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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday May 26, 2007 - 17 Foster child's mother bedridden with AIDS Continued from page 16 him money,'" she said. "Their wages are so low they try to find ways to supplement their income. So, that's sort of how they do it." While at the Plan headquarters Bartlett also received grim news that Margaret was now living with her grandmother Cate as both her mother Rosemary and her father Christopher were dying of AIDS. "I asked where Rosemary was and they told me bedridden. Bedridden means the last stages of AIDS," said Bartlett. Determined now more than ever to see her sponsored child, Bartlett, accompanied by a Plan official, set out for the grandmother's home in Mulago, a slum in the suburbs of Kampala however, getting there proved to be an adventure in itself. "It's something driving on the roads there. Potholes are something of an understatement," said Bartlett. "You spend a lot of time going sideways around potholes. You'll go onto the shoulder and onto the other side of the road and you think you're going to have a head-on collision, but at the last second everyone goes back in their own lanes." The extreme heat experienced by Bartlett while in Uganda was another force to contend with. "They kept telling me everywhere I went that it's not usually this warm. So, she said. While nervous and distant at first, Bartlett says she soon connected with Margaret, who smiled and respectfully called her Madam. "She loves drawing and painting," said Bartlett. During her visit, however, Bartlett saw something else in Margaret that suggests that even at the age of eight she is aware of the desperate situation she and her family are in. "At times she had very sad eyes," said Bartlett. "She's very cautious, I can see she observes well. I used to observe well and be a quiet child so I see that in her. See Bartlett page 18 LOOK WHAT WE DID: Children from an orphanage in Uganda proudly show off the artwork they made from the art supplies donated by Oakville resident Marg Bartlett. I just sweated a lot and drank a lot of water." Bartlett grins as she looks at a picture of herself on a particularly hot day in Uganda. "I look like a drowned rat in this one," she said. Margaret's home has the appearance of a shed whose reddish-orange rust coloration matches Uganda's reddishorange soil. "This is like a long shed, a rickety tin roof that leaks," said Bartlett. "There were about five doors along this shed and theirs was door number two. One room in there." Bartlett said the home contained no running water, no electricity, and no toilet except for a latrine dug out back. What Bartlett did find in the home was immense spirit. "We were supposed to go to Margaret's school, but she was so excited that apparently she didn't go to school that day," she said. Whatever despair or distress Margaret and her three younger siblings have endured was forgotten for the briefest of moments as they played with the balls and art supplies Bartlett brought for them. 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