Wheelchairs and Power Outages

One of my favorite things I have been able to do here is help with a few wheelchair distributions. You can read about the previous ones here and here. The one this week was in Kampala for the Wakiso District. We ended up giving away around 160 wheelchairs in 2 days.

In Uganda, it is generally quite expensive to get a wheelchair. They cost around 500,000 UGX or $192.31. Most people cannot afford to pay for a wheelchair and end up just crawling to get from place to place. On top of that, there are many more illnesses here that can cause physical disabilities. The organization that I worked with is called Father's Heart Mobility and they are able to provide donated wheelchairs to these people that only cost $100 or. 260,000 UGX. If you would be interested in donating a wheelchair to someone in need click here.

Meet some of the people that I worked with the past 2 days:

Meet Kato: Kato's only problem is that he has an untreated club foot on the right. We referred him to an organization called CorSu that does orthopedic surgeries for free.

Kato

Meet Phiona: Phiona acquired Spinal Tuberculosis when she was 7 years old. It has led to paresis in her legs and a hump on her upper back by her shoulder blades (where the infection dwelled). She is now 19 years old and has only been able to crawl to get around since she was 7. She was so excited to receive a wheelchair!

Phiona

 Meet Daphine: My favorite part about Daphine's story is her step-mother. In Uganda, most people do not care for children with disabilities and most step-mother's do not care for their husband's kids. This women went against both of those cultural norms to care for this girl. Daphine was developing normally until she was 3 years old. She got really sick and went to the hospital and they sent her home saying it was just a fever. Daphine ended up losing function of both her arms and legs and now cannot talk, sit or feed herself. She is now 12 years old, and her step-mother came into her life 7 months ago. Daphine's mother basically left Daphine to do nothing. This new step-mother is now fighting for Daphine, trying to teach her to eat, sit, and trying to get her a wheelchair. I started crying talking with this women, she is so amazing.

Daphine with her step mother

Meet Sarah: Sarah is 20 years old and has cerebral palsy. I think she at one time had a wheelchair that became too small and she has had to be carried ever since. She was so incredibly happy to receive a new chair!

Sarah

 And some other people that warmed my heart in the last few days!

This wonderful women Phiona translated and was my helper for the last 2 days. I am so thankful for her!!

This sweet little boy has severe hydrocephalus, but his mom is doing everything right in trying to get him the treatment he needs. The mom was so sweet, she said my little boy is perfect, except that he has some extra fluid on his brain.

I do not remember this little guy's name, but he was just so sweet. He appeared to have spastic diplegia (cerebral palsy affecting only the legs)

How cute is he in his chair!!

This sweet little guy, has hydrocephalus and what is called plagiocephaly- or something similar, basically a flattening of the head (PT friends... have a better name for this?) He is pictured with my good friend Florence, who has a non-for-profit that helps kids with diabilities. She also is a PT!

This little girl was so sweet too!

I think most of the adults I saw, were paralyzed since childhood secondary to having polio.

One more of the sweet kids I met!

I just loved this man in the wheelchair on the left. He goes into his village and finds kids that parents are trying to hide and shows them that it is ok to have a disability. He brought 3 boys to the distribution for wheelchairs.

I cannot tell you anything about this man... BUT he is wearing a baby onesie on his head! He is talking with Francis the founder of Father's Heart Mobility

My favorite part of these distributions is just being able to show people God's love. They call it Father's Heart because they want people to learn about how much God has given them through the gift of this wheelchair. 

I felt like a real African this week!
Normally if the water goes out.. it is gone for a few hours and comes back. This week it was gone for nearly 36 hours before we had water again. That meant I had to go get water from the rain tanks outside (which all of my neighbors do daily) and then use it in my house. Well.. in the mean time we also had about 5 hours without power... No power and no water.. hence why I felt like an African - that is how so many people live in Africa outside of the cities. However, even some people in the city do not have water or power in their homes. Well the power came back... and 12 hours later the water came back... Only for when the water to come back the power went out for another 48 hours.. well I have no idea when it came back on since I left for the distribution.. but it had been 48 hours when I left. God has wonderful timing!!!

Filling my jerry can with the rain tank

I had to work out in candle light... I am pretty sure that was a first!

This week in pictures:

Some other really fun things happened this week that I wanted to share about as well!

Friday: The kids had elections (I still cannot figure out entirely what happened). The student who was running had to sit with their backs to the other students with a bucket behind them where the other students put their vote.

Saturday: My sweet friend Julie Matthews came to visit me from Jinja. It was so wonderful to catch up with her!

Sunday: My neighbor Christine made this dress for me, so I decided to show it off and wear it to church

Sunday: My friend Margret came over after church and I taught her how to make Snickerdoodles. However, her aunt's oven where we were going to bake them was out of gas... so we learned how to make the dough.. froze it... and will finish the process another day!

Sunday: Margret's son Matthew came over while we make cookie dough and colored. He use to be so afraid of me, now I think he thinks I am his best friend!! :)

Monday: It hailed for a long time... I decided this was Ugandan snow!

Tuesday: I played games with the girls. They love Memory and Connect Four!

Wednesday - Friday: I was fortunate enough to stay with this lovely couple during the wheelchair distribution! Bill and Ruth Stough are retired missionaries with AIM and they are from Wheaton, IL. They have become my grandparents here and I am so thankful for them!

Grandma Capp - This photo is specifically for you! Ruth has fully embraced that geckos live in her house. When she finds their eggs, she puts them in her bowl of potpourri so they can safely hatch! She calls them her house geckos!!

 You all deserve a gold star if you made it all the way through this post! It was such a good week, God is so Good!! Thank you all so much for your prayers and support!