I'm Dreaming of a Light Christmas

It’s Christmas Eve as we write this, and we’re busy preparing for Christmas…. Or rather we were…. Until JOY oh JOY (you guessed it), a power cut!  It’s an (undoubtedly unwritten) rule that we ALWAYS have power on public holidays.  ALWAYS.  That is unless it is a fault rather than a scheduled case of 'load sharing.' So our initial upbeat analysis that UMEME were simply conserving power in order to make sure we have it all day on Christmas soon turned to woe when a quick recce revealed that it was just us and 2 neighbours that were affected. The fact that the 2 neighbours affected are the 2 electricity stealing grasshopper catching muppets hailed in our previous blog may well point to the reason we now sit in darkness. But no need to worry – even on Christmas eve at half past nine at night, you can be sure that the electricity guys at UMEME will be out in the next half hour to fix the problem.  Ha ha.  Our little joke!  Needless to say, we will most likely be enjoying the start of 2015 before we enjoy the return of the power. 

There’s lots of stuff to say about Synergy but Tim is too cross about the power to write anything right now, so you’ll need to wait until next time!

On the Baby Unit, it’s not been terribly busy, but we’ve had some great moments, one of which was seeing our sweet little baby Babirye Josephine the other day.  You may remember that she was our tiniest ever surviving baby (scroll back a few blogs if you want to see her tiny little self), weighing in at 820g at birth (and dropping to far below that initially when she was unwell).  Well, what a beauty she is now, though you may note that good genes are playing a real role in this one!

We love it when babies are cherished right from the start.  But let’s face it – it’s not always like that.  That’s why the people-skills that our head nurse Cathy possesses are such a blessing.  A recent baby caused us considerable consternation, as despite initially doing well and being discharged, she failed to gain weight well, and finally started to lose weight.  The father reported the mother was “sick of coming to the hospital for review, and sick of the baby” which made our hearts sink, but Cathy proposed she come and see them, and a couple of home visits later, this little beauty is now thriving (and even attending reviews at the hospital again), with a devoted clan of siblings helping mama out.

Finally, well, you know what’s coming.  It is with no small portion of embarrassment and shame/pride and delight (depending on whether you're Sarah or Tim!) that we share our Christmas 2014 song with you…. Ready for it?  Then click the link for: AN AFRICAN HIP HOP CHRISTMAS.   Brappppppppppppppppp!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4lOS-AVLzY

'Tis The Season...

Here in Uganda it’s our favourite season – no, not Christmas but Grasshopper season (shudder!).  This means that each night is disturbed by the clanks and clonks of grasshopper collectors rattling iron sheets inside their steel drums, shouting, laughing and carrying on until the early hours (i.e. 5am).  For the most part, they steal electricity for their bright lights (which attract the grasshoppers) by tapping other people’s lines, leading to power surges and power cuts. Two such men, rather foolhardily, had the cheek to bang on our gate and ask if they could come into our garden to tap our line.  When Tim declined on the basis that he didn’t want to support theft, they in turn protested that they had permission to do so from UMEME (the electrical company).  Tim challenged them to return with an UMEME official before he would consider even continuing the conversation. Lo and behold we have heard nothing from them again! 

Unfortunately, that hasn't stopped two of our immediate 'upstanding' Christian neighbours partaking in tapping into the power illegally to catch grasshoppers themselves. If this metallic clanging, banging and shouting were to replace the all night prayer meetings and deliverance ministry they conduct it might not be so bad, but this is one of the few examples where the art of multitasking has been mastered, and so we now have banging, clanging, whooping (when it's  a particularly good night for grasshoppers) combined with wailing, off-key singing, shouting and a bit more banging for good measure! Tim will soon be ready for a bit of banging himself - so if our next blog is about him being on trial for having committed GBH, you will know why!!!

Unto us a chick is born...

Yep, a chick.  One solitary little sweet chick.  His name is Welibalo.  The choice of name bears testimony to the joy that Tim experienced a few years back when he was looking through receipts supplied for Operation ARK (putting faith into action by painting, cleaning and otherwise helping out in the local community).  When he saw the word “welibalo”, with a reasonably large price tag, he was considerably perplexed.  Only some time later did he discover what a "welibalo' was! 

..and some babies

We’re excitedly gearing up for new staff for the Baby Unit, and also having a bit of a reshuffle, to ensure that all the staff on the Unit is well suited for being there.  The thing is that our nurses have to be motivated in order to work with us, as if they aren’t, they can get away with doing the bare minimum to the detriment of all.  So we’re excited to see how the coming months will be.  

