Town, tins and toys.

 

 

It's not the clearest of photos but this is a view looking down the Main Street of Kisoro. It doesn't give an accurate impression of the slope of the street or the ramshackled nature of the buildings.

 

 

 

I have attempted to plant some herbs in milk formula tins. Leonard took the rest of my seeds to plant in his herb plot - and set a challenge to see who could get them to grow first. No contest. I do not possess any green fingers. I hope he will let me have some of the herbs when they are grown.

 

Ivan, in the middle, is doing well and can now roll over. He is putting on weight at such speed that we have stopped the added oil in his soya porridge. A few moments after this photo Joab, on the left, had Ivan's head pinned on the floor with the orange cup.....it's cutthroat stuff surviving in the babies room!

 

 

 

Meet Mayta, the cow! This was my first experiment of making a toy from a plastic drinks bottle. She is the right colour for a local cow - and there the similarity ends.

 

 

 

 

An American Paediatrician with a portable ultrasound visited on Friday. He checked the 2 babies in the medical centre who cannot be weaned off oxygen. He thinks it is just that their lungs are undeveloped and 'sticky'. It may be another two weeks before they can breathe alone and to send them home early would probably mean they would die. This is a real problem as the families cannot afford to keep them here. They have been told they will not be charged from now until the babies can leave but that means that the medical centre will continue to run at a loss. What to do? This is a constant problem but running incubators and oxygen concentrators is costly, especially when the power goes off and the generator is used.

 

....and you think it rains in England?

 

The workshop is now in business. The first piece of cardboard is in the press and attempting to dry. I say 'attempting' because we have now entered the wet season and boy does it rain. England has nothing on this! Some days you can get a few hours of dry but when it rains it comes suddenly and with force. It was decided that moving the press was not an option. The nice view behind the work area has been obscured by black plastic and the press is in front of it. It's not ideal as the board gets damp in the wet air overnight. Anyone got any ideas?

Tonight there is only one baby in an incubator. His mum bled for several days before giving birth then waited 9 hours before bringing him. His skin was a grey/brown and although he is feeding well, he needs continuous oxygen albeit only a small amount. It could be he just hasn't got enough blood. Tomorrow they will try and get some blood to send to test for anaemia. A HemoCue machine to test blood would be very useful here and something Mike would like to bring back next time.

There were nine people at DVD night yesterday. It is great fun, but cooking for that number is a challenge. We were lent a projector from a German couple who were on holiday. Marvelous. It was really small and there was a great deal of coveting going on by Mike!

Sue and Emily tackled both open markets this week in the hope of finding new kinds of fruit and veg. No luck. Apparently there may be courgettes from Rwanda in May. A couple of cauliflower were spotted in town but which lucky people got them? An interesting thing....We occasionally buy bacon which smells lovely whilst frying but has virtually no taste.....why?

Nurse Rosey has arrived back and Mike will appreciate learning from her neonatal experience. Jenny flew to Nairobi today to take Hannah back to Boarding School and Jo to a Neurology appointment. Just before she left she heard the school was not going to reopen due to feared backlash about the elections in Kenya. As the flights were booked she felt obliged to carry on but hopes not to be stranded in a violent city. Andrew, the volunteer Carpenter is converting a triangular cupboard into a lab for Mike. It has meant pinching a door from elsewhere as doors come from Kampala. We haven't discovered a room that is missing a door yet!

 

Creativity is all! This idea to make a spacer for an inhaler was given to us by Sarah who visited us a short while ago. She and her husband Kieran met Mike on the tropical medicine course and are both in Uganda for a year. This spacer was made for a small boy who would be too young to time his breathing to get enough medication in to his lungs. By melting a hole in the bottle and pushing the inhaler through, the open end is put in his mouth, the medication sprayed in and he breathes normally.

 

 

 

 

 

Out and About

 

The good news is that the young lad who we feared would die last week, pulled through and was able to go home yesterday afternoon. He is painfully thin and although 2 years old, cannot yet walk but is crawling. Hopefully the family will bring him back for check-ups but there was no real reason for them needing to stay here.

There have been 5 children in the medical centre, two of which are prem babies in incubators. All are doing well despite several days of the power going on and off. Mike was up during the night refilling the generator with petrol to keep it going to allow the incubators to stay at a constant temperature. The power came back this afternoon after about 18 hours without but now we have no water.

