Bil-Har-Z WHAT?

Tuesday was our free day, kind of. In the morning we had an informational session for our practicums and were given the rest of the forms/assignments we would need to complete while on the field. We also received a bit more basic information about our sites as well as our departure times/dates. Rwanda - 17:50 - 28/09/08

After our meeting concluded I was off to school where I was meeting up with a former Go-ED student who is now back working in Uganda with an organization called African Hearts. (Go-ED is technically the name of the program I am here with and the overarching organization is FHI- Food for the Hungry International). Working to help and move street kids into a loving, stable environment, Jessica and Abbie (another former Go-ED student) divide there time between outreaches in different slums around Kampala and taking care of a growing number of boys in a nearby village. I can't recall the name of the village, but they have a house out there where they take kids who are tired of living on the streets and help them transition off of drugs and into school where they are able to get an education and a hope of a better life. Sharing with them the love of Christ, through their own love and care many of the children are experiencing a healthy family structure for the first time. It is wonderful to see their passion for a group of children that much of the city views only as a nuisance.

Working with them yesterday we were joined by another partner organization which does the same type of work and then a church that is the only one to have a street children ministry. Going out to two different sites, the team administered basic first aid, cleaning, sterilizing, and dressing wounds to help stave off disease and infection. Addressing coughs and colds they also provided limited medication as resources allowed. Concluding our time there we gave out rolls, pieces of bread and cups of clean drinking water.

However, my lack luster depiction of the afternoon's events truly does not tell the entire story... so allow me to elaborate:

Arriving on the scene of the Gulu Boys 'Home' somewhere outside of the New Taxi Park, we were quickly overcome by the aroma of burning tires?plastic? not sure, but it was overwhelming. Making my way from the strip of 'road' across the smoldering heaps of garbage onto a soot covered stretch of land, our work began. Growing ever more lightheaded from the fumes, I was more than happy to follow Abbie off on a short picture taking adventure into the bushes surrounding the area. Having recently rained we noticed mud in the path but thought nothing of it as we watched one of the guys make his way gingerly through a path that had been blazed through the grass. Not quite as easy as we thought, Abbie's foot was soon enveloped in mud, gobbling up her shoe. Following suit I walked across as well and obviously mis-stepped, as I soon found myself nearly waist deep in "mud". We shall use the term "mud" here quite loosely, because this certainly wasn't your normal it-just-rained-and-now-the-dirt-has-turned-to-mud type of mud, this was swamp mud. A mixture of all things gross and disgusting aided I am sure by human contributions that now had sucked me into the earth and was refusing to let go. Experiencing a moment equivalent to that of quicksand I wasn't completely sure how I was going to get out. With one leg less submerged than the other and pressed up on my hands and crawled out. Standing up to profuse apologies from the leader of our small band and Abbie's look of horror, I began to notice the army of little black worms wriggling around on my exposed skin. Rushing to pick them off my arm, I could only stand there and hope that my jeans and shoes were protecting my legs from their penetration. I had undoubtedly just been exposed to Bilharzia - one of the many lovely tropical diseases present here. Next step - buying de-worming medication, Oh the Joys of life!