On
the week starting the 10th we headed off, after morning devotions,
to a place in the village called Kisaakye Rehabilitation Centre. We would be
there for a week and so were pretty squished with our luggage and aid in the
small hire car we had hired for this purpose. As we drove up we were met with
the sight of a scattering of houses and mud huts, and then pulled up into a
cute looking building that we were setting up camp in. And ‘set up camp’ we did
as finding a way of hanging our mosquito nets was the first challenge we came
to in this place. The others were; fetching water from a borehole a good 500 metres away, having a mini
barbeque without the meat, i.e. we cooked on a charcoal stove, and cutting up
vegetables with a pen knife. We were feeling ready and excited for the next day
as we went to bed, very early because of the lack of light around.
Waking reasonably early, we made our
way to the school that one of the volunteers, Charles, works at. After bread
and tea, of course. I was really looking forward to this because the school
incorporates both hearing and deaf children as well as the disabled. So I was
eager to put my Level 1 BSL course to use. When we where arrived we were warmly
welcomed. I was introduced to the sign language teacher, Sarah, who was born
deaf. Over the cores of the next few hours I got to learn a strange but
brilliant variation of BSL and ASL with their own stamp on it. For those who
know a bit about sign language I will give an example, they used the ASL
alphabet but when it came to certain words (for example – boyfriend) they used
the BSL sign which is based off its own. To make it even more complicated they
used neither the ASL nor BSL way of greeting and also had a different sign for
‘name’. Anyhow, it was all very interesting and was great fun watching a sign
language lesson after lunch. Whilst we where there, we also gave out aid which
included pencils, pens, toys, shoes and school packs. This was really rewarding
but also hard, giving out shoes to children who don’t have any but about 1 in 3
children at the school don’t have any, and we couldn’t give them to everybody. 
The next day
was Susie Boxhall’s 19th birthday and most likely one that she will
never forget as today we would be visiting disabled children in the community.
Our first step was to see a boy of 12 called Kato who had cerebral palsy and
epilepsy. This poor kid had gotten into the habit of biting his hand when he
was agitated or hungry, which because he was left for hours on end as his
mother had to work, this was quite a lot. He had, in fact, paralysed his hand
through biting it hard and for a long time. This meant that he was unable to
feed himself which made it even harder for the
mother to care for him. Since we have visited Kisaakye Rehabilitation
Centre have managed to provide this little boy with a wheelchair making it a
lot easier for his mother to take him places and hopefully he won’t be stuck
inside for that long now. After making sure he had something to eat and giving
him a hat and a top that Grace had been donated we went to the next home we
were to visit. 
This was one of a boy called Abdul, he was so tiny and sick
because he hadn’t eaten anything solid in two weeks. The mother was trying,
desperately, but everything that went down came up again a little later, he had
had malaria and during his treatment at hospital, been fed through a tube that
they think this may have caused some damage explaining the reason for the
problem now. We gave the family some baby porridge (donated by Francesca Over)
and told them to make it milkier to begin with. It was scary because we were
unsure whether or not he with last the night but, thank God, he next day we
hear that he had kept the porridge down. Please pray that he will regain his
strength and that the family will be able to pay to take him back to the
hospital.
The next little boy was called Kadu, he had a case of
hydrocephalus but in all was a very happy child who laughed a lot. We did a bit
of therapy with him as he needs to learn how to sit without toppling over. I
gave him one of Evas bracelets. Finally we went to a house that was much better
in size and furnishings then the others we had seen, here was another little
boy called Abdul also with hydrocephalus. He was a new ‘customer’ and so we
were asking about his treatment, etc. We were allowed to pray with the mother
and child, which was such a blessing as we found out later that this was a home
of a witch doctor.
After these home visits, as a treat for Susies birthday, we
went to some waterfalls which were located nearby. By the end of this trip we
were all extremely socked as, not only did we get into a little water fight
after soaking Suse, it also decided to rain on us. African rain.
Thursday was a drop in day for the centre we were staying at
so, after a clean we invited several people who came in for therapy or to seek
advice. There was one boy, Stuart, who had cerebral palsy whose head was
‘stuck’ in a certain position so the therapy I was involved with was focused on
moving it slowly. There was also a Muslim girl who came in after her hand had
been paralysed through malaria. It was really interesting to see how they went
about treating these people.
We were back at the school, Mt Zion, the next day and this
time I was in P3 (year 3) with three deaf students, helping them out as much as
I could. I also went through the alphabet with a little boy who was still
learning sign. I found that really fun and that experience as well as a few
recently have made me realise that teaching one on one is so much more
rewarding (in my view) and less stressful. After break they had elections for
prefects and it was great seeing children getting involved with democracy
considering the way Uganda’s government works.
We left early morning on the Saturday and so were only there
for 5 days and had activities on 4 of those. During this time, however, I
remembered my passion for Sign Language and have decided that in at least one
stage of my life I want to work with or for the disabled. God has opened my
eyes this week. It isn’t like I didn’t know there were children out their like
Abdul and Kato or I was surprised that there were, it is more that it has been
put on my heart more then I had thought it would. God has been awesome in what
he has shown and given me and I’m sure he will build on this knowledge in the
coming weeks, months and years.
Kisaakye Rehabilitation Centre are doing great work, if you
would like to donate, you can talk to them through their FB page or talk to me
and I can put you in touch.
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