April Uganda 2026

 Hello again! I have had a poor internet connection for quite awhile. It is difficult to get a blog with pictures sent. I hope you enjoy this.

The compound has beautiful creatures large and small. Later on, I'll send pictures of the large creatures.

Chameleon

African Pygmy Kingfisher (adult). He was in our yard.

Some type of Mousebird. There are white ones here too.

Gray-headed Kingfisher

The AYPC "Akisyon a Yesu Presbyterian Clinic" also referred to as the Compassion of Jesus Clinic. This is what draws people to the mission site.

Leah Hop gave me a tour of the clinic. Last night’s thunderstorm left the two track dirt and clay road to the clinic quite a mess. It was a challenge trying to find even ground to walk on that wasn’t wet clay or cow pies.

The clinic staff does devotions each morning before they open. A couple of songs are sung, one in Karamojon and one in English. Timo leads the devotions. He's the chaplain at the clinic and is an intern at the Presbyterian Church of Nakaale. 

By the time devotions are finished, patients are lined up waiting to be seen. Sometimes they see 100 patients in a day. In the rainy season malaria is common due to an increase in mosquitoes. 

Christopher Verdick gave an update from his meeting with other clinic health administrators. at the District Health Office in Nakapiripirit. They said if the clinic tests for TB, then they must also test for HIV.

The entire clinic uses computers for: registration, patient exams, treatment, lab, pharmacy and administration. The patients are charged one set fee which covers the medical evaluation, any lab work and any medication(s). This does not cover the actual cost, the OPC subsidizes the clinic.

The registration lady is Christine. Many of the locals are not able to read or write, so she asks patients their information and writes it in the "patient book," then enters it into the computer.

The medical assistant takes a patient's height, weight, temperature and arm circumference measurements. The mid-upper arm circumference is a measurement for children between the ages of six months and five years old to identify malnutrition. Plumpy nut is a peanut-based nutritional supplement that unfortunately tastes really good. It tastes so good that other family members eat it instead of the malnourished child. AYPC used to offer this program but because caregivers abuse it by not giving the plumpy nut to the child, they stopped. Now, the program is mostly only at clinics that can admit children overnight for directly observed therapy. AYPC still screens for malnourishment, but refers patients to another nearby clinic for treatment.

Then the patient will see a nurse and then a clinician. A clinician is a designation between a nurse and a doctor. At the clinic there are two clinical officers, three nurses, some medical assistants, three lab technicians, one chaplain a pharmacist, two mid wives, (a total 35 clinic staff which also include nursing assistants, general assistants, groundskeepers, cleaners, and night guards). Christopher is the Administrator, Leah is the Director of Public Health. Some of the staff stay in onsite housing during the week and go back to Mbale on the weekends to see their family. It's a two hour drive. Some are on call at night and on weekends.

Tuesdays are the day when the two midwives will see women to confirm their pregnancy. They deliver about 280 (162 last year) babies a year. They do ultrasounds on the women. There are two trailers (semi cars) right by the delivery room that have been converted into a resting area for the midwives if they have to stay overnight because of a delivery in progress. The midwives take turns being on call.

The waiting line to see a midwife

Leah Hopp has been serving in Karamoja for 17 years (since2009). She is the Director of Public Health at the clinic and runs the community health program. She also trains and oversees six preventive health teachers who go out into the villages. 

These teachers go out to the villages and individual huts to teach preventive health and to pray with the Karamojons. Timo goes once a week to share the gospel. 

Christopher Verdick is the administrator of the clinic. I asked him to write out what role he plays at the clinic.

Christopher: "My main work at the clinic is making sure all of the employees are doing what they should be doing and that they have what they need to do their jobs. That includes making sure our pharmacy and lab are fully stocked, that all the clinic equipment is in working order (from fridges to stethoscopes to computers), that the employee payroll is calculated accurately and paid on time, that we have power, water, internet, communication, etc. My work also encompasses making sure that the work we do is of high quality. To that end, I do employee performance reviews, I audit the data we submit to the district health office, and I monitor operations day-to-day to make sure patients are being served in a timely manner. I also interact with the Ugandan healthcare system, attending meetings, making reports to the district health office, receiving official visitors and staying up-to-date on directives from the Ministry of Health."

Aleper Zakaria works alongside me in a practical sense to the extent that we are basically splitting the duties at this point. Practically, I am much more capable on troubleshooting equipment problems and working with computers, so I do more of those tasks and he does more of the stock and employee management."

What are some of the other things that you do that aren’t directly related to the clinic?

Christopher: "I help out with the Timothy Discipleship program; I serve as the visitor coordinator; I tend to handle much of the mission business that requires someone to interact with government offices—land matters, NGO matters, etc."

(NGO is non government organizations. That's how the mission is classified in Uganda, so matters having to do with mission's relations to government.)

Just a side note: I asked Leah about the beliefs of the Karamojons.

Leah: "Most of them are Catholic. There are a couple of Catholic churches within walking distance. But the people in the villages don’t seem to understand the Catholic faith. They go there to socialize and to eat meals with others. Catholic priests from Italy came to Karamoja about 90 years ago because of a need that they saw here. They saw that Christian missionaries and churches were successful in reaching out to the village people and used the same methods to attract the indigenous people."  

I remember that when I lived in Nigeria many years ago, my father would sometimes take us into the villages and there were medicine men there.  Are their medicine men in these Karamoja villages?

Leah: "Yes there are. Some people will go to the medicine man for health needs. Others will go to the medicine man and if that doesn’t work, then they come to the clinic.  Still others will come to the clinic first and if that doesn’t work, they go to the medicine man. There is an older man who is a member of our church, who has a good testimony. His daughter was very sick. Villagers kept telling him to go to the medicine man. He put his trust in God and prayed fervently, knowing God is in control. He took his daughter to the clinic and refused to take her to the medicine man". 

Please pray for this mission in Karamoga to thrive and may one day be completely run by the indigenous people and that the gospel will be proclaimed.