Friday 26 December 2014

Christmas Day at Potters

Christmas Day started bright & early at PV.


The laundry staff began at 6am in order to get through the mounds and be away in good time to cook for their families. I went round the site and gave every adult a lollipop and a Rufumbira Christmas greeting. It was amusing to see people wandering everywhere with bulging cheeks and sticks coming out of their mouths. You would walk on the ward and a sea of mouths and sticks would turn to look. Some of the children on the ward were well enough to have one too which was nice.

At 9.30 we went to the Cathedral English service. The Sunday School enacted the nativity story with their appropriate cultural clothing and bursts of familiar carols. Joseph got a laugh when he went to the Inn and said Mary was REALLY pregnant ie) about to deliver now.

Back on site Rosie made us her delicious coffee to help us gear up for cooking. Meanwhile the staff had their communion service led by our Chaplain, Rev Florence.

The singing was glorious and the service ended with enthusiastic dancing.

 

 

 

Lunch for the staff was brought in by a local cafe. Due to a delay in timing of the service...surprise, surprise...it was necessary to feed the children before they could eat themselves.

Their meal was posho, careb (millet posho), rice, potato, beef with bones and sauce.

 

 

 

Ours was very close to the British traditional fare. A joint effort in 3 kitchens.

 

 

 

 

 

We ate out on the veranda even though there was a thunder storm and it was pouring with rain.

The premature baby unit had a record breaking 11 babies housed there. Fortunately our son Zemian managed to get the third incubator working again. The ward was also busy and the staff were kept occupied.

It was lovely to celebrate Christmas without all the commercialism. A time of religious celebration followed by a meal shared together is all that is needed to get the focus correct.

...I can't lie, a large packet of sage and onion stuffing and a jar of Cranberry sauce made all the difference!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday 24 December 2014

Noheri Nziza

At last we can connect to the Internet in our house and I no longer need to take my iPad to town in search of wi-fi.

We are in the final preparations for Christmas Day here.

 

 

 

Sam and Emily came out to do their nursing elective with us. As well as nursing they repaired and repainted the car to make it safe for the Community Support children to play on at their party.

 

At the party we decided to fit each child with shoes. Previously the sizes had been guessed. It was extremely chaotic but we only failed to find shoes for one child - Sarah, an older girl. Her Foster family had recently bought her shoes so she was contented with a football instead...way more street cred in that!

 

 

Sam and Emily left for the airport as the party was ending. The children had a great time playing with them. We were very grateful for their work while here and enjoyed their company.

 

The previous day Sarah arrived from the UK. She arrived but not her luggage. She took photos of the Community Support children for their sponsors then left with Sam & Emily to go back to Kigali Airport. They would not give out information without her being there with her passport. Fortunately her luggage had arrived and she returned with 2 German girls staying in KIsoro. Thank you to everyone who sent out things for PV with her.

 

Christmas day in the Medical Centre looks set to be busy. After a quiet spell in the neonatal ward, it is now overflowing with 2 babies in each of the two working incubators. Altogether there are 8 prem babies in the unit. Two are very sick.

 

 

Also joining us for Christmas are two of our children, Zemian and Naomi. Naomi carried out a scanner/ printer/ photocopier as her hand luggage. Zemian has set it up so we are a very efficient office. He has sorted several computer related problems for us and without them cooking for us, particularly Naomi, I'm not sure we would have eaten some nights.

 

 

 

 

Prossy is the latest arrival into the village. She came yesterday and is 2 weeks old. A beautiful and very alert girl. Her Grandmother was full of kisses for her as she left. Even the father gave her a kiss which is the first time I have seen such display of affection from a Ugandan father. Clearly there will be no problem resettling her with the family.

 

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas or NOHERI NZIZA as is said here.

 

 

Saturday 22 November 2014

Comings and Goings

We have had Malcolm Crawford back with us to audit the accounts. He and his wife used to work in Kisoro so it is good to have someone who understands some of the challenges With finances - like the lack of receipts.

