13

So last week we said our goodbyes and left Masaka. Made a last dash to the cafe in the pouring rain and had a nice hot chocolate drenched with the Danish girls we’d shown round Kitovu (amazingly walked onto labour ward just in time for them to see their first delivery and hold a brand new baby) and saw some of the other lovely UCC people. On Thursday morning we left Kitovu armed with samosas that Maria made as our parting gift for the road. We sat at Kitovu gate as we waited for Fred. Gathered a crowd of the boda men, totally surrounding us so no chance of Fred spotting us. It was very funny! We were practicing our Lugandan and they were asking us about England, what freckles were, if we would marry them etc.

Then Fred came and he has a huge smile! He is so so nice. Drove us to Rock of Joy school about an hour and a half from Kitovu. His wife Harriet was at home and their 6 month old son Isaac who is totally cute and very scared of mzungus. Despite multiple attempts at winning him over in the end we got one smile (after he’d eaten) and then back to the horrified look and tears!

Total breath of fresh air to see what Fred’s been doing. After all the crap at Kitovu with loads of funding and nothing actually happening you get a bit disillusioned that things can ever change. But this was so different. Fred’s story is amazing he’s worked incredibly hard to start the school and now it’s brilliant. Amazing that the Blairs found him at just the right time and have helped him so much. There was something so wrong with the Kitovu sister doling out shillings in the middle of the bush to the needy every day, which I couldn’t really work out at the time. Now I see that there’s no honour and dignity in that. This was so much better.

Fred is now trying to make the school self-sufficient so has a farm with pigs and goats and all kinds of fruit and veg and 3 big fish farm ponds with tilapia and catfish. It’s so good! Now the kids get porridge in the middle of the day but he wants them to be able to have a better lunch – they are so excited when they get an egg! And other plans are to make the nursery a separate school, buy dairy cows (about £500 each) for milk and improve the new small school he set up in an area nearer to where some of the kids were walking from. We visited that school as well, the kids were so excited they hadn’t had visitors before! It’s really really basic, no chairs even, the kids are kneeling at desks all day. These kids need sponsors (£5 a month www.rockofjoy.co.uk) for their school materials and food – it makes a massive difference and really improves things for them. Things here are really changing the community who were at first very sceptical about kids having any school education.
Until Fred’s I didn’t realise how important education was, having totally taken it for granted in England. But unless the kids know there’s a world out there with different possibilities and ideas they will just have to become peasant farmers struggling to survive. And this community has some really strange beliefs about health e.g. malaria is related to mangoes (mango season and malaria season happen to be at the same time) so they leave mangos to rot instead of eating them. But when they learn the science behind malaria they can be free to eat mangoes. There’s a billion examples like that.

We went to the school in our scrubs and stethoscopes on the second day to talk to the kids about being doctors and do some role play consultation scenarios which we made into a bit of a public health thing about malaria and TB. We were a bit nervous having never taught a lesson and with most of the teachers watching but it was SO much fun! The first session was with the oldest two classes P5 and P6. Fred wanted us to talk about the different medical specialities which he decided to make them repeat – can’t believe how well they did with orthopaedic surgeon and gastroenterologist considering English isn’t their first language! There was a bit of confusion at dermatology which C-M was getting them to repeat -‘durm-a-tology’ ‘dorm-a-tology’ ‘No, dUrm-atology’ ‘dorm-a-tology’ at which point she realised she’d have to say it in a Ugandan accent ‘darm-a-tology’ and then they got it ‘darm-a-tology’ haha. They liked trying out our stethoscopes at the end as well, was very cute watching them being mini-docs.

After lunch we returned to find the rest of the primary part of the school gathered for our second session, these were P1 to P4 so absolutely loads of kids. Fred was translating into Lugandan for the little ones. Afterwards we asked them who wants to be a doctor and there were lots of hands including one amazing lad who is 22, a Rwandan refugee with no chance of an education previously but was desperate to go to school so started primary school a few years ago. Wow.

