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!