Summer Root april 19

Hello Dear Ones,

The rain is falling hard outside my window. I am sipping on a hot African tea and finally writing to all of you. I have been so frustrated with the lack of connection available here. I have felt very isolated since arriving in Karamoja. But, due to a truck issue we have traveled down to Mbale and are waiting for repairs to be done, which means that I have a window of opportunity to send this email out.

Thank you so much for praying for me. It is such an encouragement as I have needed those prayers. This has been an intense time of spiritual warfare. All of my expectations of what life would be like here have been challenged. His ways are not our ways nor are His thoughts our thoughts. This is a truth that God keeps bringing me back to and keeps encouraging me in. Despite the circumstances or changes that I face, He remains faithful and true. He is continually working things together for good. He is actively involved. It is good, but it is not easy.

So, I arrived in Karamoja to find that my team was in a spiritual battle. The enemy had created some tension between my team, due to one member Jean, who is having some serious health issues. Today Tom and Jean left Karamoja/Uganda to return to the States to seek medical treatment. They are hoping that they will be able to return back in a month or so. I think that both of them might be feeling burnt out spiritually, emotionally, physically, and mentally, so please pray they will have a refreshing time as they visit the States. It's not easy being so far away from home and many times we all feel burnt out and need to be refreshed.

 

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Summer Root April 19, 2012

Happy Birthday Summer Root!!!!!

May God’s blessings abound to you
In every little way
May you taste and see His goodness
Every time you kneel to pray
May your day be brightened more
With your Father’s loving touch
And may you sense He’s with you now
And loves you very much.

© By M.S.Lowndes.

Melissa Graham 14/5/12

Last Days in Karamoja

Our last week in Nabilituk, Karamoja, before heading down to Jinja city for the Pioneers International conference next Monday.

The week was really fun and full, busy with many moments of joy to wrap up the last month we've been without Tom and Jean. It involved visiting friends in villages every second day; praying all together squished in a mud hut (so great), storying as much as we could (our last burst), continuing to study language at every opportunity and doing another animal health training day - the second one I have lead now, it was a fantastic day of teaching things like how to do a physical exam on an animal, about common diseases here (how they occur, how to prevent and how to treat them, etc.), about correct methods of drug administration and the biggie of not underdosing animals with antibiotics, which seems to be an epidemic here. It was really great to see the lessons learnt from the previous training had stuck as we discussed all these things and the group was really interactive in discussing through everything which was cool.

Tick-spraying on Wednesday of course which is always an experience and treating animals during the weekdays too.

Visiting the villages in these last days, I cannot properly describe how awesome it was. To be so warmly welcomed and cared for, to share in their activities and just be with them. We were so blessed by the hospitality of the women in the village who fed us morning tea (eshai) and boiled eggs (from the chickens KACHEP had distributed to them) which was actually a really generous offering to us considering that this is a village who are constantly raided by enemy villages; have their animals taken from them and so who struggle to feed themselves. We also received lunch too which we weren't expecting but the main woman we were meeting with was so happy to have us there we stayed until late in the afternoon with her.

Part of the day was giving out Ivermectin for mange to 40 of their goats free of charge as a gift from us. We wanted to help in a way that they would most appreciate during this time of insecurity and it was just crazy great to be able to do such a small thing but which went so far for them. It was also another great training opportunity and I got a local guy who has just started working with KACHEP and has been attending the trainings and everything, to be in charge of the weight tape and then we calculated the dosage for each goat together and then I showed him how to administer it. It soon became a fun community affair :)

The other village we visited, Okutoot, is an hour drive from where we live and we went with three Karamajong friends to help us with some language translation and the day was in one word... interesting. I am beginning to see that every day I wake up here I should just expect it to be a crazy day full of the unexpected. I've always been someone who loves a challenge and even seeks them but being here I feel like I didn't know the meaning of the word before now. There are so many layers to that statement that is too much to try and write now so it'll have to be another time. Suffice to say, it will be nice to be on holidays even though I'll miss this land of Karamoja and everything that it is.

Packing up to leave for 4weeks (2 for conference and 2 for personal holidays) was exciting but also bittersweet to think of leaving. I'll miss my girls, my dog (not really mine but I like to call her mine :), the incredible night sky of 2 hemispheres combined that you can only get in Karamoja, the crazy and sometimes frustrating animal owners (ok so I may not miss them that much), the animals!, the funny looking billy-goats with their beards, the beautiful, sweet, gentle & just plain cute cows who put up with so much from the people here during ploughing season haha, the donkeys who have now become my new alarm clock, now that ploughing season has come and our kittens which have kept me awake by jumping on my toes during the night just for funsies but who are soooo cute you just can't be annoyed.

I won't miss being stared at though :) Well stared at less anyway and I am so looking forward to the conference, meeting new people and going on holidays yewwwwww!!!

In two weeks I am off to Kenya for some time on the coast in Mombasa (such a great  African name- reminds me of Mufasa from the Lion King!) and then some random jaunts here and there until the team meets back together to go back to the land of pain and toil for the simplest things but yet satisfaction and joy because you have to work so hard to get what you want.

Things have been difficult of recent with the abscence of Tom and Jean and of hearing that they will not return for at least another 3 months. This leaves our team of three girls in a tricky situation as we were planning to head to Lotim in north Karamoja and now there lies a huge question mark over what the next few months will look like. There are many factors and confusions to deal with at this time and worry over the future so please join me in praying to God who is in control of all things and who knows the future to give peace, wisdom and understanding on the difficult road ahead.

For me I am just asking for patience in not knowing the details of the rest of my time here in Africa and that I can grow in the love of Christ in this time, trusting and knowing that God has the blueprint of my life and just because I don't know what is coming next doesn't mean it is not going to be amazing.

