TESS

MEMORIES OF OUR VISIT TO TESO, UGANDA by Margaret Stevens
25 NOV 2008 to 25 JANUARY 2009

A random selection of just a few of the highlights and problems, the ups and downs, the joys and sadnesses, to give you a glimpse of what we did in Uganda and what sticks in my memory now.

• Getting to know Harriet Amoding (Sam’s new assistant) and Samuel Ocen (the driver of our new minibus), both lovely people who are making a difference to what we can do in Teso.
• Road works on the terrible stretch between Jinja and Iganga almost complete after many years, but the main road between Mbale and Soroti now is very bad. I travelled about 5,500 km (3,500 miles) in total.
• Clouds of mosquitoes in Soroti, both indoors and out, despite it being the dry season. Any bags left open filled with mosquitoes during the day, ready to come out and attack us! No wonder 150 out of the 160 students on the Retreat have had malaria during the year, on average three times each.
• Geckos (very small, friendly lizards) running up the walls at night, feasting on the mosquitoes, and visits from praying mantises and other fascinating creatures.
• Many large cockroaches and strange long-legged cricket-like creatures which appear at night in pit latrines to challenge you and make you feel uncomfortable!
• The excitement as students opened the letters from their sponsors, especially when there were photos.
• Being frustrated that there weren’t enough of us on the Retreat to run all the activities planned and to teach new crafts and skills, games & puzzles in small groups (we need more people to come out with us in future – let me know if you are interested!). But it was a joy to have Adongo Jane’s very talented brother come and help with art work.
• Feeling overwhelmed by so many sick students, many with serious problems, but so encouraged that only one out of about 150 we had treated for heartburn and ulcers with triple therapy in June was still complaining of pain.
• Grateful to a friend, Moses Arinaitwe, a young doctor from Kampala who came to the Retreat for 3 days to run a free clinic for the students. Not only did he prescribe medicines, but he prayed with many of them.
• Pride at the fact that so many of our sponsored students have significant leadership roles in their schools and churches. At least 6 of them were Head Prefects in their schools!
• Despite this, there were some discipline problems on the Retreat, which distressed many of the students. Malinga Caroline, who gave up attending afternoon sessions to record and dispense drugs prescribed by Moses, asked to talk to me and then started crying as she apologised for the behaviour of some of the students. Akello Alice wrote us a letter saying similar things.
• Fun and laughter and messing around when they made mud from termite mound soil, water and sawdust as they learnt how to build brick and mud stoves (they so rarely play or mess around).
• Bitter disappointment for students as we picked numbers out of a box to select just 15 out of the 80 who signed up to learn about photography.
• Encouraged by the proposals they wrote for simple projects for which we gave them micro-loans (£5) so that they can try to earn some money for essentials for school.
• Dishing out de-worming tablets to be chewed, followed by Smarties, to every student on the Retreat!
• Rushing Omadi Catherine Joyce down to the clinic when she collapsed unconscious with malaria.
• Distributing 2 months’ supply of doxycycline to each student to try and break the cycle of malaria. We shall give a further 2 months of treatment in the second half of each term.
• The hall beautifully festooned with precious toilet paper, candles, flowers and balloons for the party on the last night.
• About 15 girls dancing the dramatic and complicated Ajosi dance with amazing vigour, to the rhythm of two drums.
• Hours spent sorting through a complete mess of jigsaws, crayons, paper, games, puzzles etc after the Retreat!
• Coping with being busy and active when the temperatures were in the mid to high 30s.
• My heart went out to Aryokot Catherine as she told me how she became pregnant – a young married man had been visiting her family for a year or more and helping them, especially giving her money to get back to school and for exercise books etc. One day, she was alone at home when he visited and he said, “Now is the time for payment”. He threatened to kill her and her mother when she tried to refuse. (Sadly, this sort of thing is not uncommon, especially for girls in families who are desperately poor.)
• Failing to meet Auso Seline’s two young brothers when we visited her home because they were out looking after someone’s cattle to earn 1000/- (35 pence) so that they could buy themselves a pair of flip-flops for Christmas – the only thing they would get for Christmas.
• Celebrating Christmas in a simple way and playing with the children at John’s home.
• Driving as the sun rose on Christmas Day to worship for 3 hours at Kococwa church. It was packed tightly, with most people sitting on the floor and many also standing outside at the open doors and windows. They don’t give gifts to each other, but to Jesus, for God’s work in Teso. I was moved by people’s amazing generosity as they all came forward to bring their offerings - not just money (many people don’t have any money), but produce like eggs and maize, chickens & cassava, groundnuts and simsim (sesame), which were then all auctioned off. Even a calf was brought into the middle of the congregation and offered for auction – but not before it had made the floor wet and dirty!
• Putting on a dress on Christmas Day which had obviously been host to a hairy caterpillar and being stung all over!
• Sitting outside by the light of a paraffin lamp with Jeremiah’s family, eating, talking and showing them how to make rag rugs on a peg loom.
• Playing darts in the evenings, not only at the guest house in Soroti with whoever joined us, but with John’s and Jeremiah’s families with whom we stayed over the Christmas period.
• Meals when entering Teso and a night staying with Kokas and his family in their small parish house which was bursting to the seams with more than 20 family members who’d all come home for Christmas.
• Bathing outside at night, in a shelter open to the moon & stars, accompanied by an orchestra of frogs & cicadas.
