Beth's Blog

Danny is a very precious little boy. Here is his story:

In 2008, when Hector was in Africa, he saw Danny in a group of children, and this is how he looked then...

his heart went out to him, and when he came back he talked to our church family about getting enough money for surgery, and it was cheerfully given by many.

Evidently life was rough for him beyond his looks. We are now aware of the trouble he had eating, and probably it was even harder to nurse him as he would not have gotten any suction without a top lip. To eat he would have to put his head back and put the food in, and chew with the head back, but after the surgery, it didn't take him long to break the old habit and eat normally. We had translators, who told us that Danny said the children used to laugh at him, but now after the Mazungu (white man in Swahili) took him to get his lip fixed they won't be able to laugh at him any more. Also evidently before, he didn't talk or at least not much. We did see that he had communication skills that included lifting the eyebrows to indicate yes, and he also had a little sound (ehennah-how do you spell a sound???) But by the time he got back from the Capital 3 days after surgery, he was chattering like a monkey!!! I guess if you spent 5 years listening and not talking, when you can talk you don't ever want to stop. It was amazing how if he never was able to practice the words that he could chatter like that, and it seemed that everything came out so his parents could understand!!!

First day back after the surgery, and about four days after the surgery.

Danny is very smart. the brought him and his dad back and had the dad stay at the hotel for one night and took Danny to the Dr in the morning for a dressing change, then the dad left and Danny was our little boy for the week. First night, he was to sleep on a mattress on the floor in Wailu's room, but he got up on the bed, and wouldn't move. A few days later we got the interpretation from that conversation, and it went like this:

Danny you are to sleep on the floor.

No I want to sleep on the bed.

But the bed is for the Mazungu, the mattress for you is the one on the floor.

Well take me to the room where I slept with my dad, I can sleep there.

No, Your dad is gone, you can't sleep there.

I can sleep there without my dad, just take me there.

No that is not possible, you must sleep here now with the Mazungu.

I am going to sleep in the bed, and if the Mazungu doesn't want to sleep with me he can sleep on the floor.

And believe me that is exactly what happened. Wailu slept on the floor!!! The next night they shared the bed, as Wailu figured out that if he took the blanket that isn't needed in Africa and built a wall down the middle of the bed, then they could share the bed with out Wailu getting kicked all night.

Five days after Surgery.

One night after dark Wailu was standing in the doorway of our room, and Danny was playing around between us as we talked. The power went out and it was very dark, Wailu said "we won't find him now." I said Where's Danny, and I got the little ehennah sound, it was so precious.

Danny learned how to use the toilet and how to flush it. He learned how to lock a door, and be bought him some toys, and he played with them. We bought him a couple outfits, to wear, and when we took him back to the village to visit his mother and the rest of the people, the was telling the kids. Mazungu, put me in a vehicle, and took me to where they stitched up my lip, and now I can sing and laugh, and talk. Today, they took me to get new cloths, and then they bought popcorn and we ate it.

Six days after Surgery.

One day Danny was with me, and for the second time, he went out of the room into the hall, and started rolling on the floor and wining, and then crying. the first time, was just before bed one evening, and I thought he was missing his family, but this time was mid day, so I went to the hall and said let's go find Fred (the guy at the hotel who helped take care of him and could understand most of what he was saying). Danny didn't get up, so I started walking towards the steps that would take us to where Fred was. But the crying just got louder, and finally Fred heard from downstairs, and came for him. Later Fred must have asked him why he was crying, and he said "I asked the Mazungu lady for water and she wouldn't give it to me so I had to fight!"

The last night before Hector and I left, we all went out for supper, and while there, The Host was talking to Danny and getting answers, and translating for us. We asked him what he would eat when he goes back to his village, and he listed the foods his family eats. There were a number of things, and then at one point we said "Tell him he needs to learn English." To Francis told Danny he needs to learn English, and his response was. "Why do I have to learn English am I going to stay with the Mazungu?"

The day we went to visit his mother, about a week after surgery

So you can see that this little boy is very special to us now. When Wailu took him back to the village before he left, he asked him Danny where are you going to sleep? He said "I am going to come back to the hotel with you!"

The little hut that Danny's family lives in, and they sleep on the mud floor, so the hotel was very special to them.

Danny is very smart, and when he gets talking to someone who understands him, he can get very serious expressions, and accentuate with his hands like an adult. By 2010 Danny will be 6 and he really needs to go to school, we are hoping to make some kind of arrangements for that.

