Hey everyone, thanks for checking out our blog. Sorry for not keeping
it updated as we should, but hopefully things will get better. The month
of February has been a month of visitors. In the beginning of this month
we had two ladies join us Michelle of Florida, and Miriam of Germany but
working in the country with Kingfisher safaris. For Michelle she is a nurse
and specifically a surgical nurse. We've been blessed to bring her to four
different clinics to get a feel for medical work in Karamoja. She has done
really well and helped out with the staff of the different places. She is set
to leave the second week of March. Miriam on the other hand came up to help
out with the chicken project but also with building. As for building things
are moving along now. The Karamoja Team(aka KKAB)has been devoting the late
afternoon 3-7pm daily. While this hasn't been the fastest way of building we
are learning slowly slowly. On Thursday we got a new contractor named Siraji
and he is plugging away with our houses. So at the same time we learn how to
build he is building full time. So that about sums us whats happening....
JT Grade DVM, PhD
Uganda: +256-758 899777
USA: +1-415 858 4262
Belgium: +32-488 94449
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Happy new Year!
On the 18th February 2011 we had elections in Uganda. All went well for Karamoja but we’ve heard reports of skirmishes down country. Thanks for your prayers. Most community people up north here don’t really think much about politics or even what non-Karamojong worry about. Typically, they are more concerned about survival and life-and-death concerns. Struggling to get food, water, shelter, medicine – they basic stuff much of the world doesn’t think about.
One of the ways that we are trying to address the pervasive problem of malnutrition in our little corner of Karamoja is a small poultry project at the household level. We bought 100 day old chicks and brought them up to Nabilatuk on 3 February. All of them fit into a box not much bigger than an oversized deep dish pizza delivery box. Now after 2 ½ weeks, those little fuzz balls are growing into recognizable feathered creatures, chirping and flapping around. In 4 months they’ll be ready to go to their new homes, 10 laying hens to each selected woman. To get the chicks ready – we need to be with them around the clock for the first month, giving feed, water and heat. They get vaccinated weekly, and the pen is cleaned daily. Usually the local chickens just scratch and scavenge to find food and water, at night they sleep in trees or sometimes a basket –unfortunately 50% are killed by hawks or wild cats. Our plan is that the women will make cages for them and give the feed we provide. Once the hens start laying eggs, 3 eggs per day are sold to cover the daily feed cost, leaving the balance for daily household consumption. The hens will be kept for a laying season and then sold in order to buy a new group of hens. That’s the plan, to be a sustainable project with minimal inputs. Pray that it goes well. Of course, some will die from disease before the women even get them, others might be stolen, and others might be eaten by the very women recipients. But we are hopeful that this can have some impact in the lives of people as I strive to show Christ’s love through veterinary medicine. Not to mention that it’ll be nice for KKAB to be able to get eggs to eat ourselves!
One of the ways that we are trying to address the pervasive problem of malnutrition in our little corner of Karamoja is a small poultry project at the household level. We bought 100 day old chicks and brought them up to Nabilatuk on 3 February. All of them fit into a box not much bigger than an oversized deep dish pizza delivery box. Now after 2 ½ weeks, those little fuzz balls are growing into recognizable feathered creatures, chirping and flapping around. In 4 months they’ll be ready to go to their new homes, 10 laying hens to each selected woman. To get the chicks ready – we need to be with them around the clock for the first month, giving feed, water and heat. They get vaccinated weekly, and the pen is cleaned daily. Usually the local chickens just scratch and scavenge to find food and water, at night they sleep in trees or sometimes a basket –unfortunately 50% are killed by hawks or wild cats. Our plan is that the women will make cages for them and give the feed we provide. Once the hens start laying eggs, 3 eggs per day are sold to cover the daily feed cost, leaving the balance for daily household consumption. The hens will be kept for a laying season and then sold in order to buy a new group of hens. That’s the plan, to be a sustainable project with minimal inputs. Pray that it goes well. Of course, some will die from disease before the women even get them, others might be stolen, and others might be eaten by the very women recipients. But we are hopeful that this can have some impact in the lives of people as I strive to show Christ’s love through veterinary medicine. Not to mention that it’ll be nice for KKAB to be able to get eggs to eat ourselves!
Sunday, November 14, 2010
November the beginning of construction
Okay so this is my first time actually posting to the KKAB blog. So here it goes November has been the beginning of construction month. Since the time we have moved here (back in July) we have waited to put in a well and start constructing our houses. So here we are in November and things are
just beginning. Just a week or so ago we had Bob Wright come and put in a bore hole, big thanks to him and the work. At the current it is not finished, okay well the hole is finished but the pump is not installed yet, so no water as of yet. For us to get the borehole meant one thing, construction time is now here. So yesterday Bob Wright came up again with his team and we began to put the footing into foundation trenches. If water was around the job was supposed to be like 5 hours or less. Our problem was since the bore hole wasn’t finished and the submersible pump didn’t want to work that meant running back and forth to the borehole (about 8 Kilometers away). So Tom and Jean the entire day were driving a lot and moving water like crazy I imagine up to 2,000 liters of water. Meanwhile back at the land we had a crew shoveling sand, rock, and cement and then filling up wheel barrows and wheeling them to the dump site. I think by the end of the day we wheeled about 100 of them full of cement. Some would have stopped at a certain point but not us, we wanted a solid foundation so we finished at 9pm at night working by moon light. I wonder if this is a sign of what’s to come………
just beginning. Just a week or so ago we had Bob Wright come and put in a bore hole, big thanks to him and the work. At the current it is not finished, okay well the hole is finished but the pump is not installed yet, so no water as of yet. For us to get the borehole meant one thing, construction time is now here. So yesterday Bob Wright came up again with his team and we began to put the footing into foundation trenches. If water was around the job was supposed to be like 5 hours or less. Our problem was since the bore hole wasn’t finished and the submersible pump didn’t want to work that meant running back and forth to the borehole (about 8 Kilometers away). So Tom and Jean the entire day were driving a lot and moving water like crazy I imagine up to 2,000 liters of water. Meanwhile back at the land we had a crew shoveling sand, rock, and cement and then filling up wheel barrows and wheeling them to the dump site. I think by the end of the day we wheeled about 100 of them full of cement. Some would have stopped at a certain point but not us, we wanted a solid foundation so we finished at 9pm at night working by moon light. I wonder if this is a sign of what’s to come………
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)