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.

Christmas Greetings from Uganda

This year we have completely dropped out of sync on our quarterly newsletters! The summer we had knocked us off course a bit, and our early autumn newsletter was so late that we would have had to start writing our Christmas letter before we mailed the autumn one! So in lieu of a Christmas newsletter, we are sending out a Christmas email / blog post!

Normally I write the December letter around the time of American Thanksgiving at the end of November. I think that every Christmas newsletter we have ever written, whether from America or last year from Uganda, have spoken about Thanksgiving, and of what we are thankful for. In 1st Thessalonians, Paul says, "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Sometimes ‘giving thanks in all circumstances’ is easier than at other times. When the sun is shining, the bank account is in credit, the car starts on the first go, and the children aren’t fighting, it is easy to be thankful. But life isn’t always like that. The second half of this year has been one of the toughest we have experienced yet. After a year of ‘Ugandan honeymoon’, we have really felt the challenge of culture shock since returning this summer. Our cancer experiences were hard to deal with, working through uncertainty, serious potential implications, as well as the surgery itself. We have had about 2 1/2 months where I have been apart from Heather and the kids since July - not easy when family life is so busy. Heather has started back into full time teaching for the first time since Abi was born, and our whole family routine has had to change to suit. 

But nothing we have been through this year falls outside of “all circumstances”, and so we give thanks. Definitely not because bad or stressful things are fun, but because God is good. Always.

We give thanks because God gives a hope that is so much bigger than any of our struggles. We give thanks because that hope comes because Jesus came. We give thanks for the baby in a manger, the teacher on the hillside, the sacrifice on the cross, the empty grave, and the returning Lord. And what better time to remember all these things than as we celebrate His coming to Bethlehem.

Happy Christmas from the Swansons, and the best of wishes as we head into 2016!

"The Joy of the Lord is my strength" - Nehemiah 8 v10

Carrying Eilidh the Ugandan way!

Since August, life on the home-front has been about as far from normality as I can ever remember.  Keeping it all together juggling full time work and the kids alone in East Africa while your husband undergoes surgery for a life threatening condition on a separate continent – lets just say it stretches you!  I’ve gone from moments of loving my job to wanting to run onto the next plane leaving for Europe.  It has been a roller coaster of emotions for the whole family and I’m thankful we are on the other side of it now.   After Andy came back from his extended time in Scotland (cancer free)  he was then off to Europe for ten days for a training course.  He arrived back beginning of October and this last month has been a time of settling back into routine and dealing with the culture shock that has arisen (I believe) due to the unsettled time our family has been going through.   Although we are happy in our jobs and the kids are happy,  the sense of longing for familiarity of home – (smooth roads and in-corrupt traffic police, or cleaning your teeth with the tap water) can be overwhelming at times.  There are certain things that only those who have been living overseas in such environments as Kampala can relate to – it’s hard to explain.   Andy has been flying all over the place for the last few months and he is ready to be settled for a bit. I on the other hand have been here at home and desperate to fly anywhere to just get away and have a break.  Interestingly Andy and I often discuss about places we might like to go and visit in Uganda which may be only four or five hours drive from us.  However, the reality of packing up, travelling tbrough the crazy traffic on pot holed roads, lack of public toilets or restaurants to feed your family on the way or way home make it more of an “adventure holiday” as opposed to a relaxing break.  Sometimes a holiday just for rest is required.  Abigail and I are going to fly to Scotland for a week over the Christmas break and I am really looking forward to having no agenda and spending quality time with my eldest as well as catching up with my family and meeting my new niece or nephew soon to be born!    We will be flying back with my Aunt who is coming to stay with us for three weeks.  I am planning on resting!

Dressed as Beatrix Potter for School "Stories from around the world festival"

Abi is busy with her school work, piano and her French speaking is flourishing.  She was treated by her teacher to a trip to the snack bar as she was the only one in the class able to sing the whole song “give thanks with a grateful heart” in FRENCH! Her Congolese French teacher is making French fun and exciting to learn and she is loving it.

