Susan's birthday in Uganda

For January 17, Sue celebrates her third consecutive birthday in Uganda (39 once again!).

We enjoy a lovely buffet breakfast at the hotel, then load up Davis' van for our visit to the remaining 3 families.  Annette reports she is still doing very well.  Her vegetable stand business is doing well, bolstered with revenue from the freezer purchased with her microloan (now fully paid off), and she has further purchased her own electricity service feed to the store, avoiding the userus rates charged by her neighbour once she had become more successful.

our breakfast venue

the omelet station at Golf Course Hotel

Sandra, the girl who had heart surgery, is doing well both physically and academically.  She awaits results from her senior level exams to determine whether she can continue on in academic school or switch to a vocational stream.  She relates her dream of becoming a lawyer and fighting for women's and children's rights in her country.  We are amazed at her sister Marjorie's transformation from last year.  The once shy and reserved girl is now very talkative and outgoing,.

Annette serves a customer at her stand

Annette's classic new dress

Marjorie looking savvy

Sandra, Marjorie, Annette, Solomon & Maurice

more customers for Annette

The girls relate that Annette has been bothered with nighttime cough for a year or more, and we instruct her to get to a doctor for appropriate tests, which we will be happy to fund through the organization.  It is vitally important to keep these hard-working, dedicated Moms healthy and functioning well.

The next stop is a visit to Harry's place.  He is an older American who has been in Uganda for many years now and friend of Jackie.  There we see Jonathan (Jackie's son) and his cousin Abraham.  We enjoy playing with the three dogs and single kitten while the boys enjoying colouring their new superhero posters.

                 Roadside market in Kampala

         Nick, Abraham, Alicia, Sue and Jonathan

            Jonathan shows Sue his new Canadian shoes

      Nick and Harry in earnest conversation 

Shakira has been staying there, and we are amazed to see how she has grown in height and maturity.  We realize the clothes and underclothing we have brought for her will probably not fit.  She joins us for the next leg of our busy itinerary.

     Alicia is mortified that Shakira now towers over her

Next we make the journey to Sophia's home, where Saleh greets us enthusiastically as we pull up.  Davis has advised us that the mobile money businesses are being phased out by the government in favour of banking agents to handle loans and monetary transactions.  These require a much larger initial investment by the agents.  Sophia confirms that her mobile money business has not gone as well as initially hoped, but she has taken the initiative to start up a home business of producing school exercise books, which seems to be starting off well.  We discuss this with her, and agree she can pull her investment out of the mobile money enterprise to put towards this new business venture.  There are immediate needs for food for the family, which we authorize Jackie to cover using Kulikayo funds.

Nick, Shakira, Charlotte, Sasha, Alicia & Shakura

Sophia looks great in her new dress

Shatura

 

We are happy to see that young Sasha, diagnosed with malaria and enteric fever (typhoid) just yesterday, is already bouncing back and quite active and engaged, with the intravenous access line still in her wrist.  We are satisfied that drinking water used in the home is always boiled, and stress the need to ensure Sasha knows she must never drink liquids that are not provided from home.  Sophia had inquired about starting Sasha in boarding school this year, and we relayed the Kulikayo board's unanimous opinion that children should remain at home with their parent in day school until age 7.  Kulikayo will provide necessary transportation funds to allow Sasha to attend a good day school in the area.  Sophia advises that she can arrange daycare for the young girl after school while she is still working.

Sasha

Charlotte is somewhat withdrawn and moody, similar to our first day experiences with her in the past.  She is doing reasonably well in school and seems very healthy.  We trust she will again emerge out of her shell with us in the days ahead.

Charlotte struts her stuff

Saleh is doing very well in school and seems to be physically well.  He is adamant that he does not wish to be given a doll donated by Extendicare residents of Port Perry, but his interest in the girls' dolls belies this assertion.  Nonetheless, he is very taken by the Lego project which is one of his gifts, and Nick is happy to get him started assembling the structure.

Saleh greets Sue with a nice hug

Shatura has grown in height so much that we fear the clothes we have brought will not fit, but our fears prove unwarranted.  She is as bubbly and determined as ever.