We’d also like to introduce to you the first baby to sleep in the baby unit “extension”, that of Mumbejja – an ex-preterm baby who had gone home and thrived but returned extremely sick (freezing cold,  dehydrated, anaemic, hypoglycaemic, you name it) around 3 weeks later with her mum who had cried all night worrying about her.  Happily, she improved with treatment, and has since been discharged to the eager arms of her mum (and dad, who accompanied them to reviews! Notable because this is unusual!), and has started thriving again.

Another new development for the Unit: we’re now able to help babies who need to be transferred elsewhere (e.g. babies requiring complex abdominal surgery, cardiac surgery etc), but whose parents can’t themselves afford the ambulance transfer.  This was inspired by a generous couple who helped one of our mums take her sick little one to Mulago Hospital, Kampala.  The little girl, sadly, didn’t make it, as her surgery was too complex, but this change in how we operate will hopefully be a blessing to many babies that follow in her tiny footsteps, and require transfer.

Expert parenting advice, anyone?

All new parents will know that the key to joyful parenting is having endless tons of well-meant advice from other people, who (of course) know your child much better than you do.  Well, we are clearly experts in parenting, as exemplified by this wonderful picture of keeping Noah safe and secure.  So… any need for parenting advice?  Roll up, roll up!

A Beautiful Compromise!

A lot has been happening at the Baby Unit recently, and one of the exciting developments is that finally we have a space to accommodate babies born outside the hospital, without high risk of cross-infection.  It’s been a compromise, as instead of an “extension”, it’s more of a “partition”, but it’s been beautifully decorated by some willing volunteers, including Shauna visiting from the UK, Katie, our splendid gap yearer, and from the White Eagle Project, both Aunt Sarah and Catherine who recently finished her primary school P7 exams. 

This is great news for all of us at the Baby Unit, as we’re really eager to help as many babies as we possibly can to thrive!  Below is a picture of our head nurse Cathy, with two of our preterm babies and their proud maamas. 

Synergy Begin their Big League Campaign

The Synergy Senior Team have now played their 4 opening matches in their first season in Uganda's second tier - Big League. Compared to their exploits in the Buganda Regional League last season it has indeed been a 'Big' step up, and there is need to work hard to push up the table after 1 win, 2 draws and 1 loss so far. If you are interested in our progress you can now visit our Synergy FC website at:

synergyfc.leaguerepublic.com

We will soon be entering the very busy holiday period of December and January. This is always a challenge with only 3 staff members (Brian, Abbey and myself) training, visiting mentoring and discipling well over 100 players from the ages of 7 to 25. We will also have 5 Big League fixtures in December, so we have a busy time ahead!

A Pox (Pocks) on our House…. 

Whilst those of you in exotic locations such as the USA or Europe may be mulling over the risk of Ebola virus, we too have been plagued by a virus – albeit a slightly more mundane one.  Yes, Noah (along with most of the kids that he knows at the Danish Kindergarten that he goes to once a week) has been afflicted by chickenpox.  It had to happen sometime, and he mostly took it with good humour, albeit stopping every now and then to furiously scratch. 

That said, on a more tropical note, he has allegedly since been diagnosed with malaria, though this doesn’t seem to have phased him in the slightest (and his cynical maama is not particularly convinced that the blood slide was correct).

Farewell to a Fabulous Man!

As well as a month of exciting developments here in Uganda, October was also a month of sadness for Sarah’s American family, including the loss of her beloved and fantastic grandpa, Dama (Oliver Crosby).  Words are probably insufficient to explain properly how amazing he was, but anyone who met him knows that he was one of a kind, a tremendously warm, humorous and intelligent man.  He will be massively missed by so many.

Oh Uganda, how we've missed you....!

One thing you learn when living in Uganda is to expect the unexpected, especially when returning after a few months away! Returning this time has been no different, namely that you would not expect someone to have the audacity to break into your vehicle in broad daylight and steal a bag whilst you were sitting just 20 metres away in full view having breakfast! But this is Uganda, and as such we therefore spent 2 hours of our first morning at Entebbe police station giving details of various valuable items that some cheeky felon is probably bootlegging as we write!

You also would not expect the arrival of 2 puppies when the last thing you did before leaving was inject your dog to ensure she would not get pregnant. To be fair, Sierra our dog was not in fact the bearer of these new additions, but rather felt the need to adopt the poor mutts. Whilst one was taken by a neighbour, we just had enough time to start getting attached to the other little beast before a mysterious incident early one morning raised us from bed to find it half dead with one of its eyes hanging out. Much as it fought for the next few days to hang on, we in the end decided the most humane act was to have it put down by a local vet and thus our animal woes continue.

