Variety

Ruth and Beth went to a small primary school in the community this am and had a wildly enthusiastic welcome.  European visitors are infrequent there compared to Kisiizi so their time was much appreciated.

Hanna had a trip to Kabale with Esther, our Principal Nursing Officer, and did some shopping for essentials so we are stocked up for a while.  The trip takes around an hour and a half each way.  After return she helped again on Maternity - six caesarian sections this evening!

Ian did the round on Children's ward again with two UK elective students and Ugandan nurse trainees and a clinical officer - the usual mixture of sad cases [e.g. a one month baby coming in with gastro-enteritis, anaemia, wasting having lost her mother straight after delivery in the village with haemorrhage - now being looked after by grandmother who is giving the child normal cow's milk as there is no infant formula easily available and when it is it is orders of magnitude too expensive for such a family to afford] and on the other hand sending home youngsters who are feeling better - if you scroll down to the bottom of this blog you will see photos I took today of the lad with nephrotic syndrome who came in with very swollen eyes and is now improving.  Mind you, we don't yet know if the underlying problem with his kidneys is settling but we will review him as an out-patient next week and meanwhile he is on high dose steroids, diuretics and prophylactic penicillin.

I have included some other snaps of children on the ward to give you some insight into these lovely people who put up with so much.

Hanna has just videoed a teaching session on obstetric emergencies given by Helen Smith so it can be made available for others to benefit from in future.

We met with members of the Management Committee to discuss some issues including medical equipment and maintenance and clinical governance issues.

On the way back later spotted the crested cranes, magnificent birds [as on the national flag of Uganda] plus the less striking but interesting hammerkop.  The most colourful local bird we have spotted is Ross' turaco which has a deep red/maroon flash of wing when it flies.

So life remains varied and interesting.  Thanks for your messages which we appreciate.

warm greetings

Ian and Hanna