All my love,

Mel

Melissa Graham 9/05/12

Getting to know Karamoja

Every day, without fail, an animal comes with respiratory problems. There is a disease outbreak here that mostly only hits cattle and goats, called CBPP (contagious bovine pleural pneumonia) and CCPP (contagious caprine pleural pneumonia) respectively. However, lately because the rainy season has started (hot, humid mornings which build into stormy rainy afternoons starting at around 2pm daily) the fresh green grass has brought in some bloat cases. With no veterinarian here anymore, this basically gives me reason to say, eeeeeeeeeeep. A week ago we sprayed cattle for ticks here in Nabilituk and a small black cow was brought to the car (where I treat animals from- my office ha ha) clearly suffering from bloat. She had not eaten all week and the rumen was extremely distended with gas. On percussion you could hear it like it was a gas bottle you were tapping not a cow's stomach. I knew that it was severe but I chickened out from puncturing the rumen to relieve the gas. Olum, the local traditional healer suggested a plant to help relieve the gas and to pour soapy water down it's throat. A week later it came back to us, still with bloat but worse. She struggled to stand, had her neck stuck out and was finding it hard to breath. Ok, this time I could not chicken out. I checked the textbooks for guidance and they said a cow showing the signs above, about to die, must relieve gas now, danger, danger! I gave some sedative IV (I actually got the vein first time which, in a cow, usually doesn't happen for me) scrubbed the area of the rumen, which felt like a bouncy ball by this stage, and stabbed. It was pretty cool but I was so nervous that I'd do it wrong, with no one there to help me! The first time I went for it, the trochar (sharp pointy thing) just bounced right off again like it was a trampouline, eeep. I stabbed a little harder the next go. Watching the trochar with the plastic chamber thingy move as the gas came out I thought wow was I crazy to have done that just then when it could have gone horribly wrong? A penicillin streptomycin shot and a prayer for the cow later and we were finished.

I am not sure if I'm cut out for Karamoja, I'm not sure if I'm cut out to be a vet missionary but I do know that God knows and he gives me the good and the bad to wrestle with and grow from. Sometimes I feel like arghh I want a proper bathroom and fresh vegetables and to be able to communicate easily with people, I miss home people and I wish I didn't look so clearly foreign so that people wouldn't stare all the time and if only I could stay clean for 5 minutes!

But then other times, I am not sure I ever want to leave. When I go for a long walks with Nakirion (the dog I have adopted) who is wonderful and faithful and sweet and entertaining and I fall in love with the landscape of Karamoja again and again, with the fresh green grass and flowers blossoming, now it is rainy season to the backdrop of stunning mountains. I think of the friends I have made here and the tiny successes made every day with being able to say a little bit more to them. I see Nabor, a Karamojong women who is a neighbour and friend of ours looking a little sad and I run over to her and she tries to act all tough and I hug her and she erupts into giggles, her nose crinkling up and she tugs my hair. I think of the people here who are so tough, struggling every day in this environment and yet are the most thankful people I have ever met. The men who stay awake at night protecting their cattle, the women who look after their children, their homes and who also work during the day as well (often carrying their babies on their backs as they work), carrying 20L jerry cans of water on their heads or hoeing the fields in the sun. One day Nabor came over and met Miriam and told her she had just fallen off the roof of her house she was fixing, onto her back but she said 'I did not fall on my baby, God is there'. Wow I would not be so faithful in such a moment. When Summer was sick, they all came over and sat with us and prayed for her and were in tears for her, seeing her pain.

I also love the animals here; they are everywhere. I love the kids here, they run up to me and shake my hand
(I think that's what their parents tell them to do) and the ones I see regularly even know my name, they call out Me-liiissss-a! they are just so cute. I think if I sacrifice some clothes in my suitcase I can smuggle a few home with me ;)

I think surprisingly, doing the vet work is not even the best part of being here, it is the time spent with the women here or walking around the place meeting people you can just stop by and ask how they are going, what is new in their lives. It is funny how you can be a novelty attraction for your strangeness; the colour of my skin, what I am here for/do - typically the men work with animals, that I am over 20 and not married with kids, and that we often wear different types of clothes (although every woman must wear a skirt longer than the knee here or you really will be an outcast), etc. which can be bad because they make assumptions of you before they know you. But the longer you hang around, the more people you know and the more excited they are when they see you. You change from just being a strange entity to being a person, with a name, who can speak to you (a little). It makes you want to stick it out, even when it's a struggle to begin with.

Attention Deficit Devos

Episode 32 You're Just a Kid

PI conference

PI conference was just great and a huge encouragement to all of us. Thanx guys. We had people from east and west Africa, USA, europe, New Zealand and Australia.... great fun! I cant post the group pictures, since some of the PI people live and work in tough areas and would really get in trouble if they had an "outing" as missionaries... so let me just post the uganda team... — with Melissa Graham and Summer Root here: Kingfisher Safaris Resort, Jinja.

Melissa Graham 23/04/12 and 2/05/12

Ostentatious owners

23/04/12

I am a person who really doesn't like it when people are all up in my space. However, it seems that you cannot survive as a white vet in Karamoja if you stay with this attitude. Today a man came to our doors saying he had sick cattle that we needed to see, all he could tell us was one symptom for each of them. It was our day off, a day to ourselves when we don't treat animals, but this man would not take no for an answer, every time we'd say please come on Monday we can treat them then he would say, ‘ok I come at 4:30 this afternoon?’ Um… No. ‘5 o'clock then? Ok I'll come then’. No!

At 5pm he came and I went out to see that he had brought every cow he owns to us. I waited for them to get a hold of the sick animal (we have no cattle crush here so they just whistle and grab the horns) and then as I started the physical examination and tried to work out what was wrong with the bull, the owner wouldn't stop repeating the one symptom he knew. He could speak English, which is a rare thing, but he wasn't the best at it :) I somehow also suspected, as time went on, that he liked the sound of his own voice. It turned out that the one symptom he was repeating, the cow did not have, changing the diagnosis completely.

In addition to that, imagine trying to listen to lung sounds, the heart rate and rumination noise while you have three to five men talking loudly around you. However, as soon as I told them to be quiet, they were, which was good. I think somehow they knew that you don't want to upset the young, white, animal doctor girl with a rectal thermometer in her hand. Worst was still to come for me though as I told the owner the treatment, saying the bull needed an oral dewormer and then he replied "no you give vaccination for antibiotics".

Firstly, that sentence makes no sense as vaccination and antibiotics are two different things and secondly, the bull needs neither. I struggled to know how to tell him this though. Lesson of the day, how do you keep your cool and stay respectful when you are becoming frustrated to the core of your being?

Then, haha, as I ignored the men all around me trying to tell me what to do I gave it the treatment for intestinal worms, having to tell the boy holding the bull’s head "quap, quap, quap!!!", which means 'down', maybe I had become the one liking the sound of my own voice but I tried to explain to them that you cannot hold the animal's head to the sky when inserting medicine into the mouth as it may go into the lungs. It sounded better in my mind than when I tried to explain it to them. Language can really be a barrier here, as can owners, who do what this man did next.

We looked at the next poor cow that was sick and it had severely laboured breathing and a fever, looking like a form of pneumonia. So, as I am giving the treatment, injecting an antibiotic into the hindlimb muscles, the owner actually tried to take the syringe from me! Seriously! I was so shocked I am surprised I got all the medicine in. For the first time in my life I had to defend my position and tell an elder man to back away and let me do what I came here to. Miriam, who was watching, said she was impressed, she said, you know that's what you got to do around here, you gotta be tough, even when you don't feel like you are.

