Grateful

Week 4 was similar to week 3 in that I spent the majority of my working time at the Outreach House doing some organizing and getting to know the new patients. A new group arrived on Monday evening from a village called Luka. This group is unusual because it consists of more adults than children- 3 women, 7 men and 6 boys. As far as I know, the reasoning for this odd composition is that SH invites the people, regardless of age, with the worst jigger cases in a given village to come to the Outreach House and most often these are children, but not always. This group was similar to the last Outreach group in that they were very shy and apprehensive upon arrival and have begun to warm up to me and the idea of being at Outreach over time. With this group I've played a lot of soccer in the backyard and learned how to say a few colors in Lusoga (fun fact: "yellow" is the same as in English and "blue" is just pronounced "ba-lue").

One of my favorite memories with this group is of a brief conversation Kayla and I had with the men and the oldest boy using the Outreach director, Moses, as a translator. We learned all of their names and they learned ours. We asked them what they do back in their village and learned that they hold various jobs from farmer to construction worker. Finally, we asked them to describe how they felt about being here at SH Outreach- Were they scared to come? Worried about leaving their families for a couple of weeks? Nervous about what others from their community would say? I expected there to be a long pause and some encouragement from Moses before anyone would speak up simply because Ugandan men are usually fairly stoic, but to my surprise, several of them chimed in at once. They explained that they are very grateful to be here because having jiggers is very stigmatized in their community and also very painful. By getting rid of the bugs, they feel they will be more accepted within their village and be able to work and play more easily. To hear the gratitude pour out of them was definitely a neat experience!

Class time at Outreach

Kayla and I attempt to learn a math game with the kids

Eating lunch at the Outreach House 

After our conversation with the Outreach men 

 Clinic this week was held at a school in the gorgeous village of Bwende. There were so many kids who needed to be treated that we will be returning to Bwende in the near future. The kids were so cheerful in their bright yellow uniforms! I tried washing feet for the first time which was great, but also slightly uncomfortable because you're bent over and scrubbing foot after foot after foot. Thankfully, another volunteer who had been taking foot notes switched with me about halfway through,

Clinic in the gorgeous village of Bwende just outside of Jinja

Lining up to have jiggers removed

Clinic friends