Planes and Babies - UGANDA

Plane landing at Kajjansi

Two years ago in March, Andy arrived in Uganda to start work with MAF Uganda. In those two years, there have been so many lives impacted due to the MAF program here and we are so blessed to be a small part God's big picture here in Africa.   The last few months have flown past (couldn't resist the pun!).  Andy has been busy as usual in the hanger.  He has been attending a course for the last five days and passed his exam for that on Tuesday. He has more exams coming up in the first week of April.  Due to engineers leaving the pressure is on Andy and Geoff to get qualifications that would allow them to "sign off" aircraft ready for flight.  The timings of these exams however rely on the efficiency of the Civil Aviation Authority in Uganda to provide the exam dates and of course, they are not in a hurry!

I have been back at work in a whirlwind of teaching, preparation and show rehearsals for our upcoming musical "Peter Pan" at the end of April. This semester is definitely busy and rehearsals for the musical all take place after school so our lives at the moment are a new kind of normal.   In Uganda the presidential elections have been taking place and there have been a few extra days off school for voting and occasional rioting.  The main opposition candidate is still locked up in a place outside of the city and pretty much has been since the date of the election. There is definitely unrest in the city regarding this and when/if he is ever allowed to leave there will most likely be some demonstrations. At the moment though,  there is peace and for that we are very thankful.

Our main other news is that of Joyce our Ugandan nanny.  Joyce has looked after Eilidh three mornings a week the whole of last year along with a 3 year old boy (Sammy).  When the Levesque family left last Summer we employed Joyce full time so she would have a job and I could go back to work -  Eilidh is very happy to have her :0) She gave birth to Darius in December and brings him everyday to work.  Eilidh just loves having a little "brother" to cuddle as are we all.  I approached Joyce a few weeks ago about my concern with his eyes not focusing and the fact he wasn't smiling and as suspected Darius is blind. We then discovered as I did some tests with musical toys and flashing lights that he was also not hearing.  This was a huge shock especially to Joyce.  Even in the UK this is hard news but here in Uganda children with special needs are the poorest of the poor, often abandoned. I have been reading about deaf (and blind) schools in Kenya ( I don't know of any in Uganda) and my heart breaks for the kids there who are never visited by anyone including their family, and have no home to go to in the holidays.  If the family has money it is spend on feeding the hearing children.  Darius has low muscle tone on the back of his neck but apart from these things he is growing well and healthy and his brain is normal therefore he is trapped in a world of silence and darkness.   The doctor has ruled out downs syndrome and we thought the blind/deafness was due to rubella in the pregnancy.  After he had an MRI brain scan last week,  his brain is completely normal and it is not matching up with Rubella either so at present there is no syndrome or name for his condition.  The doctor can really do no more for him here, there isn't the audiology equipment here to screen a baby's hearing.  The doctor commented on his referral of an older boy to the audiology center at the age of 16 - he had some hearing.  Due to the fact this boy had never had any stimulation and basically been shut indoors for the best part of 16 years there was nothing they could do for him here in Uganda. I am trying to help Joyce realize the importance of stimulation for Darius especially at this young age.

Joyce, Abi and Darius

 Basically, we have come as far as we can here in Uganda in terms of helping Darius medically, minus some physio for his neck.  My hope for him is that if we can help restore all/part of one sense then he would be able to have speech to communicate with the world.  He was dedicated and prayed for at our church a few weeks ago.  She is about to embark on visits to "healing churches" in Africa. While I and anyone can understand her reason for this (and we are praying for him also)  there is a lot of false teaching in Africa such as money = healing which is not what the bible teaches. As well as praying for his healing we pray Joyce would not succumb to pressure.

I have been in touch with Nairobi hospital in Kenya ENT department where they can do cochlear implants  but he would have to go for assessment first and looking at the costs of the surgery etc.  is overwhelming - BUT we serve a great God and I know if this is his plan for Darius then He will open the doors and provide. The first cochlear implant ever done in Uganda I believe, was in 2014 in an adult who had previously had hearing. The implants were were donated by the cochlear company  and switched on remotely via a clinic in New York. There is not the facilities to do this in Uganda with a child, especially pre-lingual. If any of you know of any visiting eye/ear pediatric specialists coming to Uganda in the near future please let me know.

