..and the rains came down...

Friday, Nov. 15th

Last night it rained, and did not stop. It started at 2am, and did not stop until 10am. SO many things go through your head when this happens. Flooding, villages at the bottom of hills, pit latrines over-flowing...and the wort, mosquito's breeding. Standing water, the best breeding ground for the mosquito. Malaria is going to run wild.

As we drove to the Kamuli area to visit some people who received our nets, we started passing by trucks over turned in large pools of water, water rushing down roads, and overturned market stands. We knew it was going to be terrible, but had no idea...

We arrived at the Woman, Caring & Counselling Group to visit Ron Casselman who was volunteering there from the Gananoque Rotary Club. They have received nets from BUY-A-NET, and we wanted to pay them a visit. The woman welcomed us with open arms and were very thankful. Alot of the woman have AIDS at the shelter, and they know that if they get malaria, they will die. They have low immune systems, and will die from a simple mosquito bite. Who then will take care of their children. It is a vicious cycle.

We walked through the village to visit some homes and see the nets hanging. We came across a home that was an 87 year old, blind, granny (JAJA), who was taking care of her grandchildren. Her daughter had died, and there was no one to raise the children. She was a beautiful and proud woman. BAN saved her precious grand babies, and she let us know just how she felt about it!

As we walked through the area, we were noticing more and more standing water. Mosquito's. That word was trolling through my brain...it was like a bad head ache that would not go away...Mosquito's....

There were people taking buckets of mud from there homes, that had rolled down the hill, with all of the garbage, and into their little home. SO many people have holes in their roofs that everything inside was soaking, and standing water was everywhere.

It's a hard thing to swallow...you save so many lives with one net, then you move on to the next area and see the devastation. But the great thing is, that is what BAN does best..." one village at a time "...and we have to continue to think that way, and work that way. It is working so well. For all of the bad we see, there are hundreds and hundreds of lives that were saved by all of us. Really we just have to look at it in a smaller scale. Yes, there are millions of nets needed to cover Africa, and yes, I am seeing alot of people in need, but we have saved so many lives, and we will continue to do so, " one village at a time."