• Seeing the amazing conjunction of a sliver of new moon with Jupiter and Venus on each side on December 1 which, at dusk on the equator, looked like a smiley face and later on, as their positions changed, like a smile with two dimples - everyone was talking excitedly about the sight for days afterwards.
• Missing Adongo Immaculate when we visited her home because she had gone about 30 miles to collect drugs for her sister who has AIDS. She came to find us in Soroti the next day, in tears, because she had been asked for £10 for the drugs, which she didn’t have. (ARV drugs are meant to be free and always available – this is rarely the case in Teso.)
• Going home with Atim Scovia (who goes to the Blind School) and finding that the three little children under 6 were, as usual, left on their own all day, with only a pan of cooked sweet potatoes to eat when hungry, while their mother was working as a casual labourer on a building site to earn a little money as they have no land to cultivate.
• Going out to visit students without knowing where their homes were; but we always found them just by asking people we met in the right area, even though they don’t have surnames or addresses!
• Visiting Otwele Simon Peter living with his married sister and family. Despite being an orphan, he was so bubbly and happy and there was much warmth, gentleness and love expressed openly in the family, which is unusual.
• Visiting Etimu Benjamin, also living on the edge of Obalanga camp, who had just come home from school to find his youngest brother had not long before died of malaria and was buried in the middle of the compound under a mound of soil with a small cross made of sticks.
• Being impressed by the home which teenage orphan Apio Esther has made for her little boy and twin sister Acen Martha and hearing how she used money she was given in July to start a little business buying and selling a few items as well as take another sister to hospital and shelter her family for weeks after being severely beaten by her husband.
• Ending a long day of visits at the home of Akol Patricia, another loving home, where we had a meal under the stars followed by singing and learning worship songs in Ateso.
• Singing more songs in various languages as we drove back from Kampala with Samuel, Caroline (his wife), Aceko Harriet (with a pituitary tumour) and Apili Scovia (hole in her heart), having been protected when we’d had a blow-out.
• The satisfaction of washing hair and clothes after travelling – soapy water comes out unbelievably thick and brown!
• Enjoying driving back from Kumi to Soroti on my own which meant I could stop as often as I wanted when crossing Awoja swamp, one of my favourite places in Teso, to look at and photograph birds and the swamp at dusk. So many beautiful Bee-eaters (several different varieties) and Abyssinian Rollers (stunning birds).
• Listening to a girl who lives in fear – Aledo Esther Naume brought her to me to ask for help. She lives with her father who wants her dead and takes pleasure in abusing her, but won’t let her go to live with any other relatives as he says he wants to see her suffer. I couldn’t help her.
• Talking to Apolot Deborah’s aunt about buying and looking after a goat for her from her sponsors because otherwise her father would take it and sell it to buy alcohol while she is away at school.
• Sam having several girls, who are in danger if they go back to their homes during holidays, living in their tiny home and sending Okodu Samuel to his parents’ home for safety.
• Most students need dental treatment, but we could only take those with on-going pain. There is only a partially qualified dentist in Soroti who works in a dirty cubicle with ancient, basic equipment. I bought the only remaining capsules of fillings in Soroti from the pharmacy, but some had been tampered with. The most he can do is extractions and simple amalgam fillings. (We have now bought him some more equipment and materials and are setting him up in a new clinic so that he can do a range of treatments and treat all our students.)
• Harriet leading us in prayer for the paralysed mother of twins Apio Hope & Achen Faith and sister Akello Fiona. Tears silently ran down her face as she lay in bed – not from sadness, she said, but from joy because we had come to see her.
• Taking students to private clinics in both Soroti and Kampala because the big government hospitals didn’t have working X-ray machines!
• Picking up a little group struggling to take a barely conscious woman to the clinic on a bicycle. She was in the late stages of losing a baby because she had untreated malaria. I spent time with them, supporting them in various ways. I later took them home and visited them again just before leaving. Five of them live in one very small rented room in a feared slum on the edge of Soroti and had recently lost bedding and clothes when a candle set fire to them. Stephen has no job or land and so they had fallen behind with rent and were desperate. Agnes was still sick. They asked me to pray with them again. What is their future?
• Visiting the triplets again in Oditel camp – they are now 4, strong and healthy and for the first time, didn’t fear me. But the father, who had been transformed through the boost of sponsorship, giving up drinking, earning money and supporting the family with self-respect, has reverted and the family (now with 8 children) are desperate again.
• Arriving late for worship in Sapir church to find only about 15 people. Everyone else was even later! The church was packed by the end, 2 hours later, with about 200 people!
• On the many visits to the clinic to see girls and also Sam, there were always babies on drips, very sick with malaria, who were so happy with the balloons and soap bubbles I gave them.
• Spending many days sitting for hours in different hospitals and clinics in Kampala with seriously sick girls, sometimes having to go from one to another because equipment was broken. Sitting in front of a computer screen in Mulago (the biggest hospital in Uganda) drawing Aceko Harriet’s visual fields ‘maps’ for the consultant because the printer had broken. Later, Harriet was transferred from Mulago, where she was admitted to have the pituitary tumour removed, because some instruments were “missing”. Half way through the operation in the second hospital, the microscope “blew up”, so the operation wasn’t completed. When equipment has been replaced, she will have to go in again. Meanwhile, her eyesight is deteriorating badly.
• Being grateful for all the blessings we have, which I sometimes take for granted.

