Over Due Blogging Part 2 - July 3, 2012

I am adding Part 1 to the top of this to make it easier!

Part 1


Hello all,

Sorry it has been so long since I last blogged. It has now been 6 weeks here in Uganda, and the first time I have blogged since I returned. A lot has happened so I will try to recap some of what has been going on.

First, about three days after I arrived here, a team from Harrah arrived for their first official visit to the village they are now sponsoring, Wera. Two days into their visit here, I was jumping rope with some of the kids and, well, those of you who know me can imagine the amount of pure energy it takes to get me off the ground. If you can imagine that, you can also imagine the impact when landing from an amazing two inch vertical jump. Needless to say......... I hurt my back. Nothing serious, it just needed some time to refresh, but that would have to wait until Harrah went home.

Mean while, Harrah had their own problems. It seems the airline they had used had their own ideas as to how important it was to get their bags. Harrah had come here with the intention of installing a water well. Since their bags were three days late in getting here, it put a damper on being able to finish the well. They did, however, complete the drilling process. They just weren't able to get the pump installed. I told them "no problem, I'll get that installed for you". I just wanted to take a couple of days and rest my back. I did that and things were fine, until, Uganda showed me a little of what she is capable of.

Malaria 911! The people that stay at the house with me are amazing. They realized immediately that something was wrong with me and strongly suggested that I go and get a Malaria test. I wasn't feeling so well, so I asked one of the young men to drive me to the clinic to get tested. Immaculate, who cooks for me and just really takes care of me, accompanied us to the clinic. Sure enough, I test plus two for Malaria. The good news was, they had caught it early, the bad news is, that is all they tested me for. I'll explain that later. So, I was given the medication and sent home. All this, before the symptoms ever really started to show themselves. Sounds great huh!

So on the way home, the young man driving me, was making a turn, and failed to see a woman crossing the road. He knocked her down with the corner of the car. Luckily, he wasn't going fast at all, but when she tried to catch her fall, she broke her wrist. We loaded her into the car and after my adrenaline had kicked in, I drove her to the local hospital, only a block away. Unfortunately, we were followed there by the local police. The police knew that I wasn't the one driving the car, but they still impounded my car for a few days so that they could inspect the vehicle. The amazing thing was the faith that this woman had. The first thing she said was "God Loves Me!" She knew that God had saved her. That is one of the amazing thing about Ugandans, they always find the good in everything.

That night was not a good night for me. The symptoms were starting to show their ugly heads. Drenching sweats followed by uncontrollable shivering followed by drenching sweats. The process just kept repeating itself. At least during the shivering, I would get some sleep. Its easier to sleep when your cold than when you are hot.

The next morning, I received a call from Dr. Peter in Mbale about 2 hours drive from Soroti. He had heard that I had contracted Malaria and advised that I come to Mbale as soon as possible, by any means necessary. My car had been impounded, and I was now feeling the full affect. My friend Becker, who drives a taxi was called and he immediatley gave up his taxi for the day and was at the house within 30 minutes to take me to Mbale. Once there, I was taken to a room at the hospital and given hot water packs to warm me up. Afterwards, I was given two shots within the course of an hour. After about two hours, I was sent home.

The next day, I felt much better, but continued to take my medicine as directed. Dr. Peter called daily to check on me. After the medication was over however, I continued to have these very bad headaches. Dr. Peter had me come back to Mbale for some more test. The test revealed that the Malaria was gone, but Typhoid had reared its ugly head. Fortunately, I had just renewed my vaccination for Typhois and it was battling the Typhoid. I was given another treatment ack, this one stronger and intended to fight the Typhoid. Three days later, the headaches were gone.

I'm better now. Thanks to a lot of prayers, a very good doctor, and some very great people here that really take care of me.

My battery is about to die on my laptop, but I will continue later with the great things that are going on here in Uganda. Love you all and thanks for your prayers!

Tom Cox
This is Part 2, Please Read Part One First!

Its now Tuesday morning here in Uganda. I'm at the Sky Hotel here in Naalya, Uganda about to have some breakfast. The laptop is fully charged, so I hope to finish the update I started last night. Let me just start by saying that I am fine. I feel great. As many people have told me here, I finally know what it is like to be a Ugandan. I disagree, the Malaria and Typhoid are just the tip of the ice-burg for what they go through here. I've never once in my life wondered where my next meal would come from or whether I would eat that day or the next. In my life, I've always had many choices as to what clothes I would wear that day. It seems so silly now, but when I remember a day when I was in kindergarten that I sat in my room all day long because I didn't like what I had to wear to school that day. I remember my mom telling me that if I couldn't figure out what to wear, I would have to stay in my room all day. That was before we had TV's and video games in our rooms. I sat there all day without a single thing to do. How stubborn and selfish is that? Enough about that!