Next Wednesday we have two student nurses from the UK arriving who are doing their nursing elective with us. They are the start of the Christmas build-up of visitors. On the basis of don't ask, don't get, I halfheartedly asked at the Supermarket if there was a possibility of a turkey at Christmas. Actually there could be, but it would come alive. I can just picture walking home from the shop with a turkey on a string walking behind! No, this is not an option.

 

 

These are our first two baby goats. Leonard reckons the next birth is due any day now. These girl twins will stay with us and we may sell two of our older goats. Leonard and I have been discussing whether we can introduce dairy goats as a concept in Kisoro. The problem would be monitoring that they don't keep breeding them with local goats and lose the dairy attribute. We could introduce them in our Community Support Income Generating Scheme. A thought for the future when we have more goats.

 

 

 

 

 

As this one posed so nicely, I thought she deserved to be added.

 

 

 

 

Last time I mentioned Gakuru, a rather ill premature twin. Here he is having graduated to a polystyrene box. He is still getting top-up milk through a tube but is doing very well. He will probably be discharged in a week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dushime is our latest addition to the village. She is three months old but very small. Her young mother died from what sounds like cancer. The family wanted to hand her over for good but we don't do that. Geoffrey visited the home and discovered they live in dire poverty without even an adequate roof to keep all the rain out. The maternal family home is not much better. Undoubtedly Dushime will be with us for some time until their circumstances can be improved. She is a real smiler.

 

 

 

 

Naomi came to us from the Congo. Her family had got caught up in the troubles and they had to leave their home. The father has now settled. We were worried because we lost contact. We managed to find someone to get a message to him and they came to collect her. When she first arrived with us a visitor, Carole, fell in love with her and regularly sends clothes for her, each with her name on the front so there is no mistaking who is to wear them. This is a photo as she was leaving. I draped Geoffrey with the latest jumpers which are still a little large, to show she would go home with them.

 

 

Last week, Mike and I went to Kigali in Rwanda in order for me to go to a Dentist. A filling had fallen out. He was a very good Dentist although I felt he was busy sculpting a work of art in there as it took 40 minutes to put the filling in! We did the journey by public transport which is always fun - well, not always. Mike was squashed up beside a young girl who spent the last hour of the journey being sick in her lap. She did it very quietly then would immediately sit up and carry on chatting to her mother. Ah, bewitchment of sickness, I was told when I got back.

 

Sunday 9 November 2014

Unusual Perceptions

 

Last weekend we took Nurse Nadia to Kisiizi Hospital for her next posting. This photo was taken from the top of a hill about 2 1/2 hours into the journey. You cannot gauge the height or distance from the photo but we went to the top of a long valley over the horizon. The Hospital is an impressive place built beside a waterfall from which they get hydroelectric power. I could only look at the waterfall from the knowledge of all the unmarried, pregnant girls who were bound and thrown over the top. The practice only stopped when a girl managed to drag her brothers over with her. Their deaths were deemed unacceptable!

 

Nadia left us and two days later Ryan and Jillian arrived from the USA. They are with us for a week whilst they contemplate a possible future with the Diocese and perhaps some time at Potters for Jillian. Actually it looks like it may be Diocesan work for them both.

The Lullaby Charity spent 5 afternoons with the Carers talking about attachment. This ended with us massaging babies with cooking oil - some loved it but others clearly took offence at being basted!

As a result of their visit we will try a new format. We will divide the children into mixed age family units so that they stay in the same room and with the same Carers for their time with us. As we have lowered the age of the children on resettlement this will be easier. It is a sensible concept and the staff are keen to give it a try.

As a diversion in the office, I was talking a possible Christmas scene outside the Medical Centre. It transpired that even a basic manger with baby would not be understood by many. The vast majority of people will never have seen pictures of the Nativity scene. They may know that Jesus was born at Christmas but not know about a stable etc. nor have the concept of a stable that we have. We are so influenced by pictorial representation that it is hard to grasp what it must be like to have no idea what it could mean with descriptive words in an unfamiliar setting. It ended up that the best representation might be a plastic baby doll strung under a star!

We have two very sick babies in the Prem unit at the moment. One is a first-born twin who has struggled since birth. He is beginning to cope without CPAP but was at that point before and deteriorated. The other has been vomiting since birth. If it continues tomorrow then they will try and take her for an x-Ray to see if there is a physical problem with the stomach. It's all coming out the top end but nothing out the bottom end!

