Last few days in Gulu

Our last few days in Gulu were sad. We did not want to leave our village as we had made so many great friends, and had such great community with people we never thought we would meet. We bought necklaces for all of our students and flip flops for Mercy. At this point she would actually look at us and smile without being terrified. We said our goodbyes and they told us that we had to come back soon. (Next time they wanted us to bring them sugar and soap) :)

We spent some of the day going to several of the Japotti (food stands and food dealers on the street) telling them about the students new refrigerator pots. Most of the people we told along the trip did not believe us at first, that there could be refrigerator that did not need electricity. After some convincing, most of them told us that they would soon hunt down our students to be among the first to buy one, to keep their fruits and vegetables fresh. It was so encouraging to know they would start selling them right away!

Later in the day, we visited Gulu's one and only hospital. It was highly run down, with no water or electricity. We could not believe our eyes as we walked by the T.B. ward to see that it was separated by only a small cloth sheet. We could only imagine that someone might go to the hospital not feeling well, and end up catching TB and dying from it. The birthing center only allowed their mothers to stay for 24 hours, and did not have enough beds so the waiting mothers would often have to sleep and stay on the hard concrete floor. Nothing was sterilized and the birthing chair was just a hard steel chair that looked as if it had not been cleaned from the last 100 births. It was sad to see it in this shape, but we just keep walking through in amazement. We visited the "Placenta Pit" which was a hole in the ground they would dump the mothers placenta after a birth. It was estimated that there were over 200,000 placentas in the pit. The smell made us want to vomit, but we just kept it in. We saw I.V. bags just taped to the walls, and they were feeding the malnourished patients formula to keep them alive. It was sad, but we had hope that R.E.N.U.H would be able to make some much needed changes.

We said our goodbyes to the other people of the R.E.N.U.H and KK Organizations and all of our good friends that we had met, and told them we would most likely be back to Uganda next summer. Only God knows for sure if we will return, but we can only pray that our students continue with the program and that the money they earn can become a constant means of income for Mary, Irene, Samuel and Martins families.
Sarah and I have decided to continue to support our students families while in the states. They have set up a bank account in the city, where we can wire transfer money when they fall short and continue with the community that we have started with these amazing people of Gulu.