Then I met my sponsor girl Sharon – very cute and shy. She also wants to be a doctor. She was very happy as we walked to her house through the matoke plantations and past the mud brick huts down a little dusty path. Amazing to go from just a picture blue-tacked onto my Sheffield wall to walking the way she walks every day to school and seeing her little house. It’s made of mud bricks with a separate little kitchen building and 3 bathroom structures made out of banana leaves. Her mother wasn’t there (I don’t think she has a father) but there were some little kids who were her neighbours/cousins. Later on when we were back at Fred’s she came with her mother – so lovely of her to come and find me to meet me. It was really special.

C-M has a new sponsor child Shadia, who lives with Fred and his family. Her mum is Sarah who is lovely and made our food with Harriet. Sarah was a muslim and was forced to marry when she was 16, she hated it and was rescued by Fred. She has 2 children, Shadia and Swice who are both totally beautiful. Shadia is 6, she was so cute she pressed her palms against us and said in a little voice ‘Olimulunji’ which means ‘You’re beautiful’. Sweet.

So we set our alarm for 6.20am to leave for Kampala by 7am. We had to get to a specific bank to change our traveller’s cheques (will never get traveller’s cheques again, you can’t change them anywhere!!!!) or we would not be able to do safari because we needed dollars, the bank closed at 12am. Woke up at 6.57am. Woops. Downed a few egg fried Casava (like parsnips) and got on the road. It was nice actually to drive back through Masaka to Kampala, I really love that place it was beginning to feel like home. Fred drove us all the way to the bank and then our hostel which was unbelievably kind of him. So now at the hostel and off on safari tomorrow!

It’s so strange that we’re leaving Uganda so soon. Being here has been so normal and so much easier than I thought it would. For the first week you’re like wow I’m in Africa and then you appreciate it but it becomes normal life. I’ve learnt so much being here, so so much to reflect on.

Lots of love to you! See you soon!

Christine

12

Am currently tucking into a yummy fruit salad with papaya, banana, water-melon, pineapple and passion-fruit with the odd piece of chocolate thrown in. I am SO going to miss the fruit here. The pineapple is unbelievable. In fact I might bring one home if I have enough room in the luggage.
Just returned from a nice trip to Molly and Paul’s, a school near the hospital where one of the ladies we met at church works. Hilarious once again. We went into the classrooms and the kids all stood up and said ‘We welcome you to our class our visitors’ and then we stood at the front and they sung for us. One of the classes was singing something about crushing Satan. Everything we said was greeted by rapturous applause – we were asked our names and they were all clapping, although there was a slight delay at the names Kai and Chrissie-Mary due to the confusion that they actually were names. There was a Christine in the class so I was very exciting for them.
Feels so normal being here now, having a nice girly chat over the dishes with the waitresses about their lack of decent boys in Masaka – could have been anywhere! Will miss those girls! Brilliant night last night with yummy curry with everyone who works for Uganda childcare (Danish people charity). We went to the orphanage in the afternoon. Cute kiddies with very biblical names: Jeremiah, Elijah, Gideon, Sarah, Samuel etc. Washing clothes and took balloons. Initial delight which descended into horror and lots of tears as they discovered that balloons pop. Then the prophets realised the elasticated dead balloons made a good weapon. What had we started.