Can you believe that Vista is giving me a real hard time!!! I have now spent about 4 hours uploading these last pictures for part 2, I have done it 4 times, and I hope now that while I do the captions I will not loose everything another time.

Leaving Mbale For Kampala

Then on West to see Edgar's family

This is the begining of the Nile River.

We flagged down the bus in the dark at 4 am, right infront of the hotel, but we didn't make it all the way to Kampala, about an hour out of the city the breaks gave up. There didn't seem to be any danger, as he was always able to stop, and they worked on them several times before they decided that we all had to get off the bus and they called for a city bus to come and pick up up.

But then as fate would have it there was a mix up, and a friend of Hector's was to meet us at the final destination of the bus, but he was at a bus stop, and we ended up getting off the bus on the street, and he wasn't there with a car.

So to get us to the bus terminal, he had to hire a taxi, but he hopped on a budda budda, to go find the taxi, and we had to stand there and wait till he came back with the taxi, so this is our baggage, standing on the street in Kampala Africa, while we stood 15 feet away in the shade of a signpost, everyone just walked around it, and continued as if that was nothing unusual!!!

This lady was at the bus terminl selling her bananas.

Here we are on the bus, and the girl beside me is Halima, she now lives in Columbus Ohio, and was here for a month visiting her mother, she had been shopping in the city and was going back for a few days to say good-bye to her mom and go back to Ohio.

Once on the bus, at one of the stops, we were "rushed" by all these sellers of goodies, at the front you can see "hand carved bamboo skewer sticks" wit goat meat on them, and also there are 2 sellers of "roti" or as they call it "chappati" there were also some selling bottles of "cold" water, others had "pop" and some had "roasted bananas", Halima bought some roasted bananas, and goat meat, and she share the bananas with me, they were actually really good, but I was a little concerned about eating off the street like that, but i survived, and didn't get sick.

A visit to the Pigmies

http://www.africaguide.com/culture/tribes/pygmies.htm

(not in time sequence, this was on Sunday, but it fits best here)

It was about 48 km, from Edgar's home town of Fort Portal, This is one of the great views, the trip was most senic!!!

This was along the way, but it is a scene that is everywhere in Africa, people pushing overloaded bikes with bananas, or some even carry one large bunch over their shoulder. That day we even saw a woman and several children heaading to town each with a big bunch of bananas.

Many trucks packed with people on the back passed us, and I caught this much of one on camera.

This is a view of the Congo in the far distance beyond the river that is gleaming about the center of the picture.

We passed a Nationa Park, and here you can see on the right of the road, a virgin jungle, and on the left, it has all been stripped away, by those needing trees for lumber, or firewood. Amazing what man can do to his enviroment.

the first glimpse of the village behind where we found the Pygmies.

We drove between huts and small houses to get to where the pygmies had their part of the village. They are actually a forest people, but some of them have moved close to villages, where they then "milk" the tourists, to make a living.

Here Hector is handing the "KING" 20,000 shillings, which is 1/2 of what they asked for, but then we only got 1/2 of what they promised as well. We got some pictures, and he showed us his "PALACE" but, they didn't dance for us as they had said they would.

Here is the "KING'S bedroom"

We finally got the king to supposedly pose with his wife. first he said a woman and child was his wife and kid, then she went into the house so when we wanted a picture, this woman came to pose, so who really knows??? but he did try to tell us he only had one wife!!! Ya right!!

At the road where we turned in we saw this sign.

This is supposedly the SDA Church that the "KING" attends weekly. But we don't think it is the one that is advertized at the road, that on is supposedly higher up on the mountian.

About 2.5 of the walls are completed, and part of the roof is on, they say this is where they meet. We gave them money to buy one zinc panel for the roof, but told them that if it would be better to buy a tarp to keep more of the church dry during the up coming rainy season that they should do that instead.

This is the "co-pastor" on the left, and the "Pastor" on the right.

This is the pastor's house. He came from the Congo 4 years ago, he is not paid by conference or mission, he is supported by the 60 church members he now has. they are divided into 4 groups, and each group brings him food each week. they have saved their meager money to buy the zinc sheets for the roof, but have a long way to go to finish it.

Ever since the Serengeti, I wanted a picture of the aunt hills, finally we found one and actually stopped to take this picture.

48 Km on this kind of roads, took us about 2 hours, and it was difficult for 3 to sit in the cab of the truck, we were bumped and jostled around all day, but I give credit to Edgars brother Eric, he is a very good driver, and was a nice person to spend the day with too.

While traveling both directions, we stopped and picked up people who were trying to flag a ride, this was on the way back, when we stopped, I got this picture of them getting out of the truck.