Fish Eagles & Other Birds

Sick, sick, sick. Let's hope it's just a bad case of stomach flu. Regardless, I'm heading out to the secondary school to provide teachers with textbooks for the older deaf students. Just waiting for Robert, my boda-boda driver!

In other words, some pictures from Lake Mburo National Park. Hippos, zebras, topis, birds, warthogs, and...maybe you can spot the buffalo?

What a crazy week! My co-worker berated me for not being what she requested: a "deaf" volunteer with a capital "D". Namely one who only signed and didn't wear hearing aids, namely one who was exactly like the deaf children of Uganda. Really...any foreigner who only signed and didn't speak would not be *exactly* like the deaf children here. Apparently, I've "undone" all her hard work in getting the parents to realize that their children will not benefit form hearing aids or speech therapy (no money for either). They've been calling and asking why I didn't come with the necessary "equipment". So heartbreaking! I get her point, but there are ways to solve this dilemma through educational meetings, fundraising, and more one-on-one time with individual families. Frankly, I think my co-worker needs to have her baby and take a lot of time off. So...there's a challenge for next week.

In addition to fundraising for Silent Voices, I'm going to work PT with Beacon of Hope (an orphanage that caters to children with PTSD) and Butabika Psychiatric Hospital in Kampala. One week a month I'll be up in Mukono, about eight hours from Bushenyi. More on this later -- off to training and then Lake Mburo for a weekend of birding!

Nicholas

This picture of Nicholas climbing a tree is my favorite! The village kids are very limber and can outrun (and outclimb) me any day.

Silent Voices Annual Meeting

These photos are from the Silent Voices annual event. The parents of the deaf children from the Butare school performed their drama play. The story line, in brief: the mother has a deaf child, the father blames the mother and leaves. The child first attends a hearing school, suffers, and then attends a school for the deaf. The father eventually comes back, and the community accepts the deaf child, etc., etc. The story line is very simple, but then again most of the audience (local parents) aren't well educated. The play is performed in the local language and translated into English and USL. Nicholas, the boy in the play, is one of the deaf children at the school. I did some of the interpreting!

The girl in this picture is Erica -- she's a deaf child at the Ishekyke school. Her mom Amanda, also in the picture, is the parent rep. at her daughter's school. Both are such awesome people here, and good role models for the other families. Amanda's sign is quite good.

Some more photos from the play! You can see the locals in the background looking on. They came out in droves from the nearby villages.

Hallelujah!! Got my first package...one month to the day! Maybe mail doesn't take THAT long? Anyway, so I'm standing outside the post-office eating a power bar when Moses rides up on his boda-boda. The following conversation ensues:

Moses: "Boda-boda?" (back to the district office)
Me: "No, I'm walking -- you took the last of my change this morning."
Moses: "Aww...come on. So, what are you eating?"
Me: "Umm..it's an energy bar with granola, kind of like maize! And lots of sugar and peanut butter. It's very American."
Moses: "Can I have one?"
Me: "No! I only have a few. But, here, you can have half of mine."
Moses chews for a minute, makes a funny face, and then says, "Is this from...Wal-Mart?"

Hahaha!! Probably so!