July

We are heading towards the end of July and I wanted to give you an update on what has happened this month.
It has been a full month with a lot of things going on, many things accomplished and lives changed.

As many of you know from reading the blog we had two medical clinics this past month. We tested the students their siblings and family members for HIV as well as vaccinating them. They all received de-worming and vitamins.

All of the students received mosquito nets and instructions on how to use and care for them and 39 of them were hung in the homes.

We finished the social work with pictures on all of the students. Now the job of putting them together and getting them on the web so that you can see them and hear their stories.

We purchased a water filtration system for the school so that the children can drink clean water during the school day.

We had 2 volunteers from the states come and help out in the school as well as others who came and helped out for the medical clinics.

We were finally able to purchase a car!

Our quest for another house to rent is over. We found one and will move in August.

We celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary. We escaped to Jinga to spend the night overlooking the Nile in a private Banda. It was a much needed break for us.

Our son competed in 2 motocross races placing 8th in one and 4th in the other.

August we are looking forward to several families being able to come and pick up their kids, moving into our new house and more renovations to the school. We are still waiting to start in Nakasongola which we hope will be in August as well.

We are planning on coming back to the states for a vacation during the holidays. At that time we will have been away from home for 18months. We are looking forward to seeing friends and family again. (not to mention eating Mexican food) We will be in Texas and Minnesota for sure in November and December. Please let us know if you would like us to come and speak for any group.

pictures of 2nd vaccine clinic

Jesse got in on the "jabbing" action this past week where he helped us out with the vaccinating. Our honeymooners helped out with paperwork and David ended up "jabbing" in the end as well. We vaccinated and gave bottles of vitamins to 87 more people. So in the end the vaccine clinic, HIV testing and net distribution over the past 2 weeks were a huge success. Our students and their families and some of the village people were all tested for HIV, vaccinated, de-wormed, vitamins given and nets distributed and 39 hung so far. A huge thank you to Mild May again, Wentz Clinic, especially Faith, Buy a Net from Canada, David and Bethany Allen, Help International, Sarah White and the McKenzie family for all of their hard work during the past 2 weeks for the clinic/net distribution. Thank you to the Penner family for donating funds to help make this all happen.

2nd vaccination clinic /unsuspecting babies

Here are some of the babies before we vaccinated them. I thought they were so cute and wanted you to see their precious little faces.
This one in the hat didn't cry at all when we"stuck" her. What a trooper.

Porridge line at school during clinic

Kids waiting for porridge and watching the show of the scared people getting tested for HIV.

pictures of round 2 of the HIV Testing

This was a boy who was so scared of getting tested that he ended up shirtless, but at least he didn't bite anyone. They had 4 people holding him down to draw the blood and he kept screaming that, "It was hurting him" even though they hadn't touched him yet. His anticks made for quite a show for the kids waiting in line for their porridge. It was another long day for everyone. We tested another 87 people and had 9 more positive for HIV. Only one child tested positive out of the 300 people that we tested.

Team from Canada here to distribute nets

The team from Canada came on Thursday to deliver and educate the students and their families how to use and care for the nets that they were donating. In all they brought 160 for our students, their family members and teachers. We had Jimmy (he works for us) and David (a volunteer from our church in the USA) go and hang nets in 4 homes. This next week David will be going to the students homes and showing them how to hang them and making sure they all get up. It will be a big job for him. We are thankful for his help to get this done. This should, if properly used, cut the rate of malaria down in the village significantly. Most months we have a minimum of 10% of our students out with malaria and most of the parents of the orphans that we have in our school have died from it.
A huge thank you to Wentz Medical Clinic, Dr. Martin, African Renewal Ministries and the Canadian team for helping to make this happen for our students and their families.

Net education

"Net team" from Canada educating the kids and their families how to properly care for and use the nets