Bonnie Bzdok: Happy Easter~ Enjoy the meat! ~26 March 2016

I found another one to take home!

Kids swimming in the pond behind Rick and Priscilla's house

It’s been another exciting week in Uganda. Wednesday, the 16th I met with the Rotary club in Kabale, a little bigger town just two hours away. It was a good meeting and I’m feeling encouraged that we’ll be able to form a partnership between the Rotary club of Kabale and the Rotary club in St. Cloud, Minnesota to build more water tanks for the villagers around Kisoro. Yet again I am amazed and humbled by the many people who not only have the desire to help, but who wholeheartedly pursue it! From Kabale I traveled to Fort Portal in Western Uganda. If one were to drive directly there, I would guess it to be about a six hour drive, but because taking public transport in Uganda is like riding on the back of a tortoise and is more dangerous than trying to wrestling a rhino it took twelve grueling hours! The shared taxi stops about every fifty feet to let someone out, or to pick someone up. It is clearly painted on the door “14 passenger capacity” but that means nothing. There are usually around 20 people in the van along with a mound of cargo, equal in size on top of the vehicle, not to mention the goats and chickens shoved under the seats of the mini-van. It is always a pleasure to arrive and stretch my legs, wiggle my toes and test my ability to walk again.

I spent a few days in Fort Portal visiting with my dear friend Rick, whom I know from Alaska, and his wonderful Ugandan wife, Priscilla. He returns to Alaska in March, so I had to quickly take the arduous journey to enjoy his company before he left. They have a beautiful home here in the heart of Africa and I always enjoy the treat of being there, enjoying a Muzungu to converse with. We literally sat in the shade for two days visiting (like a true African!) about so many things and marveling at the peculiarities of Ugandan life. I thoroughly enjoy the little things, like no rats in the house and the variety of food Priscilla makes. It’s the same staple foods, just cooked in different ways! For example Priscilla makes a delicious matoke (similar to plantain) soup and she even makes a fantastic pizza! From the same simple ingredients Rick has introduced her to many new things! As if all that good food and great conversation wasn’t enough, Rick sent me away with ear plugs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What an incredible invention, back in Kisoro now I sleep like a baby to the thumping bass; the music rages on, but I am oblivious.

The progress on the water tank has come a long way in the week I was gone. I returned to find they named the building that the gutters will hang from after me! Can you imagine my surprise when I walked into the compound to check on the progress of the tank and I found, “Bzdock House” painted on the building?! When they try to pronounce my name it usually has an “L” in it and sounds more like “Bullz-docky”, so I was even impressed with the spelling, close enough! What an honor and delight to find this classroom block dedicated to me.

While visiting the village of Bushoka and checking on our water tank there, I met a little boy named Anson. He had an open wound on his foot that looked frightening to me, raw, oozing and swollen. He couldn’t tell us how he got it, I asked if it was a burn or if it was from an insect but he said it wasn’t either of those things. He had no idea how it happened but he was limping and his forehead was burning hot. The next morning I stopped at the Pharmacy and showed the “Chemist” the picture of the wound. He questioned me about how he got it, what his age was, etc. I told him what I could and he sent me away with hydrogen peroxide, cotton swabs, gauze and tape to cover it with along with some antibiotics. Four dollars later I was on my way back to the school where we found the boy the day before, of course he was absent! The teachers sent a little girl, no more than four or five years old with us to direct us to his house. She sat in front of Didas on the gas tank of the motor bike and directed us down paths and up and down hills that even I couldn’t have managed to remember! When the path got too narrow and steep we got off and walked. We found a woman with her one week old baby tied on her back who was just about to set out on the long journey to town; it was market day. She sent the little girl back to school and she led us the remaining 25 minutes up and down more hills until we came to Anson’s home. His mother took us inside their mud home where we found him sleeping on a grass mat. To my horror they put “Colgate” (as in toothpaste) on the wound to keep the flies off of it. We sent the mother for water; she returned with about a cup of water in a basin, it’s all she could spare, to wash the Colgate off. Anson screamed and cried and she had to hold his foot tightly while Sam scraped the toothpaste out of the wound. Finally we had him cleaned and bandaged with instructions to do it every day, and to take all of the antibiotics until they’re gone. I even brought shoes and socks for him to wear to try to keep the foot clean; they thanked us profusely as we left. The whole slew of kids were singing “ram sam sam”, every child in the world loves that silly song! As we sped off on the motor bike Anson was waving with a big smile on his face saying, “wacozey chaney”, proudly carrying the only pair of shoes he’s ever owned.

Happy Easter, The fortunate ones here will be eating meat on Sunday; it will be the highlight of their celebration!

Enjoy the meat and the Resurrection,

Love, Bonnie

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can make a difference, in fact it’s the only thing that ever has.” -Margaret Mead

www.resilientuganda.webs.com

Resilient Uganda

P.O. Box 7

Kisoro Uganda AFRICA