Yesu Umeri: Sick Kids

Last Monday we found out that some of the kids were sick with measles. The rest of the week more illnesses kept coming up. More measles, malaria, fevers, coughing, and kids throwing up. There is very little sanitation at the school and its a very small area where germs and sickness can spread easily. Also, all of the kids and teachers have worms in their stomach and they rarely have the money to treat them.

Monday we got medicine for the children! We dewormed all of them, gave them all immune boosters, and treated the few with ring worms on their heads. We also bought forks so the kids no longer have to eat with their hands. Next we are working on getting running water from a container and soap for the kids. With all of this we also will have to teach the kids to wash their hands frequently, especially after going to the toilet.

Yes toilet, there is no bathroom, not even a door or a curtain. Just a hole in the ground with flies all around. No privacy and sometimes no toilet paper. The kids sometimes just use regular paper to wipe. It is very dirty and smelly.

With these new initiatives the kids' health will hopefully start to improve soon.

Before I came to Uganda I knew my mission was to serve the poor and spread His word. Rather it be just through my actions of love or through talking to people and teaching kids. I have been praying about trying to fulfill what God wants me to do and so far I think I have been doing okay! I was worried a little about the actual "talking" about God because my religious signing is not that good.

One night I went to the school and at one point was in the office with maybe 6 of the older kids. We just started talking about the Bible somehow and that lead into me standing there signing about how important daily prayer is and reading the Bible. They all pray multiple times a day together like before eating and when school is finished. I was explaining the importance of the silence alone, just you and God, everyday. Their eyes were glued to me. I was actually nervous to look at them because they were looking at me so sharply it seemed. God was speaking through me, simply, with His words, and His Truth, I was merely saying "yes".

The whole day before that night I had been trying to get to school. Different weird things kept happening that kept me away until about 5:30 pm when I finally got there. God really had control of that day and wanted me to be there that night.

I think we all know the passage Matthew 25:31-40:

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you made me welcome.....And the King will answer, "In truth I tell you, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did to me."

This is from Mother Teresa:

"Hunger is not only for bread, hunger is for love, to be loved, to be wanted....Homelessness is not only for a house made of bricks, homelessness is also being rejected, being a "throw away" of society unwanted, unloved, uncared for. There among these people you can put and I can put my love for God in a living action."

Christ says that when we die we are going to be judged on this point.

This reading just reminded me of the Deaf children here and how they are just pushed aside.

Now here are a bunch of pictures from last week.