Saturday 17^th October

This week has proved a varied one for us both. Ann has been spending some of the mornings helping at Kagando School and in the afternoons praying with some patients on the wards.  She has also been trying to compile a list of drugs in preparation for producing a proper formulary for Kagando. Often important drugs are running out leading to difficult decisions on how to best treat patient s and it is hoped that having a formulary may help prevent this happening.

Ann had a successful shopping trip for lemons-only 10p!

 

 One morning was also spent distributing some knitted baby clothes and hats to some new born children on the Maternity ward.

One very happy Mum with new knitted jumper and hat

 

On Thursday Ann went out to a local centre about 8 Kilometres from the hospital to see a number of children get fitted up with suitable wheelchairs that had been donated by a UK based charity. It proved a very moving experience.

Loading up the wheelchairs for the visit to Kyrumba

 

The boy in the picture is aged 12 years and suffering from Cerebral Palsy. He has always had to be carried by his parents and his mother had carried him down from a village in the mountains on the morning of the visit so the provision of a wheelchair for that family will make a huge difference.

He was very happy with his new wheelchair

I spent a busy Monday and Tuesday on the wards in an effort to release some of the Junior Doctors to attend a course being run by PRIME, a Christian medical organisation seeking to teach whole person care to include the Mental and Spiritual needs of patients as well as their physical needs. The course also ran on Wednesday for a group of 35 Church leaders to consider the Health Care being provided in their churches and on Thursday to a mixed group of 30 Clinical Officers, Nurses and Doctors in Kasese 45 minutes’ drive away. The course seemed well received and I felt very privileged to be able to help with the teaching on the 3^rd and 4^th days.

Getting the generator going before the conference on Wednesday

 

One of the sessions at the Pastors Prime conference

 

One evening during this week we discovered a snake which was living between the door post and wall of one of the outside toilets! This was a toilet we had been frequenting during the night and I had been walking there barefoot earlier in the week! He was rather dark, thin and about 10 inches long. Boiling water was subsequently poured into his hole which will either have dealt with him or left him with a very damp home! Many of the snakes in this area are poisonous so they need to be treated carefully. This incident persuaded us that perhaps a move to a room with an en suite toilet might be better and we moved there this morning.

Another encounter with the local wildlife occurred while examining a patient this morning when all of a sudden a rat appeared from underneath the blanket covering the patient! I am pleased to say he made a hasty exit!

This afternoon we had a long walk exploring about 3 to 4 kilometres from the hospital but some of the paths were not too well marked. At one point 3 small children aged about 8, 6 and 4 were assigned to show us the way when we were getting a little off course! They proceeded to take us on a very zig zag route before re-joining the path we wanted to be on.

We have certainly felt much better this week having fully recovered from the rather difficult journey out. We are looking forward to Ann being able to go to Mityana perhaps in 2 weeks after a weekend away in Fort Portal staying at Ruwenzori View Guest House.

Kagando on a particularly clear morning earlier in the week