It was honestly a very stressful half hour to hour long treatment time, and the longer I was out there, the more people came to watch including a group of shepherd boys who unfortunately did not knowing the meaning of personal space, all trying to get a good look at what the thermometer says or 'where will she stick that needle' or 'ooh what is in that hoof there?' So... it turns out I need personal space. Who knew? ;)

 

My time to story: Sitting under a tree relaxing with some Karamojans

2/05/12

Wednesday the 2nd May was a great day. Miriam and I, with Joshua (a local guy and friend who has worked with KACHEP for most of its time, with animal work, agroforestry work and evangelism work, plus translates for us) and Olum (local animal health worker and traditional healer) drove down to Lolachat, where we would be doing the spraying that day. Summer had malaria (not a great part of this story) and so had to stay home, sick in bed :(

Usually each Wednesday spraying consists of three parts; tick-spraying cattle, sheep and goats, vet treatments and a Bible story at the end. With Summer not there she asked if I would like to tell the story. I jumped at the opportunity and I told the story of the Lost Son (Luke 15:11-32). I love this story for what it tells us of both God and humanity in the characters of the father and the sons. I feel it's applicable to all ears that may hear it because everyone rebels against God, whether they live in Aus or here in K'jong, just like the younger son in the story rebels against his father. Just like in the story, as soon as we ask for forgiveness and turn away from living life our own way, God forgives. He loves us so much, he is waiting for this, in fact! He wants us to come back into relationship with him just like the father in the story waited for his son to come home.

The people were very interactive with the story, in the usual Karamojong way and although I wish I could be telling the story in their language without needing a translator, I was also glad to have Joshua there. He often gets really excited about acting stories out and so when the part of the story came where the son returns home he got up and acted out the father looking out across the land and seeing the son and then racing out to greet him, ha ha he is really good value for that! Even as an older man he still gets youthfully excited when it comes to telling people about God.

I really loved sitting around with the people, sharing with them and then listening to their thoughts on it afterwards. It just feels so natural to sit under a tree here and talk about God together, I may look really different to them but somehow they accepted me, listened to the story and were even interested to know more. Afterwards the conversation took a really cool turn into explaining how it is that God can forgive us, like the father does in the story. How is it that God can forgive everyone's sins, every wrong thing done against him, and all we have to do is ask for our record of wrongs to be metaphorically wiped clean? What a great question and segue into talking about Jesus. The Karamojans understand the idea of sacrifice probably better than we do the first time we hear it because, in many ways the people here live like they are in the pages of the old testament. When wrong is done, a price must be paid, blood of an animal is shed, for justice, they “get” that, it's how life is here. Like us they may not understand how it could be that God could love us that much to send his son to take on the weight of such a sacrifice, all the sins of the world paid, once for all but they can believe. Jesus died that death so we don't have to.

Afterward we prayed to our powerful God for anything that was on their hearts. A lot of the people there had lost cattle to 'enemies' recently and this is a massive blow to them, their livelihoods, their sustainability and even their ability to provide for their families. I feel so sad for them I can't even put it into words. Some of them have people come and attack their villages and homes every week. I cannot imagine how that must feel for them; that insecurity and worry. But the crazy thing is when I talk to them about it they often repeat 'mam nache, iyey akutch' to me, 'God is there, we do not worry', the faith of those who believe out here is such an encouragement to me. It is true God is here, God is in every situation and God takes on our worries and troubles. I also asked Joshua to pray for Summer, who is really feeling horrible. Turns out malaria sucks. Thank God he has given the world an effective and relatively pain free treatment for it. If she had brucellosis (another common disease out here) she would have to have 5ml of antibiotic injected into her thigh muscle daily for 14 days! There's a silver lining for everything.

Later in the afternoon we returned home and got stuck into some language learning, it is fun to be able to say more and more to the people around you each week. You really take language for granted when you are back home and can speak to everyone easily.

Since writing the above, Summer has finished her malaria treatment and apart from stomach upsets and remaining fatigue (malaria destroys red blood cells= iron depletion= muscle weakness), she has recovered :) PTL

All my love, Mel.

 

Melissa Graham 19 April 2012

Photos!!!!!! 

 

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Melissa Graham April 15th 2012

Fun times continue :)

In my fourth week! So much happens weekly that I have been writing things down in a very hickeldy-pickeldy manner, so I hope you can follow me :)

I'm been enjoying slowly getting to know some of the women here, usually a smile and a hug goes a long way to cross the 'I am sorry I don't understand what you are saying!' but I am excited that I can understand words here and there that usually I can get the gist of what they are saying plus they add some english they know in too which is good.

The manager of KACHEP (Karamoja Christian Ethnoveterinary Program) that I am helping out with while I'm in Nabilituk is actually not from Karamoja but from the city in the south and is a more organised person than many of the Karamojans inately are and so has been grating against the way things have been; people coming and going when it suits them and generally taking the easy way of doing things whether it is the right way or not. He seems to be excited I am here so we can "follow the program, keep to the schedule and be effective!" as he says haha. We had our first staff meeting the other day and I have been promoted to secretary, or rather he said something like "Melissa take minutes" and so there you go. He's great fun to work with and I am glad he is there to get everyone to do what they are supposed to and that it doesn't fall on my shoulders.

One thing that is important here is that anywhere we go we have to introduce ourselves very formally. They do not do anything here without making sure the correct procedures for their culture are taken care of. So we have all memorised some phrases in Karamojong to do that. My language learning has been centred around general greetings and important phrases anyone should know - one of my favourites is Apoopie iyong (I don't understand) hehe and then also some words to help with the vet work. Funnily enough many of the words sound very similar (sarcasm- all the words sounded the same to me when I first arrived)

e.g. Lomid (ear pus), Lopid (Anaplasmosis or more literally 'gall sickness' - a common bacterial disease here) and Lokid (East Coast Fever - another tick borne disease that's very common in young animals).

Dr Jean can speak almost fluent Karamajong, she's an amazing help, as is Miriam but we also have a few Karamojong guys who translate for us and help us learn; namely Joseph and Joshua ( I might mention them around story time).

