not alive last night) matooke, rice, chapatti, greens, cabbage, hard-boiled egg, pineapple and soda.  The amount of food that can be consumed by an African child is absolutely amazing.  They kept saying, “Auntie Macy, my stomach is paining me, but I like the food”.

The director wanted me to show her how to make cookies, so I found a basic sugar cookie recipe on-line and we collected the ingredients and did that today.  As there is no oven here at the home we went to a home that had a small, gas-powered oven to bake them.  There were no temperature numbers on the dial so I guessed at 400 degrees.  Not only that, but there were no measuring spoons or cups, so I guesstimated those amounts as well.  Low and behold, the cookies came out pretty well!  Amazing what you can do without.

Also today we celebrated the April birthdays.  Here in Uganda, birthdays are not notable events.  A person might be told “Happy Birthday” on the given day, but not usually.  In fact, most of the children below the age of 10 to not know when their birthday is or how old they are.  So, here at Another Hope, at the end of each month there is a collective birthday celebration for whom ever had a birthday in that month.  Each birthday child receives a bottle of soda and small cake which they cut in half.  Half of the cake they share with the group and the other half they keep for themselves.  One of the April birthdays was my sponsor child Twaha, who turned 10.  I had brought chocolate and sweets with me which I wrapped into individual portions and handed out for the group.  And we had the cookies.  Then we played games and blew on those honking blowers which shoot out the rolled up paper sleeve.  Very festive.  The baby is still crying.

If all goes without incident, I should be back on Nantucket on Tuesday evening.  I will post pictures when I get home.  See some of you soon!

My visit out to the western part of the country was very nice, saw many different animals and birds: elephants, warthogs, kob, hippos, lions, crocodiles, mongooses and all sorts of birds.  It was very relaxing, quiet and I slept without interuption all night.  But,  I was glad to get back to the kids.  They will all be on holiday starting Thursday and many of then return to their guardians during this period.

When I return home, I will be able to post pictures.  I am typing this one-handed because I am holding the baby with the other, so I will sign off for now.

Thanks for your continued support!

It was a very typical week here, apart from the 2:30am fussy baby.  Some of the older kids get up at 5:00 and start making the morning porridge and everyone else it up by 6:00 or so.  The little kids get a bath, outside, no hot water and put on their school uniforms.  The older ones are doing chores during this time, anything from washing the floors and bathroom to sweeping the front yard area.  They all have their porridge by 7:00 and the 7 little kids head off on their walk to school.  The other kids finish chores, put one uniforms and the whole place is quiet by 8:00.  OK, not exactly quite, Whitney is 3 years old and will not attend school until next year.  The twins are 18 months old and busy doing toddler stuff now that Babirye is walking all over the place.  And baby Amy, who is sleeping because she was up and fussing from 2:30 – 4:30. 

I go and pick up the 7 smaller kids from school at 12:30 or so and we all head over to another school to collect 2 more younger ones who get out at 1:00.  We all head home for lunch.  The road we need to walk along is very busy with car/truck/motor bike traffic and I have adopted a very simple technique to keep them in a single-file line walking on the side of the road.  I tied a regular clothesline rope with 10 loops, spaced about a foot and a half apart.  Each child holds on to a loop and I hold the last one.  In this way, each child follows the one in front of him/her while holding their loop.  It works great and looks very sharp as well.  We get all sorts of smiles (and a few laughs) as we make our way safely down the busy road.

After lunch most of them take a nap.  The older kids start arriving back home in the later afternoon so that everyone has returned by 6:00.  Little kids bathe again at 5:00, singing and Bible reading at 6:30 (today it seems to be taking place earlier), and dinner about 7:00.  It’s dark by 7:30.

OK, none of this sounds very exciting, but we have no modern conveniences, although, I did purchase and electric kettle so I can make coffee without having to boil water over the open fire, so everything takes way longer than it would at home.  After breakfast we start making lunch so it will be ready in time.  Laundry is done by hand and hung out to dry.  Water is obtained from a giant “rain-catcher” tank in the front, but, thank the Maker, the water in the pipes to the bathrooms started up again last week!!  This is a huge, big deal because now the toilets flush and the sinks work.  OK, you have NO idea how nice this is.  In the early afternoon preparations for dinner begin.  The dinner dishes are done the following morning as they are washed outside and cannot be properly washed in the dark.  I go to bed about 9:00 for obvious reasons.