Matthew’s teacher recently commented on his report that he wished he had a “Matthew” at every table in the class to show the other students how to behave and work, so he is making us proud.  He has joined the cub Scouts recently and loves having a special uniform to wear.  I won’t mention how many times I have heard the Scouts promise so far – more to follow I’m sure.  I’m thankful God is still allowed in the Scouts promise in Africa.

Eilidh attends pre-school three mornings and comes home singing about days of the week and we also hear a few song in Luganda (national language) that she has been learning.  Joyce who looks after her for me when I am working is due to have her first baby in the coming weeks so we are bracing ourselves for coping without her while she is on her maternity break. It has been an education learning about the prenatal care and birthing experience of pregnant Ugandan women.    There is no food offered to her at the hospital and she must take in a friend who sleeps on a mat under her bed to feed her, wash her and make sure no one steals the baby, or any of their stuff! Thankfully her sister is coming from the village to be the “friend” at the hospital.  I hope she gets here in time as I am not sure I could deal with sleeping under her bed on a thin mat in a huge room full of laboring women, and many babies.  Joyce has to take in all the supplies for giving birth,  including her own bed sheets, baby bath, a bucket for herself to wash in, a flask of hot water, and a whole list of other things. Pray for Joyce for a safe delivery and healthy baby and mum.  

Eilidh will go to preschool five mornings a week while Joyce is on Maternity break and Irene our house help will be look after her in the afternoons till I return. We are so blessed to have such great ladies working with us and for us here. 

The work at the hanger is as busy as ever.  Andy is preparing for type rating exams as well as carrying on with the usual program of inspections.  There is more maintenance work happening in the hangar, since the international flying restrictions have been lifted and the planes are able to fly to Congo and Sudan again. Please pray for those working in South Sudan as security and peace has once again become a real issue preventing many mission organisations from doing their work.  Chad is also a place that has seen more bombings of late and heightened security alerts among missionaries serving there. We have enjoyed having Andrew Mumford in Uganda for a few weeks of training; he is normally based in Chad, and before joining MAF he flew an air ambulance out of Aberdeen!

Here in Uganda we are preparing for elections in February.  These elections take place every three years and this will be our first experience of an election here.   Security at our school is already preparing multiple exit plans and strategies in preparations for February, as are the MAF team.  Demonstrations are beginning to take place and traffic congestion will take on a new meaning as the streets become filled with protests and potential riots.  Please remember this nation and pray for peace and safety over the coming months.  

Thank you for praying and supporting us in the many ways you do.  I have really appreciated the cards and emails sent from many of you through our time of separation while Andy had the cancer removed.  I only wish I had more time to write individual emails and notes but please know that your encouragement has helped us greatly through a very difficult time.  The Joy of the Lord is my (our) strength. Nehemiah 8 v 10

God Bless

Heather

In God's hands.

My last little update came after my skin graft dressings had been removed, and things were looking positive about how well the surgery had gone. Everything was still uncertain though, as the biopsy results would determine whether more surgery was needed or not. If the tests on what was removed of the original lesion showed there were still cancer cells at the boundary, they would have had to remove more of my ear to get rid of all the cancer cells. If the biopsy results from the 3 lymph nodes showed that the cancer had started to spread from the original spot (the lymph nodes are the first place it would appear), then the rest of the nodes in that particular area would have to be removed. Either of those outcomes would mean I would have had to delay my return to Uganda and go back into hospital for more surgery.

On Tuesday afternoon I had appointments at the hospital to have the stitches removed and meet with the consultant for a review. I also got good news from the pathologists who did the biopsies. The surgery to remove the original lesion had been successful, and no cancer cells were present at the boundary between the removed tissue and my ear! They got it all! The sentinel lymph node biopsy results were also good, with no cancer cells visible in my lymph system. A huge relief!!

On Tuesday I also had a CT scan of my head, which was the last of the checks that the doctors wanted to do as part of my treatment. There is nothing to suggest that anything suspicious will show up, but it’s one more thing to check off the list before we do a complete sigh of relief. My last appointment at Glasgow Royal Infirmary is on Tuesday next week, where I will meet with the dermatologist and hopefully get the scan results as well. All being well I will be home before Heather’s birthday on Sunday!! I can’t wait!!! :-)

The last couple of months have been an absolute rollercoaster, with so many emotions experienced, high and low. I have been encouraged by so many old friends around the world, I have met new friends and come to know them in a really special way, I have been blown away by the care and professionalism in the hospitals around Glasgow (having had experiences on a few different continents over the years, I can safely say that the UK has the best health care system in the world!) and most of all I am confident that in spite of us not fully grasping everything that is going on around us, I serve a God who is in control.

