The African Adventures of Team Crow!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year.  We fear, alas, that our Christmas song was a tad too prophetic, since indeed, there was NO water for Christmas (not so handy since we had 20 people for Christmas dinner!), very nearly no power (it went off on 23^rd Dec, but luckily we were able to get it fixed on 24^th!), and a little less predictably, we also had a case of typhoid (poor Tim , and his innards which took quite a battering!). Nevertheless, it was a great day – lots of kiddies, since Marvin, his Auntie and his cousin came along, as well as a couple of White Eagles and a family who lives nearby.  Lots of kiddies = lots of chaos, but also lots of fun!

Noah enjoying the delights of the Christmas BBQ!

A bit of Baby Unit news: we’re mega-chuffed to have appointed a deputy head nurse, Esther, to help Cathy – she’s been with the unit for the past year, but has experience on Children’s ward previously, and she’s frankly a bit of a star! 

Esther, our new assistant head nurse

As well as looking after our teeny and sick babies, we’ve also been doing some training!  Firstly we recently trained 5 of our interns on the ins-and-outs of working on the Baby Unit.  And then we did a CME (continuing medical education) talk for the whole hospital on bubble CPAP.  It’s a technique that gives a little extra pressure to babies’ lungs, preventing them from collapsing down at the end of each breath.  Think about a party balloon: hard to blow up initially, but easier after a little air is inside the balloon.  Same for lungs!

Cathy setting up homemade bubble CPAP

We’re getting excited for Sarah’s parents’ visit… and can’t believe their luck…Having had another month with no toilet-flushing, showering or washing machine, we’ve just had the water board around, who discovered a block at the inlet to our property, and unblocked it.  The result?  A full tank! First time since NOVEMBER!!  Literally.  Can’t.  Believe.  It! David and Jane will be blessed!

Hopefully they won’t have any run-ins with what we discovered on our lawn 2 days ago. It seems that our trusty mutt Sierra is giving Timmo a run for his money when it comes to the rat-catching stakes, as she bagged this humongous beast (this is not a photo using clever perspective, it really is THAT big)! 

To be fair such a monster would have laughed in the face of a mere rat-trap. Suffice to say had we discovered it inside, it may well have been enough for us to say 'Au revoir' to our house here in Bwala!! Thanks to Sierra, we will stay....for now...

Anyway to finish back to water issues and a parenting silver lining:

Parenting silver linings:

Your toddler has stuffed a whole roll of toilet paper (unrolled, Andrex Puppy Stylie) in the toilet.  He presses the flush handle.  Gahhhh!  But luckily, since you live in Bwala, there is no water for flushing, so you don’t end up with a blockage! Better luck next time Noah!