Saturday 28^th February

Telegraph poles going up near the hospital

 

The week has proved quite busy. Ann has had the opportunity to visit a local nursery school set up to help poor families in the area. She went with Dave and his son Jack who are 2 motor mechanics who have been doing a great job here trying to service and resurrect various hospital vehicles. At least one Landrover that hasn’t moved for years is now back on the road which is a major achievement.

Visiting the Nursery School with Dave and Jack

Coffee out to dry

The kitchen at the nursery

One child was unwell and needed carrying home by an older brother

 

We have visited a couple of local people’s homes in the last 24 hours. Betty is a teacher at the local primary school who lives nearby with her husband who is the bursar of the local vocational college. They have 5 children. As often happens we went at around 5pm having just asked to have some tea and were given a full meal including goats meat. This morning a similar arrangement to see John and his wife Sadras resulted in being given some goat’s liver! John is attached to the local Anglican Diocese working amongst Muslims in the area. We plan to go to see a school at Bwera on Tuesday that he has helped to establish and also travel with him to Kasese.

At John and Sadras' home

The hospital has been bsuy with numerous patients with HIV and a particularly bad case of cerebral malaria in an 18 year old man admitted last night. One of the HIV patients is a young man who has been in the hospital several weeks trying to combat the combined effects of TB and another infection called PCP in his lungs. He still needs oxygen all the time so it is just as well that the power is consistently maintained at present to keep the oxygen concentrator working.

                  Young man with HIV                         Chest Xray still showing ongoing infection

Dave, Jack and Marin the agriculturalist are on their way back to Entebbe today so a refreshment stop on the way back has been arranged at the Esuubi Café!!

 

 

Monday 23 February

On Saturday we journeyed to Kagando taking in a brief stop to show Sabuni who was driving us the Cafe. Hopefully he will make it a regular stopping place as he transports various people backwards and forwards to Kagando in the months ahead.  It’s a 6 to 7 hour journey so we were grateful to be able to spend much of yesterday recovering.

We have had a gentle introduction today with a ward round on male ward for me and Ann visiting the school briefly. The patients were a fresh reminder to me if I needed it of the complex nature of many of the medical problems occurring here. 3 patients with HIV all brought their challenges while two others had severe anaemia with haemoglobin levels of only 3.1 and 1.9 respectively (the normal in the UK would be over 14). A medical student on her first day here who was going round with us found it all pretty mindboggling I think.

This afternoon we had time to look at the agricultural project whose produce is sold to help sustain the hospital. It was impressive to see the chicken rearing and cow projects. It has certainly given much food for thought as to how we can best utilise the land at Ekiwumulo to help sustain the orphanage and school along similar lines.

Martin a visiting agriculturalist and Ann with a 4 week old calf

Lots of huge cabbages which will sell for 3000 UgSh each

Chickens all nearly ready to lay Eggs currently sell for 300 UgSh each

Kagando on the face of it seems little changed physically but as far as personnel is concerned nearly everyone is new. Of the medical staff only 1 clinical officer and the paediatrician were here 2 years ago. The Ugandan junior doctors just out of medical school have only been here for 3 weeks and are often having to cope on their own with very complex and difficult medical problems. It could be an interesting and challenging 3 weeks ahead.

Friday 20^th February

An uneventful  flight  got us safely to Entebbe and we had a good pick up to get us to our first nights’ accommodation Since our arrival here in Mityana yesterday lunchtime we have been busy assessing what has happened in the 10 weeks since we were last here

Ann with Bushira in a new dress at Ekiwumulo

 

At Ekiwumulo much of the embankment reinforcement has been done to reduce soil erosion and good progress has been made on starting to use the land adjacent to the school and orphanage. A lot of Cassava has been planted and this looks to be growing well along with a few yams.

Cassava staring to grow well

 Also a lot of land is being prepared ahead of anticipated rains Prior to last night there had been little rain in the last couple of months which had led to Jerry cans of water costing people 1000UgSh (about 25p) which is a huge amount for many people. Fortunately it rained heavily last night which although it kept us awake was very welcome.

The sixth house opened just last Monday for 20 new children. Beds outside waiting to be moved in.

