What is a typical day like?



The new baby calf, a male named "Mwana."

When I was back visiting in the US, a question which I frequently got but always had a hard time answering is “What is a typical day like?” I am a missionary serving the in the Church of Uganda as Diocesan Health Coordinator. I work on many thing like preventative health education, assisting visiting medical teams, and help out in lots of other ways, but I still don’t feel I can answer that well since virtually every day is different. So, I thought I would go through what I did today. Constant variety makes life here interesting.  Description of my day is below the photos:




I raise goats, sheep, ducks and turkeys too.

Preventative health teaching--a mother
 teachs her daughter how to use a handwashing station
which I encourage people to build at home.

My milk cow--this photo is from before the
 baby, but now she has a great big pink udder hanging down.




Some students of my Practical Nutrition
class at the government Hospital



A planning meeting to prepare for holding clinical outreaches.

Woke up--my cell phone alarm goes off daily at 6:45. I drank hot cocoa of milk from my own cow. For breakfast, I ate Rice and Collard Green fritters. A strange breakfast, but I had been fixing it for dinner last night when the power went out. Rather than cook by flashlight I just ate a spiced bean paste sandwich (leftovers) and some of the greens. Since the fridge was cold from power earlier in the day, I put the made, but not cooked, fritters in the fridge and they made a good breakfast. I do end up eating some strange meals –with everything cooked from scratch and it being hard to store food you learn to be flexible. I did a quick check on my animals (one goat sick) and worked on building a stall separator to make a stall for the new baby calf. I attended morning devotions which we have weekdays at 8:30 at church headquarters then did a few minutes extra bible reading. Next, I assisted one of our small churches with fundraising invitations—they are trying to roof for their church, and they don’t even have a typewriter. It was fairly easy for me to run off of a bunch invitations on my computer, except that my printer was giving me lots of trouble. One of the rules of life here is, “everything breaks, all the time,” since virtually everything sold is the cheapest possible product available, so you’re constantly fixing everything. At noon, I attended a funeral for a nearby neighbor. She died yesterday, and last night my compound guard told me she had wanted to come to me to ask my assistance, but for whatever reason she didn’t come and I didn’t hear anything until she was already dead. Here a lot more people die, but she made it to an old age; she died in her 80’s and once your in your 40’s you’re considered “old.” After the funeral, I had phone calls with Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau and Joint Medical Stores and stopped by our medical clinic to work with them on getting some free essential drugs –thank you USAID! Then I took my little 90cc motorcycle to into town and picked up some ink and printer paper. I stopped at a hotel in town and had a late lunch—a delicious chicken coconut curry. It is usually a treat to eat meat/chicken/fish etc, as most of my food is vegetarian; keeping things safely cold is often a challenge. Next I made a quick run to an ATM and picked up some cash and bought some wormers and antibiotics for my animals at home. The rains were coming, so I rushed toward home—here pretty much everything stops for the rain since many of the roads get very difficult with thick mud. You also want to be home before dark for safety. On the way home, I stopped for a traffic accident (motorcycle/bicycle) to see if anyone was injured, but just some fairly minor abrasions, so I continued home. I stopped off briefly at the office, but couldn’t get in since someone’s key had broken off in the lock to enter the building and I couldn’t put my key in. Remember the “everything breaks, all the time” rule? Since it was after 5 nobody was around so that problem will have to wait. I headed home and still beat the rain, so I dewormed the sheep and goats. As I was deworming, my weekend night guard stopped by and told me his wife was sick with malaria and he needed some money for medicine. I gave him money to cover our clinic fees including medicine. I don’t want another funeral tomorrow. I normally lose power when it rains, but as I still have it, I thought I would write up this description. I’m planning some vegetable stew for dinner. Tomorrow I’ll likely work on some planning for our clinical outreaches, check on getting the drugs for the clinic, and meet with some clergy members. I should teach a class on Practical Nutrition at the Government hospital, but I currently have lost my voice (laryngitis) plus my translator will be out of town (his uncle died yesterday and he will be attending the funeral.) So, I’ll cancel tomorrow’s class. Don’t worry about me though, I’ll be fine, and I'm sure I will continue to find life here interesting and varied!