Another of our chickens, Omudongo, has also bitten the dust (perhaps in hindsight giving her a name which translates as “Good for nothing” meant such a demise was inevitable!). We find ourselves wishing it had instead been our cockerel Mr. Loverman who had met such an end as we are awoken each morning at 4am by his strangulated crowing! It’s great to be back!!!

Speaking of noisy fat birds.... it is only fitting that we officially share the news that Sarah is pregnant with our second child. She is due in mid April, so we will be returning to UK in March, just over 5 months from now!

Sarah was delighted to find that all was well in the Baby Unit on her return – Cathy has done a fantastic job of keeping things in line, and juggling nurses to ensure good cover in the face of shortages of staff.  Before we went home for the summer, we saw some familiar faces return to greet us.  The lovely thing was that when Sarah said “Thank you so much for coming back, it really encourages us to see babies doing well”, one of the mothers said “I know – that’s why I come back”.  

Some of these little babies have been so doted upon that their mothers even need to be encouraged to cut down on the “topping up” of milk, for fear they remain Michelin babies!  And whilst we were in the UK, the staff were all invited to celebrate the christening of Baby Babirye (the tiniest graduate so far of the Baby Unit).  It’s really wonderful to see good relationships forming between staff and mothers, all of whom often need a lot of encouragement and support!

Baby Hajarah before and after

Baby Hadijah before and after

Baby Allene before and after

Frustrations and Jubilations!

Totally surrounded!!

We’ve now been in the UK for over a month, but we Just wanted to update you about the Sango Bay Refugee camp that Sarah has been working at...  we are delighted to report that *finally* their water source has been sorted out.  Just as well, really, considering the men were refusing to use the water purification tablets for fear that they might affect their “potency”.  I would argue that bloody diarrhoea might have a negative impact on your potency too, but who am I to say?

It’s quite full-on work when, since, most of the time, you feel like you’re in the centre of the World’s Largest Rugby Scrum, and sometimes you can’t even get out of your chair to select drugs for a patient, since you risk squashing several waiting patients in the process.  No problem, you might say, why not have a number system, a la Mr Bean, but when each patient comes with 4 children, even that system is not fool-proof (if you eventually want to get home in the evening!).  Suggestions on a postcard (airmail!) please….

Sometimes you just need Argos….

…know what I mean?  Well, if you don’t, you will.  We wanted to buy a washing machine that could handle all the stinky nappies that our little man produces, so off we went to Kampala.  Simple task, right?  Yep, it was simple.  Popped in, picked one, packed it into the car, bit of a pain to get it plumbed in, but sorted that out soon enough.  One good load of laundry done. 

And then it started clunking.  A bit like when you have tiny pixies in your pipes with large hammers, working away as if they were coal miners.  No problem, we had to return to Kampala to pick up visitors two weeks later, so off we trotted, to be told that the problem had been our fault – we’d forgotten to undo a bolt.  But never mind, as it’s now fixed.  Great!  Except once we got it safely home (3 hour drive, remember) it wasn’t.  Luckily our visitors needed to be dropped off again 10 days later, so our friend Mukiibi returned the machine again, with a polite but firm note demanding either a new machine or money back.  Sarah thought it wise not to ask about the bolt at the time of exchange, lest they refuse the exchange.  When we finally got through on the phone to them 4 days later, it turns out there IS no bolt.  Sarah was dumbfounded.  Tim wasn’t in the least bit surprised!

Baby Babirye!  

Another week, another heart-warming baby story.  This little poppet is our tiniest ever survivor, born at 820g (1.8 pounds), and 28 weeks gestation.  When she was born, there was another small baby born that same day, so it was rationing time on the Unit (you think you’ve got it bad in the NHS?).  So Sarah deduced that this tiny little creature couldn’t possibly survive, so the one infusion pump was used on another baby.  WELL, Baby Babirye was having none of it – she stuck her tiny nose in the air, clenched her fists, and fought a good fight.  She spent nearly 50 days with us on the Unit, but turned out very well indeed, thriving at home with her devoted maama, as well as returning to the Unit to encourage us periodically. 

 And finally, you know you’re in Uganda when...

You notice your small son is playing with a worm... oh no, on closer look, it’s a baby snake.  Best not eat that, then, boyo!