Swallowship!

So I think the rainy season has started here! For the past month if it has rained it’s usually been pretty heavy and it lasts just for about an hour or so, but in the last couple of days it’s been pretty grey and we’ve had a lot more rain which has lasted longer. Hopefully we’ll still get a bit of sun over the weekend since I don’t have to be inside working!

Today we managed to treat most of our patients in the morning which meant Solomon and I had time to prepare the crafts for Ekisa the kids club. The theme is ‘I was lost, but Jesus found me’ so one day we’ll be looking at the lost coin, another the lost sheep and the last day the lost son. We have another meeting next week with the team, so we were making up the crafts to show and we’ve been thinking of games to teach all the leaders aswell so that they can be used at the club on the 16^th, 17^th & 18^th of this month.

We seem to have quite a lot of patients on male ward at the moment and not so much in female or paeds, it just changes all the time with some wards quieter or busier for a spell. It’s just as well they got male ward moved last week as I don’t think they would’ve had enough room for everyone in the old one!

The boy with burns is doing well, we’re keeping all his joints that are affected moving and he’s been able to make his way outside using a walking frame a few days this week. His back is healing up really well but his leg is so badly burnt that it’s still just raw flesh really, so they’re hoping to do skin grafting soon I think. I might try to see a bit of that in theatre if I get a chance.

Unfortunately on Monday when we went to see the burns lady and her baby, they had been discharged and had gone! I was a bit upset because I had been seeing them everyday for the past month and we never got to say cheerio. Also it would’ve been useful for us to speak to her and her family to advise about exercises etc but apparently they were worried about money and they obviously had spent quite a lot having been here for 4 weeks with the two of them. I suppose people here just don’t have as much laid by for these situations like we would and they had to have other family to help them for food and washing while they were here, so the lady had her sister and her sister in-law was looking after the baby. The hospital here really is quite cheap compared to other hospitals in Uganda as they subsidise treatment massively and they don’t work with bribes or anything. (I’ve heard that in many of the hospitals then the only way to make sure you get proper treatment is by bribery.)  I had been hoping to get photos with both the lady and her baby but it wasn’t to be, I’ll always remember them but it would’ve been good to let other people see. I think they were planning to go to a health centre near their home which would be cheaper, but I’m not really sure what the standard of health care will be there. The baby should be fine, she was healing up really well and we even managed to have her through playing alongside the Nutrition group on Friday, so that was good. The Mum’s face and arms were healing up well, so she should be able to get rull range back at her elbows if she keeps moving them and thankfully the burns on her legs were just her lower leg, so she is able to bend at her knees. Hopefully the lower legs will heal up too in time, but the doctors were speaking about having to graft, so I’m not sure.

I took the HIV aerobics class again this Tues morning which was good fun! They loved it when I counted in Luganda for a few of the stretches!

Just the day after the burns lady was discharged, we had another lady referred to us with burns. Unfortunately this one is 17 and she was burned with boiling milk by the other wife of her husband. Apparently it’s traditional in some tribes here to have more than one wife and lots of kids to show that you are very manly and that you have money. Unfortunately, as can be expected, this often means that the older wife gets jealous of the new, younger one. I think that’s what happened here. This girl is badly burnt on her face, but the burns on her neck, chest and shoulder are very superficial and are already healing well. So we’ve been doing exercises with her neck and shoulder and she’s been doing very well, able to do them herself and without to much pain which is good.

 Our Nutrition group was starting to get quite small in numbers with a few of the children being discharged which is good as they were getting better. Then we got a few more yesterday, so the mats which we sit on were pretty crowded but it was good to play with them all!

And in the last few days we’ve been treating a young guy who is recovering from Tetanus. He’s about 17 I think and contracted it through a wound on his foot while working on his family’s farm I think. He’s got such a lovely big smile all the time! He’s doing pretty well, he was very stiff and quite weak, so we’ve been doing lots of stretching. Today we were able to take him back to the physio department where we were able to work on his range of movement and strengthening as we got him to throw a ball and do stretches on the mats. So plenty going on physio-wise!

I’d better explain my title now! On Tuesday night I was invited by Solomon to join his fellowship group for ‘Swallowship’!! Such a good word! It was basically when the fellowship group meet to share food and have fun together! Obviously an African English word! It was at one of the doctors houses which is just nearby the guesthouse, so we went along at about 8ish. We just chatted while we waited for everyone to come, then we sang a few songs together before we had some food. It was really nice, everyone just brought a maincourse or a pudding, so it was good to try some more African food and then there was papya cake and fruit for pudding which was really nice! J Then after food we played lots of fun games and once it got quite late I had to make a quick dash back to the Guesthouse as it was pretty wet outside. I really enjoyed my evening and it was nice to meet more people and spend more time with some that I’ve met already.

Got to see Sarah on Sunday as we made a trip to Kampala, so that was lovely to see her again before she went on to Kenya. We visited the craft market, then went to an English Kampala Baptist Church where we arrived early and were ushered into a bible study that happens before the service every week! We got a lovely welcome and it was a really good service. Then we had some lunch and met up with more of the students from the guesthouse who had been to Jinja whitewater rafting before we headed back.

One of the medical students left today at lunchtime and another student arrives tomorrow, so there’s always people coming and going at the guesthouse. This time it’s another physio student, so we’ll have doubled the physios at the hospital! Moses, the head of dept, was very excited to hear that there would now be four of us! So that’ll be nice, I’ll be able to show him round this weekend and it’ll be good to have another student from the UK to discuss treatment options etc for my last couple of weeks!