This week I’ve been on general medicine. The doctor is an encyclopaedia. He’d ask us the differentials of someone’s symptom and wouldn’t let it rest until we’d thought of absolutely everything in existence. Then he’d grill us on some disease and 3 patients later is still asking you questions about it- why, what causes it, what’s the pathophysiology, why does that drug work etc. etc. So 4 hours later we were standing collectively brain dead surrounding a man with interesting neurology who smelt gross and everyone’s suggestions for causes became more and more ridiculous as we could only think about the varying possibilities of what was for lunch. Brilliant teaching. Lots of interesting cases on medicine, lots of diabetes which we didn’t expect so much and lots of Kaposi sarcoma (kind of cancer you get with HIV). One guy with horrific Kaposi’s on his foot (easily made it to the top 3 worst smells of being here- number one being the pit latrine outside Lake Mburo National Park and number two being septic products on o&g). There are little isolated concrete hut things with literally just a bed and light bulb in for the ?TB patients and HIV patients. Man its so sad the young people with KS that’s spread everywhere who will almost certainly die of it. And one guy with Stevens-Johnson syndrome (massive immune reaction to drug) where you get ulcers all over your skin and mouth and insides – horrible.

The plot thickens with the nuns in the hospital – apparently they got caught growing marijuana ‘for the pigs’. Apparently it’s not uncommon for nuns to be a bit dodge here. Leaving Kitovu hospital on Thursday morning. Will be sad to leave Maria and Regina (our cooks) they are so sweet. Maria cries every time someone leaves! And we’re leaving the 3 guys on their own after there were 16 medical students at one point. Off to Rock of Joy school, v excited about this having heard so much from Miss Blair!

Lots of love,
Christine

11

So this week we did some medicine then headed down south on a hot, bumpy, crazy break-neck speed, yet still remarkably slow, bus to Kabale near the Rwanda border. Emma and Caiomhe were leaving Kitovu and travelling down to Rwanda so we thought we’d join them. Ugandan people must have super-bladders or something because they thought we were really strange to need a loo break half way. Getting used to the pit latrines now. Great to see the scenery change from dry flat shrubland and marshes to hills getting bigger and steeper the further south you go.

Kabale looks a bit like a town from a Western or something, big wide road with shops lining it either side. As the bus stopped a billion taxi men jumped on because they saw white people and tried to get us to go with them crazy crazy. So we got in one and drove up a windy red dust road up to the top of a big hill and then we saw the lake. Absolutely beautiful. It’s a huge blue sparkling lake full of little islands. Breathtaking. We stayed in safari tents overlooking the lake and left all the window flaps down at night so we woke up to 360 degree views. It gets very cold at night (no woolly jumper on a trip to Africa= error) but still hot in the day. They had a nice camp fire to sit around and warm yourself after dinner. Lake Bunyonyi means lots of birds, in the morning they were so loud it was really nice to wake up to.

We went on a hike on the first day up to the top of one of the hills and ended up picking up a load of kids who became our guides to finding this cave which was small and typically cave-like (maybe they think we don’t have caves in England). Our guide also pointed out a cat and a cow with great excitement (yes we have those too). But was so much fun to walk around and at one point we passed this primary school and the kids went absolutely crazy, all ran out of their lessons, ran over yelling ‘mzungus!!’ and all wanted to grab our hands and touch our skin. The teachers had a moment of attempt at control before they joined in. On the way back though they had some pretty big sticks/meter rulers so there was less chaos! Crazy how big a deal we are to them, it’s like being a celebrity for some weird reason that you’re white. We tried this gross porridge thing which is some warped cross between beer and oat soup.

The next day we got a boat out on the lake and we drove round the edge of Punishment Island. It’s a tiny island with one tree on it that women who got pregnant out of wedlock were sent to die. If you could swim you were tied to the tree, otherwise you were just left there to starve to death. Nice. We got off at another island which used to be a leper colony and hospital but is now a school. From there you could see the hills of Rwanda and the head boy told us about what Rwanda’s like now which was really interesting. Apparently the government is super strict, all kids have to go to school and everyone has to wear shoes otherwise you get beaten with a stick, even if you’re elderly. You have to take all your crops to the village church – sounds a bit like a regime. Although not sure how much is true because the guy’s not been outside of Kabale, people just don’t travel unless they need to. Interesting to hear about Rwanda from some Brits who came to Uganda from Kigali as well. Crazy what country borders are, just an invisible line separating a massive horrific genocide and relative peace. The hills look exactly the same. Shame we didn’t have time to visit Rwanda ourselves. In Uganda the general feeling is that Musevini (current Ugandan president) will get in again next year although there might be some trouble. Apparently he’s said that the only way he’ll step down as president is if he’s shot. Some people worry that he’ll become a dictator like Amin but others say he’s the best of a bad lot. The Ugandan people have known enough violence, really praying there’s peace during the elections next year.

