Mafubira Village Near Jinja

This last weekend we spent our prep day in a small village just out of Jinja, Uganda.  Jinja is on Lake Victoria and the source of the Nile River.  This village is very poor and they have many needs.  There are very few men as it seems they impregnate the women and then move on to someone who doesn't have so many children.  There is a tendency for the men to let the women work and the men sit around and play cards or rest. Anyway, the children and mothers have very little so Suzan Apondi, who is a member of the mission office staff as well as the National PA Director, and Godfrey Izimba, the Mission Driver and in charge of the mission apartments, along with several of their friends got together and formed an NGO.  The name of the NGO is Mpendo Packer Foundation (Mpendo means "beloved" and Packer is the name of the couple who baptized Suzan). Sussie is the Chairman and Godfrey is the Director of the organization.  We love both of these young people and work close with them daily.  They do a lot for these people, mostly hygiene related aid as well as helping them with some of their basic needs. This past Christmas the Mission President's family joined together and gave the kids Christmas: shoes, a shirt, or skirt, or shorts, a toy, and some candy.   This week, Suzan and Godfrey asked those of us with medical backgrounds, and anyone who wanted to come, to go to the village to help cut jiggers out of the kids feet.

You know me, I was not too excited about the idea but Susan convinced me that we should go.  As it turned out, I got to stand right by the lady of the village doing the cutting so it felt a little like I was back in the OR.  This is a gross procedure as you will see by the pictures.  The kids have their feet washed in soap and water, then washed again in antiseptic soap.  They are then carried to the "CHAIR"  where the woman examines their feet, trust me it is not a pretty sight.  My job was to hand the child a sucker and a cookie.  These kids' feet are in poor shape... cuts, broken nails, and  callused like a shoe sole.  They always walk around barefoot. The jiggers are parasites that enter the foot from the dirt and embeds itself.  It starts to itch and creates a puss filled infection.  The woman cuts the top off the sore then with a pin, flips the jigger out from the wound like you were removing a splinter or sliver.  It pops out like a tiny white eyeball.   When  all the jiggers are removed from the feet and hands, the child goes to another chair where Susan and Nancy Squires, both nurses, bathed the spots with hydrogen peroxide. Once the feet were dry, they were fitted with sandals.

A tender mercy...we were told that there would be 15 children with feet issues.  For good measure we brought 23 pairs of shoes.  When all the surgery was complete, we had worked on 23 children and had enough shoes that fit every child. 

Okay, with all that said, here are the pictures of the children.  There were many more children from the village and I love kids so you will see several pictures of just cute kids.  They all need help but you can only do what you can.  This was a much needed project and we enjoyed helping.  These kids have worm/fungal infections in their scalps, skin problems, and as you will see, malnutrition.  It breaks your heart.

 

The women of our little group going to the village, (LtoR) Sister Chatfield, Ann K., Sarah E., Sarah B., Susan, Suzan Apondi, Sister Squire, Sister Wallace...these women play a big part of our mission

The men, (LtoR) Godfrey Izimba, President Chatfield, ,Elder Wallace, Elder Squire

 

This little girl caught my eye as we walked into the village.  Loved her smile!

This baby is very malnourished as you can see by the protruding stomach

This sweet little girl was not sure if she wanted me taking her picture, but I always let them see their photo when I am finished 

Another picture of the little malnourished girl...she broke my heart

The initial wash of the children's feet.  Look at the big eyes, he wasn't sure he wanted to be there

Susan getting right in there doing her part as always... the caring nurse

Susan and Ann calming this older girl.  She was the one and only child that put up a fuss.  She was the first one to be checked.   The rest of the kids were so brave and quiet.  I gave each one a sucker and a cookie when they sat down.

The woman doing the cutting was a no nonsense person and knew what she was doing.  The nurses would not let her use the same blade on different kids.  It killed her to discard the scalpel between patients.  She wanted to keep them for future use. 

 

 

Susan and Sister Squire applying hydrogen peroxide.  After the feet dried they put sandals on the children.

The procedure

There were some rough looking little feet

This girl had been treated before but had more on her heel 

 

This little guy had several but he didn't make a peep

This is the woman who did the surgery.  She probably needed the procedure as well, but we did not treat any adults

Elder Squire and I being inundated by kids

A little girl and her mother

This is one of my favorite pictures.  Notice the gallon jerry can.  She and her baby sister were going for water.  The older child can't be more than 3 or  4. I didn't see the water hole.  It could have been a bore hole or hand pump or just running water in a ditch.  

 

This little girl had her feet worked on and then Sister Wallace painted her nails

 

I told these kids to smile and then I made a big cheesy grin. The one little boy in the center copied me.  Notice the boy left of center.  He has a worm/fungal infection in his hair.  Every child has to keep their hair cut very close to their head in order to be allowed to attend school.

 

Cute little children... the one in the middle on the front row was the baby of the mother doing the cutting.  She was so worried that her mother was busy and she didn't understand what was going on.

 

I thought the girl in the black and white top was pretty but every time I wanted to get a close-up of her the boys would crowd in and cut her out of the shot.  Notice that the wall of the hut they are standing by is made from mud (red dirt) mixed with cow manure.

 

Another favorite picture.  She was so cute I could have taken her home

 

 

These boys wanted their picture taken and I wanted to show the building behind them

 

Great picture of happy children

 

This is Godfrey the Mission Driver.  He is on the High Council at Church and is an all-around wonderful guy.  He has 3 boys and a lovely wife.  He drives like the other drivers in Uganda but keeps us safe.  We do not park our truck at the airport when we travel so he drives us quite often.

 

 

The Nile River at Jinja

 

 

 Marabou Storks we saw all over Jinja