Saturday 24^th February

We were sad to leave Kagando early yesterday morning toi travel to Mityana. The two weeks spent there has passed very quickly.

Thursday was a difficult day with a small baby dying on admission. Despite efforts to resuscitate her she died probably from the combined effects of dehydration and anaemia. But this fortunately is becoming a less common scenario as more children are brought earlier to hospital because of the support of the Friends of Kagando Children 100 scheme which is trying to engage the support of 100 sponsors to cover the costs of the admission fees for children admitted which has already dramatically cut the cost of many children’s treatment. As one mother said to us now we can bring our children to hospital rather than them dying at home for fear of the hospital bill that would result from an admission.

On arrival in Mityana we discovered there had been little rain and water in short supply but with power also being off much of the time we had mixed feelings when the hotel’s generator was switched on at 3am to pump water into one of the supply tanks

We have been to the Café the last couple of days where all seems to be running smoothly. We just need to try to get more customers calling and hopefully as the tourist numbers start to pick up this will improve the numbers using the café. The rise in tourist numbers has been attributed by some to the more unstable situation in Kenya leading to people making their Safari trips in Uganda instead. I also think the provision of a birdbath to attract the local bird life would also be an additional attraction to tourists. I’m not sure everyone agrees with me!

 Serious discussion with Phionah about a possible bird bath!

We hope over the coming week to visit Ekiwulumo where the school and orphanage is situated and also the vocational centre which some of the young people are attending after finishing school. We will be in Mityana until next Friday morning.

Wednesday 21 February  Hitching rides, puppets and pupils

It is over 40 years since we have hitched a ride anywhere, but today we managed to hitch 3 rides out of 6 parts of the journey to and from Bwera on the Congo border. The other 3 were on “public” one of which was in a 5 seater saloon car taxi, which carried 11 people for quite a few kilometres!

We went to a Christian school in a town, which has a very large Muslim population. Our traveling companion was our friend John Murabyo who is an evangelist to Muslims and many of the children in the school are Muslim converts or their children. We visited all the children in their classrooms and then had a great time acting the story of Jesus calming the storm on the lake with them followed by teaching them the song “Jesus Love is very wonderful”. There was then a bit of singing and dancing where we had to dance solos followed by us using our puppets again to tell the story of Samuel hearing God’s voice. We did the same story a few years back at the same school and they have never forgotten it so wanted it again! A huge crowd of children, who wanted to stroke our arms, then surrounded us. Maybe they thought there would be black skin if they rubbed the white off!

  

One of the classrooms at the school at Bwera with the Head Teacher.

 

Teaching the children at Bwera "Jesus Love is very wonderful"

On our return Ann quickly made another wooden spoon puppet so that we could tell the story of Jesus healing the paralysed man who was let through a roof by his friends. This was very well received on the paediatric ward where many people gathered to sing, to watch the puppets and give testimonies. It was a great joy to see a smiling recovering child who last week was lethargic and just had cried all the time through bad malnutrition.

Yesterday morning Ann spent a long time marking the beginning of term English papers of P2 where she has been most mornings. The teacher was very grateful for the help but was rather dismayed by the results and asked for prayer for help to raise the standard of the class!

Another school Ann visited earlier in the week was a small nursery school close to Kagando run by a man called Robert who wants to help underprivileged children. A number of people have helped to fund a splendid new building for him. He has visited the Esuubi café and says one day he would like to have a teacher exchange with Ekiwumulo in Mityana. 

 Nursery school classroom still with earth floor.

 Robert standing outside the new nursery school.

 Sometimes gets a bit exhausting. Must drink my tea more quickly in future!

Monday 19^th February.  Little Elephant and mixed emotions

The last couple of days have been ones of very mixed emotions for us. We were privileged yesterday to go to the nearby Game Park where we had a most relaxing day with much to see as always. It certainly was a good day to build up relations between all those who are working here at present.

 

At times Homo Sapiens was the main species visible! There were more tourist vehicles in the park than we had ever seen before.

 

We were very fortunate to see 3 lion cubs

 

During a relaxing drink we were watching a Maribou Stork trying to pour himself a Nile Special!

 

The Black Headed Gonolek one of Uganda's most beautiful birds

 

One of the many African Skimmers we saw which I was very pleased about as only the second time I had seen these.

 

A pied Kingfisher poised to strike!

 

Tiem to get out of the water everyone.