On Friday Mike took the day off so we decided to head uphill and see if we could get as far as the view of Lake Mutanda. We managed it....though Mike got there before Sue....but considering the inclines it was amazing she got there at all! It was indeed an amazing view of a huge lake dotted with islands. There is an Eco campsite on the edge of the lake and apparently you can canoe out to the islands. Definitely something to try someday.

 

 

Mike had his first attempt at driving the pick-up van. It can just about make it into Kisoro and back without overheating. The doors don't lock and the handbrake isn't much good so fairly standard for here. He got back and sighing with pride said...I didn't knock anyone over!

 

 

 

It promises to be a busy week this week. Rosie, the neonatal nurse, arrives back with Andrew, a volunteer carpenter who is coming to build cupboards in the medical centre. We will take it in turns to feed him for a month, poor man! The Community Health Training Programme that Mike is involved in gets started. The Archdeacons have apparently selected the volunteers but are the volunteers aware of this yet? Festo assures Sue that he will have the workshop ready by Wednesday. He is making her such a superbly strong cardboard press that she can't move it by herself - or even with help. This is a bit problematic given the sudden and intense rain which would soak the supposedly drying boards in no time. No problem says Festo, we men will come and move it if it rains. Ah but they are also supposed to put the goats inside when it rains. Which would take presidence - goats or cardboard?

 

 

Is this Africa or England?

 

We have been getting used to the daily downpours in what is supposed to be the dry season but the other day went even further. We heard an almighty clattering on our tin roof and looked out to see it was hailing. The stones were the size of marbles and must have been really painful for those caught out in it. By the end the ground was covered and there were drifts where they had poured out from the spouts on the rooves. The Carers had great fun making sculptures the following morning which did not melt until late in the afternoon despite a day of sunshine. Sadly the hail destroyed a lot of bean crops which is not good news at all.

 

 

Early on in the hail storm. The noise was phenomenal.

It was followed by 20 hours without power. This necessitated us cooking and eating the village pork in our freezer section that we were saving for a special occasion. Still, any occasion can be special.....and it was lovely.

 

 

Despite the beauty, sadness is all around. Today a 2yr old lad was brought in from the community. Three days ago he went to the local healer with a fever. This healer looked at his red tonsils and performed what is called a 'local tonsillectomy'. Basically the healer sharpens some sticks and proceeds to puncture the tonsils to let the badness out. All this with no sedation or pain killers. Frequently it results in death and sometimes it is a way of transmitting HIV/AIDs as the healer uses the same sticks or bicycle spokes on everyone. This lad has been brought in unconscious and with a roaring infection and pneumonia. We can only hope and pray that he will survive but this is not certain. The practice of local tonsillectomies has been declared punishable with imprisonment by the Government but apparently this has had very little effect. Jovea, the nurse, says that she reported a healer once who was then put in the local prison but the community attacked the building until the police were forced to give them their healer back.

Mike has come in to say that this lad has had the procedure three times and has just tested positive for HIV/AIDs even though the parents say they are both negative. He has also been unconscious for the last two days and is grossly malnourished so they really have left it very late to hope his life can be saved. It is so very tragic.

On a different note, the workshop continues to take shape. Festo, the Carpenter found some windows and incorporated them into the design. There is one shop that sells newspapers in Kisoro. He sells his unsold papers back to Kampala at about 15p each. He is happy to sell them to me for the same price so that solves my newspaper problem although I wasn't bargaining for having to buy them.

Last week's DVD night went down well and is being repeated this evening at Emily's accommodation across the compound. Currently there are a group of toddlers stationed near there who have gone for an afternoon outing for some potty training in the countryside!

My bread has failed to rise for some reason but has gone into the oven to make a thick biscuit - if I can catch it before it burns.....and the power has gone off again - what a pain - maybe there won't be a DVD tonight. That's one thing about life here, it's totally unpredictable. This blog will get posted.......erm......sometime!

 

You can't beat a sunny Saturday afternoon!

 

We can't believe we have been here for three weeks already. It would be hard not to enjoy being here. I am writing this on a pleasantly warm Saturday afternoon, sitting out on our sheltered balcony and watching the toddlers playing. One is at the water tank trying to wash a waste paper basket that is full of holes. Two have been under the pick-up truck giving it a once over which it needs as it won't go far. Others are scattered around being watched by Carers. Washing is scattered on sheets on the ground to dry in the sun.

