Oh, what a night.......!

We are now at the beginning of the wet season which is marked by ferocious thunder storms which will last for about 2 weeks and then the rains will begin in earnest. This last week we had an extremely scary night. We had never heard thunder so loud and so continuous and the lightening was non-stop and overhead for some time. At one point there was an horrendous bang followed by the fizzing of live electricity. Each of us on site thought our house was hit. We were already in a power cut but I could hear the generator and there were no screams or shouts so I presumed - thankfully - that all were safe. In the morning the lights in half of the medical centre were not working and the only other damage was the collapse of the play dome. The metal stakes at the edges and corners were completely bent. The Gateman thought a flash had hit the ground near there and then arched over his small hut.

We have often been warned about being out in thunder storms. I am told that people here get struck by lightening and killed on an almost daily basis at this time. The deaths are reported on the morning radio. A lad was struck and killed on the field behind us last week. I felt sorry for anyone who needed to be out in the storm this night. We will not be blasé about storms in the future.

 

 

 

 

Water cuts continue too and we, like the locals, will welcome the rain. Not very British, I know.

On another note, we have welcomed two new ones into the village. Benson arrived aged 4 months after his mother died from TB, we think. Mujewamana, (I am calling her Moogee for short) arrived yesterday from across the border in the Congo. Her mother was eating porridge two hours after delivery and suddenly died. An embolis? Muji is very pretty and doing well so far.

The little lad that came to the medical centre in an extreme state of malnutrition and dehydration, survived and is doing well. It will be a while before he will be strong enough to leave then we will support him and his mother in the community for a further six months before reviewing their future. We have to ensure we don't increase their vulnerability by giving hand-outs with no long term survival solution of their own.

It's evening and another power cut. Mike has a temperature and feels very sick. It could be anything or nothing so we hope it passes before morning.

 

Mike attempts to save the day for Kisoro!

 

Power cuts continue on an almost daily basis. Worse than that are the water cuts. After two days without water, Mike was not amused. He spent half of his day off going between the water and power companies. Power co. said the water co. had not paid their bill so they had cut them off. Water said they had paid it that day. Power said they wanted to see the receipt. Water said power should send someone to see it. Power said water should bring it to them. Water eventually agreed. Mike witnessed power seeing the bank receipt. Power agreed to turn the pumps back on to bring the water through. We then had a power cut for several hours but the water came back on during the night. Phew!

Staff are bedding into their new roles and mostly adapting very well. We have had one today who refused to help bring in clothes when it was thought it was going to rain - because 'it's not on my job description'. We shall obviously have to specify in writing they need to be flexible and help others when necessary!

Last night Mike was up 3 times with a 2 week old with pneumonia. Tonight we have another very sick arrival. He is 2 months old and very severely malnourished and dehydrated. It will be touch-and-go whether he survives or not. As our only driver, Mike then has to take Doreen (one of our cerebral palsy girls) to see a visiting eye specialist very early in the morning. She has a severe squint. The Surgeon is arriving this afternoon with the hopes of starting performing surgery tomorrow.....no waiting list problems here!

I had thought I was coming here to work with children not goats! I have had to read up about them because our female is not producing much milk and we need to know what to do. I now know all sorts of interesting facts.....15 pawpaw seeds in a small bottle of water is a natural deworming medicine. Don't know if it works on humans though!

I haven't had much chance of taking photos lately. Take pity on these three girls who have to hand wash all these clothes and repeat it every day. We are all agreed we need two good washing machines. We have a machine but it is very old and sounds horrendous on a spin cycle. We do one load of medical centre washing per day and one load of bibs. They used to hand wash them also - there can be at least 90 per day.

 

Although you may not need to wait to see the eye surgeon, the same cannot be said about getting money out of the ATM. The queues have been awful. Apparently the Government had not paid employees for 3 months and now can pay them. The result was that the ATM would run out of money in no time. At times we have stood in queues of 30+ in front, only to find the numbers expanding in front of us as others joined their friends. We would then leave despondently. Mike waited yesterday and got to be second in line....only to find the machine then ran out of money. Frustrating! He returned late at night and was successful.

I am writing this by candle light again. The weather is beginning to change and we should be in the wet season by next week. Once the water table in Rwanda is higher then the power should be better....or so I'm told. I hope so.