Like right now :)

On Friday night we went to stay the night in a manyata (traditional Karamajong village) in Okotoot which is about 50 mins from Nabilituk where we live, us 'whites' and two Karamajongs; Joseph (our translator friend) and Valentina, who does not speak much english but works for KACHEP mostly with the chicken project, she's a lot of fun haha. So we got there and there were a few sick animals to see, mostly sheep and goats as the cattle are still down south for this dry season but will be returning soon as the rains start to come. One of the goats had swallowed a plastic bag! You could hear it when you pushed into it's rumen; sch sch sch was the sound. It was breathing really heavily, had a rapid heart rate and was visibly in pain; hunched over, grinding it's teeth, etc. Unfortunately surgeries here are rare because the people here simply cannot afford it and so Jean suggested slaughter. We were only able to do that surgery on the cow that had been attacked by the hyena because the owner paid for it with building supplies for us.

 Later on as the night started to come we sat around together in the centre of the manyata and were just talking. Valentina soon got a plastic jerry can/water container and two sticks and started up a beat and kids appeared from nowhere like she was the pied piper or something and Summer (one of the full-time mission leaders here from America- not a vet but my tent buddy for the year) started them all singing and dancing! It was amazing to see and hear. Soon we were surrounded on all sides and a circle forms. Joseph hops up and takes over singing leading which was crazy cool in the Karamojong language (very African sounding! So beautiful), it started to sound like a music concert and then people from all over the place who must have been outside of the manyata appear and join in. So after about an hour we heard another story from Tom; Noah's Ark, which seems really appropriate now because as I write this I hear thunder and rain pouring down. It is the first day that it has been not stinking hot :)

Afterwards, the music, singing and dancing start up again and Summer got up to dance with the girls. I was so tired, it was late as and we've been doing a lot of vet work walking the plains the past few days, but I got up to join in anyway and am glad I did. The traditional dancing in Uganda is to jump up and down in time with the music while clapping and singing and literally you jump as high as you can haha at first I almost fell over doing it a couple of times but then you get into a rhythm and it is so fun!

Next week, Tom and Jean fly home to the US for a month or two to treat Jean's ongoing sickness that she has been braving, she's so tough. So it will just be Summer, Miriam and I for that time and I have been given a lot of achievable work to do in that time working with, teaching and learning from the local people who work for the main organisation here KACHEP.

Looking forward to the challenge :)

On the 21st May there is a Pioneers International conference in Uganda for all the missionaries in East Africa and I get to go! I can't wait to meet more people working our here and here what they do. That goes from Mon to Fri and then we have around 2 weeks holiday before we get back into it. I am thinking of going to Kenya and hanging out at the beach or going to some wildlife parks/reserves, maybe I can shadow a lion or giraffe vet for a day!

But if anyone is interested in coming to East Africa in that time, feel free to visit me! Like seriously.

Also, there is a post box address they use in the 'city', I know some of you wanted to know if you could send me stuff. Letters would be amazing but also know that not everything you send me in terms of goodies may reach me, depends on who is sorting the mail that day :) That said I'm dying for some licorice.

Address: Box 2244 Jinja Uganda

All my love,

Mel.

Melissa Graham April 7th 2012

I Love Easter, wherever I am.

Easter!!!

A weekend of celebration and what a weekend it was! Full of fun; On Good Friday three of us went to join the local Catholic (called Lomission- a 'charismatic reformed' church that love to talk about Jesus!) church's Cross Walk - we walked through town for half an hour, stopping at 10 certain spots where a traumatic event in town had occured and all knelt down on the dirt road! I'd never done anything like it before haha and we couldn't really understand much of what was going on so we read through 10 different appropriate and wonderful Bible passages each time. On the way back we sang worship songs together, again surrounded by perplexed and curious faces. It's easy to feel like an 'alien of the world here' we sure look like it.

Saturday we climbed a mountain (see photos) and it was stunning, a fun time of getting to know some of the girls here too.

Easter Sunday/Resurrection Day was sooooo much fun, it consisted of an Easter Egg hunt (thanks for the chocolate Mum!), baking hot cross buns in a very difficult and laborious yet strangely fun and satisfying way using a solar oven- we made our own icing sugar for the cross! Then we listenened to a John Piper Easter podcast and then at 1pm started on dinner. We had a feast with 17 or so people from the community that are specifically involved with the vet mission here, and us. We had lamb! Or really mutten :) His name was Oscar, bought on Saturday and then honourably discharged from life by me. We got to do a post mortem on him too! Score. The Karamajong people eat as much of the animal as they can; head, feet, intestines, tongue, tail, etc. We were happy to let them take as much as they wanted! I'm not going to lie it made me feel a little sick during the preparation! But all in all a great mix of an African and Australian Easter.

One of the funniest moment I have experienced here was only hilarious in the safety of retrospect. During the meat preparations the two night guards for the two parts of the compound where we stay, James and Andrew (old Karamojong men) were hanging about, giving us tips and trying to take over because they knew they could do it better haha and then suddenly (they were talking in Karamojong the whole time) they erupted and were almost ripping each others throats out, one of them grabbed the spear I had used to slaughter poor but delicious Oscar and were threatening each other. We were all like ahhhh what is happening!? Jean started laughing and said that they were fighting over who gets to eat Oscar's male 'parts' haha. TIA

Uganda is on the equator and a cool thing that comes with that is that the sunsets and sunrises are quick and spectacular. Also, because we are on the equator we can see both the northern and southern hemisphere star constellations!!! So I can see the big dipper on one side of the sky (to the right of the moon) and then turn and see the Southern cross on the other side!

Hope you are all doing well!

Miss you

Love Melissa

Prayer Points:

l  Praise God that he loved the world so much that he gave us his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

l  Thank him for the wonderful things he is doing here in Karamoja, the land of people who feel left behind by the rest of Uganda, who feel like no-one cares. Help them to know that God cares more than they can comprehend.

l  Thank him for the times our fellowship and fun the team here was able to have over Easter, celebrating the reason for the season, celebrating the defeat of life over death that Jesus did on that cross that so much of the world hang aroud their necks, whether they realise the significance of that symbol or not.

l  Dr Tom and Jean will soon be leaving the team, leaving Miriam, Summer and I here alone. Pray for team unity and prayerfulness.

l  This also means the vet work and training the staff here falls mainly on me, pray that I can do my best to do this effectively, showing Christ's love as I go and praying with the Karamojan people about our God who loves us so much and has brought me to them.

Melissa Graham April 1st 2012

Getting used to some differences

Hey guys, I have had an awesome 2 weeks in Uganda so far and especially since travelling up to Karamoja. It is such a different place here, it is hard on a person phyically and sometimes emotionally but it also has so many things about it that have made me feel at home here too. For example the sky here is massive and tells you exactly what you need to know and the unrelenting sun here makes me feel at home too.