Just as I recovered, it was time for Caleb and Jake to arrive from Water4. They were to arrive on Thursday night. Unfortunately, their flight was delayed a day in Chicago and another day once they arrived in Brussels. They didn't get here until Saturday night. They were scheduled to return on Tuesday. That's a lot of traveling for only three nights in Uganda. Regardless, they arrived Saturday night, minus one bag that still has not been located. We spent the night in Entebbe and headed straight to Rukungiri located in Western Uganda on Sunday morning. About five hours into the seven in a half hour drive, my car just died. I put it in neutral and it started right back up only to die a few minutes later. Since we were going down the road when it happened, we were able to coast right into Masaka and right into a Total gas station where they had mechanics on hand. By the time I found a mechanic, he came over to the car and it started right up. It wouldn't die again, so it was impossible for him to diagnose what the problem was. We got his phone number in case it happened again and we were off to Rukungiri. We had no more problems getting there. Just for a reference, Western Uganda is the mountainous part of Uganda and is probably the prettiest. On the way, you pass small herds of Zebra that are running wild.

Once in Rukungiri, we were met anxiously by Sue Morgan, a great woman from the UK, that works here in Uganda along with her husband, Simon. Simon works for a group out of the UK called Mission Direct and Sue has founded a group called Water Direct (I think that is what it is called). Regardless, Sue works with an amazing Ugandan named Sunday. Sue and Sunday were who Water4 had come to see, and I was welcomed with great hospitality. Sue cooked some spaghetti and meat balls that were a real treat. There is nothing I could type here that would describe how much I enjoyed that meal.

On Monday, we all piled into Sue's car while Sunday drove us to a borehole they were currently working on. It was a shallow well, but Sunday was showing us some new techniques he was working on. It was nice to see how well his men worked together. This group has hand dug more than twenty wells with only one failing to find water. They gave up on the one after they had dug over eighty feet (80') deep. That's eighty feet (80') by hand! I think that more than proves the success that Water4 is having with their equipment.

After a day of encouragement and celebration with Sunday and Sue, we worked on educating me more on installing the pump. How to measure it right and get it installed. I had previously had problems finding the right parts in Soroti to put the well together. Sunday was able to get me the right parts I was missing and I was now able to take them to the local supply house in Soroti so that they could order them for me. it was time well spent on my part, as I was able to get some valuable information.

Caleb had been here before and had to get back to Oklahoma for things he had previously scheduled. Jake, however, is an intern at Water4 and had never been to Uganda or anywhere else in Africa. He didn't have anything pressing to get back to. So after discussing it with Jake and his family back home, they were able to contact the airlines and get his flight pushed back to Saturday night. Jake would come back to Soroti with me.

Tuesday morning arrived and we headed back to Entebbe to take Caleb back to the airport. I had not driven my car since we had arrived in Rukungiri, but it had made it there without anymore problems. We drove making great time until about 25 km outside of Kampala. The car died again. This time, it would not start. Mafabi answered his phone like he always does when I need him. He dropped everything he was doing, found a mechanic and headed our way. The mechanic was able to get it started, but it would only go about 1 km before dieing again. We ended up leaving my car there with the mechanic and Mafabi drove us to a hotel in Entebbe where Jake and I would stay. When the time came for Caleb to go to the airport, we utilized the hotel's shuttle bus to take us to the airport. While there, Jake and I looked for his lost luggage. Two hours later and what seemed like a hundred forms, we headed back to the hotel with the luggage still lost.

Wednesday morning arrived with Mafabi showing up with my car declaring that the mechanic had fixed it. As we departed the hotel, it died again. Mafabi told me had drove the car last night and I know it was a two hour drive for him to get to the hotel that morning to pick us up. It hadn't had any problems. He was abe to get it started again so I asked him if there was a place where they could run a computer diagnostics on the car. He found a place, so we went. The problem though, nothing showed up as being wrong and no error codes. After some consulting, they suggested what they thought might be wrong, but they didn't have the parts to fix it, so we went to another place that Mafabi frequently uses. The problem was, once we arrived there, they had their own ideas as to what might be wrong. I looked at Mafabi and boldly said, "Replace everything that anyone thought might be the problem". The total cost of all those repairs was less than two hundred dollars. At four o'clock, we were off to Soroti without any more problems and no problems since. It was 10:30 pm by the time we reached Soroti and we were both exhausted so off to bed we went.