Ivan is doing well and has returned to the baby room. We tried him on goat's milk which was marginally better than the effect of Cow's milk but not good enough. Then he was taken off milk altogether and given soya porridge and rehydration fluid which worked a treat. He is now gaining 100grams of weight a day. We shall have to watch he doesn't go too far the other way! Spooning in the porridge was no fun for Sue or Ivan so she resorted to cutting off the top of a teat and giving it to him in his favourite manner. It was hard to hand him back but the best for him and certainly for us during the nights - we were getting seriously overtired! We have him during the day for spells of cuddles and attention.

Sue's workshop is taking shape. The right half will be a covered store room and the left half is an open air working area. She has been trying out various flours to get good paste. Wheat would not work but Cassava flour is excellent. It is cheaper than wheat but not always available. A bin and a bit of stockpiling will be needed. We are grateful for money that has already been donated for this project that has allowed her to make a start.

The Medical Centre has busy days and not so busy days. Yesterday two prem babies came in. One had hydrocephalus and other complications and sadly did not make it. The other is in an incubator and doing well. The centre will get busier but it does give Mike the chance to work on protocols for different possibilities. Reading hazy x-rays for TB is something to be mastered. There is the possibility that they will add burns to their list of specialities so he and Nurse Emily are discussing how they can practically manage this.

 

Our lounge which tonight will be the venue for a meal and DVD for us, Emily and two volunteer teachers - so long as the power stays on! A TV screen and DVD player were found in a store room behind the office. The plugs spark but it's worth the risk.

 

 

 

 

Mike is feeling very pleased with himself at finding parasite cysts in the stools of one of the village children - amazing what can cause pleasure! Sue is watching another load of volcanic ash arriving to go on the floor of her workshop.

All-in-all, a satisfactory day. We hope yours has been too.

...and now we are three!

 

 

Meet Ivan...cute or what?

 

Ivan was abandoned last October when it was gauged he must have been 21/2 months. He is now 61/2 months but is not gaining weight sufficiently. He has anaemia and a very bloated stomach. He is not able to absorb nutrients from cow's milk so has been changed on to goat's milk from the 3 goats in the village. He can tolerate this milk better but not as well as would be hoped. We have him living with us at the moment for Mike to assess him and keep an eye on his progress. The nights are killing us! Producing dirty nappies is a skill he practices with great gusto. However he is as cute as cute can be, so all is forgiven.

The Village is one pig down as from today. Some of him is in our freezer. I'm a little worried as the power keeps going off on a regular basis but as the others have survived this then I'm sure we will too.

Cooking is a challenge. The gas oven has 2 settings.....burn the bottom, or take for ever to cook.

The night sky gives wonderful and usually silent displays of lightning flashing way up high. Match that with the sound of cicadas and you really know you are abroad.

 

Arrival, power cuts, babies and introductions

 

 

We are settling in to life in Kisoro which we really like and are delighted to be living here at the Potter's Village. The house is very comfortable. The power has been off more than on and the Internet signal has been very poor. We are told this is unusual and has been only since we arrived - is there a connection?

 

This is only the second time we have had Internet connection. It is amazingly slow and is taking minutes to open an email so although we would love to show you photos - the computer says 'no'.

Our house is next to the youngest babies, so we can't help but hear them. When the power has been off and the milk taking a long time to heat they can make quite a chorus. At this point Sue has been in to help distract them. in fact our first night we had one each in our house which was rather nice. Last night a 4 month old newcomer sobbed his way through the night as he had been separated from his dying mum. Poor fellow.

 

Sue has been getting to know her way around Kisoro. I have managed to take her in completely the wrong direction on the one occasion she was relying on me to guide her. Jenny kindly invited us for a meal one evening. At the end, I confidently said we could easily walk back. Somehow I missed the turning for Potters' Village and we ended up in a different part of Kisoro. A ten minute walk took us an hour!

 

Rosie and Emily the two UK nurses are away at present but Jovea, our Ugandan nurse is excellent and Jenny is also available. In fact, I am having a very gentle lead in to the work. It is intended that the arrival of a doctor at the Potter's Village will be announced at the cathedral on Sunday where we will be introduced. So, things are likely to begin to change next week.

 

All in all, we are sure we are going to enjoy being here.