There are so many other memories I would love to tell you about - of more beautiful sights, encouraging conversations and developments, time spent with many students and friends, more experiences of sadness, frustrations and fun - but there is not enough space. Let me know if you would like to see photos or a video on DVD. Or better still, come out on a future visit to meet people and experience Teso for yourself. Thank you for your prayers and support in many ways. Please keep praying and writing to your students.

UGANDA June 2008
by Harriet Miller

Having a chance to go back to Uganda was awesome. This time I was able to spend 4 weeks in Teso instead of just one. Our aim was to visit the 250 children whom people in the UK, Germany, Ireland and USA sponsor through the Teso Educational Sponsorship Scheme (TESS), which is run by Margaret Stevens. These children are the poorest of the poor in north eastern Uganda who have been displaced or orphaned because of the LRA or Karimojong rebels or AIDS etc. Whilst we were visiting them in their schools to see how they were getting on, Leanne and I, as newly qualified doctors, also treated them for various illnesses. We had intended to set up a mini clinic in each school we visited so that non-sponsored children could also be treated which would reduce the feeling of jealousy amongst the students that we were only seeing the sponsored ones. Unfortunately this was impossible, as we had underestimated the percentage of the sponsored students who needed treatment. The vast majority of the children had never been to see a doctor before and therefore we saw many conditions with symptoms we had not come across in the UK before as we go to the doctor as soon as we become ill. The main conditions we came across were malaria, typhoid, and heartburn. Fortunately these are easily treated and we had had the foresight of buying the drugs we needed in the capital.
Whilst we were there, we met up with Jeremiah and Sam who help run the project. They share Margaret’s vision of setting up a radically different school where the children are not beaten and have enough sleep. Because of this vision, and because some people who are jealous that their relatives are not sponsored, both men have come under considerable spiritual and physical attack, putting their lives in (very real) danger. Despite this they still strive to make these students' lives better in any way they can. I felt very privileged and inspired to work alongside them.
As we managed to bless the students through our visit, we were also very much blessed by God. Through the little things and big things that happened on our trip, my faith has increased exponentially. God also spoke to me very clearly reinforcing his plan for me. I very much believe that God wants me to set up a hospital in Teso, Uganda. Throughout the trip I had a few verses of various different songs on my heart:

