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.
Ellie, i am so so so proud of you and very jealous of all the things you're doing!!! Keep it up, beautiful girl!!! xxx
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