The African Adventures of Team Crow!

All Brawn

Those of you who know Tim well will know his love of the film Anchorman, and it is the words of Ron Burgundy that must be quoted now as we start this next blog!

“I'm not a baby, I am a man.... I'm a man who discovered the wheel and built the Eiffel Tower out of metal and brawn. That's what kind of man I am. You're just a woman with a small brain. With a brain a third the size of us. It's science!”

So true....and a few weeks ago, Tim & David (Sarah’s dad) proved this by taking on the challenge of building a 5 star chicken coop with nothing other than some off-cuts of wood, nails, and of course, metal, brawn and superior brain power!! GRRRRR!!!

This testosterone fest was  further escalated by our neighbours cockerel, who turned up to savagely ravage the chickens who already live on our compound and are owned by Prince and Lydia, who live in the other building on the land we are renting.  We would have felt a little bad for these poor, emotionally scarred chickens were it not for the fact that they have pretty much decimated our tenderly planted bougainvillea which now lie in ruins!

A Stoic Patient  

There is however, one thing that is sure to reduce any man to squeaks of agony. This is a quinine injection in the bum cheek, something that Tim has become all too accustomed to over the years, and which he has recently had to endure, as he was once again struck down with malaria! Thankfully Doctor Sarah with her intellectual prowess was on hand to suggest it would be less painful if half the dose was injected in one cheek and half in the other. This thankfully turned out to be a good plan, rather than backfiring and leaving Tim unable to sit in any position. We would be lying however if we were to say that there weren’t still a few small yelps!

Some Teaching at Kitovu

This week, we had a visit from an Irish neonatal team, aiming to help train up our staff in advance of the opening of the Kitovu neonatal unit (at some point, when funding is available!), so Sarah was able to use the resuscitation doll that we had obtained.  She goes by the name of Neo-Natalie, but we call her Neo-Nantale to ensure she feels at home in Uganda.  Anyway, she was a great success, and really helped us to illustrate the important points of neonatal resuscitation.  Long live Nantale!

And finally, more “lost in translation”

It was only last night when we were having a Luganda lesson with our good friend Gerald, that Sarah realised that after what is now months of saying “mpulira empewo”, when she feels cold, it turns out that it actually means “I feel I have wind”.  Brilliant.  Thankfully, the need to express feeling cold is not very great in Uganda!