‘Your love’s enough to see the broken hearts
Gain a brand new start with a brand new heart.
As the faithful hope in things unseen
You’re enough to see all the things they dream
Come to life.

’‘To the desperate eyes and reaching hands
To the suffering and the lean
To the ones the world has cast aside
Where you want me I will be.’

‘Break my heart from what breaks yours,
Everything I am for your kingdom's cause
As I go from nothing to Eternity.’

Four years ago God started to turn my world upside-down and gave me a vision to use my medical skills in Africa. Slowly He has shaped and moulded me to fit this plan, and now I can think of nothing I would rather do than to follow the path He has marked out for me.

My experience of Teso
by Leanne Osborne (a newly qualified doctor)
June 2008

My three weeks in Teso was incredible, one I have been reflecting on ever since I returned to the UK in July. Visiting Africa was never on my agenda but when the opportunity presented itself I realised that I wanted to go, a new and scary realisation for me. I am so glad I was open to going because it taught me many lessons and I met some inspirational people. I was very excited and nervous, as I had no idea of what to expect. It was a privilege to work alongside Sam and, later, Jeremiah who helps with the students in Ngora and Kumi. These two are truly men of God, working in difficult circumstances to help others and at times this endangers their lives.

The experiences I have had have changed me for the better. Visiting Africa gave me a new perspective - it is easy to not think about others in different countries but when you have been there and met the people it is hard not to be changed. The people I met were so friendly and welcoming, thanking us for coming. People gave us time and there was a slower, more relaxed pace to life. We were invited for meals by many of Margaret’s friends who would cook a feast for us even though they didn’t always have a lot.

My experiences at times broke my heart. I realised I took so much for granted. But meeting people in Uganda who, on the surface it appears have nothing showed me that material possessions distract us from what is truly important, our relationship with God.

While in Teso, I had the opportunity to sponsor Juliet, whom I was privileged to meet and be able to send to school. A girl already being sponsored came to us in tears about her best friend at home who was bright, but unable to go to school so we asked her to take us to find her. Juliet lives with her grandmother because she is a total orphan and they couldn’t afford to send her to school. Her two uncles were also at home as they can’t afford complete their A-levels. This is heart-breaking as so many want to go to school but there is no money.

From a medical point of view it was very different for me. I had never been exposed to tropical medicine in the UK and so it was a steep learning curve. Communication with the students was difficult at first, as we didn’t understand each other’s accents. Over the days and weeks I did pick up more and it was reassuring to know that I could recognise the symptoms of malaria and typhoid and send them for testing and treatment. It was so rewarding to be able to help, especially as many of the students had never seen a doctor before so had many health problems. We had gone with the aim of offering a clinic to all students at the schools but there were too many sponsored students who needed to be seen. We had hoped that by seeing other students there would be less jealousy towards the sponsored students. I was so glad we purchased medication in Kampala as we managed to treat a lot of students ourselves but many also needed to visit the clinics for tests and when we felt we were unsure of the diagnosis. It was great to be there with Harriet as we could ask each other questions and bounce ideas off one another when I felt out of my depth.

I wanted to make a difference, but it is only now that I can appreciate that by being there we showed the students we cared. It was a rewarding experience, one I will never forget. I don’t know what my future in medicine holds but I was encouraged to trust God’s plan for my life, wherever he takes me.

Leanne and Harriet certainly did make a difference! Not only did they show that they cared, but they treated so many and initiated further tests and treatment for many others, which will transform their lives.

Summary of our visit to Teso in June/July 2008
by Margaret Stevens

We visited most of the schools which our students attend and saw about 160 students, including all the new students. We visited 10 homes spread around Katakwi, Amuria and Kaberamaido districts. We were given 8 chickens and 1kg fried white ants by families!

