Attack of the bugs.

For some reason, our house has been targeted by every single bug in Africa. We have had millipedes, grasshoppers and moths in the shower, spiders under the bed, fruit flies have invaded the kitchen and slugs seem to congregate on the door handles. They must have some kind of sense that tells them where screamish girls live!

Apart from the odd heart attack when a sausage fly flies at your face (they are the worst!) the past couple of  weeks have been wonderfully uneventful. All the dramas that happen here usually involve critically ill babies, so quiet weeks are always welcome. The electricity and water have been very good this week but the Internet connection, however, has been awful (hence the late posting of this)

Ruth and I have spent the past 2 weeks teaching H (Jenny's daughter) as she prepares for the 11+ exam that will determine if she has got into an amazing boarding school in Kenya. She has been taken out of some classes and now only goes to school for half days so that we have time to get through all of the revision material she has been given. It is a challenge but she is doing really well when she wants to! H has to travel to Kenya in May to take her exam, and Jenny has invited Ruth and I to go with them. We are really looking forward to it!

As for an update on Little Baby No-Name. We went to Matolere Hospital on Thursday, to see how he was doing. When we arrived we were shown to the warm nursery where he and 5 other babies and their parents had been living, which is only the size of a cupboard. One of ladies was in the room because she has recently had twins, and she took it upon herself to feed not only her twins but baby No-Name too! Nobody had asked her to do this, she just knew that if she didn't feed him, no one would. I could have hugged her, but seeing as she was preparing to breast feed her twins, there could have been a very awkward accidental boob graze, so I saved us both the embarrassment and left it. Anyway, No-Name is doing amazingly well thanks to this mum, and we might even have enough room at p.v for him when he is well enough!

More very exciting news – we have a washing machine!! We have been happily washing our clothes by hand for nearly 2 months and today we were told a washing machine has been installed in the store next door to our house. It is so great to not have to leave half a day free just so we can wash our clothes!

Grunt is off to be examined by a pediatric doctor on Tuesday, we are waiting to hear if he is okay to have an operation to relieve the pressure. He is still having fits, but is growing very fast! Squeak is doing amazingly well, I make sure I give him a daily cuddle which usually lasts longer than expected because he is just so so so cute.

2 little babies J and M were admitted to Afya clinic yesterday because they have caught pneumonia. N, N and J are all in isolation due to chest infections. School Boy P, has been diagnosed with malaria again. Third time in 2 months! Although he has malaria he still thinks that burping in my face is hysterically funny and has decided that greeting me with a huge sloppy kiss on the cheek is hygienic.

Jojo has his 5^th birthday on Sunday, and Eve's 20^th on Monday so this weekend is booked up with children's parties, cake baking and meals out. Life is fine here in Kisoro.



Me and P



Crazy mountain children



Little baby no-name

There is never a dull hour here in Kisoro (apart from the few hours week when you wonder why on earth no one has ever though of building a cinema or bowling alley in rural Africa)

The week started with 12 children being put into isolation due to flu. For some of the smaller and sick-prone children, this turned into Pneumonia. For Baby A, this is frequent occurrence because he has chronic lung disease (it is so sad to see him poorly because he is quite possibly the cutest kid ever) Over a few days, more beds were moved from bedrooms into isolation until we had all of the crawlers and toddlers with temperatures, coughs and snotty noses. On the Tuesday night, Jenny had prepared us that in the morning she was expecting to have to take some children to the hospital because their Pneumonia was getting serious, but when the morning came every single child was recovering well! It was fantastic news, and now a week on, we only have 3 children still in isolation.