As a wise friend said a few weeks ago, “I am in God’s hands, which is the best place to be”.

Thanks.

Craftsman of the week award!

I have always had a real appreciation of people who are good at what they do. I remember when I was in my early teens watching fishermen splice ropes, ties knots, fillet fish and shuck clams, all the while having a good laugh with the people around them. It seemed like they didn't even look at their hands before turning out a masterpiece of ropework, or a perfectly boneless fillet of haddock!

This appreciation of good workmanship has carried on throughout my adult life. I have watched welders doing the impossible fabricating steelwork on a rolling ship, excavator operators clearing topsoil and exposing the plastic membrane on a landfill site with same level of care as you put into peeling an orange, and panel beaters taking a damaged car and straightening every dent and ripple before handing back a car that looks better than it did when it left the factory.

I touched on this a little bit when I spoke at Kirkie Baptist church back in the summer and about how God has equipped us all with skills and talents, and how rewarding it is to exercise those talents for His glory. (Go to www.kirkiebaptist.com, then look down in the bottom right corner for the "Latest Resources and Downloads" section, and have a listen to the morning service on June 28 if you want to hear!!)

James 1 says that "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows". I don't know if the surgeon who operated on me has any sort of Christian faith, but I do believe that his talents and abilities were God given, and I am very impressed! I have to give my "Craftsman of the week" award to Mr Thompson for all his handiwork, and close runners-up awards to all the other doctors, nurses and hospital staff who have helped since I got back to Scotland a few weeks back.

I am going to post a before and after pic below, both very tame and nothing near as graphic as most of the tv shows that air after 9pm, but if you might get squeamish, just stop here!!! 

Also, if you didn't get the chance to hear us talk when we were back in Scotland over the summer you can listen to Kirkie Baptist's service at the link I mentioned above - Abi sings about the 19 minute mark on the "Opening worship" download, then Heather and I both share a bit about MAF and our time in Uganda at the 28 minute mark. I also do the "thought for the day" bit which is under "Sermon" if you want a listen...

Thanks again for all your prayers and encouragement so far, and please continue to pray as we wait for the lymph node biopsy results which will play a big part in determining what happens next...

Andy.

Taken back at the start of the year - yes that little spot is what  all the fuss has been about!

My new, completely customised, one of a kind ear!

Post-op blog post...

I like an illustration with a bit of a story behind it. I was given a card by a good friend last week that has two pictures of the “Tower of Refuge” in Douglas Bay on the Isle of Man. I did two 6 month spells on the Isle of Man in my merchant navy days, and the room where I stayed for most of that time looked straight out onto the tower perched on Conister Rock. It was built in 1832 by Sir William Hillary, who also founded the Royal National Lifeboat Institute. After several ships were wrecked on the reef, the intention was to provide somewhere safe for ship-wrecked sailors to shelter in, until help could arrive.

The card I was given had a picture of the tower in calm seas and nice sunshine on one side, and a picture of the same tower in the middle of a wild storm on the other. Inside the card is a copy of Psalm 46, “God is our ‘Tower of Refuge’ and strength, a very present help in trouble”. I was told to put the card around which ever way worked best for me each day, but to remember that no matter what is happening all around, the “Tower of Refuge” is the same.

The Tower of Refuge on a nice calm day

...and with the waves rolling in.

This weekend has seen the card spin round quite a bit between storms and sunshine.

My surgery went well (as far as I can tell), although it was much more involved than had been anticipated. The cancer removal part of the operation was always going to be intense with quite a bit of skin around the lesion being removed along with the cartilage below it, before everything was to be closed up with a graft taken from behind my other ear. That part of my ear is still all hidden under some stitched-on compression wadding stuff, so it will be another week or so before I see what the Mark II version of my ear looks like.