Mike is now seeing adult patients on an unofficial basis. We are registered for children so we cannot advertise but if adult outpatients arrive then he will treat them. Last night this meant that he drove a 19 year old girl to Hospital. She turned up at midnight with her father and clearly had appendicitis. This is not quite the sort of service he had in mind!

At last the spectacular storms are abating and the rain is less torrential. There are many power cuts and yesterday no water but the sun is back with force. It has come to light that out of all the large umbrellas bought for the site and marked with Potter's Village in large letters over them, only two remain. We thought writing on them would help stop them walking but clearly not. Just as well it only costs £1.20 for a golf size umbrella.

 

Saturday 25 October 2014

Profound Sadness

Back in the cafe again for my Saturday coffee! The power company sent round texts last night to tell us we would be without power 7am - 7pm for the next 2 days......but we still have power. Is this their way of boosting their image? They tell us we will be without power, then when we have it we think they are marvellous? Oh, how cynical!

Our week has been overshadowed by very sad news. Some will know that our home church and local school have been supporting the family of Nsaba, our little one with TB. On Monday his brother Galashion was fine in the morning but complained of headache and stomach ache in the afternoon. They took him to the local Clinic who gave him a pill. On Tuesday he was able to walk around although still complaining of stomach ache. Tuesday night the pain got very severe but by the time the local Ambulance reached him, he had died. Unbelievably tragic. It is thought that he probably had many worms in his stomach and was given a pill to kill them however the mass of dead worms blocked his intestines which then ruptured. He would have needed emergency surgery to survive.

Sadly, many of the villagers are saying he was bewitched and are speaking words of fear to the rest of the family.

Geoffrey and I went to the burial. We took Nsaba as I hoped that would bring some comfort to the father. Also, I felt it would be good for the family to be together. After the burial, the father came and sat very close beside me. We could not communicate but I put my hand on his arm and I know he felt the sympathy. He was shaking with grief, poor man. Two losses in only a few months.

For those who know something of their story, Galashion was the 10 year old who was very active in working for money for the family - the one who carried water to the top of the mountain for 25p. We wondered whether he would want to go to school or would prefer to work. Apparently he loved school and had not missed a day this term.

On a lighter note, we have added to our numbers with 5 pregnant female goats and one Billy. These are a kind donation from a charity which wishes to remain anonymous. We had to send 2 men and a pick-up truck on a 12 hour round journey to collect them. By the time they got back it was late and dark. Where to put the frightened goats? They spent the night in the visitors hostel - not quite the type of visitors we had in mind! In the morning I stood at the door of the hostel and the whole length of the corridor was strewn with goat droppings. It took 3 men several hours to get it really clean again.

 

 

Having been released from the Hostel they spent a little time in the grounds to settle.

 

 

 

 

Then it was out the gate and turn left up the hill to their new home. The Billy is young and never been roped or confined before so is proving a handful. I am told he is not the best of specimens but all we could get. The first of the females should deliver around Christmas.

 

 

 

Here is Maureen, our prem baby star who started life at 800gms. She is now in Babies A and having to learn to get used to colder air than her incubator and Special Care Nursery room. She vomits when cold or undressed!

 

Thursday 16 October 2014

power issues again!

This is a brief blog to explain that we may not be able to blog so regularly. Sadly our wi-fi internet thing won't work and as I have an iPad, you can't attach a dongle. We will have to wait for a replacement from the UK with a visitor.

You are clearly getting better weather than us. We are back to heavy rain, spectacular thunder and lightning storms...and power cuts every day!!

Apart from one staff issue that started before we left in the summer, the Village managed really well. We returned to a very smart compound with plants edging the trimmed pathways. I have never seen Geoffrey's desk so clear, though he did put his hand over his desk drawer when I commented about it. Sonia handled the office brilliantly and Festo had the staff doing what they should be doing. I was very impressed and grateful.

Young Eva who was staying with us for a while was getting well trained in domestic skills. Her Foster mother never returned from her visit to Tanzania. The Foster mother to David, our little Batwa pigmy boy, has taken her now. Eva will be a brilliant big sister.