MAF staff have also helped us with the medical costs so far as Joyce bakes bread at the weekends for a lot of them and she is well known and loved among the MAF community here.  The father of Darius (in the village) has yet to find out about his son.  The pregnancy and alleged "marriage" to the father is a result of pressure from her family as to be 41 years old, unmarried and without a child is more of a disgrace for her in her family's eyes.  Joyce is basically a single mum also supporting a 9 year old nephew through schooling, who lives in a tiny two roomed house and now has a deaf and blind son to care for. Joyce never got passed primary three in school as her father re-married and the step mum would not let him pay for her school fees. Her step-sister got the money instead and  graduated through university.  Joyce when she was 13 years was instead sent to care for a baby in the city and so her journey to our house began.   The husbands family know about Darius and have been supportive of Joyce although they still think he will go to school and I get the feeling they are not really aware of the extent of his needs at all. The father will return from a journey in a few weeks and the family are going to sit him down and tell him then. The village is around four hours drive from the city and the plan is Joyce will return there with Darius for the first time to see her family and his for the month of July this year.  This will be a particularly hard time for Joyce who has not yet even told her own family. She is worried her older mother will faint from the news! Even now she is struggling to sleep so please pray that she will have hope in her heart and see the blessing in her arms.

At the moment,  I am working with Joyce regarding communication with Darius and using "hello" signals and basically wonderful helpful ideas I have found on the internet!  Darius is getting to know Eilidh's little toys like the battery operated hairdryer and some of my musical instruments however I am going to have to factor in playtime with Darius into Joyce's working schedule to ensure he gets some stimulative play through the day as its easy for her to just work all day and neglect the play time with him.  If any of you have ideas or medical contacts you can put me in touch with who can help or support Joyce then please do.  In my last year at college age 22, my research project was on music education for the deaf . I was fascinated from the age of 15  how music can benefit deaf children when I met baby Anna McNeil in Dunoon who was deaf. She has since had two cochlear implants and can speak and is doing very well.  I even spent time in the Donaldson Deaf school in Edinburgh.    I then went on to work in a special needs school for two and a half years and isn't it great when you can look back and see how God was shaping your live for this very moment?

Wow this has become a mammoth blog post (three months news in one sitting!) I am sure there will be many more blog posts regarding Darius to come so at least you know the background and can walk the journey with us and Joyce where ever it may lead.

Abi and Matthew and Eilidh are all doing very well. In the next few months, as missionary kids have to do regularly,  they will each be saying good bye to very close friends.  The weekends lately have been taken up with farewell gatherings.  Mel,  an retired lady from England has been in Uganda for the last ten years and is leaving next week.  She has been our kids adopted Granny figure here in Africa as well as a good friend and we will all miss her greatly.  The Newnham family who are also English and have been in Uganda over ten years, are leaving in a few weeks also.  They will continue to serve in the MAF Liberia program - their three year old daughter was a good friend of Eilidh.  In a few months there are several other MAF families leaving.  At my school there are many staff also leaving and possibly more than half of the teaching staff will all be new in August! Lots of changes happening!

Furlough for us will be staring the 5th of June.  We will be in Scotland till the 9th of July and once our dates are finalized we will let you know where we will be.  Last year I arrived in the UK with Giardia ( a lovely African parasite which alerted the Scottish environmental health department!)  At present I am off work recovering from Amoebas (another common eh, lovely African parasite!) however it is giving me the chance to actually write this blog!  Hoping to bring nothing back in June except ourselves this year!

The power has been out for two days and the generator is buzzing in the background to keep our fridge/freezer, internet working but there is plenty rain water in the tank after the massive thunderstorm the other night so we are blessed!  It's another day in Africa!


Thanks again for your support and prayers.

lots of love
Heather, Andy, Abi, Matthew and Eilidh.