I am going out to the western part of the country for a few days starting on Monday to look at the various animals again.  This year I am adding a “Chimp trek”, hoping the “trek” part of the adventure is going to be manageable.  These few days away will give the director a chance to take care of baby Amy, so of a trial run for when I leave in a few weeks.

Hoping everyone reading this is doing well.  Best wishes to you all.

At some point in the early hours of March 31, in a village about 30 minutes from here, a woman or teenage girl gave birth to a baby girl.  The umbilical cord was tied off with a bit of twine and the baby was dropped, naked, still covered with birth fluids, into some bushes and left there.  At 6:00am a farmer found her as he was walking to tend his crops.  She was taken to a local police outpost and a bit later that day Another Hope was called and asked to take care of her.  The director here gave her a name, Kisakye, meaning God’s Grace and Amy, from an American movie she really likes.  I took over her care on Thursday at about 5:00pm.

Needless to say, she was dirty and hungry and needed all sorts of baby things, but apart from having some nasty eye goo she seemed healthy.  My estimate was she weighed between 6 and 7 pounds.  The entire home was fascinated with her, wanting to watch her getting a bath and taking a bottle.  They all marvelled at her tiny hands and feet and were horrified at her umbilical cord stump (which is alarming if you have never seen a newborn’s belly button).

Yesterday we went into Mulago hospital to be checked out at the pediatric clinic.  She received her first immunizations, weighed in at 3.5kg (7.7 pounds) and was given anti-biotic ointment for her eyes.  The doctor declared her healthy and sent us on our way with instructions to return for follow-up testing and health check in 6 weeks.  I will, of course, be home by then, but someone else will take up where I leave off.

OK, it has been a few years since I was actually responsible for a new-born baby, but I am having a great time.  Amy is beautiful, with soft, dark, curly hair and big brown eyes.  She makes funny little baby expressions and likes to be all scrunched up in a blanket.  She sleeps on my bed (under the mosquito net) for about 4 hours at a time and takes formula from a bottle without too much difficulty.  She has gas pains at night and needs to be walked about and patted on the back.  I have made a sling-type arrangement out of some fabric so I can carry her when I have to walk somewhere and need my hands free.  The other kids watch her and comment on how light her skin appears.  I try to explain that her skin will get darker as she gets older, but I am not sure they believe me.

It is hard to speculate on why someone would drop a healthy baby outside like so much garbage.  Perhaps Amy’s mother was a young teenage girl who was raped and left pregnant or maybe she was disgraced because she was pregnant and without a husband.  It is possible her mother was desperately poor or is HIV positive.  There are many scenarios in a country such as this as to why a baby would be abandoned.  However, not only is Amy’s story shocking to us, but also to all of the Ugandan people who hear it.  It is not common to treat a baby in such a way. 

As to her future, that is another unknown.  This orphanage has only been given temporary custody and Amy may be transferred to an abandoned babies home in Kampala.  Because she has no biological family, it would not be uncommon for her to be adopted, or she may stay here if the home gets permanent guardianship.  But for now, she is warm and dry and full and well looked after.

A word about twins in Uganda.  I may have mentioned it last year, but all twins in Uganda are named the same thing.  If they are boys, the first one born is called Wasswa and the second Kato.  Girl children are called Babirye first and Nakato second.  I did ask what happened when triplets were born and was told the third one got whatever name the parents wanted to provide.  Here at the home we have Kato Big, Kato Middle and Kato Small (who lives out in the community).  Clan names are given first and then the child’s second name, so these girls are Babirye Inid and Nakato Angel, but everyone calls them by Babirye and Nakato.  Just the way it is, one of those Ugandan cultural things.

Anyway, by the time the girls reached here Nakato was able to walk and progressing faster than her sister.  Neither of them smiled or made much noise at all.  Babirye could sit up, but not stand or walk and had no hair.  As the home began to feed and love them, they slowly responded and began to smile and chatter, although actual words are not yet produced.