 

Ivan visited on Community Support day. He brought me a cup for porridge and sat himself down ready for it. It is lovely that he has not forgotten us.

Nsaba has forgotten us, sadly. He has grown too fat. I try to persuade them that fat does not necessarily mean healthy but they don't believe me. They think our reaction to overweight babies is very amusing.

 

 

 

 

We were delighted to meet Winniefred's baby daughter just 15 hours after she was born. We were all concerned for Winniefred to have a safe delivery after the trauma of her last pregnancy and birth. She had to have a Caesarian but all went well. Baby Nina is about twice the size of most of the babies we see in the Medical Centre.

 

The Medical Centre has gone quiet sadly. Maybe because word went round that a Doctor was not there?...maybe not.

 

I think I am about to run out of Internet time in the cafe so will finish here. We will be in touch again when we are able. We are both contented to be back and enthused to carry things forward.

 

Sunday 3 August 2014

There is always something to learn.

 

 

We went to visit one of our support families. This is a good example of a problem. You ask the mother - does the child have a mosquito net?....Yes....Does it cover the bed?.....Yes.

It is not meant to cover the bed in this way though!



Friday 1st August was one year since the change of jobs for all staff. In celebration and thanks, staff were allowed to choose an item of clothing from our donated amounts. Those who had done exceedingly well in their appraisals were allowed to choose an extra scarf or tie and a bar of nice smelling soap.


 

 

 

A large group from Winchester, Kampala and Kisoro have been working in the Diocese and staying at the nearby Guesthouse. Some have enjoyed spending odd moments playing with the children and getting involved in bath time. This is always great for the babies.

 

 

 

 

Nsaba is still not sitting but he has been getting computer lessons. You can't expect him to focus on too many things at once, Mike has clearly decided on where the priority lies!

 

 

Maureen has now topped 1.2kilos and the ribs are covered in flesh. She still looks minute but no longer needs CPAP. Her mother has not been back to visit which does not surprise us but is a great shame.

 

 

We return to the UK on August 17th until early October. Mike has a couple of courses he wants to attend and we have the wedding of our second son being held in Serbia at the end of August. A trip to Scotland with relatives from Mike's family to bury the ashes of his mother is also planned. We know the time will go quickly but catching up on sleep and a complete is also needed on the list.

 

Sunday 13 July 2014

TB or not TB!

 

Nsabimana ( we call him Saba) came into our lives just over 2 weeks ago. He was 6 months old and his mother had just died of TB. He had spent his life with her, sucking on her near empty breast for comfort. He had a cough and was very malnourished so it was very likely he also had TB and was infectious. We couldn't mix him with the children or Carers so it was down to the 'whites' to look after him. The 1st day I just held him while he frantically sucked on a dummy with his face buried into me. He quickly settled and wolfed down bottles of milk as well as working out how to eat mashed banana. The only medication we can get is out of date but will have to do. Having started at 5 kg, he put on 800 grm in his first week. He cannot sit yet but it won't be long. Without other visitors to help, particularly at night, we would not have survived. We are extremely grateful to Beth, Becky and Sue. (Debby was doing a sterling job caring for Abigail and keeping clear of us). On Thursday morning we handed him over to Babies B and Mike & I spent Friday and Saturday night at Lake Mutanda Resort just to sleep.....bliss! It was a bit cruel but I admit I was glad he woke up every 3-4 hours for the Carers for a feed during the night. It would have been gutting if it was only us! He is impossibly cute so all is forgiven.

 

 

We have also had the help of a team from Knock Church in Northern Ireland. Some put up this bamboo fence, others painted balustrades, sorted drugs, diagnosed patients, moved cots, cleaned rooms or cuddled babies.

 

 

 

The Medical Centre has been quieter this week although we have two very sick children amongst the others on the ward. Baby Maureen in the Prem Unit continues to do well. It will be a good day when there is flesh covering those ribs.

Mike went back to Kabale to continue to get documents sorted. He was told that nothing had happened to one document as it hadn't been authorised. Who authorises it? The man at that desk. Mike went over and the man brought it up on the screen. With a sigh as though it was a great effort, he wrote on the screen....'I authorise this.' A 2 hour journey to achieve that! Frustrating.

