March 2nd

Sorry, i wrote this blog a while ago in camp and your getting it now!!

Can you believe it; I have 20 days left of my posting here in Uganda! I knew the time would pass by at an accelerated rate, but I honestly did not expect it to be this rapid. I think it is especially due to the off time that we have at the end of every month. For that off time I am very grateful by the way. We are supposed to have “free” or off time on Saturday afternoons and Sundays, but it is not always the case. There is always work that can be done. Speaking of work, I think my photo count is around 10,000! That is so crazy to me. But it is amazing too because, for me, it’s 10,000 moments frozen in time. 10,000 images of God’s beauty, majesty, creation, glory, grace, peace, emotion and oh so many other things that my feeble mind fails to put word to. I honestly shock myself every time I upload my photos. When there is this striking image, I thank God for what he has shown me, for what he has enabled me to portray. I could not do this on my own. If I tried, by myself, I think you would get better images from a blind woman standing on her head under a pile of hay. I’ve finally been backing up all my pictures and video onto DVD’s. I should have done it earlier because now it is a huge job, although, I am almost finished. I have a few project areas that I still need to complete photo documentation for including; the Rubingo AIDS Station, potential sponsorship people, agriculture demos, and a few other small things.
I have been hanging out with Andrea Huncar, this amazingly talented and beautiful reporter for the CBC. It has been such a blessing to meet her. To be able to talk to her about her career, and how she got to where she is, and how she writes, and everything I can think to ask her. It’s amazing how much we have clicked since the moment we met. She is doing my dream job. Moving around East Africa, most recently Sudan, researching and writing stories about amazing things. She is the one who is writing the story about the refugee camp in Kikigate. I tell you, that afternoon I spent moving around with her in the camp; I just knew that I wanted to do that. To help people get their stories heard. So, I was fortunate enough to take the pictures, and now, (I know I mentioned this in my last blog, but I wanted to spend more time to elaborate and really let you know what’s going on) they maybe published in the Hamilton Spectator! I am so excited! God is so good, and please just pray for me in this situation. Maybe the right people will see them, and you never know!
Side note: I just got a text from my friend Evans, the man I prayed for at the bible study for deliverance and breaking of generational curses. He said he messed up bad, and to please pray for him. So please, I pray that you would hold him in your prayers, that Satan’s attack on his life would not succeed, and that it would be broken to dust. Pray strong warring angles around him, fighting the battle for him. Pray against anger and aggression. Pray for healing of hurts. Please, this man has a huge calling on his life, I beg you as fellow believers to fight the battle with this man. Fight it on your knees for him!
So it was crazy being in that camp. It has grown from 220 to over 1300 in 2 months. And it consists of people who left Uganda during the 60’s and 70’s in search of land and a better life. Most of them were living in Tanzania for over 20 years. And now the Tanzanian government is kicking them out in not a nice manner. They are tied and beaten and thrown in trucks and shipped back to their countries. Left with nothing but any few small things they can scrounge together before they are shipped out having to leaving behind their land, their animals, their homes, their everything. Now they are all grouped in a small settlement area behind the town of Kikigate. They are not welcome in the trading center; two men were recently beaten severely by the Kikigate locals. They have no medical services and no money to seek help elsewhere. Children are dying all the time, due to the lack of medical attention, lack of nutrition, and poor living conditions. Mary, our guide from the camp, took us to see where the children are buried. She said they have lost count on the number of deaths, and the grass is already growing over if not totally covering many of the graves. She showed us an old blind woman, who had three different stories as to why her back was covered in scars; one being she died, and was resurrected and woke up with the scars; two she had TB and they gave her the wrong medication and she woke up with the scars; and three they were from bed sores. There was a pastor in the camp who was taken out of TZ, and doesn’t know where his pregnant wife is. There was the little orphan boy who may have HIV, and if he tests positive his only living relative, a grandmother, won’t care for him. They all live in grass shelters that do practically nothing for the rainy season that we are just entering.
But despite all these circumstances, they are joyous; they get together almost every night to sing praise songs. They were selling what little they could scrounge up, working together to survive, finding food and firewood to cook with, they even set up a school in their multi purpose room that teaches nursery to P6. One of the most beautiful things was, we asked if we could have their children’s choir sing for us, and when they told the kids, they all lit up and ran to the open field to get arranged and practice quickly. I have the singing on video tape and it’s just beautiful. The sad thing was, is there was a storm coming. And we saw it coming, and knew we had to leave to get shelter for our equipment or it would ruin. They wished we could stay forever I am sure, but we left. It was not a nice feeling, knowing that we were leaving to a warm, dry house, with a hot meal. And they were staying. Having no choice, because this all they have now, there families sold their little bits of land to go to Tanzania, and now they are forced to find their way out of poverty.
So, I am tired now, its 10:46pm on March the 2nd, and I think I need to get some rest. Thank you to all of you that are still taking the time to check up on me. It’s been a turbo 6 months, but at times, it was very long too. But all in all, I know that there has been huge growth in my life and in my heart. Probably things that I will never really be able to define, but I will try for my next blog to put it in words for you.

Good night, and God Bless you all.
Love Melanie