Adventures In Western Uganda!

We have been rather tardy in updating our blog, since Sarah’s parents, David and Jane, have been visiting, but now we are ready to share the highlights of our time with them....

A Dangerous Wizz in the Heart of Queen Liz...

When we moved to Uganda, we knew that Uganda was a beautiful country, but I don’t think we appreciated just how beautiful until we went on a foray into Western Uganda.  First stop was Queen Elizabeth National Park, where we stayed in a “bush camp”, which basically means posh camping.

We did a driving tour around the National Park, and our tour guide was a little distressed by Tim and David’s flagrant disregard for their own safety, as the need to relieve themselves seemed to far outweigh the dangers of unseen beasts looking for their next meal!  Thankfully they both live to tell the tale, and with all appendages intact!

The particular highlight of the stay was the boat trip along the Mweya peninsula, featuring many water buffalo, hippos, crocodiles, birds of every colour, water bucks, warthogs, Uganda kobs, and elephants, all perilously close to swimming children from the nearby village!  We had spent all day keeping our eyes peeled for the animal everybody wanted to see, and towards the end of the boat trip Tim suddenly shrieked with excitement  when he saw what he says was a lion, through David’s binoculars. Unfortunately this can’t be confirmed as he was the only one to get a peek before it apparently slipped behind a bush. It must be said that pretty much everyone else thinks he was mistaken, but in his mind at least it definitely WAS a lion! (it was - I’m telling you!!)

 A final little treat was a few sharp nips from a tsetse fly for both David and Sarah, so prayers against Sleeping Sickness would be gratefully received!

A Colobus Legion in the Crater Lakes Region...

Next stop was to visit some long-lost relatives Sally and Sue who work at a teaching training college just outside Fort Portal. We were given a fine welcome and that evening we walked to a nearby crater lake just in time to see a fabulous sunset with the Rwenzori mountains as a backdrop before heading back for a few beers and a wonderful beef stew!

The next day we visited a nature reserve overlooking an amazing crater lake surrounded by jungle that made us feel like we were in Swiss Family Robinson! Up in the trees were a whole troop of Colobus monkeys who took very little notice of us, apart from to occasionally urinate from a height in our direction! Needless to say we kept our mouths firmly shut as we peered up at them from that point on!  After a spot of lunch we struck out to walk to a local viewpoint named “The Top of The World.” Perhaps this title is a little grandiose but we did get wonderful views and felt very blessed to be in such beautiful surroundings.    

Our trip ended with a slap up meal at the Mountains of the Moon hotel before heading back to Masaka the next day. Two thumbs up for a really fantastic trip and one we hope to do again in the future (for Tim to go and find his lion, if for no other reason!). 

A Day with the NDA...

When they arrived, David and Jane had 6 large bags, of which only 1 contained their stuff.  The rest was all for us!  Two contained donated drugs (medical of course, we haven't resorted to dealing crack just yet, although if the pound drops much more against the shilling it's always an option!), and these bags were to lead us on one of those infamous Ugandan journeys that make you feel like you’re rowing a boat with one oar!  David was unreasonably worried by the big sign proclaiming that importing drugs without declaring them would lead to a stay in one of Uganda’s delightful prisons, and deciding that this may not be the best place to spend his 2 week trip, therefore dutifully declared them.

 We were told to come back the next day to clear the drugs with the NDA (National Drug Authority), only to discover that we actually needed to go to their office in Kampala (about 40km away through heavy traffic).  Blithely we decided to wait until the day that David and Jane were due to fly, and thus spent the large part of that day sitting in the offices of the NDA, filling forms, paying various fees at the bank, and pacing up and down in frustration (in Sarah’s case).  Good enough, we were given our papers in time to dash to the airport, only to discover that the airport NDA official had gone home early! One more trip to the airport the following day did result in us FINALLY walking away with the drugs with yet another Ugandan lesson in patience & perseverance under our belts!

Home & Away!

Well it has been an eventful week, both home and away.

On the home front, we have hosted a number of new friends, including multiple cockroaches and excitingly some bin-invading maggots, as well as a rat and a number of bats (which fly down the chimney).  Just like his mum, Timmo does not like rats – as you can see, in his courageous attempts to coax the rat from his lair...

