July 2005- Kelly Pasma

On July 21, 2005, I left on a two week mission trip to Uganda with a team was made up of one veterinarian, three vet students and two undergrad students. We worked together with Dr. Val Shean, who is a missionary with CVM US in Uganda. We spent our first week in Soroti doing goat trainings with two different churches for goat revolving loans. CVM provides the money for the purchase of goats, the church decides who receives them, and we provide the training that enables the people to care for their goats. The first kid that the goat has is returned to the church to be given to another needy person. At Awoja Baptist Church the recipients were those affected by AIDS and the disabled, including widows, widowers, orphans and some with HIV. At the Pentecostal Assemblies of God Church, the recipients were all widows. We spent two days at each church, training on topics like reproduction, housing, diarrhea diseases, tick diseases, and coughing diseases. Each day ended with goat practicals so that everyone could receive experience in giving injections, deworming, spraying for ticks and hoof trimming.

We really enjoyed praising the Lord with the churches and made many friends. We attended a church in Okoboi where goat revolving loans had been started 10 years ago and were still continuing successfully. One widow we met had even been able to acquire two cows out of her one goat!

The second week, we drove up to Kangole in Karamoja where Dr. Val has her project site. She works with the Church of Uganda in a group called Bozidep to develop medicines from local plants. We learned to make a wound cream from one plant and then did trials on wounds on cows in Iriiri. The Karamojong people really appreciate the help they are receiving from Dr. Val and were very receptive to helping in the trials. Every member of our team received a bracelet from the women in the woodlots where the plants are grown to thank us for coming. We even almost sold one our teammates as a bride in exchange for 100 cows!

Perhaps the highlight of my time in Uganda was experiencing the worship during church. The people are so passionate about their faith and are very free in expressing it. I enjoyed the trip immensely and praise God for the time we could spend in Uganda. I encourage everyone to consider going on a short-term shuttle with CVM – it will change your life!