Wednesday, was the toughest and most emotional day that I have had here. Jenny had told us in the morning that a little baby had been abandoned by his mother at Kisoro Hospital a few days after his birth, but because we have babies coming out of our ears, Ezra felt that we could not take on another little one. We were told that he was a premature, but healthy baby who was maintaining his temperature well and feeding from a bottle. If P.V said no to this little boy, then he would have no future because he would certainly die because he had no one. Certain death was not good enough for Jenny, Ruth and I, so I spent hours researching other baby homes in Uganda that we could transfer him to. Finally I found Sanyu Babies Home. We phoned Sanyu and they agreed that when the baby was fit enough to travel the 10 hours to Kampala that they would take him. This was great news – until little baby no-name arrived…

Jenny had gone home and left us the paperwork, equipment and a quick briefing so that we could admit the baby without her. They arrived at 6:30pm and as soon as we saw his little head we knew there was a problem. He was TINY. The smallest baby I have ever seen. He had a nasal feeding tube and  was naked, wrapped in a thin cotton sheet (You may think Africa is hot, but the rainy season definitely isn’t.) I went to weigh him, but he was freezing. My first panic was that he hadn’t survived the journey from the hospital to Potters. Jenny rushed down and took us to Kisoro hospital where we were sent away again because they didn't have an incubator, so we trekked to Matolere Hospital. When we arrived a nurse told us that they had no power so the incubator  wasn't working. It was very obvious that they didn't want to take little baby no-name, so when I was told to  hand him over, walk away and not to look back – I just fell apart. Even though I knew he wouldn't survive without the incubator, it broke my heart to leave him.

Some happier news – Squeak is so much better, eating a tonne, and has moved down to P.V! He is growing into his skin now and is starting to look more and more like his beautiful brother. However, his beautiful brother is looking less like his beautiful self. His head has swollen and looks like one of those aliens that you get at the fairground. He has been diagnosed with water on the brain, and his fitting has become worse. We are waiting to see if he can have an operation in April to relieve the pressure.

On Saturday, we were taken up a cultivated volcano. We were followed up by about 12 children (only a few of them had shoes) who I soon made friends with when I challenged them to a race up the volcano. It was a really nice walk, although the weather was pretty English!

Water and electricity have been very... unreliable this week, and internet connection have been awful (hence th late posting of this blog) Hopefully, our water will be back on tonight so we can actually shower insted of bucket bathing in rain water. Yes, it was awful.

I'm not black but i will be soon!

Phew.. its Saturday! I have been African for a month now. The weeks seem to be getting more and more hectic as time goes on!
I live in S.W Uganda and i am wearing thermals to bed - this isn't what i signed up for! The 'raining season' is living up to its name, but today is beautifully sunny! Shame sunbathing is an utter insult to everybody!
On Tuesday, Pius was taken to hospital with malaria. After checking his mosquito net we discovered that he had been picking at the net and had made all the holes pretty big! The net has been stitched up now, and he is recovering well. I say he is recovering, but even when he was at his worst with a temperature of 39 degrees, he was still giggling, burping and blowing kisses. In fact, as i speak he is 'helping' to wash Jenny's car. (this involves tipping buckets of washer over his head and then rolling over the car...) He is a real fighter! He is the oldest child at P.V, but his mum is a prostitute in Kisoro and has disowned and wished death upon him. Hopefully we will find him a nice foster home soon.
The twins have had a really rough week too. It got to the point that whenever i went up to Jenny's to look after them i just got so upset about it all and couldn't bare to see them like it. At the beginning of the week, Squeak had a really bad fever. In any child here, it can be dangerous, but in a 10 day old twin who weighs only a few lbs and lost a lot of blood in the birth process - it was really serious. I went with Jenny and Squeak to the clinic to get his bloods checked, and his blood count was good and there he didn't have malaria. This was good and bad news. Good because we knew that it wasn't any of those, and bad because we still didn't know what was causing the fever. It has sorted it self out now, and he has battled through it all.
Grunt on the other hand is still not doing well. Jenny has has suspicions for a while that he may be brain damaged from the horrid birth, and her suspicions were pretty much confirmed when they noticed that Grunt had been having fits. He is now fitted up with a nasal feeding tube and is on some drug that i can't pronounce to try and calm the fitting.
With the administrator leaving last minute to attend a funeral in Kenya, Ruth and I have been left in charge. Thankfully Ruth is amazing at paperwork and is very organized (i am the very opposite) and has taken over the role of administrator. I spent the whole of Yesterday writing and designing new forms and contracts for volunteers who decided to come to Kisoro - Yes, Dad - you better believe it, i have been doing paperwork willingly!! I have been dealing with the more hands on work that needs to be done - sorting out medicines, doing rounds of the centre checking the kids health, carrying on with the physio and dealing with the baby carers (it can be a huge job in its self!)
I helped the toddler carers do the toddler walk the other day. It was quite a long way for all their little legs but i guess they have to man up and deal with it because the other children their age are walking miles! We walked out of town into the hills where all the farming is done. I made 5 local farmers children cry and run away in 2 hours. I am strangely proud of my achievement.. Is it coz I'm white?!
Today is Saturday, and I was planning on cleaning the whole of our house as it was getting a bit grubby. This didn't work out exactly to plan because Jenny mentioned that the incubator and oxygen were on their way down from Kampala and should arrive by this evening. I have never seen her so excited! All morning we have been preparing the Special Care Baby Unit by scrubbing floors, walls, ceilings and organizing the furniture that will be put in. All we need now, is a nurse to put into the nurses office! Hopefully we will organize interviews this week, and who knows, maybe Jenny will actually have a day off for once!
Little Jojo and I are planning on flying his kite in the field this afternoon. Not sure how long it will last because his attention span is as big as mine, but we always think of something to play when we get bored of kites!

