Friday 27^th November

On Tuesday we went to the school where Ann has been helping and we were entertained by the P2 class singing for us and then we were given a gift of material to make a shirt for me and a top and skirt for Ann.

Ann with the two P2 class teachers

Serenaded by P2!

A real African woman!

It was with some sadness that we left Kagando on Wednesday morning. We had felt very settled in the house we had been staying in and had had Johnny as company during our time there.

Mixed feelings leaving Kagando

We had to say goodbye to Charles Cockroach who has been living in one of our kitchen cupboards for the past four weeks!

Johnny loading up the pickup.

After a good journey down to Mityana, we had a full day couple of days with meetings and an opportunity to see how things are progressing at Ekiwumulo. We have become aware of more that needs to be done in particular the need for replacement mattresses for the children. These are foam mattresses which have been in use for over 5 years in some cases and are looking a little the worse for wear so we have decided to make this a project for the proceeds of our bring and buy sale in January with the aim of replacing 100 mattresses.

There are now some new banners to be put outside the Café to try to advertise it better and we very much hope it will help to increase the number of visitors to the Café.

One of the new banners to go on the front wall of the Café site.

Being in Mityana allowed us to get Rolex which an omelette combined with a Chapatti-absolutely delicious!

Rolex being made. A local delicacy in Mityana.

Today we have travelled on to Kampala. It seems strange to be back here after seven and half weeks. The Pope arrived in Uganda this afternoon which is provoking a huge amount of interest.

 

The Popes arrival was avidly watched on local Television

 We spent most of the afternoon meeting up with Bob and Eric and Bob’s friend Katz. Bob and Eric have both been sponsored through Esuubi in the past but Bob has now completed his degree in IT and Eric is currently doing a course sponsored by the Bible Society.

Katz, Ann Bob and Eric.

Tomorrow we are heading to Entebbe and will be flying out on Sunday morning for a short holiday so this will be the last blog from this trip. It has certainly proved a rewarding but at times challenging time and one we are grateful to have experienced.

Monday 23^rd November

Our time at Kagando is rapidly drawing to a close. It hardly seems possible that 7 weeks have gone so swiftly and in huge contrast to how we felt when we first arrived we shall be very sad to be leaving

We had. a leisurely Sunday with a 6 mile walk around the back of the hospital We now feel we are becoming very familiar with the local landscape. There are huge numbers of butterflies at present many of which are spectacularly colourful.

One of the butterflies to be seen on the walk

Another butterfly. They don't stay still for too long!

It was rather a muddy walk in places!

In the afternoon we invited a number of the junior doctors for tea but many of them were busy at the hospital so we only had one guest! The cakes were not wasted however and were eagerly devoured by staff at both the Kagando Farm and the local school!

Playtime on the children's ward

Mastering skittles!

We did our last health promotion puppet play this afternoon with Betty again tragically falling victim to typhoid but eventually making a complete recovery. Always drink clean water was Sister Harriet’s strong message!

Betty is just about to drink some water straight from the river!

Sister Harriet working "very hard" to make Betty better

We are travelling on Wednesday to Mityana for a couple of days to have some further Esuubi meetings and a final look at the School and Café before heading off to Kampala on Friday. Our travel that day clashes with The Pope’s arrival in Uganda so it may prove an interesting journey!

Reflecting on our time at Kagando. No pairs of glasses lost and I have only sat on one pair!

Saturday 21^st November

On Wednesday we spent the day with John Marabyo visiting a primary school in Bwera and also spending time in Kasese. We ended up telling the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and the fiery furnace no less than 4 times during the day. John also showed us a plot he has bought on the outskirts of Bwera but very close to the Congo border where he hopes to establish a clinic where people from the Congo can be treated without officially having to cross the border which costs UgSh 5000.

The site of John's proposed clinic 

He also showed us a small drug shop he has set up during the last month.

