Katalemwa Rehab Center

I am afraid of feeling emotional pain. I know that may sound logical at first but it’s actually not Sometimes I’m so afraid of feeling hurt before anything has even happened and if the painful situation actually never comes to pass then I have mourned for no reason. This is what happened today at Katalemwa. I was so afraid for today’s visit thinking I would feel heartbroken again but when we got there I was at peace.

I remembered that place from last year being extremely overwhelming and unbearably painful the first time I went there so I was really scared for my mom.  It’s hard when you have a heart for kids with special needs and you see the conditions they live in or the way they are neglected here.  Here having a child with special needs is looked on as a curse and so many times the parents try to hide the child or just abandons them all together.

A lot of the kids at Katalemwa are rehabilitating from very preventable physical disabilities as well such as burn contractures or hydrocephalus or clubbed feet all things that if caught early enough or treated correctly could have been prevented.  For example fever here is “cured” by wrapping the baby in a warm blanket and putting them in a hot room but this actually causes more harm and the child then suffers from something when they shouldn’t have disabilities at all if only the care takers knew how to treat a fever.  It’s heartbreaking to see.

But despite the cause of the disability my heart still is filled with compassion and love for these kids.  I remember my emotions the first time I visited Katalemwa.  I was overwhelmed to the max and I remember feeling such intense pain for the conditions they were in.

But sometimes our memories of bad things are exaggerated and I think that’s what happened or that the Lord just gave me grace to have compassion but not an immobilizing heart break for the kids here this time.  When we got there there weren’t as many kids as last year, we were given a very in depth tour and the director told us the goals of the organization and it really helped.  It seems like they are on track here and even though it’s nowhere near as good as any place in the states the staff seem to care and are trying.  A lot of the problem is the lack of materials and skills to help the kids learn better.

 

A word from Mom:

At Katalemwa they gave us a tour and then we were able to play with some of the kids!  We plan to go back there several times while I am here.  They care for children and teens with all kinds of disabilities.  They welcome parents so they can learn from the staff how to take care of the children at home.  Their desire is to keep the children with their families.  I really like that philosophy!  They have a workshop where they make ALL of the adaptive equipment for their students.

I’m impressed with how much they did with so little materials.  We were even welcomed in the classroom where we were able to greet and visit with students.  We also went to the early childhood rooms where we met Jordan.

Jordan

He smiled the whole time we were there!  We played with play-doh with him.  He verbally counted with me and we made his name out of playdoh.  Another boy in that room was Trevor.  He looked like he  couldn’t talk.  I started just singing “Head, Shoulders,  Knees and Toes” and he caught –on real quickly and seemed to enjoy the attention.  

Trevor

 We also played with Tanu.  She is a little girl with very deformed hands from cerebral palsy.  I, of course, was curious if she even would use her hands at all.  When I put the play-doh in front of her she grabbed it and squeezed it.  Then I rolled the play-doh into little balls and asked her to pick them up and put them in the container.  She did that with some difficulty, but she did it independently!  One of the older boys was sitting in the corner.  I went over to him and it became apparent very quickly that he was autistic.  He took my hand and took m to the playground.  I had no doubt what he was communicating.  One of the staff in the classroom told me to bring him in.  I just asked him to come in the room and he obeyed very quickly with only verbal cues!  They don’t have any materials for the students, so I look forward to going back with a backpack full of things we can do with them!

mom and Tanu

So, yes, today was awesome!  I love seeing Mom in her zone and I keep learning so much from her!

API

Here is mom! She's doing so great!

 API “A Perfect Injustice” is the ministry we go to on Monday evenings. I was really excited for this ministry because Rachel (one of the long term missionaries) said this was her favorite ministry that Rafiki works with! Last year we didn’t work with API so I was also excited to work with a completely new organization that I haven’t worked with last year. API is a ministry that works with boys who live on the streets in the slums of Kampala. We will get a full orientation to API in a few weeks but from what I understand on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays API does a program in the slums for 40-60 street boys who gather together and learn life skills, play games, talk about the bible, and at the end of it all get clean water and food. There is also a clinic that helps care for specifically these boys when they are sick and gives them a place to stay while they get well. On Mondays Rafiki will be the team to put on the program. This week Kailey started us off with a school lesson on letters, I taught games and Rachel did a bible lesson. It was really incredible. I taught them “captain’s coming” and “sink the bismark” both games were a hit! I loved the boys and seeing them getting a chance to be kids rather than trying to survive on the streets is an amazing privilege. They can laugh and play and race and just be kids for the 5 hours we have them! Some of the kids have some school education but many of them didn’t get the chance to have much schooling before they went to live completely on the streets for one reason or another so many don’t know english. But the language barrier was not a problem! We have translators to translate all of our lessons and directions and things but because they don’t have school regularly they love the chance to get to learn any and everything. Even though sometimes they seem inattentive I know that they are catching a lot of it and that it’s so important for them to learn math and other life skills to be able to survive. Some of the boys were really really young maybe 8 or 9 and then some were older teens.

Kailey and Rachel with some kiddos

 

The people that started this ministry are amazing and I’ll have more on that later but one of the Uncles (who translates for us and is also a kind of father figure for the boys) has an incredible story. He lived on the street for I think 17 years or something crazy like that! He was muslim and then came to Chirst because of a street organization and now he works with API and is looked up to so much by the boys. What a neat ability to relate to them in this way and be a mentor to them. Anyways API is my favorite ministry in Uganda that I’ve served in so far including last year simply because of the impact they make and how great a need they are tackling. I can’t wait to go back. We will be going back every Monday this summer and so I am excited to build relationships and see growth in these boys.

Here we are playing "sink the Bismark"! Its kind of like sharks and minnows but on land!

Auntie Jenny and some boys !

Here me and mom were being introduced to the boys! We do program under this structure unless we need more space for the games where we go to the clearing next to it.

Here the boys are playing "captains coming!" Its kind of like simon says mixed with a memory game! they were really good at it!

A word from mom:

I got to meet about 10 boys. They were very nice. The hard part was when I was passing out food to them I looked into thier eyes. They were so thankful for the food and water! There were more boys than food and water so we had to turn away some of them that broke my heart! Two of them tried to get in our van when we left. We stopped at a connivance store before heading home and the same two boys had followed us all the way. We bought them water and some food. The need is so great and the workers are few!