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.
 |
| Dr Francis speaking on infection control |
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 |
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…
No comments:
Post a Comment