It may sound quite negative, and although some days a pretty tough i am still enjoying my time out here. But i would kill for a lasagne.. I plan on taking the afternoon off to buy bananas, lemons and pineapples and maybe even treat myself to a lunch at the cafe. Life's good.

                                                           Squeak

Hospitals, New arrivals, and Rainy Season!

What a week we have had here in Kisoro!

Last weekend, we were all rushed off our feet with lots of babies in isolation. Baby J was dangerously dehydrated after catching a bug and had to be fed through a tube. Baby A was rushed to hospital with pneumonia, he catches it so easily after been diagnosed with Chronic Lung Disease. Other Baby J and Baby B both had unexplained fevers. We were rushed off out feet trying to sort out medication, determine which thermometers were reliable and make new rotas, whilst not forgetting all the other children here at P.V. Thankfully they are all better and back with the other babies and now we only have Baby G in isolation.

On Wednesday, Ezra received a call saying that a father was going to bring in 2 day old twin boys. Their mother had died the previous day, not due to a difficult child birth just because the doctor forgot the deliver the placenta and she had bled to death later on in the day. The father of the family works in the city of Kampala (10 hours away) but his family lives here in the hills of Kisoro. He has 5 other children all under the age of 10. It made me so angry to hear how the mother had died, and if more attention had been paid 7 children would have a mumma still. The family were so sad to part with their babies, but it is the best place for them to be at this moment in time.

I have spent the past few days up at Jenny's house, looking after the twins and premature Baby E . The twins, who we call Squeak (the eldest but smallest) and Grunt (the youngest but biggest) are now 5 days old. Squeak was only 1.5kg when he was born but now he is 1.7kg. Looking after 3 very hungry babies on my own is pretty hard work (if you have triplets or twins, you have my respect!) but we are now getting into a routine which has made things easier. I actually love these 2 boys, and want to keep them forever and ever! Baby E however, is a monster.

Thanks to the beginning of the rainy season, the electicity has been very unreliable. Thank goodness for a laptop with long battery life! Yesterday we didn't have power for over 24 hours. My candle lit dinner would have been very romantic if i was with a handsome young man, but it was with Ruth so it didn't have the same affect...! Not complaining though, the rain and thunder storms are amazing, sometimes even bigger and louder than the ones in  Italy last year.

Today, I have spent the morning hand washing all my clothes, towels and bed sheets and scrubbing the kitchen floor (i have blisters to prove it!) As a reward, Ruth and I had lunch at the Coffee Pot Cafe, where i had an amazing tuna sandwich and a pot of English tea. Altogether this cost me 6000 shillings (just over 1 pound!)

Cadburys chocolate costs 2000 shillings (about 50p) but with 2000 shillings you could buy a bunch of carrots, a bag of tomatoes, a pineapple, a huge bag of potatoes and 5 green peppers!

Hopefully this coming week will be less manic, but i am looking forward to looking after Squeak and Grunt again :)

Grunt!