We've had a bath!

 

This has been Mike's first weekend off since arriving so we decided to go to Kabale for a break. Kabale is the nearest town and is a one and three quarter hour drive through the mountains. The views are amazing but the densely folded ridges are a stark reminder that we are on the border of two tectonic plates. The succession of winding up and down and along is not Sue's favourite form of journey but with spells of eyes shut and concentration on other things, she arrived fairly intact.

 

 

 

Looking down on Kabale town centre.

 

 

 

 

 

We are staying in a nice hotel and it was a great treat to find a bath in the bathroom. There was no water until late evening but we made the most of it then. We spent the afternoon looking around Kabale which is bigger than Kisoro but the shops contain much the same things. To be honest we both felt we preferred Kisoro - just as well! We spent the evening with Janet who we had met on a training course last summer. It was good to catch up with her. Although it was lovely not to be disturbed in the night by crying babies and chattering Carers, there was the familiar tap tapping on the tin roof by the rain and the piercing noises of the crows. Today we have thoroughly enjoyed staying in our room out of the rain and reading.

 

 

 

 

Late afternoon the rain cleared and we emerged for a drink and to read outside in the grounds.

 

 

 

 

 

This week in Potters Village has been an ordinary one. In the last couple of weeks 3 children have moved on to new homes and 3 have arrived. One newborn whose mum died in childbirth, one whose mum died a couple of weeks after the birth and during an operation. The father did not know what the operation was for and strangely did not seem concerned. The third child is 8 months old and was brought by the father saying the mother was mentally ill. It transpires he has left the mother and moved in with another woman. It was felt safest to take the child in for now or he would have been abandoned elsewhere.

The medical centre is down to one inpatient, a prem baby still on oxygen. There has been another small boy who underwent the local tonsillectomy procedure with resulting infection but fortunately he was brought straight away and was able to go home after a couple of days having responded well to antibiotics. Interestingly the mum of the previous tonsil victim recommended another mother to bring her child to the village - success! Apart from that there has been a trickle of outpatients and the usual coughs, wheezes, vomiting and diarrhoea outbreaks amongst the village children.....oh, and 2 cases of hookworm discovered by the microscope!

Sue and Leonard have cut out Doreen's chair. Sue went to the market to buy a pan for the charcoal stove built by Leonard, that they will use to boil water for the paste. Three ladies sitting in the market were clearly talking about the colour of her skin and the fact her arms are browner than her feet. Suddenly one leaned forward and yanked up her skirt for them to look at the colour of her legs!! A bit of a shock but all good natured.

Next weekend we hope to hold a pre- dvd night BBQ using Leonard's charcoal stove - we could start a new trend in Uganda cuisine!

 

Town, tins and toys.

 

 

It's not the clearest of photos but this is a view looking down the Main Street of Kisoro. It doesn't give an accurate impression of the slope of the street or the ramshackled nature of the buildings.

 

 

 

I have attempted to plant some herbs in milk formula tins. Leonard took the rest of my seeds to plant in his herb plot - and set a challenge to see who could get them to grow first. No contest. I do not possess any green fingers. I hope he will let me have some of the herbs when they are grown.

 

Ivan, in the middle, is doing well and can now roll over. He is putting on weight at such speed that we have stopped the added oil in his soya porridge. A few moments after this photo Joab, on the left, had Ivan's head pinned on the floor with the orange cup.....it's cutthroat stuff surviving in the babies room!

 

 

 

Meet Mayta, the cow! This was my first experiment of making a toy from a plastic drinks bottle. She is the right colour for a local cow - and there the similarity ends.

 

 

 

 

An American Paediatrician with a portable ultrasound visited on Friday. He checked the 2 babies in the medical centre who cannot be weaned off oxygen. He thinks it is just that their lungs are undeveloped and 'sticky'. It may be another two weeks before they can breathe alone and to send them home early would probably mean they would die. This is a real problem as the families cannot afford to keep them here. They have been told they will not be charged from now until the babies can leave but that means that the medical centre will continue to run at a loss. What to do? This is a constant problem but running incubators and oxygen concentrators is costly, especially when the power goes off and the generator is used.

 

....and you think it rains in England?