In addition, we have had no water for the past week, and when the water did finally flow... here is how it looked:

Fortunately, it cleared up soon enough, as we don’t think Sarah’s parents (who are arriving tonight!) would much like bathing in that.

 

On the work front...

For Sarah, it has been a very sad week at the hospital, with many babies dying of preventable conditions, but when she arrived at work on Monday to discover that three babies had died over the weekend due to anaemia, and a fourth then died in front of her eyes, she called up River of Life Church for help.  Valiantly, they arrived en masse, all willing to donate, but the funniest moment came when Rob (one of the directors) tried to do his part.  A small voice said “Sarah?”.... “Yes?” .... “I’m going to faint!”...  And this was only after the finger prick.  But all credit to him, he then went ahead and blood was dutifully squeezed from him.  Consent has been obtained for publishing this photo of the brave soul!

The last few weeks for Tim have been taken up with organising this year’s football tournament - The Synergy Cup! There have been some eventful matches, but none more so than yesterday’s semi final, which involved a pitch invasion and near riot, after the referee and his assistant disallowed what would have been an equaliser at the end of extra time. The supporters even barred the entrance to the ground, as Tim tried to escort the refs off to safety. Thankfully we managed to get them away before anyone was injured. Even Brian, Tim’s right hand man in Synergy Sports, was nearly beaten by an angry mob of mechanics! It has caused us to hire a police presence for Saturday’s final, which we hope will be an altogether more peaceful affair!

Twas the season to be Jolly!

Happy New Year to one and all!  We hope that the festive season treated you all well, and that you have had a good start to 2012. 

As the Christmas trees come down, and you start to work off those Christmas pounds we thought we would give you our highlights of the festive season:

• Spotting two boys riding along the main road between Masaka and Nyendo on a camel (whilst common in some African countries, this is the first Ugandan camel we have encountered);
• Watching “Elf” with the White Eagles – and seeing good old Buddy save Christmas;

 

•          Christmas carols with mulled wine, mince pies and some rather unconventional “carols” including “Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer” by Destiny’s Child!!
•         Enjoying a slap-up Christmas dinner with friends –including BBQ pork, stuffing, roast spuds, veg, gravy, homemade mincepies and custard;
•          Wolfing down delicious New Year beans and chapattis with our friend, Alison Gill (visiting from Burundi), and others, followed by a drive around Masaka to take in the New Year excitement, including a very enthusiastic mob of people waving chairs in the air in the name of Jesus!
•         Meeting a friendly chameleon called Collin and finding our personal space invaded by a very precocious chicken called Charlie, who seems to have taken up residence in our garage (quite uninvited, and now even more so, since he has developed a habit of pooing on Tim’s football equipment... Tim is therefore threatening to take definitive action, in inviting him for a roast chicken dinner, as the guest of honour!)

We are so grateful for all the support that we have received from all our friends and family, and really hope that you will keep telling us your news.  For any of you who haven’t yet checked out our Christmas serenade to you, go to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qpihh1jXYSg

AND FINALLY…..

 BARMY BODAS (continued)! 

Probably the only Ugandan to actually make use of a rear view mirror!

Use It & You May Lose It!

Below is a photo many of you will know from the classic early 90s film, Home Alone. The question is, how do you elicit such a face from a child in Uganda, where having to deal with cack-handed and rather dim witted robbers is fairly common-place!

The answer is - send them to one of Dr. Sarah’s sessions on the dangers of S.T.Is!

This week saw Dr. Sarah putting her communication skills into practice by teaching all the White Eagles about the delights of infections ranging from Herpes to HIV!

Of particular effect, was Dr. Sarah’s vast array of carefully selected photographic evidence which elicited such responses as:

“Aaaayyyeeee!!! Eh eh eh – can you imagine the state of his little man, will it still work or will it drop off!??”

In the case of Donavonosis, whose side effects include auto amputation (feel free to Google pictures for yourselves), the answer was quite literally, yes it might indeed fall off, which of course was followed by many more screams, squawks and exclamations in Luganda like “Mama Wange! Mukama Sasira!” (Literal translation – “Mother of mine! Lord have mercy!”)

