Life has been a whirlwind since returning - at least for Sue. Naturally the staff wanted to know what had been agreed for their pay. Once told, they were happy with the amounts but naturally unsettled as to whether they would get a job once we had made new job descriptions. Jackie, the Administrator has been away in Kampala, but fortunately Nurse Emily offered to help and we have the job descriptions ready. It has been a mammoth task but we feel we should be able to run more efficiently and with fewer staff - a necessary thing in order to help meet staff wage costs. On Tuesday the staff will get to see them and we will proceed from there.
For Mike, work life has been slower. There are more outpatients coming which is good. Despite it being advertised as a children's medical centre he has seen a woman with infertility problems, a man with prostate problems and others for general ailments. He is happy to see them but we do not hold medicines for adults.
For the first time, Mike has succumbed to catching something from a patient. He has had a cold and very sore throat for a week now.
Little by little we have been introducing the toys to great effect. We have changed an unused room into a playroom which works extremely well. For those of you who donated toys, here are some photos so far....
Try as I might, I cannot get the pictures to go side-by-side.
At first they were very frightened by the toys but quickly got the hang of them.
This was just being greedy!
See Zak, baby Chad is being well loved.
Jackson's first attempt at painting. Jackson has severe cerebral palsy.
Doreen also has cerebral palsy.
She was fascinated to watch the colours appearing.
The toddlers had great fun with the Aquamats. A clever invention of painting with water.
On a daily basis you never know what may happen. This afternoon we heard the tragic news that the 22 year old son of a Laundry worker of ours, had been killed in a motorcycle accident on the bendy roads to Kabale. It is the cultural expectation that people go to the house to mourn with the family. Mike and I went to visit. There were a lot of visitors and many of them, including our staff, will stay each night outside her house until the funeral has taken place.
On a happier note, I will show you one last picture. Mike called me over to the Medical Centre to photograph these twins in an incubator together.
We have had a lot of problems with power and Internet. We have several power cuts a day/night. However we have kept water, which is a real blessing.