There are also creepy crawlies here to watch out for! There are scorpians the size of your foot (see photos), Flying ants (you can eat these), bull ants, little ants with pincers on them, spiders (the flat ones are ok, but if it is not flat and it's coming at you, you better make it flat quick smart), ticks, ticks, and more ticks, water wasps that are big and black, bees bigger than we get at home, snakes and bats. But on the plus side, fireflies! At first I thought the stars were falling out of the sky, much to the amusement of Miriam (one of the missionaries here from Germany). I am such a nube here :) 

I have been asked by one of my most favourite persons in the world to describe some of the more every day things and I would love to oblige :)

Food: Obviously a number one priority in my case (I love food!).

Typically, Ugandans will only have two meals a day; lunch and supper, but when we do have breakfast it's good! There is an edible substance called poscho here and it is like wheat in that you can make many different things from it but it is a really starchy carbohydrate and it can be refined down into a soupy porridge that takes a while to get used to but put bananas with it for breaky and it goes doen a treat. Or a muslie bar or banana suffices. Another thing they have here that we have with dinner (supper) is called japarti and is like a pancake crossed with naan bread= delicious and can be made savoury or sweet. For lunch it is always the same thing, poscho and beans but this time the poscho is more like potato than porridge but with a much more cornflour taste to it. Another thing we have for dinner is called a rollex and it is a japarti with an egg inside and it's rolled up. They use a lot of oil in their food preparation which makes the meal heavier than I'm used to, that and the lack of fresh vegetables available to make a salad. They have three types of bananas here; sweet bananas (our regular ones), plantain (not as sweet but still with a banana-ish taste to it) and matoke a savoury starchy banana that they put peanut sauce with.

I have been surprised that I have not had anything here that I don't like, with the exception of a plant called tamourin that makes a sweet and sour juice drink. Can't stand that one haha but it is good to give to chickens to improve laying production so I can just say that I don't want to have all of it in case the chickens don't get any! I'm very conscientious towards chickens in that way ;)

Housing: tenting it at the moment, sharing with Summer (an American missionary who joined the team a bit before I did but had been here before, she will be continuing for 3 yrs here). In August, we move up north and I will get my own mud hut built for me. I think next week though Summer and I will move into one of the stone huts because the couple who were in it are flying home to raise funds to return as full timers.

Bathroom: hole in the ground, very simple and i'm sure you can use your imagination ;) Bonus is that I don't have to trouble myself with the laborious nature of flushing the toilet like back home, that can be a real drag.

Water: from a borehole, that you have to manually pump up. My biceps have never looked better. Don't worry, it's clean! Running water non-existant in these parts.

Alarm clock: my choice of a choir of roosters that never seem to be able to switch off no matter what time of day it is, or the local (across the road) mosque that megaphones 5 times daily prayers in arabic song, starting at dawn. This is something that we would never get at home with Australian's fear of religion but here whether they are muslims or Christians they literally shout their faith from the rooftops! Or there's the pumping of the borehole for water, or the night guard, James, who sweeps the dirt around the tent in the morning :) TIA = This Is Africa haha

Internet connection: patchy at best, inconsistent and again often non-existant

Telephone connections: non-existant for now, hoping to improve the situation next week.

In conclusion, it's a good thing I get along well with everyone here!

Language learning: going well, it helps that I am immersed in it, I like to spend some time away from the missionaries here actually so that I can learn more and not be tempted to talk English all the time! But at the same time it's nice to be around people who aren't watching your every move because you look normal to them.

Vet work: fun! A new case each day usually, often are tick related or respiratory/pneumonia cases but one cool (unfortunate and sad for the cow of course) disease is called heart water caused by the Amblioma tick (see photo) which results in the heart literally wasting/dissolving away.

Today we went to church and it happened to be palm Sunday! So one of the photos below are of that and at times it was a little hard to focus because the people in front of us were not looking ahead at the ceremony but at us! We tried to tell them to look forward but they didn't and I felt like that awkward situation in an elevator if everyone is facing the doors and then one person in front turns around and looks at the people behind them.

I have not yet met anyone here who cannot sing beautifully and passionately. I don't know how that is but the voices here just take me away to another planet or something. They sometimes sing in english but mostly in Karamojong and so i just make la la noises until I can follow a word I know haha but when we returned from lunch we walked back (bout a half hour walk) and there were people who had radio with some worship songs and everyone was just singing as we walked. So cool. Yesu Christo = Jesus Christ in Karamajong.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers, please keep them coming!

Love Mel

xoxox 

Melissa 

Melissa Graham 29 March 2012

Karamoja at last!

I have arrived in Karamoja and wow what a place! I cannot even try to describe because I know I will not do it justice. So you will have to just come here and check it out for yourself haha
Ok so I'll try, and will post photos later too which should help but forgive me if it's too much info for you, I can't believe I've only been here a week, so much has happened :)

So I was in the capital city called Kampala from Thurs 22nd till Mon 26th first staying with an English missionary couple, then in a Guest House (like a B&B) with a group of 4 lovely and hilarious Americans; Michelle (a vet), Oscar, Paul & Ron (builders). We were meant to travel up here to Karamoja on the Monday but we missed the bus because it actually left at 4am not 6am as we thought! So we stayed one more day in the capital and then got up so so so early the following morning to ensure that we wouldn't miss it and as it was we didn't end up taking the bus we had planned to because the one that goes direct to Karamoja had broken down yesterday (the day we were meant to be on it! So thank God he is control not us, otherwise we would have been really stuck!).

So we hopped on one that took us halfway and then hired a minibus to take us the rest of the way. Such a typical African experience actually; what you expect to happen won't and what you don't expect to happen will.
So we finally arrived in Karamoja on Tuesday just in time for lunch!!! Lunch is always poscho (white potato-like food but more flour-ey) and beans and if we're lucky cabbage too (it all actually tastes better than it sounds, promise). Where we are in Karamoja is called Nabilituk to be more exact, in the south and so we arrived after a very very bumpy and fast 8 hours (the bus was flying along on the worst roads you can imagine, I think the drivers in Uganda may be the best in the world considering the vehicles they drive in the conditions they drive!) :) It is so hot here, imagine the hottest day you can in Aus and you got it, the sun gets to the intensity that is does at home only from maybe 1-3pm ‘though, but hot and dry.

