06:30 Making
breakfast: tap water [from Kisiizi’s
natural spring, flowing by gravity to the storage tanks] boiled in a small
kettle with electricity [from Kisiizi hydro-generator] with Uganda tea
leaves [tea grows not far from here in plantations on hill sides] and milk
[purchased from the Kisiizi “canteen”, in plastic bags, then boiled as not
pasteurised]. Bread [home made] with
Blue Band margarine [from a tin] and [if Ian is lucky] marmalade from a tin originating from
Kenya. Through the window can hear the beautiful pure sound of a robinchat.
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| Dr Francis speaking on infection control |
08:00 After a
shortened morning prayers we had a Continual Professional Development session
for all staff in the Chapel. This
focussed on Infection Control and was led by Dr Francis Banya and Sister
Maureen, Kisiizi Infection Control Nurse.
It proved a useful time with some amusing interchanges
towards the end and will hopefully have significantly raised awareness of
infection control principles. We still
have some medical staff wearing white coats and not always rolling up their
sleeves when examining patients so the “naked below the elbow” principle is not
yet fully operational…
09:00 Ian chatted
with Reverend Patrick, Hospital Chaplain, re the use of a DVD next week in
staff prayers. Hanna on Maternity in
Labour ward supervising deliveries and teaching student nurses.
 |
| 800 gram preterm baby transferred from a government hospital |
09:20 Ian did a ward
round of the neonates – this has been a very busy area this week with a
succession of small preterm babies.
Happily today they all seem to be behaving. Accompanied by Kate, a doctor from UK here
for 5 months, and a couple of medical students plus a school leaver in Kisiizi
for only a day who is going to study history at University so not the sort of
morning he is used to! Then on to
Children’s Ward.
11:45 Staff coffee in
the staff room – this is for senior staff, Ugandan tea in thermos flasks is
available together with a couple of small sweet bananas – tasty! A good chance to meet up with colleagues, interchange varies from football teams, to national news, to discussing patients, often a useful liaison time.
13:30 Lunch – cooked this time by Peace [one
of our housegirls when we lived here years ago].
Matoke [steamed green bananas which are peeled with a knife and cooked
in banana leaves for a couple of hours] with dodo [no, not fossils but a form
of spinach] and groundnut sauce
[un-roasted peanuts ground then boiled to produce a purple coloured sauce –
delicious].
13:50 Knock on the
door, someone arrived to collect some money we were forwarding for orphans’
school fees
14:00 Hanna spent a
couple of enjoyable hours teaching student nurses this afternoon on the
delights of fallopian tubes and placentae… ummm. Came home in a major rainstorm soaked and
weary but then still found the energy to cut my hair [ok, so there’s nothing
like as much as there used to be…]
Meanwhile Ian spent some time working on a strategy document which involved
reading a number of other papers first and still needs more work.
18:30 Knock on the
door – visit from Nancy,
bringing a gift for Hanna. Long chat and
a few laughs remembering Nancy’s UK
visit last November including various memorable encounters e.g. with an escalator…
20:30 Fellowship
meeting in the Chapel, mainly to pray for the forthcoming mission this
weekend. One interesting challenge is
that one of the speakers booked is a Head Teacher but as there is currently a
national strike of teachers in government schools an edict has been issued that
all Head Teachers must remain at their schools so she may not be able to come.
21:40 Review on the
Special Care Baby Unit – happily all still doing well, able to increase the
feeds on three babies and reduce their iv fluids. Hopefully I won't get called out of bed tonight as happened yesterday.
22:30 Walking home
hearing the thunderous sound of a very full waterfall after the earlier rains. Some cloud cover so haven’t yet had the chance to look for the “new” supernova
which lies near the Plough [ a constellation we sometimes see near our northern
horizon as compared to being overhead in UK] [we also can see the Southern
Cross on the other horizon if you are interested!]…
Right, mozzie net down, time for bed…
meanwhile, for those of you losing sleep over the quiz animal, here is a bit more revealed...
we wonder if you have worked out which animal this is?! If you think you know then do add a comment to this posting. We will then publish the full photograph to reveal the answer. UPDATE: SOME CLUES:1] The word "animal" is used in the sense that this is not vegetable or mineral!2] It is not an antelope! 
The building is sited adjacent to the existing theatre which will eventually be demolished. It does have a very pleasant views one can imagine from an operating theatre on one side of the building! We are not sure when it will become operational[!] but hopefully in the not too distant future…
It’s an interesting contrast though. Mark’s research will hopefully lead to better tools to evaluate new medicines. Yet some research has led to useful treatments like gentian violet being phased out in the west so that painful conditions like herpes stomatitis [very sore mouth] have to be treated instead with expensive things like Difflam spray that don’t, in my experience, work half as well as what we have here!
The long-awaited mission
weekend arrived… very last minute preparations as tents appeared and we set up
the sound system with the new equipment, ready for the start at 6pm. The chapel choir came, the band came, members
of staff came, patients came, school kids came… and the rain came! It poured, and though the tents proved
waterproof, there were streams of water rushing along the ground producing a
lot of mud and of course there were a lot of electrical cables, microphone
leads and connections etc on the ground.
So it was a real challenge to keep things going. But, all credit to them, the choir just got
up and sang enthusiastically; the Bishop and team arrived and joined in and a
good time was had by all in spite of it being cold and wet. The theme for the mission was a verse from
the book of Isaiah chapter 60 and verse 1 which says “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises
upon you”. So quite a contrast between
the weather and the theme, and yet it all became a bit of a parable as Saturday
was brighter and this morning, Sunday, was lovely and bright and warm. 
The programme was full
with the introductory evening session on Friday, then from 10am to 10pm
Saturday quite a lot of activities, and today from 10 – 2 then lunch. Thanks again to members of our church in Macclesfield who have helped with the costs of the PA system which coped very well considering the weather.
So in the evening I went
back to review the above and things seemed to be more stable. Then this morning the note arrived [see
photo] and I reviewed the baby whom I suspect has Down's syndrome and perhaps
Hirschsprung’s disease with marked abdominal distension.
This little baby came to us aged 2 weeks with a history of vomiting since birth. The vomit was yellow suggesting it contained bile which implies a serious obstruction. The baby was very dehydrated and had lost a significant amount of weight and required resuscitation with intra-venous fluids.
Children’s ward not too full which is encouraging but found a new admission – a girl of 12 who back in February had developed some pain and swelling above her right knee. This progressed and later some pus was discharged. She received “treatment” in the village which included cutting the skin around her right knee. She was at some stage taken to another hospital but it doesn’t seem much was done.
On a happier note, the photo of the two boys shows them enjoying lunch – a mixture of pototoes, avocado and beans! They both have fractured femurs from falls and are being treated with skin traction using stones in an old paint tin as the weight and other paint tins utilised to tip up the foot of the bed.