When I arrived at the beginning of March I found Nakato a very serious little girl.  While she did smile, it was not often and her usual expression was a brow-wrinkled frown.  She walked and fed herself without difficulty and interacted when prompted, but was not so happy.  In contrast, Babirye smiled much more easily and was eager to engage and play a bit.  As well, her hair was growing in although not tightly curled, still hair.  She would walk if someone held her hand and ate every single thing in sight, whether it was food or not.  Actually, they both do this.  Well, really, all the kids under 8 years old do this.

Last week, with much prompting and loud cheering, Babirye began to walk unassisted.  Like any toddler starting to walk on their own, she tested the ground and her legs and set off a bit at a time.  This was a great event, and again, typical of a toddler, as soon as you wanted her to show off her new skill she’d sit down and refuse.  But, now she toddles around on her dirty, bare feet and sometimes her sister takes her hand and pulls her along.

Interestingly, this new-found ability has not changed Babirye’s personality much.  However, the difference it has made in Nakato is remarkable.  The day her sister began to walk on her own Nakato began to smile with much more frequency.  It is as if she were waiting for her to catch up.  She plays quickly and her frowns less.

  They have both gained weight and muscle tone.  Babirye’s hair has begun to curl and they are making excellent strides toward catching up to their peer group.  They do not actually talk yet and I have never heard either of them laugh, but they are happy babies and the other children here go out of their way to try and make them happy.   Usually.

Yesterday there was a “staff outing”.  This event is exactly what it sounds like, but I was invited along as well. The staff included the director, accountant, office personnel, security guard, driver and a few others, in total, 12 or so.  We went to a beach.  Yes, I know I live on an island and so the beach is not necessarily a great novelty, but this was a beach on Lake Victoria, as Uganda is not a coastal country.   Never having been to Lake Victoria, this is something I did not want to miss.  I would guess it took about an hour or so to get there and I always like the opportunity to look at all the different things to see along the way.  Once there, the actual beach, the sand part, isn’t to big (bear in mind I normally live on a sand dune), maybe 50 feet from grass to water, but very long.  There is this huge area of space with a sort-of grass growing and all shaded with huge trees, some of them palm trees and then lots of others.  Many plastic tables and chairs are spread around for people to use, a small, open sided restaurant/bar and bathroom facilities.  We put a few tables together and some people played cards and a board game, worked on a puzzle, while others played soccer and some went swimming.  I did not go swimming.  Here’s the thing, you are not allowed to bring your own food.  And they check your bags on the way in saying it’s for security purposes.  And wave a metal detector over you, but I don’t think that is looking for food.  So, it’s quite a good business for someone.

Anyway, it was a very nice time, about 4 hours, and we packed up for home.  Now the exciting part, depending on your point of view.  While the drive to the beach was uneventful, the trip back was anything but.  I’m sitting in the front seat, next to the driver, seatbelt firmly secure because it’s very near dark now and all sorts of cars, trucks, motorbikes, regular bikes, animals and pedestrians are all over the place.  Very few motorized vehicles are using their headlights and I can’t figure out how they can see.  Seriously, it wasn’t until about 15 minutes into the trip that I noted everyone had turned the headlights on.  And now there is a ton of traffic.  I know some of you live in the cities where you might think you have traffic, but I kid you not, unless you have seen a traffic jam in Africa you have had it easy, God bless. 

Imagine, if you will, it’s dark, the road being travelled is designed for two lanes of traffic, one lane going north, the other lane going south.  The road is not so wide and in rather poor condition, there may be a line down the center of the road to delineate the two lanes but not always.  Each side of the road is packed dirt and everything imaginable is also there, trash, potholes, people, stalls, goats, vendors, children, stopped vehicles, etc., etc., etc.  The traffic in our lane is crawling along and there are red tail lights glowing as far as the eye can see (and bikes, motorbikes, people, animals, etc.).  Vehicles pull in and out of traffic without any heed paid to right-of-way or even noticing the direction traffic is flowing.  Motorbikes shoot here and there where ever they can find a few feet of space and driving bumper to bumper is the norm.  None of these things are of the slightest concern to our van driver.  He starts driving down the center of the road, where the yellow lines would be if there were any, and he is not driving slowly.  We are clipping along between the two lanes of traffic, the cars in the oncoming lanes moving farther to the right to get out of the way a bit, when what should we hear coming up behind us?  An ambulance.  So, the van driver pulls slightly farther over to let the ambulance go by and as soon as it passes promptly falls into line behind it.  Well, to be fair, we were actually the third vehicle in line behind the ambulance.  Now we are hurtling down the road with cars, motorbikes, trucks, vans, people, bikes and all parting like the Red Sea because they see the ambulance approaching.  Once it past, cars would attempt to get on their way again only to find a parade of vehicles behind the ambulance preventing their doing so.   This hair-raising ride went on for mile after mile.   No joke, we must have cut our return trip by an hour because of that unfortunate person in the ambulance.  Perhaps it is true what they say, “fortune favors the bold”, or not.