Ok, so the people: typical traditional Ugandan clothing for the men looks similar to what people might wear if they are going to a toga party, all the time, with no undergarments on, plus add a stick, a hat with a feather in it if they are looking for a wife or a hat with no feather if they are not. They do not wear shoes either; even in the bush where there are thorns the size of a sewing needle (they can puncture tires!) This no shoes business is something I'd love to do but my poor pansy feet don't standup to the ground here. Today a group of us were sitting away from the main area in town just observing the culture and I saw the cutest little girl, maybe 3 years old walking/waddling across the street to be with some other kids and none of them had shoes they were just chilling out on the side of the street, which is what most people do here!
Sitting down in the town today we chose a semi-conspicuous place because whenever we go out of our set area (which I'll call home for the rest of the year - called a compound), we draw a crowd, literally people swarm all over us and the whole town turns to look at our strange-coloured skin. We wanted to watch, not be the ones being watched- we achieved this to a degree but we still had people staring at us for most of the time we where there and I had a beautiful little Karamojan boy come and sit next to me to work out what I was doing. I have learnt a few phrases and words in the past 2 days so I can say a few fun things to talk to the locals here for about 5 seconds and then we just stare at each other waiting for something to happen ha ha. It is so nice to see the smile on their faces when they see us talking to them in their language, and man is their language hard to learn! The words themselves are very complicated and hard to pronounce but I'm loving the challenge.

Ok so now to the animals (again see photos) but I must mention their sheep! They are nothing like the sheep I have ever seen before! The only way I can tell the difference between a sheep and a goat here is that the sheep have a down-turned tail and the goat's tail points up. The cows are gorgeous and tiny! Typically an adult weighs only 200 kg and is so calm and docile (again nothing like most cattle I've been around) and they look completely different to what I know. Think a small Brahman (actually the breed is called Zulu) with the hump like a camel on their backs and you get close to imagining them.
Yesterday was the coolest day because us vets (I get counted in this group which is part of what is cool!) went out to a monthly event where the organisation that Dr Jean started up 10-15yrs ago, KACHEP, spray the local Karamojan's cows, sheep or goats for free, against ticks, and the dogs and cats get vaccinated against rabies (this was Michelle's job yesterday as she is a small animal vet in Florida and loves it). As well as this Jean treats any sick animals for a low cost (just to cover the medicine) at the same time. There is also a vet from Germany, Karina, also staying here with her husband Simon (a theologian) who may possibly join the mission team here fulltime. Karina and myself got to be Jean for the morning and we'd receive sick cows into our office (under a shady tree) and we'd gather a history (name, signalment, symptoms, any treatment yet, etc) then do a physical exam from head to toe (TPR, check nose, mouth-mm & ageing, ears-very imp. for tick check, skin, feet- foot rot, around the udder/pisel, etc.) Almost every case was tick related which was cool because I have never had much to do with these little ectoparasites before and so learnt a lot! Then at around 12pm all of us and all the Karamojan men who had brought their animals along sat under the tree (around 30 of us including some shocked kids to see so many whites around) and we heard from Tom (Jean's husband) a story from the bible! Michelle, Karina, Simon and myself got up first and explained who we were with our Karamojan friend Joseph translating. Tom first asked the people if they had heard of the name Jesus Christ and some said yes, some no and the men that said yes said he was the son of God, born of virgin Mary and did miracles. Tom then said that Jesus has another name, the son of David. Then he told the story of David and Goliath and how little David as a boy defeated the giant Goliath through the power of God because he trusted that God would bring him victory, even over such an opponent that all the other men feared. He likened the story to the raids that the Karamojan people often have that cause fighting in their land. Then he said that Jesus was also victorious just like David. That he had victory over sin and death by dying on the cross and like David it didn't look like he would win because Jesus died, but Jesus proved his victory by being raised from the dead three days later. Then (this was such a cool part) Tom asked if they had any questions and one of the men (he talked a lot so I think he may have been the tribe leader) said "this is a true story so we have no questions, if we thought it was not true we would have questions, but we do not."

Such a great morning, I got to treat beautiful animals, talk to wonderful Karamojans and listen to the gospel being told in a way that these people can understand.
Another cool vet moment was in the afternoon we walked to a nearby manyata (small village of straw huts enclosed with a fence to protect their animal on the inside) and looked at a steer that had been attacked by a hyena last week. It was pretty bad, the abdominus rectus was all hard and granulomatous and there was some other gross things that I will not mention to save the non-vet readers, but ask me when I return more info if you'd like :) We will do surgery on it tomorrow to try and help. It was interesting to see the care, love and devotion this Karamojan boy, of maybe 17, had for this animal. Jean says well he is Karamojan and left it at that and I really see more now how real this ministry of reaching people with the gospel through treating their animals is. God is working powerfully here in this most different of places and I am learning so much.

I will leave it there and will try to post next week, I can hardly believe it has only been a week since I left Aus!

Please pray that I can continue to keep up my personal Bible reading and prayer time here in the busyness of life here (even though Africans take life slowly here we do not)
Also, that I can have strength and energy in this hot weather and working hard in it.
That I can pick up the language even more and be able to roll my r’s J
That the Karamojan people here would see God’s love through the mission work here and that I would be able to soon talk to them about Jesus myself.
Thank God for providing translators for us who cannot yet speak the language.

All my love, Mel
xoxox

Melissa Graham 29 March 2012

Attention Deficit Devos

Episode 33 Hungry?

ACTS-resistant malaria comes to East Africa

By CHRISTABEL LIGAMI 

Posted  Saturday, May 12  2012 at  12:40

A strain of the deadly malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum that is resistant to artemisinin, one of the most powerful anti-malarial drugs, has been found in East Africa.

The strain tested positive in blood samples from foreigners who had travelled in Kenya and Tanzania and nine other African countries.

This particular strain had been found at the border of Thailand and Myanmar and had been predicted to be spreading to India and then Africa as resistance to other antimalarial drugs has done before.

(Read: ACTS-resistant malaria on the rise)

The results, according to the researchers from St George’s, University of London, indicate that either the strain has spread to East Africa and the other African countries or the local parasite has developed resistance.

Although malaria control efforts have been scaled up in the region, the researchers say their findings are a further warning that the best weapons against malaria could be rendered obsolete.

Sanjeev Krishna, the study lead researcher and professor at St George’s, University of London, said resistance in parasite samples were taken from 11 of the 28 malaria-infected patients from East Africa and the other African countries.

“On average, artemether’s effectiveness was reduced by half. Each parasite was found to have the same genetic mutations,” said Dr Krishna.

The artemisinin group of drugs is the most effective and widely used treatments for malaria. The drugs in this group are most powerful and less likely to be resisted by the malaria parasite when used with other drugs as artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs).

The patients were infected by malaria parasite-carrying mosquitoes while travelling to East Africa and the other nine sub-Saharan African countries, home to 90 per cent of the one million people killed worldwide each year by malaria.

