Jacquie's story, and some misadventure

Note: I am posting this entry from Entebbe, Uganda. We arrived here last night, after several days of travel, with (almost) all of our luggage. Today, we will travel to the orphanage in Kaberamaido. My next blog will update you on our travels.

"YOU'RE COMING THROUGH THE CEILING!" a muffled voice shrieked from the floor below. "STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING, YOU'RE MAKING A HOLE IN THE CEILING!"

Disoriented, I dropped the box I was holding and stepped back off the insulation and onto the wooden boards that constituted the only firm ground in Jacquie's attic. We were storing 240 pairs of jeans donated that morning by community celebrity and organizer John Flowers after we appeared on his radio show. Apparently, we had overestimated the stability of the attic storage space.

Down the ladder in her bedroom, Jacquie was eying me frantically while yelling reassurances to her neighbor in the adjacent unit of her two-apartment farmhouse. I doubt her neighbor felt reassured, standing helplessly in her home as a wide crack creeped across her ceiling. I certainly didn't.

It was my first visit to Jacquie's house, and already I was causing serious damage. It was a rookie mistake--not what's normally meant by "humanitarian aid gone awry," but disastrous nonetheless.

To be fair, I wasn't used to farmhouse construction. Most Vassar students live in dorms on campus--within spitting distance of the dining halls and academic buildings. Jacquie, on the other hand, lives within spitting distance of horse pastures and alfalfa farms.


JACQUIE'S STORY

A devout Mormon, Jacquie prefers to live away from the revelry that sometimes characterizes dorm life. The most striking thing about her house, when you get past the dirt driveway and the classic character of the red farmhouse, is a Christmas tree that takes over the space in front of her refrigerator. A quick appraisal of her house leaves no doubt that Jacquie takes her faith seriously, and that the Uganda medical mission is a part of it. Framed pictures of Christ and a Mormon Temple--testaments to her faith--share wall space with dozens of framed photographs of Ugandan children.

If I didn't know Jacquie, I might have assumed from the photographs' prominent placement on her walls and next to her bed that they were of her siblings and cousins. But the children's ebony skin and dark hair starkly contrast with Jacquie's pale hue and blonde hair. And I had seen these faces before, gazing up from the Asayo's Wish Foundation website.

Jacquie has devoted the last seven months of her life to organizing medical supplies and care for children who she has never met. She has not made them into abstractions, as is so easy to do with humanitarian work. Instead, she has surrounded herself with their images.

"She's so cute, she makes me melt," Jacquie confided to me once, pointing to a little girl with braided hair on the background of her computer.

Jacquie has felt since she was two that she was called to medically serve in Africa. The details were finalized last year when she took Vassar Professor Timothy Longman's African Politics course. She wrote a human rights report on Uganda detailing the atrocities committed by both the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan government against their citizens in the 21-year civil war. Horrified by the LRA's propensity to make children into soldiers and girl children into "wives" (read: sex slaves), she was determined that Uganda was the place she wanted to direct her help.

Jacquie has been an emergency medical technician (EMT) for three years, and has experience with humanitarianism, so she thought one of the nonprofits working in Uganda could use her as a medical volunteer. After two organizations told her they didn't need her, she was discouraged. Then, her aunt introduced her to Sarah Asayo.

Sarah, a Ugandan herself, founded the Asayo's Wish Foundation to help the plight of Ugandan orphans. The Foundation was in the process of opening an orphanage for 150 children, a number that would grow to 400 within a year. Part of the orphanage included plans to build a medical clinic. Jacquie volunteered to help found the clinic.

Eight months later, our team of eight EMTs, one doctor, and I have arrived to Entebbe, Uganda with tens of thousands of dollars worth of medical supplies to take to the orphanage.
Jacquie seems happy. "It's so beautiful," she said yesterday as we stood in the sunshine, gazing at the plush, exotic greenery in our hotel garden. "I feel like I'm home, and I never want to leave."

Today, we will travel to Kaberamaido, and the medical volunteers will soon begin seeing patients.


PREPARING FOR A MEDICAL MISSION

It's surreal to actually be here after months of preparation. We wrote brochures, made posters, asked Vassar's administration and student government for funding, applied for grants and donations, procured donations in front of grocery stores, made appeals to alumni, held a concert at Connecticut College, sent press releases, made radio and news appearances, picked up medical supplies, found a doctor to go with us, borrowed suitcases, and packed medical supplies. The EMTs took self-defense courses and learned how to start IVs in preparation for the trip. Jacquie taught the Vassar students a fieldwork course about human rights, humanitarianism, and Uganda's history and current political state.

There have been some setbacks. Problems with purchasing plane tickets (until a week before we left!), difficulties transferring money, having no way to get to the airport with 25 suitcases plus carry-on luggage (Vassar's fieldwork office came through with a bus the DAY before we had to leave)--and, of course, a little building damage.

But it's all worked itself out. I did not fall through Jacquie's neighbors’ ceiling. They were very understanding about the damage, and it has now been fixed. And above all, everyone has been very, very generous to us with money, donations, and going out of their way to make our mission possible. It has taken a lot of effort, on our parts and others, to get us here. Now, we have embarked on the first phase of our Project in Kaberamaido.