 

Life was peaceful and slow at Lake Mutanda...except for the frogs at night. Last year there was the tinkle of reed frogs reminiscent of bamboo wind chimes. This time it was like frantic scraping on wash boards. No wind chimes could ever sound like that. Presumably some big toads have moved in. It made a change to babies crying or Carers talking. However

 

Friday 20 June 2014

Arrivals of various sorts

 

 

 

Debbie & Beth arrived for a return visit and brought some Bumbo seats amongst other things. They are great and of course very easily washed.

 

 

Jacinta is now one month old and a very dainty little girl who likes to feed little but often.....and very slowly. She tends to have colic in the evenings so we give the Carers a break and walk the floor with her.

We have had several new babies and two abandoned babies within a week. One mother gave birth in a clinic and asked the Doctor whether it would be better to abandon her baby with him or take it elsewhere. He didn't take her seriously but she met a mother coming in to the clinic, asked her to hold the baby and scarpered. That lady has taken it that God has given her the child and even though she is a widow with 1 year old twins, she wants to bring her up. We have found the Biological mother and will sit with the two ladies to work out plans for the future. The Biological mum's situation is too difficult for her to have the baby right now.

 

 

 

 

Maureen is our latest prem and 0.8 kilos. You can see how small she is compared to the biro beside her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She was put straight on the CPAP machine and is doing well so far.

 

 
 

A visiting team came to the Diocese from Manchester area. They did a lot of very useful practical jobs including checking the wiring in the Medical Centre - we had no earthing at all!, replaced tin chimneys in the kitchen with brick ones, painted railings, did wonderful things and teaching on the computer and painted a gorgeous mural on the ward wall which really lifts the room.

 

 

A chair for Molly. Leonard and I have managed to fit in making two chairs in the last few months. Molly is a delightful girl with cerebral palsy. She has very loving parents. They have no furniture and Molly moans and cries continuously if left lying on the floor. The mother is expecting another baby in July and did not know how she was going to cope. Fortunately Molly is happy in her chair although they musn't keep her in it for too long.

 

Sunday 25 May 2014

It takes an hour to make a sandwich or a pair of crutches.

 

 

 

It's great to have talent around. Having injured my foot I needed help walking. In one hour Festo had made me a wonderful pair of crutches. I don't know what I would have done without them. After 4 weeks in plaster the prospect of a new nurse arriving plus a team of 15 people convinced me it was time for the plaster to come off and for me to get around with greater ease. I could not afford the time for a huge wait in Hospital so spent 4 hours one evening with a metal ruler (to stop me cutting my leg) and Stanley knife to remove it. As it was a synthetic bandage, soaking it would not have achieved anything. Sheer determination prevailed.

 

 

 

 

We have had 2 new babies this week. One, Mugisha, is an abandoned newborn baby. He was brought in well fed and warm which makes our Social Worker suspicious that he was not really abandoned. She went to the village who brought him in and said she wants them to come forward with the truth before the Police get involved. We shall wait and see. The other baby, Tangiwahe (or something like that!) was a prem baby born in a local hospital. The mother died the day after birth and the family asked if the baby could be transferred to us. We arranged with the family to collect in the afternoon having warmed up the incubator and got the hot water bottle etc. ready for transporting. The father suddenly appeared with the baby. The hospital told him it was ok to take the baby in a cloth and come on a motorcycle. Oh well!

 

 

 

Promise struggles on. Yesterday she was baptised by the local Catholic Priest. It was felt she was not well enough to go to the mass baptism in the church today so I dressed her up and she was baptised in a service on site with her father and some relatives and staff. Following baptism she has been renamed Judith....which we all struggle at associating with her. She will always be Promise to us, I think.

 

Sometimes the speed at which things get done is amazing. One Monday we decided in the senior Staff meeting that a canteen would be a great addition. On Wednesday building began, by Friday it was complete. The medical centre is getting a lot busier so hot drinks and food for families and visitors would be good. Also, cheap hot meals for our staff could sell well. We have given the business to someone not employed by us so the responsibility is not ours. We have paid for the building out of funds donated to projects of our choosing. Once doing well, we will charge rent for the building and use the money recouped for other projects.

