Powerless

 

Yet again we are without power but this time we know we are in for a long haul. Over a week ago the transformer was seen heading very slowly out of Kisoro for Kampala. We were informed it would take a week for them to decide if it was possible to fix it. The last time this happened there was no power for a month!!!! It is only our line that is affected so I am sitting in the Hotel with our equipment plugged into the wall. The problem with that is that there is now a power cut here also. Grrrr!

Coping without electricity is a nuisance but feasible. We were without water also for several days and that was harder. We got to the point we had to buy in bottled water to make up the baby feeds as it was deemed unsafe to give them boiled green water from the tanks. So we count our blessings that we have water and keep reminding ourselves that most others live permanently without electricity.

So we apologise that we cannot answer emails etc as well as we should.

Jackie, the Administrator, leaves at the end of the month. We announced a vacancy for a secretary at the English Service on Sunday. The Board this end was happy for me to have a Junior post to help in the office - I need someone who speaks Rufumbira as much as anything. One applicant has a post grad diploma in finance....wow! She has also worked in the Probation Office which is ideal. We are now debating whether to swap roles and appoint her to do the finance and I will run the office. She will be a more expensive option but very useful.

Moses, our new Uganda Nurse, also announced he was leaving in order to work with an American NGO at the Refugee camp. They can offer twice the salary so it is no surprise he wants to take up the offer. We have had a lot of interest for his post so that should not be hard to fill.

Apart from that, things are going well. Ivan has found his appetite but has now bloated with air and looks like Humpty Dumpty. Talk about one extreme to another! He also had an x-Ray last week as he was unable to lift his arm and was clearly in great pain. Mike was worried he had had his shoulder dislocated by someone lifting him up by his arm alone. He hadn't but the arm is still very sore. He certainly goes from one trauma to another.

Mike is in Kampala trying to get his Medical registration and the registration for the Medical Centre - both of which he was informed were ready to collect. He got the Postbus at 5.30 am on Thursday and arrived in Kampala at 4.30 pm. Not a journey I want to take. Sadly he has achieved nothing. Neither were ready so he has to stay until Monday and hope to get them then. To cap it all, he had his phone stolen on the way back to the Guest House. He is not a happy chappy!

I am now very low on power so will move to the Gorilla Junction cafe and see if they have electricity there.

It's all part of the African experience I keep saying to myself!