We had hoped that the sentinel lymph node biopsy would be a relatively small part of the operation, but that depended on where the sentinal node was. It was a 50/50 chance of whether the lymph fluid would drain to nodes in front of my ear, or behind my ear, with aft being preferable because of all the other glands and nerves in my cheek that might interfere with the lymph nodes there. Unfortunately the dye they injected showed that the lymph drained both ways, and they had to remove 2 nodes from in front of my ear and one from behind. I think that is why I went down to the theatre at 1:30, and didn’t wake up again until after 8pm! Needless to say I have a pretty impressive scar that runs down the front of my ear, under the lobe, back up the back side and down again,in a sort of sine wave shape. 

There are so many emotions flipping the Tower of Refuge pictures round just now. The surgeon seemed positive that all was well with the procedure. He felt the lymph nodes he removed looked healthy. He felt the wide area excision should have removed all of the cancer cells from my ear. But melanoma is the scary version of skin cancer. It is the most likely to spread and has a very real potential to be life threatening, so completely relaxing is not easy while we are still waiting for biopsy results on the 3 nodes he removed. 

I have to say that the swelling and wounds that I have just now look far worse than they feel, and I don’t feel the need to be continually eating pain killers, but having had quite in depth surgery on both sides of my head, my face is feeling a bit tender to say the least.  Getting a good night’s sleep is not the easiest thing in the world to do when you can't lie on either side. Everything feels tight, and swollen and the thought of pulling all those stitches gives me the heebie-jeebies! I have lots of little itchy bits that I can’t quite reach, and I am so looking forward to having all the stitches and dressings away and being closer to normality again.

It’s also difficult as a family being separated just now as well. The kids know I have been getting an operation, but they don’t really understand everything that is going on, and all the possible implications, so that just makes it so much harder talking to teary-eyed kids from the other side of the world. Heather has been busy with her new job, which undoubtedly has helped by keeping her mind off things and giving her something to focus on, but it all takes it’s toll, and she is going through a lot, whilst being a single parent for the short term. I am being well looked after by friends and family, and am making the most of being able to spend some time with my family, especially my brother, who I don’t get to see enough of. All that said, I am still living out of a suitcase and would much rather be in my own home, being part of everyday life with my wife and kids.

It is a great comfort to know that God is our refuge and strength, but equally we really value your prayers and encouragements as the weather changes all around us, almost on a minute by minute basis.

1st consultation...

Sunday afternoon saw me on my way home to Scotland to meet with the Doctors about “The Ear” . The best option for coming home this time was via Dubai with Emirates, so I was back in Glasgow just after lunchtime yesterday. 

This afternoon I had an appointment with the plastic surgery team in Glasgow who will be doing the actual operation to remove the cancer. I didn’t really learn anything I don’t already know (having googled melanoma to oblivion for the last couple of weeks!), but it was good to meet with the surgeon and talk through the specifics of my case. While skin cancer is completely curable (or rather ‘cut-out-able’…), melanoma is also a serious condition that can spread quickly, so it was good to talk to the experts about what will need to be done for me. The ear is an awkward place to have a growth removed from. The guidance is usually to have a 2cm margin around a lesion of the size of mine, although doctors are now doing studies into whether a 1cm margin is sufficient to remove everything that needs to be removed. That is good news for me, as taking away a piece of my ear 4cm across wouldn’t leave me too much to hang my glasses on! The surgeon who is now leading “my team” seemed very knowledgable, and confident that he could remove the cancer and still leave the ear looking reasonably sensible… (albeit, the tragic end to my ear modelling career…) It looks like I will have a reasonably large piece of the skin on the front of my ear removed, along with the cartilage beneath it, leaving just the skin on the back which will then get a skin graft from the back of my other ear to cover the hole. Although it will change the shape of my ear a bit, and leave me with a squidgy bit in the middle, it will leave things as close to how they are just now as is possible. At the same time as that operation is going on, they will also do a sentinel lymph node biopsy to determine whether the cancer has spread to anywhere else. There is going to be a lot of waiting around for appointments and then for biopsy results to confirm all is well before I can return to Uganda again. In the meantime, Heather will be home alone with the kids, so we still appreciate your prayers for life at home, as well as prayers for the melanoma situation.

Thanks.