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weIt’s 3:01pm, and I am sitting in my tent, sweating. The heat is on today. And the breeze is pretty much off. I’m listening to a party shuffle on iTunes. I haven’t written a blog in so long and I’m thinking it’s time. The biggest news I’d say, is, if you didn’t hear through the grape vine at home, I got Malaria. YUCK. Candice, I know how you felt. It sucked for sure. It all started with waking up a couple mornings with achy bones and joints. I felt like I was getting sick, but not too bad. Then I woke up Friday December 7th and I knew something wasn’t right. I needed to lie down and was nauseous. Then, just after lunch it hit me like a brick wall falling on my head. I sat on the edge of my porch for about 45 minutes with my head between my legs trying to fight off the nausea. Needless to say, it didn’t help, well all that much, I was able to keep my food down and that’s a plus. If you know me you know I would rather bounce my head off the wall then have to throw up. So, I told one of the Ugandan’s that I was seriously not feeling well and I needed to see a doctor. So they said I should go to Mbarara with the group that was leaving that day. But, because there was this big think about not going to town when it’s not necessary, and my team didn’t seem to think I was that sick, thought I should just to go the little clinic down the road in the town center. So off we went, Tanessa volunteered to drive me down, and I got a lovely needle jabbed into my vein in my hand. Oh needles, another wondrous thing in life that I love to do back flips over. Hah. So it took about 45 minutes to get the test results back, and they stuck me in a back room mud condo unit with a bare mattress to await my results. It was a ok place in comparison to some other “medical” centers around here. So as I lay there, contemplating if I had malaria or not, the sun was setting and shining into my room. An attendant lady came and bashed some nails into the mud wall with a brick to hang a net type hanging deal to keep the bugs out. It’s a weird feeling to be all alone in some strange clinic with people who barely speak English, and not knowing if your just sick, or have a possibly life threatening disease. Finally, the “nurse” came back and the results were in. “You have P Falciparum Malaria, 17%” So for every 100 of my white blood cells, there were 17 Malaria viruses. I also had the great travelers’ revenge (diarrhea) for 5 days prior to this. So they suggested some treatments. Definitely IV fluids they thought, at least one liter, then also IV treatments of Quinine (malaria treatment) and two antibiotics. Tanessa, Graeme and I thought that this was a bit much, especially intravenous. So we decided (as the liter of fluid dripped into my veins turning my arm ice cold) that it would be best for me to head to Mbarara. Just in case, you never know what can happen. So, up I got, from my bare mattress haven, to the paint shaker roads from H-E-Double Hockey Sticks. I unhurriedly, made my way to the truck while Tanessa held my IV Fluid up with my first dose of Quinine. Johnson was so nice as to lend me a pillow and a blanket for the trip, which were a savings grace because the front passenger’s side window had been broken while Apollo was panga-ing (big blade) the lawn, and hit a rock, and also, the nights are cold. So it’s amazing that I made it through the journey, because I felt like human tenderized meat. Every bump hurt, and if you can imagine four by four-ing in Canada, or North America, then times it by at least 5, I’d say you are partially there, and then add on, the amazing Tanessa regulating my IV throughout this entire process. Only in Africa. So we made it, and I was gradually feeling worse, the nausea got worse, I couldn’t see straight, it was uncomfortable and just crappy no matter what I was doing or what position I sat or lay. Tanessa regulated my drugs, Gravol every 8 hours, Tylenol and Ibuprophen on alternating 4 hours. She phoned the American Doctor in Mbarara, Dr. Pepper, seeking his tropical medicine advice. He said the IV was unnecessary and if I could keep food down then I should just take the oral dosage. So we went to town…I barely remember the ride in the back of the taxi, talking to my mom and her friends on my cell. They were all saying really encouraging things and I was crying, and crying. We got the pills, and the Taxi took be back to Canada House. Two pills every 8 hours, and they make you feel sick. So, I crawled my way back to bed, with the IV needle still in my hand, because Tanessa was still in town and couldn’t take it out. My hand is still bruised from it, by the way. This is the sickest I have ever been. I proceeded to move to the puking stages and dry heaving stages. Feeling like a soggy, drugged up, bruised noodle. It’s all a blur really, and I am SO happy to be better. Miraculously I kept all the medicine down and only threw up any food I tried to eat after waiting for the medicine to absorb. It’s my sincere recommendation that you never forget your anti-malarial drugs, it’s not worth it. I had forgotten for about four days a few weeks before, because I unexpectedly stayed in town without any supplies. During the whole process, I was blessed enough to have the infamous Dr. Pepper pay me a home visit, thanks to Richard request. He recommended to have me go for another test, cause the Malaria should be our of my body by then, and to have a full blood count and start some antibiotics cause my wonderful travelers’ bathroom blessing had not subsided in the lease. He ended our meeting with a prayer that brought tears to my closed, lap facing eyes, tears that crept out of my pressed eye lids and down my cheeks. Due to the spirit of God and maybe from just having someone there to pray for me, it feels like a desert out here at times. But I know you are praying for me and this mission at home, and I can’t express how truly grateful for that I am. So, on the 8th I made my way back to Rubingo, only to be greeted with the death of Evas’ (a co-worker that runs the AIDS clinic) sister in law’s daughter of 16 years.
So on the 9th we went back to the Mbarara area to attend the funeral. It was really distressing. I saw a dead body for the first time. I don’t really know what to think about it. She looked cold. The mother was unraveling at the seams. I cried for her. I couldn’t help thinking about how lucky I am to have never had to deal with the death of someone that close, and also to think of how utterly destroyed I would be if I lost anyone in my immediate family. (I love you all, and am so grateful for your lives, for your impact you have had in my life and others).
