One of the many beautiful women of Uganda. ☙
Image #132 – Ugandan Woman
One of the many beautiful women of Uganda. ☙
Image #131 – Sweet Girls
The t-shirt says it all. ☙
Image #130 – A Tear for Uganda
One of the beautiful children we cared for during our medical mission. You can’t help but notice how many young people there are in Uganda. In 2008, 50% of the population was 15 years of age or younger. The nearly two decades of war took a terrible toll on the country, destroying the broad swarth of middle-age, middle-class citizens that a country depends upon for economic growth. What war didn’t take, HIV did. The virus claimed many lives before the government initiated an aggressive anti-HIV program that proved very successful, slashing infection rates from 15% to 6%. While these statistics have been challenged the infected Ugandans whom we saw were greatly compliant patients. Each had a small notebook with their complete medical history including current medications and opportunistic diseases. Sadly the HIV infection rate is again on the rise in Uganda. ☙
Image #129 – A Regal Family
Often when I describe the people of Uganda whom we treated during our 2008 medical mission I will use the term “regal” and it this picture that personifies that description. This beautiful family is almost royal in their carriage and their confidence. The mother is proud, and rightly so. Her children are clean, polite, seemingly intelligent. All of them have a gentleness that seems surreal in a country so ravaged by war and disease.☙
Image #128 – Uganda Medical Mission – 2008
Recently I saw an acquaintance whom I had not seen in more than a decade. He had heard about my medical missions from mutual friends and was particularly interested in my trip to Uganda. When I told him how much I loved Uganda he asked why and the answer was quick in coming. “The people. They are noble and good.” Ugandans have a regal bearing that is hard to explain but I feel that several of my pictures captured their spirit. So, for this week of Alice’s WanderLand blogs we will travel to Uganda. Our mission was in Gulu, which is the largest city in Northern Uganda. We saw mainly women and children, most of whom were HIV+ or had AIDS. In four days the fifteen member team would see close to 2,000 individuals. For most it was a routine visit to a medical clinic. Pills were provided to fight intestinal parasites, vitamins were given for the children. But for some this trip to see Western doctors was an opportunity for help. In some cases the result was successful…in others it was far too late. It was a experience I will never forget. ☙
Image #127 – Violet Toothed Polypore
About three inches in height, these Violet Toothed Polypores are very similar to Turkey Tails but their color, to my eye, is far more appealing. There was about a 2-3 foot stand of them on a fallen log in Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest. ☙
Image #126 – Migration
I had forgotten. Forgotten the melancholy of autumn. A time when everything is on the move and changing. The endless summer days give way to great migrations and the reminder that the only constant is change.
Image #125 – Tango on the Log series, cont.
Tango on the Log — a continuing and fun theme from previous posts. This time in Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest. Note the beautiful new collar from The Kenyan Collection, courtesy of friends Daryl & Craig. ☙
Image #124 – From Little Helmets to Shaggy Manes
Reportedly it has been a bumper-crop-year for mushrooms in western North Carolina. Lucky me! A few days ago I posted Little Helmets, lovely white fungi that are about 2cm in height (about 3/4″). Today I present a 20+cm beauty, a Shaggy Mane (Coprinus comatus) discovered along the road to Wayah Bald. Remarkably these two mushrooms are in the same family (Inky Cap or Coprinus)! But they certainly present differently. The Little Helmets were all clustered together near a woodpile. The Shaggy Mane stood in solitary splendor at a hairpin curve on Wyaha Bald Road. ☙
Image #123 – A bit of autumn
The pace of change is quickening. Colors are intensifying … autumn has taken hold. ☙
Alice's WanderLand 