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.

 

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.