Then there was another death, of an HIV client, named Melon (which is what they call me here now by the way). I stayed behind on that one though; I was still processing from the funeral the day before.
Speaking of names, on a lighter note, I received my Runyankore name from the local women here at the camp. Melon Namarungi. Melon is the way they say Melanie because it is a Ugandan name and they are not used to saying Melanie, and Namarungi meaning, the best or most beautiful. It brought a blush to my cheek that’s for sure. I didn’t quite know what to say to such an esteemed name. So I humbly accepted it, not wanting to offend them, and now call all of the women that name as well.
So, on with business, I am up to par in health and feeling good. Work is progressing at constant rate. We have got a list full of 50 people, 25 adults and one child from each, who will be attending the Memory Book Work (MBW) Training session that I am planning to have on January 15th to the 19th. Providing that everything goes through with the middle stages of finishing the budget, and getting it approved by ACTS Canada. From that point we can notify the people of the date, and move forward with all the small details of getting supplies and securing the venue. It’s true that cross cultural work is a test of your patience. Because everything, literally everything takes way longer. Just discussing one topic takes at least an hour to have both sides understand what is being said. But hopefully the skills of communicating with the Ugandan’s and vice versa will be improving. I am really happy though, because it seems that the people here are getting the whole idea of memory work and are grasping the benefit of it. We had no problem finding 25 volunteers, and 25 of their kids. **Side note I am being distracted right now by a cute little lizard that keeps running across the screen windows of my tent. ** So the training will be 5 days with the adults and the kids being trained separately. **Now there is a lizzy on the inside, and he is hiding behind my picture of Victoria Katonga** I have two trainers coming from NACWOLA Kampala coming, as well as two assistants from Mbarara, that will be heading up the sessions. We will house and feed the trainers, and provide transport money for the trainee’s as well as one meal. So I have been making up some forms, a pre and post survey, trainee’s form and a thank you letter for our new MBW volunteer team, all of which will get translated into the local Runyankore language. It is now 4:34 and that means 26 minutes until chai time.
Tomorrow is our last day of work, and then the OFF!! Tomorrow I’m going to meet with Gorette one of our HIV Clients, with Johnson, and I am going to video tape her testimony with Johnson translating. How she was almost dead and then one of the ACTS workers found her and she got medical treatment, multivitamins, ART’s (anti-retroviral treatments) and now she is alive and well. I am trying to meet with quite a few of these ACTS success stories that I could include in some possible promotional video’s for ACTS.
Also I am trying to meet up with these 3 Orphans that we found, living by themselves in the Rweibogo Cell. They are 11, 8 and 3 years old. Both they’re parents died of AIDS, and now they are on they’re own. The closest relative has 13 kids that she already cares for and lives a two hour walk away. So we are trying to see of they have another relative that will care for them, or find them another home, and then maybe we can build them a new house and find some sponsorship money to help with the raising of them. I am currently looking for a sponsor for a wonderful girl name Fortunate Burungi. She came to the ACTS Rubingo camp two and a half years ago. Both her parents died and she became a street kid. Her brothers and sisters are living on the streets of Mbarara. But she came here to the camp wearing nothing but a shirt. She told them she had no place to go, Evas said she would take her in, ACTS approving. They approved and now she lives here at the camp with us. She is 16 years old and has been caring for Evas’ only child, Phiona, who is 2 and a half. There was a past intern who was paying for her school fee’s, but they can’t anymore. Evas is in no financial position to fully care for her either. So I am praying and hoping that one of you out there will be stirred and want to sponsor her. Oh, and also last Friday we had HIV/AIDS testing here in Rubingo, and Fortunate went to get tested. Sadly, she tested positive for HIV. It was dreadful to discover this as she most likely got it from her parents who were both positive and was thus, just born that way. No choice, just born with a life killing disease. So it would be best to send her to boarding school, which costs 200,000 UgSh a year, which is $125 CND. That included food everything. Food is regrettably only posho and beans, with the slight variable of matoke every now and then, and meat twice a term. But the education is better, and apparently there is less discrimination against HIV positive children.
If anyone out there would like to sponsor a child or a family, just let me know, because there is no shortage of needy people. People who are just stuck below the poverty line and can only get out with our side help. So if you would like to donate to the general fund of ACTS, contact the head office, all the info is on the website. www.acts.ca Or if you would like me to find you an individual story, just send me an email with about how much you would like to spend, and I will personally find you a child or a family and take their pictures, and video for you to see.
Thanks for all your support, and taking the time to read this enormous blog. If you would please pray for all the work here you have read about, and also for our journey to Kenya for Christmas. This Thursday 6 of us girls are taking a 5 ½ hour bus ride to Kampala, and then a 13 hour bus ride to Nairobi. We arrive at 2am, so please pray that our taxi is right there to pick us up and take us to our hotel. Then we take an 18 hour train ride to the coast, where we are headed to the island of Lamu. Hello white sand!! I am so excited for the ocean; it has been literally months since I have seen it, and that’s a very long time for me. We head back on that same route on the 29th so if you could pray for that too, it would be great. We will spend new years in Kampala, with my friend Kristy, and then head back to Mbarara on the 1st, to be back at camp on the 2nd.
Hope you all have the merriest of Christmas’. I must admit, I am home sick around this time of the year. Although it doesn’t feel like Christmas at all, so maybe you miss me more. And I pray that your New Years start off with a bang and that you all make attainable goals, as well as a few outrageous ones. I believe in you all. If God can fly my butt all the way to Uganda, he can do anything for you too!!

God Bless, Merry Christmas and Happy New Years,
LOVE ALWAYS Melon Namarungi

Ps. Adele, I hope you are still coming, even though there is this hair dressing job, which I am SO stoked for you for by the way. I am PRAYING…