 

At the café further finishing work has progressed and there looks to be a real possibility of formally opening the café on either Saturday 14^th or 21^st of March. He café is already working to a limited degree but there are still some teething problems to cover in the next 2 to 3 weeks. We had chilli con carne today which was good experience for the staff to manage.

Waiting for chilli con carne!

 

 

All we need now is customers!

 

On our way to the café we were reminded of the ever present danger on the roads where we saw a jack knifed lorry with trailer which had caused a serious injury to a pupil walking to school this morning.

Saturday 8^th November 2014

The last couple of days seem to have been dominated by a donated consignment of goods for the Café which needs to be cleared through customs. The tangled web of bureaucracy is effectively hampering us at present. A visit to the airport at Entebbe this morning failed to secure release of the goods but hopefully on Monday the goods will be available to pick up.  All very frustrating as we had a vehicle which had brought us down to Kampala available here to pick the items up. However we did take the opportunity to visit a café in Entebbe called Anna’s Café which was a very useful comparison to make with what we hope will happen at the Esuubi Café in Mityana.

Ann and Simonpeter at the Esuubi Café site.

 

Visiting Ekiwomulu

One interesting discovery on Thursday related to a family of 3 sisters who thus far haven’t been sponsored. They are from Rwanda and have been in Uganda for the last 8 years. Their father was detained at the border into Uganda, imprisoned by the Rwandan authorities and subsequently died in prison. Their mother is living in Mbarara several hours journey away so life is very difficult for them. Probably because of the trauma of all that has happened to the family the 2 older girls in S1 and S2 have considerable behavioural problems while the youngest in P7 remains perhaps the best adjusted. Ann visited Ebenezer Secondary School to try to take details in order to prepare profiles for the girls but she found the youngest at the school preparing to take her sister to her mother’s because she was in such a distressed state. The recent history of the countries in this area of Africa with the Genocide in Rwanda, the activities of the LRA in Northern Uganda and the ongoing problems inb Democratic Republic of Congo continue to leave their mark on people’s lives.
 

Diana the youngest of the Rwandan sisters.

Thursday 6^th November

We are due to leave Mityana in 2 days. Our time here has passed very quickly and we will be leaving still with the feeling that there is much to do.

The Café continues to progress and there is every hope that it will be able to open in December. The main outstanding structural items are finishing the porch at the entrance to the Café and the hard standing for vehicles behind the Café but it certainly has the feel that it is much closer to being ready to open than it was two and a half weeks ago. We are hoping Simonpeter, our good friend from Kampala who runs a tour company, will be coming to visit and it will certainly be good to have his opinion about the Café and any advice he has about the crucial opening period.

Starting to look more like a Café than a building site.

The fridge freezer after a good clean after several months in storage.

Ann and Stella working on chocolate brownies The kitchen still needs properly organising

 

Yesterday’s visit to the District Council Offices was a good reminder of why things take so much longer here. The offices where we needed to go were deserted as the staff had gone out “into the field” I think Kisakye will be trying again tomorrow! Changing money here has also been a bit problematical 3 visits to the local Forex wasn’t very fruitful and when I tried the local bank a few days ago they didn’t like the look of my £20 notes! They thought they were a withdrawn issue despite my protestations that they were the ones currently in use! The power too has had its issues with long power cuts over the last 3 to 4 days. They have been having problems with an overhead cable somewhere apparently.

We have enjoyed our time here. Its challenges and frustrations have been outweighed by everyone’s friendliness and helpfulness. I think both of us are looking forward to a hot shower when we get to Kampala after so long without any hot water!

 

3rd November 2014

On Saturday we walked to the Enro hotel where we stayed on our very first trip to Mityana  ten and a half years ago. We mainly went to see what the local craft outlet there was like but we met a trustee of another charity working in Mityana and we were able to exchange ideas while drinking our sodas. It was a very productive ¾ of an hour including discussions about water filters and rain water harvesting which are very much on our minds at the moment as we think over the possibilities for further rainwater collection tanks at Ekiwomulu.