On our way out of the park we saw a lone baby elephant. This isn’t something you ever see. He was probably about 4 years old and looking rather thin and the rest of the herd nowhere to be seen. We informed the park warden at the gate but he seemed somewhat disinterested. “The others will return. They remember for 100 years!!” 

 The four year old orphan elephant

Once on the main road we came across a vehicle which had broken down with a fractured radiator. The occupants were a teacher in his early 30’s from the UK but working at a school in Kampala and his father in law. They were headed for Little Elephant Camp! They were towed for approximately 20Kms and were extremely grateful to have been rescued. The man’s wife, a trainee paediatrician wasn’t too fazed as she had been brought up in Ethiopia and was used to her father dealing with vehicle breakdowns! We eventually arrived back at Kagando at 9pm having left originally at 6.30am.

Today Ann and I used the time at the Rainbow Room telling the story of Jesus stilling the storm when he was in the boat and reminding everyone that even when problems overwhelm us Jesus is still with us in the midst of a crisis. This was very poignantly sandwiched between an experience when I arrived in Out Patients an hour earlier to find that a 49 year old man had died after crashing a motorcycle and immediately after telling the story one of the women present received news that her pregnant daughter had just died. We were truly lost for words except to say how sorry we genuinely both were.

Saturday 17^th February

Today we had an expedition up to the dam which is being built for the new hospital hydroelectric scheme. It is about 2-3km from the nearest vehicle access but we in fact had walked the 4 km to get to the start point so it was a good 2 hour walk. The walk gets very steep with some narrow paths once the road is left behind When you get to the site it is amazing how much has been transported up all carried by local people. Although it is all taking shape there is a lot to do and progress has been gradual but nevertheless when you see the conditions under which the work is being done it is a miracle it is happening at all! It made an interesting Saturday mornings walk.

 

Very heavy laden pickup on the road to the dam

  

Steep walk for 2-3km to the dam

  

Trying to hammer into the hard volcanic rock to ensure the wire supports for the dam will be secure.

 

View of the dam area with the sluice channel open

 

Water rushing throught where te sluice gate will be sited

 

Spectacular scnery but steep country to walk in!

Yesterday when we were out walking we passed one of the local brick kilns which was being fired. It looked very hot work for the boys left to tend the fires

 

Brick kiln for producing locally made bricks.

It has remained very hot with temperatures well into the 30s during the day and night time temperatures of 29 making it feel very sticky indeed when you are trying to sleep.

A new friend has taken up residence. They are very welcome as they eat some of the many mosquitoes. They usually spend their time climbing the walls but this particular one decided to hitch a ride!

 

The gecko who came for a ride!

Tuesday 13th February

Last Sunday evening we went to supper with our friends Jon Murabyo and his wife Sadris and their ever increasing family as they take in converts to Christianity and other children who have been rejected by their families. We had a warm welcome – especially as we brought chocolates from UK with us and had some good discussions about the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

 Sweets very gratefully recieved at John and Sadris's home.

 John and Sadris

On Monday Simon was back in the hospital concentrating on the medical wards while Ann went to the school and ended up teaching an English lesson to Primary 2 children, after greeting a number of teachers she had made friends with on previous visits. We returned home at lunchtime to find a note from Joyce who is helping us 3 times a week while we were here. It read “I have killed the rat – feel free” Needless to say Simon was a bit sad!

This morning again we were at the hospital seeing patients and at the school. Ann had an interesting experience watching 2 teachers trying to work out exactly who the 60 children in their class were. Despite two checks of the class a child managed to remain undetected in the crowd until the end of the second check! After that they were quite pleased that Ann taught another lesson. Following that, at breaktime, a travelling salesman came to the staff room to hold forth for a very long time about all the benefits of Aloe Vera! You would not believe what he claimed it would do!

 Later in the day we went to join in with the Rainbow “room”, which is now being run well by a social worker called Ruth as a place where children can play and patients can talk with one another in a relaxed shady spot in the hospital. We used puppets, as we have before, to do a little health education with the help of a lovely nurse called Harriet.

 Playing catch outside the Rainbow room.

The Rainbow play room for children who are in patients on Paediatric ward.

It has rained here for the last three nights which has brought the temperature down to a pleasant 26 degrees and cleared the air so that as you can see the mountains better , as shown in the photo of the school playing field  which we took whilst trying to get some milk from the farm.

 Clear view of the Rwenzori Mountains now that it has rained.

Beautiful Bourganvilia in the garden in front of Karibu house where we are living.