 

The workshop is now in business. The first piece of cardboard is in the press and attempting to dry. I say 'attempting' because we have now entered the wet season and boy does it rain. England has nothing on this! Some days you can get a few hours of dry but when it rains it comes suddenly and with force. It was decided that moving the press was not an option. The nice view behind the work area has been obscured by black plastic and the press is in front of it. It's not ideal as the board gets damp in the wet air overnight. Anyone got any ideas?

Tonight there is only one baby in an incubator. His mum bled for several days before giving birth then waited 9 hours before bringing him. His skin was a grey/brown and although he is feeding well, he needs continuous oxygen albeit only a small amount. It could be he just hasn't got enough blood. Tomorrow they will try and get some blood to send to test for anaemia. A HemoCue machine to test blood would be very useful here and something Mike would like to bring back next time.

There were nine people at DVD night yesterday. It is great fun, but cooking for that number is a challenge. We were lent a projector from a German couple who were on holiday. Marvelous. It was really small and there was a great deal of coveting going on by Mike!

Sue and Emily tackled both open markets this week in the hope of finding new kinds of fruit and veg. No luck. Apparently there may be courgettes from Rwanda in May. A couple of cauliflower were spotted in town but which lucky people got them? An interesting thing....We occasionally buy bacon which smells lovely whilst frying but has virtually no taste.....why?

Nurse Rosey has arrived back and Mike will appreciate learning from her neonatal experience. Jenny flew to Nairobi today to take Hannah back to Boarding School and Jo to a Neurology appointment. Just before she left she heard the school was not going to reopen due to feared backlash about the elections in Kenya. As the flights were booked she felt obliged to carry on but hopes not to be stranded in a violent city. Andrew, the volunteer Carpenter is converting a triangular cupboard into a lab for Mike. It has meant pinching a door from elsewhere as doors come from Kampala. We haven't discovered a room that is missing a door yet!

 

Creativity is all! This idea to make a spacer for an inhaler was given to us by Sarah who visited us a short while ago. She and her husband Kieran met Mike on the tropical medicine course and are both in Uganda for a year. This spacer was made for a small boy who would be too young to time his breathing to get enough medication in to his lungs. By melting a hole in the bottle and pushing the inhaler through, the open end is put in his mouth, the medication sprayed in and he breathes normally.

 

 

 

 

 

Out and About

 

The good news is that the young lad who we feared would die last week, pulled through and was able to go home yesterday afternoon. He is painfully thin and although 2 years old, cannot yet walk but is crawling. Hopefully the family will bring him back for check-ups but there was no real reason for them needing to stay here.

There have been 5 children in the medical centre, two of which are prem babies in incubators. All are doing well despite several days of the power going on and off. Mike was up during the night refilling the generator with petrol to keep it going to allow the incubators to stay at a constant temperature. The power came back this afternoon after about 18 hours without but now we have no water.

On Friday Mike took the day off so we decided to head uphill and see if we could get as far as the view of Lake Mutanda. We managed it....though Mike got there before Sue....but considering the inclines it was amazing she got there at all! It was indeed an amazing view of a huge lake dotted with islands. There is an Eco campsite on the edge of the lake and apparently you can canoe out to the islands. Definitely something to try someday.

 

 

Mike had his first attempt at driving the pick-up van. It can just about make it into Kisoro and back without overheating. The doors don't lock and the handbrake isn't much good so fairly standard for here. He got back and sighing with pride said...I didn't knock anyone over!

 

 

 

It promises to be a busy week this week. Rosie, the neonatal nurse, arrives back with Andrew, a volunteer carpenter who is coming to build cupboards in the medical centre. We will take it in turns to feed him for a month, poor man! The Community Health Training Programme that Mike is involved in gets started. The Archdeacons have apparently selected the volunteers but are the volunteers aware of this yet? Festo assures Sue that he will have the workshop ready by Wednesday. He is making her such a superbly strong cardboard press that she can't move it by herself - or even with help. This is a bit problematic given the sudden and intense rain which would soak the supposedly drying boards in no time. No problem says Festo, we men will come and move it if it rains. Ah but they are also supposed to put the goats inside when it rains. Which would take presidence - goats or cardboard?