Altogether a successful session, and it certainly will have helped our kids some way towards reaffirming their commitment to abstinence before marriage!

AND FINALLY…..

We want to take this opportunity to introduce a new section of our blog called.....

 BARMY BODAS! 

Boda Bodas are Uganda’s motorcycle taxis, and it never ceases to amaze us the crazy things you find them loaded up with, and the complete disregard they have for any sort of road safety!

Feel free to give us your own caption, todays instalment is below! Enjoy!

Fast Food - KFCs Ugandan Supplier!

Always Look On the Bright Side of Life!

Apparently there are 2 types of people in this world: Glass half empty people and glass half full people. If you’re not sure which type you are then come to Uganda and it will no doubt become quickly apparent!

We are trying our best to be the latter, although this does, at times, take a bit of conditioning! One thing is clear, the longer we are here the better we are at looking on the lighter side of every challenge!

For example:

(1) Some might complain about having a very limited power supply. We say “hoorah” for our monthly electricity bill of only 6 pounds!

(2) Some might see a flooded football pitch as a serious obstacle to football excellence. We however welcome the opportunity for developing Masaka’s very first water sports project (and we played a competitive football match on it anyway)!

(3) Some (Sarah) might find the infestation of (killer) grasshoppers in our house a bit too much to bear. Others (Tim) see it as an opportunity to test their stalking prowess and lightning reactions, not to mention a tasty snack at the end!

(4) Some might find the idea of spending two solid days washing dirty football kits a bind.  We welcome the sense of fulfillment, and the silky smooth hands!

There are some situations where a silver lining may be hard to see. For example, our friend spent the night in a prison cell for having failed to upgrade/downgrade (you decide!) his UK driving license to a Ugandan license. We suspect his wife struggled to see the positive side, especially since he was not given a phone call, so simply didn't come home one evening, leaving her fretting all night. However, perhaps in his situation, we might see a good opportunity to practice our Luganda? And, of course, it's a great story to tell the grandchildren! Still, best get on with sorting out our driving licenses, eh?

So if you need a place to hone your sense of optimism, you are most welcome to join us in Masaka! To quote “The Life of Brian” (who, let us be clear is NOT the Messiah, but a very naughty boy), “Always look on the Bright Side of Life! Do do, do do do do do do!”

Lost in Translation? The joys of Luganda AND Sarah does some work!

Greetings friends and family, today we hope to share with you the joy and wonder of learning Luganda (the language spoken by the Baganda people who live in this area of Uganda, the kingdom of Buganda – we kid you not).  Whilst we are striving to improve, our efforts are not without associated difficulties.  A sample to whet the appetite:

Mukama Afuga: the Lord Reigns!

Mukama Afuuka: the Lord becomes...

Mukama Afuka: the Lord passes urine!

Subtle changes can make all the difference as you can see!

Luckily I think expectations for our Luganda skills is limited, so actual offense-causing is similarly limited.  It is fortunate for us that the people of Uganda are forgiving and friendly!

We also thought we might update you on what we are doing work-wise, in case you think all we do is entertain people by mispronouncing Luganda, and cruise the streets in Barry the Beefy Badboy Beast! Timmo will update you on his work another day, but I will talk a little bit about what I have been doing. 

I have been working at Kitovu hospital on the children’s ward and in outpatients, but have also been to Mulago hospital in Kampala to start to learn more about clubfoot management (using manipulation and bracing, which is cheaper and more effective than surgery). 

Working on the children’s ward involves accepting that at least 50% of my patients burst into tears immediately on seeing me, which is a bit disconcerting – I think perhaps they fear I am a ghost (perhaps I should work on the tan a bit).  And at least 70-80% of the mothers burst into laughter when I try out my Luganda.  Sigh.

But it is good working there – very rewarding, although scary at times.  I am regularly out of my depth (managing comatose malaria patients, commencing anticonvulsant drugs, scratching my head over starting TB treatment, wondering what to tell a mum whose baby appears to have a genetic disorder, trying to decide which sick children needs the oxygen concentrator most – the list goes on), but then spend most evenings fervently searching books, and the net, for management strategies and up to date research.  I am learning a lot and am really very thankful for good internet access!