Thursday 1^st December

After the events of the weekend a slightly uneasy peace has again descended onto Kagando with the shops all now open again and people going about their daily lives with a semblance of normality. The events made it to the Africa page of the BBC website but were eclipsed by the death of Castro and an article about Donald Trump!

On Sunday and Monday many patients wanted understandably to be discharged and particularly the medical and surgical wards were quiet for a couple of days. However admissions seem to be picking up again. But throughout the paediatric ward has remained busy with some quite complex situations to be dealing with. A ward round yesterday included a 10 year old with HIV and an extremely low white cell count (CD4 level was only 3), a girl with sickle cell disease with an apparently very high white cell count (which on review of a blood film proved to be a false count contributed too by many red cells emerging from the bone marrow rapidly in response to her sickle cell crisis) and a 4 month old baby with severe fluid accumulation in the abdomen the cause of which we have yet to establish. Today in outpatients I admitted a very ill woman who has HIV and malnourished twins aged 8 months. So there is much to do in the midst of an uncertain situation for many.

It is hard to believe in a week I will be leaving here for the relative security of the UK. To be honest it will be hard leaving behind many to whom I have become close in the last few weeks.

I am so grateful to the many people who have been praying for Kagando and for me in particular over the last few days.