So, my second last week!

I can hardly believe my adventure is nearly over! I'm trying to make the most of it all before I leave, although it will be nice to get back home for a bit before starting Uni again in Sept!

Another physio student, Alex, arrived at about lunchtime on Friday, so I was able to take him back after lunch to show him round the hospital and introduce him to the physios before the weekend.  The weekend was really good. We had a fairly relaxing morning on Saturday. I took Alex and Katie, a medic student from America, round Kiwoko for a walk. Then we went to one of the local shops just outside the hospital gates where we bought a Rolex each (Chappati with a fried egg, onions and tomatoes inside folded up like a wrap which tastes pretty good!) so we ate that back at the guesthouse. Then we headed off to Luwero, a town about 15km away, which takes about 20/25 minutes to get to by public transport. There were no Matatus about at the time, so we ended up getting in a car that was going that way, which I think it maybe had slightly more suspension than the average Matatu  - always a bonus! (It certainly introduced the new guys to transport in Uganda as we had a new record of 4 adults and a kid in the front two seats – the driver had less than half his seat!) So we had a wander around Luwero before coming back to Kiwoko and having a look around the market which happens every Saturday afternoon.  It was pretty cloudy most of the day but it did clear up a bit and I actually got my first sunburn since I arrived here! Must’ve been getting a bit blasé and missed my shoulders with the sun cream!

On Sunday I went back to New Hope, the church I went to my first Sunday here. New Hope is an Orphanage which was set up at about the same time as the hospital here, when the area (the Luwero triangle) was left devastated after the civil war. So there were a lot of Orphans around and an American couple, who are still there now, were able to come and start up the Orphanage. it’s really quite big now, but it’s done in such a nice way, it’s all split up into families and there are Ugandan carers there as well as some Muzungu carers. Anyway, I met one of the Doctors who is over from the UK to walk to the church which is about 5km away. It took us nearly an hour, so we left just after 9 and got there just before 10, the service then lasted nearly three hours, but it didn’t actually feel that long I didn’t think. Everything is translated so the service was both in English and Luganda. Some songs were in English and some were in Luganda with English in brackets underneath, so at least I knew roughly what I was trying to sing! I love how they do the offering here, they always do it in the first song and everybody has to get up and move to the front to put their offering in the baskets, so there’s a lot of moving around. The theme of the service was ‘The good news of death!’ The speaker was the main pastor of the church, a Ugandan man, who was really good at keeping our attention and said some really good things. He spoke about fears and the fear of dying and how we don’t need to fear it anymore because of what Jesus did on the cross for us, so it was really good to be reminded of that. We had communion as well at the end of the service, where we had to queue up either side at the front to collect the bread and ‘wine’ then we went back in pairs and prayed with each other before taking them. It’s the first time I’ve ever had pineapple juice representing the wine as Jesus’ blood!! It was really great having a chance on the walk there and back to properly chat to the doctor and to speak about how and why she’d decided to come and work at Kiwoko to work for a few years and also about her adjusting to life here.

Physio-wise, I was able to treat the lady with burns on her neck and shoulders myself on Monday using some of the words I’ve learnt in Luganda, so that was quite exciting! Admittedly I did have to ask Moses to translate everything she said back to me, but I was able to ask how she was, how she slept and to give simple instructions for the exercises we were doing, even if I didn’t quite pronounce it all right! Her wounds are healing up really well and she’s now pretty much got full range of movement in her neck and shoulder again which is great.

Monday evening was an experience and a half as the hospital held a Junk sale to raise money for a few things: their medical missions, the nursing fellowship groups and to buy all the patients a small gift at Christmas time. They actually were selling everything and anything and people were buying everything and anything! I was on the stall with household things, shoes, bags and jewellery. And it was mayhem! So many things were being pushed under my nose as they asked how much they were and notes seemed to be flying at me from all directions as I tried to find the right change!!  I think we raised quite a bit of money and all for good causes though, so it was a very successful event even if it was a bit of a blur!

The boy who had Tetanus is doing really well, he’s been able to walk himself to the Rehab dept the last few days and we’ve had him throwing a ball in all directions, bending over to pick the ball up from the floor, stretching and passing the ball around to each side. We’ve definitely seen him getting stronger and more flexible again. Hopefully he’ll be able to go home by the end of the week.

Last night we had another meeting for Ekisa the kids club which is next weekend. So I think all the preperations are coming along nicely for that with games, crafts, memory  verse, talks and songs all thought out which is all very exciting. I’ve mostly been helping with games which we’ve planned for each age group each day and I’m on the team for children aged 5-7, so I’ll just be helping out where I can there. We were practising some of the games and songs at the meeting which was great fun, so I'm sure the kids will love it! The registration for kids started today and ends Friday I think. We are anticipating about 200 children, so please pray that they would get signed up so that they can come along and here the good news! Also that they would be willing and to listen and learn as well as having fun! The theme for the weekend is ‘I was lost but Jesus found me!’ and we'll be looking at the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost Son. The club will be every afternoon on the 16th, 17th and 18th, so in the mornings the team will meet up to pray and organise everything for the afternoons when the kids come.