Uganda 2009- Nile River Dam

Polly Green and Jessie Stone infront of Nile River Dam site (BOO!)

photo by Morgan Koons

17 Feb 2009

It was a big day of filming yesterday. The most exciting shots were filming the girls coming

back from kayaking on their bodas (mopeds) I was filming from a boda as we were going along bumby dirt tracks.  It felt like “extreme” videography somehow and fun to capture the action in motion. I also got shots of the dam that is being built here on the Nile and when it is completed will completely flood the top half of the river where at the moment there is still great rapids. It is truly sad to see this dam and how it has transformed the landscape that was once beautiful into a pile of destruction. They have relocated people that lived by the river and have promised power to people here. The reality is that they are going to sell all of the power to Kenya and the power really won’t benefit the local people what so ever. Very sad, but am once again grateful to have time on the river before it is turned into a massive lake.

Uganda shoot -2009 Soft Power Health

For some reason this time to Uganda has been harder for me in terms of the discrepancy between what I have being western and what life is like for the local Ugandans. I don’t really have any conclusions. It just seems like luck of the draw. Why was I born into a western country with every opportunity put in front of me and not into a Ugandan village living in a mud hut with no running water or electricity. Why? These questions have no answer and as my time comes near to an end here I think that at least I am doing what I am meant to be doing. By making this film at least other people will see what it is like here. It has also made me think about giving back and making a difference and what it all means. At the end of the day a feeling of gratitude first and foremost is what I am taking away from here. Who knows if my film will make a difference but at least I have gotten reminded again of how good my life is and how lucky I am.

 We went on another field patient visit to see a little baby with heart trouble. I asked Jessie how she decides who she helps in the field, as it seems to me there are countless people here that need it. She said it depends on the severity of their illness. I guess the possibility of even one person being helped is worth it.

I was talking to a friend of mine last night who has lived here for many years and she said to survive here you need to be resilient. That is the truth. She said its not like they can wake up and say I don’t feel like walking to get water today. They have to. It is survival. We in the west don’t even think about these things that for these people are a matter of life and death. Which is all around. The saying life is cheap here I have heard a few times, but people still smile and wave and dance in the face of extreme hardship.

After a very hot, dry, tiring day of filming a malaria education session and net sale we went to stay in a beautiful lodge with a stunning waterfall, amazing food and hot shower. I was so happy to have a real shower, and thought about the people I was filming who will probably never experience this in their whole lives. I am grateful for these things. A hot shower, access to medical care, enough food, the list goes on and on and the opportunity to come back here and be reminded.

Uganda 2009-Soft Power Health

Jessie Stone handing out mosquito nets-Uganda

Polly Green filming

photo by Morgan Koons

Uganda Shoot- Soft Power Health-2009

For the past few weeks I have been filming in Uganda for Jessie Stone who is the founder of Soft Power Health, a non profit organization that does grass roots malaria education and prevention, operates a rural medical clinic and does family planning. This is my third time back to film in Uganda, and it is always inspiring and challenging.

On one of the most emotionally difficult days, Jessie, Jessica(Jessie's interpreter/educator) and I  went with the clinical advisor (social worker) from Jinga(the nearest town)  to evaluate a two year old HIV positive baby who had been brought in to the clinic a week prior with serious burns. Jessie and her Ugandan translator, Jessica, had determined that the mother was unfit to care for the child.

We went to the family’s small mud hut, which was down a narrow path in a rural village. Upon reaching the hut we immediately heard the baby crying. Jessie and the social worker entered the hut. The baby sat on the mud floor, dirty, malnourished and  severely undeveloped for his age. Tears were coming to my eyes as I was filming the sad state of this poor little being. The local equivalent to a social worker began interviewing the very thin father as the mother did the washing up on the ground. The social worker was furiously writing while Jessie, Jessica and I anxiously awaited his decision of the baby’s fate. The mother began washing the thin baby in a plastic basin on the ground and dressed the child in clean clothes.

 At this stage we began to deduce they were going to hand the baby over to us. The mother hands the child to Jessica and the parents follow us back down the narrow track to the car. The mother has no display of emotion about her baby’s departure. The father waves goodbye as we make the journey over bumpy washed out dirt road to the HIV positive children’s home in Jinga. We arrive 30 minutes later. Jessica carries the now quiet baby and we all walk into the children’s home. About twenty children of various ages are sitting on the clean cement floor eating their chipati dinner. The children look clean, well fed, and healthy. Jessie reviews the baby’s history with one of the homes caregivers, as we wait for “Mama Holly” the woman who runs the home. Mama Holly arrives and Jessie explains the situation. Mama Holly welcomes the baby with open arms, and says “this is why we are here”.  We thank her and say goodbye. Jessie and I commented on how fortunate it was that a home like this existed and how lucky it was that maybe now this baby will have a chance at survival.

This story still brings tears to my eyes when I think about it. Not all of the stories here have a “happy” ending, and even tho this one was “happy” all of the things I have seen here make me realize how lucky I am to have been born into the Western world and how trivial my concerns are most of the time.

For more information on Jessie’s work in Uganda please go to www.softpowerhealth.org