This last Thursday Nadia arrived. She is a neonatal nurse from New Zealand and working here for 5 months. We can tell she will fit in very well. Yesterday a team of 15 arrived from the UK . They are Diocesan visitors but include the Chair of Potter's Village UK Trustees so have an interest in us as well. One of the group is an artist who has brought her paints to paint a mural for us. An electrician has brought equipment to find out why we melt plugs in the medical centre; a technical person is going to see if they can mend one of our incubators; an upholsterer is going to cover a rather chewed looking bench....they are only here for 10 days but we look forward to the impact they will have.

Thanks to Leonard's gardening, we have had our first rhubarb crumble. Couldn't do the correct crumble topping as we don't have a suitable oven dish but a muesli topping sufficed.

 

 

Saturday 19 April 2014

Wildlife and wild life.

A month of comings and goings. Jenny arrived then our daughter Naomi, Julia left and we were sorry to see her go.

Jenny is here to pack up her house and say farewell. The office is a collection of cardboard boxes of small items she would like to sell to staff but there is still a lot left.

Mike and Naomi have been on a couple of trips.

 

 

Sadly the Golden Monkey trek did not find any monkeys but they did find chameleons and a gecko. There is a gecko poking his head out of a hole in the rock here.

 

 

 

 

 

Gorillas were more succesful. The Silverbacks sat with their backs to them all the time but the young ones were feeling more friendly. Naomi took this brilliant photo of a youngster, about two years old.

 

 

Not far off in age and very similar in behaviour is young Ivan. He was refusing to go to sleep one evening. Here is Mike looking tired but Ivan ready to play for a few more hours! Moses has been crying a lot and we have been taking him in the evenings. I thought it was Moses crying and went to fetch him but discovered it was this one instead.




The Medical Centre is almost permanently full these days. This morning they discharged one child only to fill the bed again within a short time. There had to be emergency trip to the pharmacy for more drugs the other day. The number of people coming for immunisations has also increased. We don't get money for doing them but it does mean that more local families are able to see the premises and what can be offered.

We only have one premature baby at the moment and he is doing well. Currently he is lying under the ultraviolet light for jaundice treatment. He is lying in his nappy and eyes covered looking very comfortable - as if he is in a tanning machine.

On Thursday Emmanuel was collected by the UN to be taken to his Grandmother in the Congo. Nine personel arrived in two large vehicles which was a bit overkill. Emmanuel was understandably petrified of all the new faces so they only managed a quick (and essential for them) photo of them with a screaming child. Not the best for a UN photo album!

 

 

 

Sunday 23 March 2014

Is this what it's like to be a Celebrity?

My, how the weeks race by.

Things have got a lot busier here both in the Medical Centre and with our resident children. We took in a set of twins and a single baby within a short space of time. Julia, our 20 year old volunteer nobly took in a twin for 3nights before the need for sleep took over. We now have a set of twins in each baby room and a set sharing an incubator.

I woke at 5am the other night to the most awful heart rending wailing. I knew it meant a mother had just lost her baby in the Medical Centre. This was a 5 month old who had diarrhoea & vomiting for 3 days. While the mother went to get medicine, the grandmother thought she would be helpful and took the baby to the local healer for a local tonsillectomy - piercing the tonsils with a stick or bicycle spoke to let the badness out. The baby was brought to us with a temperature of 40 degrees and the family admitted she had bled profusely after the procedure. Blood poisoning had set in. This was the baby that died. There were 2 others on the ward who had been given the same procedure. Our Uganda Nurse tells them quite firmly the dangers of doing this. Unbelievebly, the parents of one of these children brought in their 4 year old son this morning. Despite what they had been told and despite witnessing the death of the baby, they had taken him for a local tonsillectomy and now he was much worse!