Long, busy days
The days were long and full, often not getting home until about 9.30pm. The day we visited St Thomas’s Girls School in Kaberamaido, we ended up having to stay the night in Kaberamaido as we didn’t finish until about 9.30pm, much too late to drive back to Soroti. I had to do all the driving – hundreds of miles on some very bad murram roads, tracks and footpaths – as there was no driver available. There were many hours spent by the roadside and with mechanics when the minibus broke down yet again – we used some of that time to treat some of the children who emerged from the bush to watch us and to give a lesson on probability and certainty using the text book a 10 year old in P6 had and to fold A4 paper into small medicine boxes!


When we weren’t invited out for a meal, evenings were spent talking and reflecting on the day’s experiences whilst making yet more boxes (250 to be exact, plus lids!) and filling each one with 84 tablets for triple therapy treatment (which we had bought in Kampala when we arrived, as well as other medicines) for heartburn and ulcers.

We wasted a lot of time getting students out of school (it took 2 hours to get three of them out of Jeressar!) and then getting tests done and seeing the doctors with them in Owen Clinic in Soroti. We sometimes had some of them staying with us in the Guest House for treatment.

So much sickness amongst our students
The visit seemed to be dominated by sickness which was very disturbing. A very large number were suffering from malaria and/or typhoid, some of them so bad that they had to be admitted to the clinic for 48 hours to go on a drip. Was this because of the floods last year? One had pneumonia as well. There were a number of nasty skin problems, allergies, various eye problems, kidney and urinary infections, decayed teeth which needed removing as well as the odd abscess, a lump in the mouth, a painful ganglion on a right hand, haemorrhoids (the girl had been told she would die during childbirth), two with sickle cell anaemia, two breast lumps and various gynae problems including untreated candida which in some cases has led to serious pelvic inflammatory disease - some girls have been told in rural clinics they have syphilis which was clearly wrong. Several are now waiting for operations in the holidays in a month’s time while others have already been to Kampala for further investigations. One girl has a serious hole in the heart which is now inoperable and will lead to an early death. Another has a tumour on the pituitary gland which is causing serious visual disturbance, temporary blindness and hormonal changes. We don’t yet know what the prognosis is. Several have significant physical symptoms which turned out to be psychosomatic due to emotional trauma and depression, one boy even being suicidal - all need treatment. Some of the headaches and “kidney problems” are most likely caused by not drinking enough – often only one cup a day. The only school where no-one had a health problem was Teso College where we have five boys in S1.

All of this is in addition to severe heartburn and ulcers which more than half of them suffer from. We treated about 140 of our students, as well as a further 90 in Bethany School and some other people we came across. We visited the Ngora and Kumi schools whilst staying with Rev John Omagor in the village in Kobwin for four nights, sleeping in the lovely little grass-thatched house John’s family built for me 10 years ago. Much of this time was spent with Rev Jeremiah Acelun who works in Kumi Diocese and looks after our students there. Instead of going to church on the Sunday, we spent several hours under a tree on the rocks behind John’s home sharing the problems and praying for the future of TESS, Sam, Jeremiah and myself which was very encouraging and refreshing.

“Go to the guest house and ask for Margaret”

A sad girl timidly approached us on the verandah of the guest house in Soroti on our last day. She had been 'chased' from school for the second year running because she couldn't pay fees. A man had found her crying and asked her what was wrong. He had told her to go to the guest house and ask for a woman called Margaret! I told her there was really no hope of sponsorship, but when I heard her story, her score put her at the top of the waiting list, especially as she had come in the top few of her class despite only being at school for a few weeks each year. Her parents have both died; her twin sister now has AIDS (untreated) because she slept with men when they were all so desperate for food; and her cousin-sister and two young children, with whom she and her younger siblings live, have been deserted by the husband because she has breast cancer. The girl was desperate and tears ran silently down her cheeks as she quietly and un-dramatically told me her situation. We went to visit her home – one small rented room in slums on the edge of Soroti which sleeps nine of them. They have no proper latrine or washing facilities. These are the sort of desperate children TESS exists for – to give them a future.