breathing space...

In addition to the work side of life we have found some time for other things - one was an impromptu party Dr Francis Banya organised last minute for his wife Confidence for her birthday... he was operating at 6pm and suddenly the thought came to him to organise something so he ran around making arrangements and at about 10pm Confidence returned to what she thought was an empty home to be greeted with cries of "Surprise! Happy Birthday!" and a cake, samosas [the local guy who pushes a trolley around selling them must have thought Christmas had come!] and soda etc and a good time was had by all.  Lovely to see Francis and Confidence so happy and expecting a baby.

Thursday evening had a good "English language Bible study" in the evening, led by the hospital occupational therapist, and then enjoyed a visit from Moses [hospital administrator] and Josephine [paediatrician who has nearly completed her specialist paediatric training in Kampala] on Friday evening, so good to see them and catch up a bit.

Had a relatively relaxing day yesterday [Saturday] though Hanna did go in to help a while on Maternity.

Very pleased to meet up with Alan and Helen Smith with their son Callum and his fiance Emily together with a friend Catherine who have just arrived from UK.  They are here visiting for a week.  Helen set up the Sponsor a Nurse charity, now re-named Kisiizi Partners, that has done so much to raise support for Kisiizi.  Good to see them and to start discussing various aspects of life in Kisiizi.

Today we will be going out to a church in Ndago about 3 or 4 miles from here with the hospital driver, Augustine Tusingwire.  He is also a pastor of the church and has invited Ian to preach.  None of the brief UK type sermons of 15 minutes here, usually more like 40 minutes within the context of quite a long service.  We hope to be an encouragement - most people are subsistence farmers and life is very tough with no safety nets of free NHS or pensions or social security etc to fall back on.  And yet, in the face of much challenge we often find people with a contentment and joy as they face each day with faith.

Tomorrow we will be involved in some Management Committee discussions and hope to be able to help guide some key reviews of strategy and planning for the future.

Economic pressures:
One of the key issues at the moment is the inflation which is currently running at 18% in Uganda.  In the past few days the cost of basics has shot up, e.g. a kilo of sugar was 5,000 USh last week, now 7,000USh, rapidly becoming an unaffordable luxury for most.
Not only is this a serious concern to our patients, but also to the staff and to the hospital  - somehow the books need to balance... and the pressure to increase salaries to cope with the raising costs of living will become more acute as the prices shoot up higher and higher..
The majority of our patients are subsistence farmers who can ill afford any unexpected expense, leave alone drastic increases in school fees or hospital bills.


Ruth and Beth are aching this morning having gone with some of the medical students here on their electives on a long walk over the hills to a little lake.  [mad dogs and Englishmen out in the mid-day sun!]

Do have a look at the link we have added on the right to the updated Google Earth satellite view of Kisiizi - the previous one had been disappointing as just showed cloud but now they seem to have done a high-definition sequence which includes Kisiizi so you can see the hospital buildings and layout - amazing!

Ian and Hanna