Shatura's winning smile

Shakira appears to be developing into a confident and mature young woman who is very devoted to her younger siblings.  She reaffirms her commitment to her academic studies and her determination to do well in school.

Sophia discloses that she's been suffering from pins and needles tingling in her hands and feet for more than 6 months.  She has no other symptoms.  The family are strict vegetarians, and Dr. Alan suggests the likely problem is vitamin B12 deficiency.  Jackie will ensure she gets a supply of vitamin B12 supplement tablets to take daily with the expectation she will see improvement within a couple of months.  Otherwise, she should have further investigations.

Our final family visit is with Jackie's sister, Farida.  She has moved to a new location, with living quarters behind the storefront, but there is not a lot of traffic on her quiet road, and she admits the dressmaking business has not been faring as well as she had hoped.  She has bought a couple of bales of children's clothes for resale - the first lot sold quite well, but everyone is now strapped for cash with kids home from school and scrambling to make school fees for the new term so the second lot has not been selling nearly as well.  She is behind on her rent by almost 3 months.  Fortunately, Farida's health has remained good.

cousin Freda, Faridah, Hasifa & Sarah

Sue and Jackie have done a great job finding dresses for the moms

 Ashbin (Cutie) seems to be doing well.  He is personable and friendly as always.  He has been using allergy eye drops daily since last year with resolution of his red, irritated eyes and says the kids no longer tease him at school.  He appears to be happy and well.

Cutie

Moses also is using the allergy eye drops with relief and says life is going well for him.  He has been healthy and is enjoying school.  We do not identify any immediate problems which need to be addressed.

Moses loves his gifts

Sarah insists school is going well for her.  She is happy there and enjoys literature.  She's disappointed that the Kindle reader we left with her last year has given up the ghost.  We collect it to see if it can be revived.  Jackie advises us that Sarah will need several books by Ugandan authors for her upcoming term.

Sarah is happy for a black hoody needed for school

high fashion

Sarah with her proud sponsor

Hasifa is quiet as always.  She has no complaints and is patiently awaiting her examination results.

Hasifa with her gifts

The kids are all thrilled with the clothes and other presents sent from their sponsors and our Canadian donors.

Hassan, Moses, Sarah, Freda (a cousin), Faridah, and Hasifa

The mother of Jackie & Faridah was hospitalized about 4 months ago and slipped into a coma for three weeks.  The doctors diagnosed "a brain infection" which Alan interprets as probably a viral encephalitis.  She has been making very slow progress, but still does not speak, has very limited comprehension, is on nasogastric tube feeds and is restless much of the time.  She has been home and cared for by the family for over two months now.  Alan does an assessment at the daughters' request and offers a prognosis of continued slow improvement but very unlikely to regain ability to function independently.  The family have been taking turns caring for their Mom in their homes, but it is extremely taxing.

We are introduced to Hassan.  This classmate of Sarah's had written a letter to Kulikayo and passed it along via Jackie.  He eloquently related his sad story of his father having died of AIDS, helping his mother in her business until she also succumbed from the infection, following which his mother's business partner took him in and continued paying his school fees from meagre proceeds selling clothing on the roadside until she was recently arrested (as roadside selling is technically illegal although ubiquitous) and had her entire inventory of wares confiscated by the police.

Hassan had sent along a copy of his most recent report card which showed strong results in all subject areas.  He confirms that he is a serious student who has the dream of becoming a software engineer.  He enjoys football and would like to learn swimming.  We are impressed with his polite, straightforward presentation and advise him we will take his case back to our board for consideration. 

Hassan

Jackie & Sue ham it up with a couple of popcorn vendors

We head back to the hotel for a quick change of clothes, then have Davis drive us to the nearby Mediterraneo Restaurant to celebrate Sue's birthday.  The meal is delicious although Sue's lasagna arrives a good 15 minutes after everyone else's entree.  So much for birthday favours.

dinner at Mediterraneo

Across the road from the restaurant is a new club recently opened by acquaintances of Alicia named "DNA".  We all head over to check out the European-style open air venue with a lively DJ.  Alicia is thrilled to reconnect with Max & Matata.  We do our best to last for a couple of drinks, but fatigue soon overtakes us, and we retire back to our hotel.

Matata, Alicia, Davis & the birthday girl at the club