The researchers then later tested samples from patients infected with the Plasmodium falciparum parasite and the parasites were assessed for their sensitivity to four artemisinins — artemisinin itself, artemether, dihydroartemisinin and artesunate.

The results showed that 11 parasites showing artemether resistance had the same genetic mutations in an internal system called the calcium pump (this is used to transport calcium, crucial for the parasite to function).

“We already suspected that the calcium pump which we first showed was a target for artemisinins to work on in 2003 had the potential to develop artemisinin resistance. But this had been difficult to confirm until now,” said Dr Krishna.

“Artemether and ACTs are still very effective, but this study confirms our fears of how the parasite is mutating to develop resistance. Drug resistance could eventually become a devastating problem in Africa and not just in south east Asia where most of the world is watching for resistance.”

Dr Krishna noted that the effectiveness of the other artemisinins was not significantly affected by the mutations. This may be because they were able to work on other transport systems in the parasite, compensating for the effects of resistance mutations in the calcium pump.
“At the moment, we do not know if the other artemisinins will follow suit, but given the shared chemistry they have with artemether it is tempting to think that they would,” he added.

The scientists argued that the resistance could be a result of the increasing use of ACTs, 300 million doses of which were dispensed worldwide in 2011.

Greater use could offer the parasites more opportunities to develop genetic mutations that provide resistance. They say this could lead to a repeat of how the parasite developed resistance to pre-artemisinin drugs such as chloroquine. Incorrect use of anti-malarials, such as not completing the treatment course or taking substandard drugs, could aid this process.

Melissa Graham Saturday, 24 March 2012

Kampala the capital - a place of western influence and crazy driving!

I have spent the last couple of days deep in coversations with many different people and that seems to be the way it is here, rather than going and doing something, you just sit down and chat. I have been loving getting so many insights from the people I've chatted to about what life is like here.
For example Jean who I spent Friday with told me many things about what she has learnt about Uganda in only the three years they've lived here working for Pioneers International as a support team for full-time missionaries here. Such as:

God seems more tangible here; you think and pray to him constantly and consider him more than you do at home, e.g just driving around here is so dangerous and chaotic, vehicles everywhere and no-one obeys road rules it's so crazy (and I have been to Vietnam so that is saying something! haha) anyway so you arrive at a location and wonder how you survived- how did I get here, and they can sense God's hand at work in everything.

Corruption here that trickles down from high up in authority to doctors in hospitals to people on the street makes it so hard for the Ugadan people to make a life for themselves. Even the people who graduate from the Uni here in Kampala cannot get work because there is just no jobs. It is not what you know but who.

It can also be hard to make good friendships here with the locals because, where we would come from a culture that is to generally trust others until they disappoint you, then you are a bit wary until the prove their trustworthiness. The people here distrust until you prove yourself trustworthy.

As I meet more and more Ugandans I am struck by the way they live, only for today.
There are also many many underlying cultural things that you wouldn't understand unless a Ugandan told you, e.g. if a girl hasn't had a baby by the time she is 20 she is thought to have something wrong with her and so she goes out and seeks this so that she will not be looked down upon.

All in all, I am having a good time for the short while I have been here, the climate is very similar to the Australian summer and I have found the Ugandan people very warm and friendly! It will all be very different i think however when I head north to Karamajong. When I tell Ugandan people here that is where I am going, they say things like why on earth would you want to go there! It's so far away and they don't have anything there! It would be better to stay here in the city! But then I tell them what I am doing and that I think I may even prefer the country and they still look at me like I am an alie, haha well I don't mind I guess I am an alien really ;)

Anyway, things are very vague here in terms of planning, even for the westerners here they can't really plan much beyond the day or the next so I'll update you in that fashion and as things happen.

Oh you may have wondered why I wrote a place of western influence, well in many ways this place is truly African in stereotype but I was surprised when I got here to see how western/american-like everyone is dressed! And they have this mindset that anything western/white is good, down to the tv shows they watch here, a lot of it is actually rubbish!

Cannot wait to be heading to the country on Monday to see the wide open spaces and all the stars in their glory without the city lights to hide them!

Love Mel
Melissa Graham

Update from Miriam

Tom & Jean are still in the states and are requested by their leaders to stay some more months to recover fully. So keep lifting them up, since it is hard for them to be away from Karamoja so long...

For us, the "truck team" (Summer Root, Melissa Graham and me) we are in Mbale now, waiting for the truck to be repaired again, then heading down to Jinja for a pioneers' conference...

 

Miriam

 

Miriam Update

Es gibt mich noch und ich bin auch noch sehr lebendig, auch wenn es manchmal erscheinen mag, als wäre ich verschollen. Ein bisschen stimmt das ja auch, denn ich oftmals habe ich tagelang noch nicht mal Telefon und Internet ist noch bescheidener.

Wow, was für Wochen und Monate. Ich weiss gar nicht, wo ich anfangen soll… Na, ich werde Euch nach und nach auf den neuesten Stand bringen. Jetzt erstmal nur so viel:

Miriam update german 

Jinja halts NGO registration

 By Doreen Musingo

SECURITY officials in Jinja have suspended the vetting and awarding of licenses to non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

The move is part of measures to avoid "briefcaseâ" organisations in the district.

Sam Kidoma, the officer in charge of NGOs in the office of the district internal security officer, said most organisations present convincing proposals and objectives, but fail to implement them.

Kidoma made the remarks during a security meeting with leaders of NGOs at the district council hall on Wednesday.

He regretted that NGOs, which, he said, were meant to be associates of the Government, instead divert their interests due to huge sums of money they receive from funders abroad.

“They present objectives aimed at helping the needy including orphans and street children, but after getting approval, they instead provide for their relatives, leaving out the intended beneficiaries,” Kidoma said.

He added that such organisations use vulnerable children as bait to solicit support from funding agencies.

Kidoma said many briefcase NGOs had come up with objectives of rehabilitating and taking care of street children, but surprisingly, the number of children on the streets increases daily.

He added that five organisations in the district were facing closure for deviating from their objectives.

“Many of them lack office space and documentation about people they claim to be supporting. When you pay them an impromptu visit, you find them operating from their homes. Some present their own children as the needy under their care,” Kidoma observed.

He stressed the need by the organisations to give copies of their accountabilities and number of beneficiaries to the district authorities.

Kidoma warned that organisations which defy the requirements would be disqualified.

During the meeting, representatives of NGOs resolved how to handle major issues affecting children in their respective communities.