Eventually, the ambulance went right and we went left and so ended the harrowing adventure.  We did end up getting stuck in a nice traffic jam, mostly due to the total lack of rule following, and no traffic lights.  But we made it home way before the car that was travelling with us.  So until next time, keep your seatbelt fastened.

The school year begins at the start of February and Allan is in P1, which would be primary school, grade one, if in an American school.  The school itself is clean, well ventilated, has good-sized class rooms to accommodate wheel chairs and the grounds are shaded with large trees.  The staff are friendly and treat the children just as children ought to be treated no matter what age or mental capacity.  At lunch time they are told to wash their hands before eating, not to push or shove, help the ones who need help, wait to eat until prayer is said and they comply.  A sense of humor and laughter is all around.   After lunch, the boy across from us said he was not going to say the after meal thank-you prayer to God because he felt he had not gotten enough to eat.

Allan will come back to Another Hope for three weeks in April when all of the schools have their Easter vacation.  He and his sister will enjoy spending time together as they are very close.  It is wonderful to see him thriving.

Here’s another thing.  Because the director is staying off-site just now, for health reasons, there is no Matron or house mother in residence and older girls are very busy with various chores, it mostly falls to me to make sure everyone under the age of about 14 is doing what they are supposed to be doing; washing dishes, bathing, cleaning, sleeping, homeworking, sweeping, flushing, eating, washing again, brushing teeth, actually wearing clothes, ect. and so forth.  It’s like Peter Pan all over again, except it never ends!!  Good thing I like bossing people around.  That being said, as it is Sunday, we are preparing to get to church and so, I must be off.  Hoping you all are well.   Things here are fine.

The first thing I noticed when I stepped into the Entebbe airport was the smell of Africa.  Africa smells of earth and smoke and cooking and all things natural, a very distinctive and unique memory of my last visit.  After an uneventful 24 hours of travel, I was greeted at the pick-up area in Uganda by both of my sponsor children, one 8 and one 17.   Twaha, the 8-year-old boy, ducked under the “do-not-cross” tape and ran to hug me.  Another joyful reunion occurred when I arrived here at the orphanage and was surrounded by 35 children all calling “Auntie Macy! Welcome back, Auntie Macy!”, all pulling and tugging at my luggage to get it into my room and wanting to be hugged and sit on my lap.  It was an effort for them to get to bed even though if was well past bed time.

In the way of routine, not much has changed.  Wake up is around 5:00 and the day progresses from there.  The children go to school, everyone is now is a grade higher than last year.  Benah, my 17 year old girl sponsor, graduated from high school in December and just got back the results from her final exams.  She ranked in first place at her school.  We get the littler ones from school at 12:30 and walk home for lunch and napping.  Homework, play-time, dinner preparation, evening prayers, dinner and bed time follow.  As we are right on the equator, the sun rises and sets at the same time every day, rises at 6:30 and sets at 6:30 in the evening, makes the routine easy to follow.  Because we get up early, it is no problem getting to bed by 9:00.

A few days after my arrival, another volunteer named Jo (short for Joaquin) arrived from Spain.  He speaks a decent amount of English with a strong Spanish accent and loves to play with the little kids.  A few days after his arrival, another woman joined us, Miriam, from Germany.  Poor girl, she says her mother “made” her come to Africa because she is so obsessed with cleanliness.  She speaks more English than Jo and tells me each morning about her nightly trials with bugs inside her mosquito net and things crawling on her ceiling, the smell, the dirt, the noise and so forth.  She is an accountant and not used to being around children but she is being a very good sport about the whole thing and pitching in whole heartedly.  If she can make it for the first few weeks, she’ll be just fine.

Hoping you all are well.  Things here are going swimmingly and the temperature during the day is about 83 – 85 degrees.  Hopefully, I will post again in a few days.