I’m so loving meeting loads of people travelling from around the world. Some really interesting people all here for different reasons. And people on journeys around East Africa, down the whole of Africa and just in Uganda. And crazy how you meet people from just down the road, like a Sheffield doctor who lives round the corner and Caiomhe’s meet a couple of people from a few minutes away from her village in Ireland.

This morning we woke up and got in a dug-out (tree trunk canoe) with some spear-like oars. It was the most wobbly vessel I have ever embarked on. We feared for our cameras. I don’t know how they make it look so easy. Apparently there’s a phrase called the ‘mzungu circle’ which is basically going round in circles. We were well acquainted with the term by the end. Couldn’t get it to go in a straight line at all. Gone were the plans of canoeing to an island. Well at least we saw the 360 degree lake view- several times. Then there was this horrible floating spider that tried to crawl onto the boat. Panic isn’t good for the wobble. Somehow we made it back to shore. Shame most of the camp were watching.

We left Lake Bunyonyi yesterday and got onto a bus to Kampala. Lesson 1: (which you’d think we’d have learnt from previous experience with the Masaka bus) Don’t get on a bus that is very empty because although the lure of a seat is tempting they wait until the whole bus is filled. 2 hours later we left. 6 hours later we got to Masaka. Home sweet home to warmer climates and Maria’s cooking. Back at the Danish cafe for church this morning. Awesome African dancing song thing, we didn’t have a clue what it meant but the actions were fab!

Can’t believe we’ve reached week 6 already! Going to make the most of the next few weeks before we fly back. Already feeling like I don’t want to leave!

Lots of love,

Christine

10

Gosh I could tell so many more tragic stories from being here and then there’s the explosions yesterday in Kampala. We were watching the world cup final in a proper African bar with a corrugated iron roof and brilliant atmosphere then heard the news. But enough for now. God is mighty and in control. This country is a big spiritual battleground but God has already won so we’re waiting and praying for the kingdom to break out.
And we can see that it is – the glory of God in the beautiful animals and birds and countryside, the new life God has breathed over the people here, in church the preacher said if it wasn’t for God some of us would be dead, that’s true of all the kids in the orphanage we went to visit on Saturday, their lives have literally been saved. And we went with Sister Helen into some really rural villages and painted on one of the mud huts was I know -> trust God!! And that person only has that hope because at some point someone majorly stepped out of their comfort zone and got on a boat to Africa.
God is totally in control and he will bring justice to the witch doctors who sacrifice 12 year old boys and hope to starving people who can't grow enough food, he will comfort those who mourn like the mother in the paediatric unit on Friday and give grace to people who are bound in corruption and steal the hospital funds and bring healing to the orphan kids with HIV. LOVE this passage, the whole chapter is brilliant:

The Lord will surely comfort Zion, and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing. Listen to me, my people, hear me, my nation: the law will go out from me; my justice will become a light to the nations. My righteousness draws near speedily, my salvation is on the way, and my arm will bring justice to the nations...for I am the Lord your God, who churns up the sea so that its waves roar- the Lord Almighty is his name. I have put my words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of my hand – I who set the heavens in place, who laid the foundations of the earth, and who say to Zion, ‘ You are my people.’ Isaiah 51:3-5, 13-16

I think the Almighty God is on the move.

Off to Lake Bunyonyi in the south later in the week - safari tents overhanging the river and dugout canoes and chipanzees, can't wait!