Jinja halts NGO registration

Please continue to pray for Summer Root in Uganda

Hello Friends,

With Summer now being again in Uganda and with limited access to the internet, let us not forget to continue to pray for Summer and the Karamojong people. She was recently able to connect with her team in Karamoja (Jean, Tom and Miriam) on March 24th, and is excited about serving the Lord in the Karamojong community. Summer, or "Naca", as her team calls her, said in one of her previous emails that she is convinced that the key to cross-cultural success is a heart that is yielded to God and is filled with His Holy Spirit. Let's continue to pray for Summer as we have great confidence in the work that God is doing as she and her team share the Gospel through telling Bible stories. May Jesus Christ our Good Shepherd reveal Himself to the shepherds and warriors of Karamoja as the Savior who lays down His life for His sheep.

-Tall Tim, Summer Root Newsletter helper
--
Please help support Summer's missionary work in Uganda by prayerfully giving through Pioneers by using the following link, and fill out the form. Thank you so much!
Website: https://webapps.pioneers.org/V2/giving/GiftInfo?name=Summer+Root&accountid=111084
Missionary Name: Summer Root
Account Number: 111084

Blog - http://summerroot.blogspot.com

To Subscribe or Unsubscribe please send an email to summerroot@gmail.com and let us know. Thank you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEAN

I found a nice one for you and you know i love you, right?

It's birthday time again I see;
Another year's gone by.
We're older than we used to be;
The thought could make me cry.
For getting older is not such fun,
When there's hurting in your back,
And it's agony if you have to run,
And a pleasure to lie in the sack.
Yes getting older is quite a bore,
But to not get old is worse.
So "Happy Birthday!" let's shout once more,
And to heck with our ride in the hearse!
Hooray for getting older! Happy Birthday and many more.

we, the Uganda team, wish you many more :-)

Attention Deficit Devos

Episode 34 The Fellowship

From Miriam on 10.5.2012: 

We definetely have far too many shootings around us. Every single night. Sometimes as close as within a hundred meters, but most times the manyattas around us. One worker had lost already more than 40 cows which is REALLY MANY! 2/3 of his wealth is lost. Every day one of our staff comes up with a story of raiding either their own or their neighbours animals...
Rain season brings a lot of challenges to all of us...

Sunrise

At this moment tempetatures in oldenburg, germany and papenburg, germany are higher than here..... Wow!

...just having latte macchiatto, boiled on fire.... We had a beautiful sunrise here. I love those moments, when people and animals wake up and start making noises and the sky turns orange...The sun just came over the horizon, and next to me people are already ploughing. I love those sounds... Ugh, ah, ey, heya, hugh, (singing), ah, ah, (whistleing), eyaloolooh, wadyooo,...ahh-eyyhh,... (whistling) yalolo-ey....

 Miriam

 

 

 

Simon & Carina Gruber

Simon & Carina Gruber spent two months with us in Karamoja on a survey visit (14 Feb to 13 April). They are German citizens and like us, he is a seminarian and she is a veterinarian (though, unlike us, she is from the south and he, from the north ... of Germany, of course). They started with Jean still in Jinja, so Carina wasn't able to get into vet work as soon as expected, but she still had a month with Jean in the end. We did a bit of language and storying. We went to our two churches (Anglican and Catholic). We took them up to Kaabong and showed them Lotim (twice - they flew out from there). So, they saw everything we had to show them. Carina attended some of a community animal health worker training led by the District Veterinary Officer and Simon & I took a bus to Nairobi for the Nomadic Peoples Network conference (Summer also joined us there, arriving from a Pioneers new missionary orientation week in Yei, South Sudan). Traveling like that is an orientation in itself. Simon struggled with malaria before and during the conference but eventually just took the medicine and got better quickly (another life-in-Africa lesson - we provide a FULL service orientation here). I think we all got a lot out of the conference and I'm sure Simon got everything he wanted from the malaria: pain, suffering, sleeplessness, misery (you know, the usual). Of course, we hope they will join our team, though not because Simon seems to pick up interesting artifacts everywhere he goes. He would Never, to take a Very unlikely example, just walk out into the tall grass of a game park amongst the wild carnivores in order to obtain a ... ooooh, let's just pick a wildly random "big 5" type trophy ... the head of a Cape Buffalo! Sheesh! No Way!! Come on! Never happen - not even when invited to do so by a gun-toting Park Ranger? no no no noooo! - but if he were to do something like that, it would look terrific hanging from the stone walls of the house - I'm just saying ...

Tom

Newsletter KACHEP May 2012

Newsletter KACHEP May 2012

Attention Deficit Devos

 In today's episode we'll look at the game of Jenga
and its spiritual significance

Episode 35 Jenga

Review from Ryan

Last week after 6 months I returned to visit the town I once lived in, in Karamoja. It is a blessing to see so many faces that I know. On the flip side there is always a different feeling when you revisit the past. Almost like when you work somewhere like a restaurant and stop working there, whatever it was before is never the same afterwards. It's like entering Disneyland through the service entrance. I realize now that Karamoja was training for what I'm doing now. It was the beginning of a treacherous journey to find what God wants me doing. Aside from all that reflection the Lord allowed me to lead Mariano(the boy who translated for me while I was there) to saving faith. It was truly exciting seeing as he was the first person I led to Christ in Karamoja. Since coming to Kitgum I've found God has me to be on the harvest side of His kingdom. Anyhow I digress the trip down was great. It was good to be there for Miriam's Birthday and to encourage the team. The next section of my trip was not so great. I had to visit OPC to pick up some panels and batteries. While I love seeing the gang at OPC I dread the roads that have worsened greatly. The whole trip was like driving over a lake not knowing what was below. At one point a dip in the road took my vehicle to new depths(on the hood to be exact). That was enough for me after getting the panels we headed back the scenic and long way. After two days myself and Godfrey headed back to Kitgum. As we move forward in time a bit we come to Saturday. As some of you know started a youth ministry in the village around a month ago. Since that time we've seen over 11 you give their lives to Christ. It's truly an exciting time and a huge opportunity for discipleship. In fact the discipleship has already begun. So far we've covered the two natures, forgiveness of sin, repentance and faith. It's an honor to lay those foundational truths in the lives of the youth here in the village.
The work on the Bible training continues. I've finished the rough draft of the Old testament Survey and have moved onto the New Testament. As for my training with Jonah(the Ugandan guy I live with) we're also wrapping up in the minor prophets. In these few weeks he's gone from little to no knowledge of the old testament to knowing the order of the books and a basic summary of them. My goal for this last month and May is to take him through the survey course and the introductory teaching course. It's a lot to attempt but I think it's possible. I think that's enough for now. Enjoy