Sunday morning was spent in church. After lunch we went for a walk but half way round our circuit torrential rain started and along with everyone else we bolted for cover. For the next half an hour we were sheltering in a local barbers shop along with about 20 other people.  No one seemed phased by the invasion. Its just what happens when it rains. When you have been out in rain like that you can fully understand why everything grinds to a halt until the rain stops. We had intended to visit “Mugaga”, a local wealthy man who breeds dogs and cats to see if any kittens were available but he was out. He has some very large Alsatians which are caged up during the day but free to roam his plot at night. The locals are terrified of him!

After discussion with Peter one of the local young men we went to pick up a kitten this morning. His family were looking for a new home for it. It is just 8 weeks old and we hope it will be a great help at the orphanage site to keep the rat population under control. The kitten was taken to Ekiwomulu this afternoon so we will check up on how it is settling in tomorrow.

The latest Esuubi recruit.

 

We spent the rest of the day starting to clear up at the Café and Ann spent some time cooking with Stella and Nora who will be working at the Café when it opens We had hoped to be open before we leave at the end of the week but it is going to take a little longer to finish everything off. The local team are anxious to open by the beginning of December to catch the busiest tourist time around Christmas and into January.

One of the sunshades in front of the Café under construction. Ann, Kisakye and Stella

Saturday 1^st November 2014

The last 3 days have seen us busy mainly with updating sponsorship details of children and taking fresh photographs. This meant visits to Ekimomulu and Ebenezer Secondary School. It has brought home to me the desperate need we have for more sponsors at present. Although ultimately we want to see the whole project self-funding we are very much in an in between stage with children in education needing sponsors and 2 houses at Ekiwomulu ready to use that cannot currently be utilised because we lack the sponsors to support the children who would live there. It is certainly my desire to  see all 9 houses in use Currently 5 are completely occupied, 2 ready for occupation and 2 needing some finishing work although largely structurally complete. Discussing the issue with Kisakye he has a large pile of files about children needing to transfer to the Ekiwolumu site so the need is there. I wonder if each of us who are sponsors could consider trying to recruit just one new sponsor each. The effect of this would be dramatic and touch the lives of a large number of needy children.

John Bosco who we have just found a sponsor for but there are many more like him who are in desperate need of a sponsor

Updating the children's profiles at Ebenezer Secondary School

 

We walked to the Café on Wednesday afternoon. It is about a 7Km round walk which took us through some places we hadn’t previously been to. Work is proceeding steadily on the Café with the builders working on the drive up to the Cafe, the perimeter wall and the main entrance porch to the rear of the Café. The plumbing is now largely complete. Signs and flags to show where the Café is situated are still jobs to be done but it is all progressing which is encouraging. Another job which I was able to accomplish one afternoon was drafting job descriptions for the staff who will be employed. Not very glamorous stuff but essential to making the Café eventually function smoothly.

On Thursday morning while Ann was updating children’s profiles, I took some time to wander around the site at Ekiwomulu. I spent an hour or so checking the louvered windows to check for panes of glass that were about to fall out and reposition them and ensure all the occupied houses didn’t have any broken panes. A piggery is currently being built which will allow us to generate additional income. The occupants will be German Pigs who are less fatty than the local pigs so this is truly an international effort!

A few window panes needed TLC!

Further essential work on retaining walls to prevent soil erosion

Work on the piggery in preparation for the new occupants

 

We also had an opportunity to see the work being done to clear some land for agricultural use. Currently there are 5 men clearing a sizeable area I would estimate to be 3-4 acres in preparation for planting Yams and Cassava. These should be at less risk of being destroyed by the local Vervet monkeys who enjoyed much of the trial planting of sweet potatoes!

Land being cleared for crop planting. The trees are being retained. You may be able to see multiple holes prepared for Yam and Cassava plants

Yesterday I went briefly for a further discussion with the local lawyer to try to increase my understanding of the various registration issues. He was extremely patient and helpful as he described the various options open to us. The route to his office involves traversing a crowded courtyard populated by chickens and young children. Not quite the plush premises his UK counterparts enjoy!

Last night all-out war on mosquitoes was declared. One had managed to slip into the net and spent much of the night buzzing around my left ear! Needless to say in my mind I already had malaria and visions of several squadrons of further mosquitos utilising an established route past our defences that the intruder had discovered!