Thursday morning I let Jake sleep in while I went to town to get cement and a few tools that we would need to install the water pump in Wera for Harrah. We loaded up a few things from the house that we would need and finally we were off to Wera to prepare the bore hole to install the pump. When we arrived in Wera, I found Naboth, a great man there in Wera who quickly rounded up some men to come and do the work. This water well is for them, so they need to be the ones who do the work. They do this enthusiastically. They begin plunging and purging the bore hole. Its a long and time consuming process, but it is what cleans the well to make it useable. While they did that, Jake and I headed to Obuleajet to take a look at the well that we had previously installed at one of our Carepoints. In addition to the water well, Jake was able to see the work project and meet some of the worked there. After Obuleajet, we headed to Ngariam to say hello to Rose and see the work project there.

Near by, there was a group from Atlanta that had been spending some time at their Carepoint giving eyeglasses to over eight hundred (800) people through a group called Gods Eyes out of Atlanta, Georgia. They were at the end of their trip and were headed back to Soroti. Fortunately, Wera is on the way back to Soroti and they were able to stop by and see the well that was being put in. It also gave them an opportunity to play with some more kids for just a short moment. Also, Jake would now be on the same flight out of Uganda with them. It was getting late by now, so we stopped the plunging and purging of the well and started the process of pouring concrete to provide a base for which the pump would be installed upon. We would install the pump on Friday. After the concrete work was done, we headed to Soroti to eat dinner with our new friends from Atlanta.

Friday morning arrived and Jake and I were going back to Wera. We had gone by the local supply house to get a few parts and tools that we would need to install the pump. We stopped by to eat breakfast with the group from Atlanta. They were headed to Jinja for the day. We would meet them there later but our goal was to get to Wera and get the pump done as soon as possible. We wanted to reach Jinja ourselves before it became dark outside. I didn't want another night of driving. Drivers here don't know how to dim their lights!

When we reached Wera, we discovered that it had rained there the nigh before. It was dry now, but the rain had slowed the drying of the concrete. The anchors we had installed to seal the pump had not set up correctly, so we would have to dig them out of the concrete and redo our anchoring system. It was now a waiting game. In the meantime, we made our measurements and laid out the piping for the water pump. We were determined to get it done and we did! It was later than we had expected and wanted, but when we left, we gave them instructions to let the pump set over the weekend so that everything would set up correctly. They would finish with the concrete work, putting a base around the bottom of the pump and a drain for any water that missed the buckets that would filled. That last thing you want is a place for mosquitoes to gather. We were now off to Soroti to clean up and pack our things. It was now time to head to Jinja.

Jake and I reached Jinja at 10:30 pm. We were greeted by some of the group from Atlanta but most of them were already in bed, exhausted from their own week of experiences here in Uganda. We had a very late lunch/dinner but I know I had a very long hot shower and a great nights rest afterwards. We would visit the team from Atlanta the next morning for breakfast. After breakfast, we all went for a boat ride on the River Nile. We road along the shoreline looking at different birds, monitor lizards, and monkeys. At the mouth of the Nile River, there is an island that we stop at. You can take pictures, buy things and use the restroom if you need to. It was there that I got the phone call. The plane they were all supposed to fly out on had been cancelled. that's right, the entire flight had been cancelled.

There were some very mixed emotions about this. They were all tired and ready to get home. This happens. You have prepared yourself to go home. Jake, I think, half expected this. Nothing about his flights on this trip had been normal. The good news, though, was that the airline was going to put them all up at a resort in Kampala. It was another 24 hours that I would get to know some of the people from Atlanta. They were 24 hours that I wouldn't give back. They are some amazing people with some amazing testimonies as to the Wonders and Miracles of our Heavenly Father.

As for Jake, he is an amazing young man of God. He is a Christ follower! He is a son that that anyone would be proud to have. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with him. He has a very bright future ahead of him and I'm proud to now call him a friend.

You are now caught up!

Thanks again for your prayers!

Tom Cox

ps, the spell check is not working on this, so please ignore the misspellings!