Funny Story

Something that us Ex-Pats do when we get together to keep our sanity is tell stories about what has happened to us over the week. It helps us to know that we aren't the only ones in Uganda going through tough experiences. Sometimes they are bad stories, sometimes sad and almost always someone has a funny one. Well, this past week I thought that this story won the prize for being the funniest and thought I would pass it along...........

An NGO that has an office here sent some of their team members to the village to do AIDS awareness, safe sex and family planning teachings. They had finished their talk on the importance of safe sex not only to avoid sexually transmitted diseases, but also to reduce the number of pregnancies or to space their children better. Uganda by the way has the highest birth rate in the world at an average of 7.4 children per woman.
Anyway, at the end of their talk they wanted to show the people how to use condoms properly. So, they took out carrots and placed the condoms on the carrots so they could see how to do it and also practice it.
They distributed the condoms and left the village to return in a few months to see how things were going.
Upon their return a couple of months later the people were so excited to show the team that they had been practicing family planning and safe sex. As they were led to the peoples homes they noticed carrots in the yards with condoms placed on them. The people were beaming with joy to show the team that they were properly using the condoms just as they had been taught!

Can you imagine??? There are no words.

Computer Crash

This last week we had our hard drive crash on us. After 6 days of working on it and many hours we finally were able to get a new hard drive and get the computer up and running again.
We lost some files and some programs, but all in all it is in tact. If anyone has emailed us at david@orphanchildrenfund.com or jamie@ or Info@ the same address or any of the @orphanchildrenrescue's then we haven't gotten your emails. We still are having issues with outlook, so please use the orphanchildrenfund@gmail address.
We have been crazy busy getting the new house ready to move in as well as packing the old one up. It is coming along and we are still shooting for a August 15th move in date. We might have a day or two down when we move with the computers, so don't be alarmed if you don't hear from us at that time for a day or so.
School is starting up in the States in the next few weeks. Here we are just finishing up a term. The upper grades (1-6) at our school are taking their exams. We paid for 59 orphans to be able to take their exams at our school in Bakka. They have sitting fee's here in Uganda and if they can't afford the fees then they don't pass that grade and have to repeat it. We still have 157 students that do not have sponsors for school fees. As you are getting your kids ready for school this fall think about sponsoring a student here. $30.00 a month covers food, school fees, uniforms, books, test fees, and medical insurance.
Just a reminder.... we will be coming back to the States for the holidays in Nov. and Dec. Most of our time will be in Texas, Oklahoma, Minnesota and New York. We are looking forward to seeing friends and family and celebrating the season. It will also be a nice time to relax a bit.

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.