Much love,
Christine

9

So in the past few days I have painted some chairs and had the odd near death experience. Painting chairs was nice, you can see the result of your efforts pretty quickly which suits my small attention span. Hopefully the container with stuff for the new paeds unit is coming this week so we’ll be able to help setting stuff out.

On Friday we found ourselves hitching a lift to Kampala with the lovely Palestinian surgeon and one of the Ugandan o&g docs. Heard about the dark side of the hospital – money laundering etc. Standard stuff unfortunately.

On Saturday we boarded a bus to Jinga – the source of the Nile. Wow it was beautiful. Massive fast flowing river. So wide and deep. So peaceful there with birds and monkeys. That is until we got in a white water raft!!

First thing was to jump out the raft to test the lifejacket; gorgeous warm swirling water, carried you downstream so you hardly had to swim. I jumped out a lot in that trip, couldn’t get enough of the Nile. Then we practised the boat capsizing. Then came the rapids. Awesome fun, massive crashing waves and waterfalls and tipping and ducking and holding on. So far so good and no capsizing but we thought it might be fun to capsize and then we did. I saw the boat tilting to one side and the rest of the team falling off – the holding onto the boat and your paddle went out the window – people and water and paddles everywhere and then I went in. At first I could just see brown swirling water and I was dragged under, I ran out of breath and had to come up for air but I couldn’t, tried to push up and could only see dark blue – the side of the boat so had to duck again then pushed up again and hit the boat again, by this point I thought I was way past the point of needing air but then the water got lighter and I popped up and took a massive breath before being hit in the face with a wave. Then a kayaker came to rescue me which was nice. Scary!!!! Thought we would try not to capsize after that.

Then we headed back to camp on a bus which started smoking half-way and the driver kept revving but it kept smoking so we had to leg it off the bus and into the surrounding bushes. Back at camp we were so tired from our days rafting but it was beautiful eating overlooking the dark Nile waters and loads of stars were out. Had the first warm shower in 3 weeks – total bliss. Woke up in our lovely safari tent with beds and duvets and window flaps that overlooked the Nile. So peaceful.

But that peace didn’t last long either. Soon I found myself climbing up and up to platform 145ft above the river. Never wanted to do a bungee jump, always thought it would be terrifying. That’s why I thought I better do it. Absolutely terrifying. One guy put a towel round my feet then a strap then attached the bungee cord with a caribina, then I had to hop towards the edge. It was crazy because the only thing holding you on is the rope around your feet. Then I saw the edge and it was horrific. I couldn’t do it. I had to sit back down. Then the guy did the usual no money back, regrets for the rest of your life etc. so I thought I better do it. As I stood up the onlookers in the cafe cheered me on as I shuffled to the edge. You have to get so close to the edge that your toes are over. Then they shout “One, two, three BUNGEE!” and you dive gracefully off the platform. Except I think mine was the least graceful bungee jump ever as I jumped off the platform in a pretty feeble manner and found myself hurtling feet first into mid-air. Absolutely horrific. I knew what was coming because I’d just watched someone jump feet first and with a crack you flip upside down and descend to the Nile. Face full of water then sprang back up. I could see trees and rocks whizzing past and was absolutely terrified. I swung from side to side for what seemed like ages then saw a paddle sticking up in the air which I was supposed to grab. Actually quite difficult when upside down and hurtling through the air. But in the end made it into the boat and thought I was going to pass out. Absolutely the scariest thing I’ve ever done. Terrifying. Never again. Awesome feeling afterwards though. Was just laughing a lot.

Took 7 hours to get back home. 6 people on 3 seats made for a comfortable journey. My shoulder spent most of the trip out of the window. Not good for the sunburn. Kampala is mental. Totally in love with Masaka in comparison. It seems so chilled out here. Nice to be back and looking forward to another week of paeds - the consultant showed up on Friday and will be around this week (we hope!!).

Lots of love,

Christine

PS. Actually don’t have skype because it wouldn’t download!! But have worked out my laptop has a memory card reader in built so may post some photos :)