The drug shop

Many useful products are sold including Good Morning lung tonic for those days when it just seems too difficult to get out of bed!!

Just what you need for cold November mornings!

 

Unfortunately John had an accident the following in the vehicle we travelled in when he hit a cow which had wandered onto the road but fortunately no one was injured although the car is considerably the worse for wear.

We have continued to do puppet shows each afternoon this week. They have proved so popular the puppets, Mama Betty, Betty and Sister Harriet, will be left here to be used after we have gone to continue to give health education to the children and their mothers on the paediatric ward.

Today saw the invasion by 14 bishops from Western Uganda. They had been having a retreat in Kasese and used the opportunity to visit Kagando. Torrential rain delayed their arrival by two hours but eventually their Land Cruiser cavalcade was serenaded into Kagando by the local Boys Brigade (including girls) band.

The band in full cry

Ahead of all the land Cruisers!

They spent their time in an official welcome but then visited the wards to pray with patients before having a substantial lunch. We ended up chatting to one of them who was retired and he had been at Cambridge as a mature student at Fitzwilliam College from 1974 to 1977 overlapping with us for 2 years.

What is the collective name for a group of Bishops?

 

On our walk this evening after the official proceedings of the day were completed we came across the newest vehicle to be added to the local ambulance service courtesy of Save the Children,

The new ambulance

Our local take away where we get chapattis most days

Monday 16^th November

We had an extremely enjoyable and relaxing day in Queen Elizabeth National Park with Heather and Peter Cundy and their daughter Tess. Peter is working as an administrator at the hospital. Tess is on a one week holiday.

Heather, Peter and Tess at Mweya

 

We saw some interesting things including a total of three large rodents-two seen before chalking up our score on the board and one afterwards!

Elephants and Buffalo by the river at Mweya

Our sightings for the day!

Lions and leopards proved somewhat elusive on Sunday!

The closest we got to seeing any lions or leopards. The stuffed specimens at the education centre.

 

Even if there was not a huge amount to seen in the park at times we were held up on our way home by heavy traffic on the main road!

Heavy Traffic!!

 

Today has been another grass hopper day Ann was trying to get the children to concentrate on their reading which was being done outside as the classroom was being swept out. The children however were much more interested in the grasshoppers and if any came near they were quickly stuffed into their pockets for later!

Two new statues! An addition to the school since we were last here.

Catching grasshoppers was preferable to reading!

 

Ann's other little job today was dismantling the oven in the house where we are staying to try to get it working properly but all to no avail!

My main achievement of the day was reuniting some nebulisers (needed for treating asthma) with some missing components. The nebulisers had been donated about 3 years ago and I had been told that they “didn’t work”.  What was meant in fact was that there were no power leads! In fact they all seemed to work perfectly after I had obtained some power leads from a computer graveyard in the records office! Fortunately the power leads for both the nebulisers and the oxygen concentrators are the same as the computer leads.  After extracting 2 masks and associated piping from Rob Morris’s  bits and pieces in his office, hey presto we now have 3 working nebulisers  (one each for paediatrics, male medical and female medical) and also 3 other nebulisers working but in need of the masks and pipework (which is discarded in the UK after single use).

 

Saturday 14^th November

Ann spent much of yesterday morning at the local primary school helping children with their reading before heading to the local Friday market. Ann is getting quite adept at local shopping and managed to purchase some beef to turn into a casserole. Beef here is UgSh 9000 per kilo or about £1.75 but you do get chopped up bones into the bargain!

Studiously studying our reading book!

One of the things I have been surprised about while working in the hospital is the high levels of smoking in the local community. They don’t smoke manufactured cigarettes but their own preparation of tobacco leaves. Unfortunately this leads to similar problems as at home with people developing chronic lung disease or cancer of the lung. The lady whose chest x-ray this is has presented with a very advanced lung cancer which has spread to her neck.

A very advanced cancer arising in the right lung.