A member of our staff got married last week. I was invited to her Give Away ceremony in her home village. It was an hours drive into the mountains then a steep walk. I would have had to have gone by myself and was somewhat nervous of getting lost and climbing the wrong mountain. I also wasn't sure how steep, steep meant! I asked if I could attend the wedding service the following day instead as at least a taxi could get to the church. One of the other girls who was her attendant told me it had been a really steep climb so I was glad I hadn't tried. Also, the ceremony was supposed to start at mid day but didn't begin until 5.30 pm!

The wedding ceremony was joyful. As white people are a total rarity up there and I took tall, blond, Swedish Julia with me, the Vicar stopped the ceremony (we were a bit late) to have us introduced. Very embarrassing. Julia did not like being gawped at and having children in the pews behind her stroking her hair. We got more attention than the bride!

 

Some days the rain is so much - as the locals say in English. On this day it had rained all day and the lower ground was completely underwater. Staff did not know how to get home so Mike did some runs in the pick-up. The roads were muddy rivers and very slippery. A car would not have made it along some of them.

 

 

Another lovely use of English.....Are you coming now, or now now? Now now means right now, now means sometime soon.

 

 

Ivan is very into taking our shoes on and off. It proved very useful after the Tuesday staff meeting. Everyone's shoes were outside the door so there is a bottleneck whilst people slip theirs on. Ivan helpfully collected and brought Mike and me our pairs and put them at our feet which caused great hilarity.

 

Sunday 2 March 2014

Variety.

 

Our biggest ongoing challenge at the moment is the Internet. Sometimes there is no connection at all, others you watch the circle going round and round but never achieving anything and occasionally you find it working......then the power goes off. This evening is the first good signal since Friday.

For two days we felt as though we were in Britain. We woke to find it really cold and for the first time in Africa I put on my fleece and kept it on all day. In the afternoon it poured with rain so long and hard that Mike had to use the pick-up truck to ferry some staff home. The roads were muddy rivers. An ordinary car would have got stuck. The following day was also cold and I was informed that the staff had put the previous day's rain down to my wearing a jumper all day - what power I exert, I can make it rain! I informed them that I was not taking off my jumper and freezing just to prove it would rain anyway. It poured that day as well but since then has gone the other way and been hotter than usual.

There have been a variety of activities. Mike drove the pick-up and helped Festo get in wood to replace the rotten decking where the toddlers play. The wood caused the one remaining latch to break that held the back panel up. It cost 75p to re-solder!

He also got the tyres pumped up at the only air pump. The pump was a hose with no valve attachment so they had to pull the valves out of the tyres and shove the hose in as best they could. How long before our valves no longer fit the tyres?

 

 

 

It seems to be tourist season for the Germans and Scandinavians at the moment. It is always enjoyable to show visitors around and the babies enjoy the cuddles. We are now on the local tour guide 'things to see in Kisoro' list.

 

 

 

 

With the arrival of better weather and a Saturday off, Mike decided to try climbing Gahinga, the third highest volcano. It took 4 hours to get up and 3 to come down. It was a real achievement - though he is now not so sure about tackling Muhabura which is even higher. At points he had to scale rickety ladders which made him feel very exposed and unsafe. He wasn't too stiff this morning so he did very well indeed.

 

 

His guides complete with rifle to scare away animals - mostly rogue buffalo. They did see some golden monkeys in the trees when in the bamboo forest. Occasionally elephants have been spotted but there are very few left.

 

 

 

 

Looking into the crater at the top.

The wisps are cloud, not steam!

 

 

 

 

 

The maize stalks were cut down and the view from our kitchen window is beautifully African. Women tilling the land and behind them school children dancing to drum music. In no time the maize will grow again and our view will be stalks once more.

 

 

 

The Medical Centre has been quieter this week. We had a premature baby in 2 days ago who sadly died this morning. She arrived 6 hours after delivery and was very cold. Another prem arrived today. She is 1.7 kg so a better weight but she was sent home from hospital after delivery. The neighbour thought the baby didn't look good so the family went back to the hospital who then referred them to us. The baby was blue when she arrived and with an unrecordable temperature. She has warmed up but is causing concern. There is the possibility of a bowel blockage but to take her out of the incubator and back to the hospital to wait for a scan would be too risky. It is hoped that by tomorrow there will be a clearer picture of the problem - or a resolution of the problem!