Is this Africa or England?

 

We have been getting used to the daily downpours in what is supposed to be the dry season but the other day went even further. We heard an almighty clattering on our tin roof and looked out to see it was hailing. The stones were the size of marbles and must have been really painful for those caught out in it. By the end the ground was covered and there were drifts where they had poured out from the spouts on the rooves. The Carers had great fun making sculptures the following morning which did not melt until late in the afternoon despite a day of sunshine. Sadly the hail destroyed a lot of bean crops which is not good news at all.

 

 

Early on in the hail storm. The noise was phenomenal.

It was followed by 20 hours without power. This necessitated us cooking and eating the village pork in our freezer section that we were saving for a special occasion. Still, any occasion can be special.....and it was lovely.

 

 

Despite the beauty, sadness is all around. Today a 2yr old lad was brought in from the community. Three days ago he went to the local healer with a fever. This healer looked at his red tonsils and performed what is called a 'local tonsillectomy'. Basically the healer sharpens some sticks and proceeds to puncture the tonsils to let the badness out. All this with no sedation or pain killers. Frequently it results in death and sometimes it is a way of transmitting HIV/AIDs as the healer uses the same sticks or bicycle spokes on everyone. This lad has been brought in unconscious and with a roaring infection and pneumonia. We can only hope and pray that he will survive but this is not certain. The practice of local tonsillectomies has been declared punishable with imprisonment by the Government but apparently this has had very little effect. Jovea, the nurse, says that she reported a healer once who was then put in the local prison but the community attacked the building until the police were forced to give them their healer back.

Mike has come in to say that this lad has had the procedure three times and has just tested positive for HIV/AIDs even though the parents say they are both negative. He has also been unconscious for the last two days and is grossly malnourished so they really have left it very late to hope his life can be saved. It is so very tragic.

On a different note, the workshop continues to take shape. Festo, the Carpenter found some windows and incorporated them into the design. There is one shop that sells newspapers in Kisoro. He sells his unsold papers back to Kampala at about 15p each. He is happy to sell them to me for the same price so that solves my newspaper problem although I wasn't bargaining for having to buy them.

Last week's DVD night went down well and is being repeated this evening at Emily's accommodation across the compound. Currently there are a group of toddlers stationed near there who have gone for an afternoon outing for some potty training in the countryside!

My bread has failed to rise for some reason but has gone into the oven to make a thick biscuit - if I can catch it before it burns.....and the power has gone off again - what a pain - maybe there won't be a DVD tonight. That's one thing about life here, it's totally unpredictable. This blog will get posted.......erm......sometime!