In the afternoon Ann tried her hand at milking a cow fulfilling a lifelong ambition! She really managed very creditably and as part of the litre of milk that we purchased some of the milk she had extracted was included!

Under close tuition!

Success!

Our litre of milk for 22p

We have had a quiet day today with a long walk to the local Give a Goat project-this was our objective 3 weeks ago when we were stranded in the rain! Not surprisingly there were a large number of goats wandering around! If a local group asks for a goat then one is given with the proviso that the first offspring is given back to the project. It certainly seems an excellent scheme.

Tomorrow we are off early for a day in Queen Elizabeth Park with Heather and Peter Candy and their daughter Tess who is here for a week. We did promise ourselves one visit to the park and going with others should make for an enjoyable day.

 

Wednesday 11^th November

Today is definitely not a good day to be a grasshopper! There has suddenly be a plague of grasshoppers of almost biblical proportions. There are hundreds flying around From the grasshoppers point of view everyone wants to eat them! I currently have 3 small children chasing them all over the veranda of the house where I am staying. The staff at the guest house have had a quiet day as no one is staying there or eating there today. So what better way to fill your time than catch grasshoppers-a whole saucepan full! The crows also seem to be having something of a field day and even the chickens are picking a few off!

Pied Crows queuing up for a juicy grasshopper or two

Nothing better to do in the lunch hour that catch grasshoppers on our lawn!

 

The hospital remains fairly busy. The young man with severe malaria has suddenly started passing urine again after a week of renal failure. He has made a most dramatic recovery.  We had a useful meeting last night agreeing a final formulary list of drugs the hospital should be using. The hope is that by involving all the doctors working here a consensus has been reached and prescribing of drugs in the hospital will become more logical and standardised. Striving for the very best clinical standards in the prevailing conditions is what I’m hoping my few weeks here will have helped to encourage.

Ann has had a mixed few days in Mityana with some challenging meetings but also some more relaxed times with the children in the school helping in some of the classes.

Dora practising her Ds

Helping with and RE lesson

 

At times it feels as if we get bogged down in all the details of what is happening and it can be refreshing to be reminded that our main purpose in Mityana is to provide a home, education and hope to all the children attending the school and living at Ekiwulumo!

Children in class

If others are getting stressed, Im staying chilled out!

Sunday 8^th November

Ann has continued to have some busy days both at Ekiwumulo and at the Café. There is a lot to be done in terms of trying to increase publicity about the Café to try to encourage a growth in the number of visitors.

The Café looking very splendid in the sunshine

 The Ugandan Tourist industry has certainly taken a bit of a hammering over the last year with visitor numbers down 30-40% largely as the result of the Ebola epidemic. This is in spite of the fact that the main focus for the epidemic in Sierra Leone was almost as near to the UK as it was to Uganda! Against that background we need to work hard to attract visitors to stop and use the Cafe's facilities. The food on offer remains good and the facilities are excellent so let’s hope the visitor numbers pick up.

Coffee and pancakes

Guacamole and chapatti chips

I have been continuing work in the hospital although things have perhaps quietened down in the last couple of days.  There are always some very sick people around including a man who has gone into acute renal failure because of his severe malaria. The end of last week also turned up two men with neurological complications from syphilis.

Uganda remains a very beautiful place with some very attractive flowers and wildlife. Ann has taken some photos of the flowers she sees every day on the way to the Café or the school. Yesterday a small group from here went to Queen Elisabeth Game Park and saw 3 groups of lions so let’s hope when the Esuubi group comes out inn April we have similar luck! Last night there were 2 Barn Owls roosting in the trees just outside the guest house. I will try to get a photo of them if they are there another night.

Beautiful wild flowers are everywhere to be seen

Ann was tempted to try the local delicacy of roasted grass hoppers! I can’t say that I’m particularly keen! Apparently they taste rather like chicken.

Yummy roast grasshoppers! Not destined for the Café menu!