More of life!

The kitchen - the rest you can see below- I couldn't get the pics together. You can see the white bag of charcoal in the corner. The sodas in the cupboard are pretty much in constant supply at the guesthouse unfortunately!

Hospital staff sports day.

They did more than play tug of war with the rope
Had musical chairs dancing game, football and a
cycling race! Quite amusing.

The guesthouse kitchen sink with the bat, alive, I discovered one night. A few days later there was a rather large gecko stuck in the sink as it was too slippery for it to get out. It was rescued by the gardener eventually.

The kitchen

Bonus eggs and chicken in the same pot! I guess they hadn't been laid yet.

The traditional dress for women- gormas. The ladies that keep the guesthouse going:)

This baby goat had just been born!

The son of one of my colleagues being baptized.

Lots of cows

Boys off with their bikes to get water from the bohr hole.

I loved this picture of this little girl helping her mom wash the laundry.

The protestant (Anglican) church

A typical meal. Well except now that it is just me there is no longer a meat dish. Cooked cabbage I would say we have about 3-4 times a week! Thankfully I like cabbage. The flat bread thing is jipati (? spelling) and then boiled irish potatoes.

Town. The van is a taxi. There are a couple of streets that actually have more shops. This is where you can easily get a boda boda (the motorcycles) to go to the hospital. The post office is in that yellow building.

More pics of life!

Well, I still don't quite have the blogging down yet! I can't seem to format the pictures and writing how I would like at this point. However, I'll do my best to give some type of description that you can follow hopefully. Most of these pictures are of patients. The one at the bottom is one of our patients from the cerebral palsy (CP) clinics. We are working on strengthening some of his neck and back muscles so the toy's purpose is to get him to try to keep his head up.

The next picture is a man that was carrying a bed frame on his bicycle! The picture above is taken from the porch of the guesthouse and if you enlarge it you will see a cow in the field.

The picture with the guy in the red shirt...that's one of the physios that was working when I arrived but unfortunately will no longer be at the hospital in the new year. We were working with a kid who had an AFO (ankle/foot orthosis). We see so many kids that need these largely due to the effects of vaccinations for malaria that leave them with some paralysis. It is really sad to see.

The picture with the two women sitting on the ground was taken when one of the English ladies that was out at Kumi followed up with these two sisters to provide them with a goat. They are incredible. I don't know what condition they have but they are very short but manage well with the tricycle in the background. One of the sisters is the one who propels it and the other lady sits on the back and they go quite a long ways into town to sell things they bake at a school. They live independently and have a hut to sleep in and modified stools and chairs with the legs cut off --you can see in the pictures. They are so self sufficient and have so much pride it was inspiring to see!

I filled up a water bottle at one of the bohr holes. There are a lot of these in Uganda.

The pic with the kid in the orange shirt is one of the days that gave me hope that it is possible to make some difference. I had tried to work with him a fair bit to try to stretch his legs that are becoming very contracted...but he only cried and screamed. I had hardly ever seen him when he wasn't just lying down and crying. He was in the nutrition unit as he was very malnourished and had pressure/bed sores as well. The day this picture was taken the physio and I had taken him to the physio department and managed to get him sitting up and tried to get some reaction from him using toys. He finally smiled and it was amazing to see:) I think his grandmother was surprised as well as from her communication it sounded like he seldom showed positive emotion. Further up you'll see a few more pics of him when we found a wheelchair to position him in and again his demeanor changed dramatically and he was smiling and looking around at what was happening in the room. His grandma later reported that that day after returning to the nutrition unit with the wheelchair he kept on saying his cousin's name over and over as if he wanted to tell her about it. He apparently had not spoken anything for a long time except to communicate wanting food. Again seeing changes like this make some of the struggles seem worth it:) Unfortunately, in his case his grandma who is the main provider for him and I think 2 other children was going home to no crops (due to the drought) and no food. I try not to feel hopeless in situations like this where it seems like the only likely end result is that he will be back in the nutrition unit within months again due to malnutrition. His grandma was very grateful though for the wheelchair as she says now she can take him with her to church instead of leaving him lying on the floor of the hut. We also encouraged her to take him in the wheelchair out to the fields etc so he can interact with people during the day instead of being left alone in the hut. I hope to do a home visit in the New Year to follow up with their situation.

The next two pics are of kids we worked with in the CP clinic also. The one kid was so excited to see his reflection it was priceless. The other kid has POP (plaster of paris) on his legs to help straighten them and will then likely have braces for walking. He was also such a happy kid--and also enjoyed seeing himself in the mirror.

The kid at the top I have already posted some pics of. He again is one of the kids I had quite a bit of involvment with and was always amazed at his smile. He could be sitting half naked with flies constantly on him and he would still give a huge white smile when given any attention. Unfortunately, he won't be independent with his wheelchair as he has a contracture which prevents full use of his left arm. However, hopefully other kids in the village will push him around so he will be a bit more mobile than before. He comes from a pretty sad home situation with only his 20 year old brother and his brothers wife to care for him. His brother has his own kid as well. The OT gave him his cell phone to listen to music while we tried to fix his wheelchair and he loved it. A picture of his brother and sister-in-law who look after him.

Will try to post some pics of other aspects of life outside of work too!

Pictures

Above is one of my patients that I have talked about on my blog before. Thankfully this wheelchair became available and we were able to modify it for him so he does not have to be carried everywhere (it wasn't yet modified in this picture). Unfortunately, because of his contractures in his left arm/hand he is not able to independently move the wheelchair but hopefully his family and friends in the village will push him around in it. Before he would just be left sitting outside in the compound alone while everyone else was off on the farm or elsewhere. I pray that having this mobility will mean he will be included in more of the community activities. He is such a bright boy and even when he is left sitting on the ground being bothered by numerous flies he is still quick to give you a huge grin if you acknowledge him!

The picture above with the crowd of people is one of our village outreach clinics where we screen individuals with various disabilities and refer them to come to Kumi Hospital or to go to other places for treatment. We also have a community outreach worker who is trained to assess individuals with eye problems. He sees mainly adults while the rest of the team prioritizes children first and then if there is time we assess adults as well.

The gorgeous pool setting is a place I discovered with some friends while we were in Jinja. It is right by the Nile river--beyond the white wall you can see the Nile river. The setting is gorgeous and while the price to stay here is out of my budget, the cost of a day at the pool is only about $3, which is well worth the chance to relax and get some exercise in the pool. Unfortunately, Jinja is about a 3 hr drive from Kumi so this isn't a treat I get to enjoy often!

Pictures!

Wow! Uploading this picture took about 30 minutes:( I don't think I'll be uploading too many but maybe one a day. This is typical Ugandan food. Really not very unusual and quite easy for the palate.

Oops I hit something accidentally and it deleted my one picture! That's discouraging. Sorry I will have to wait till I have another 30 minutes to wait for an upload.

By the way this is being done on my new laptop. I finally succeeded with this purchase in Kampala though not without stress. I also purchased a modem so I have internet access without having to borrow one all the time. It feels strange to be part of the cyber world again.

more later...