Day 3 - work begins

We awakened  once again to rains, but without the electrical activity of previous mornings.  The two hours of rains have made the dirt roads we walk a minefield of puddles & mud patches.  I was awake very early and worked on posting my blog.  With my typical perfect timing, I step into the shower precisely as the power goes out again, so gritted my teeth through a cold shower.

Sue was thrilled to visit the hardware store with Victoria & pick up paint & supplies.  The middle room of the little kids’ dorm is to get a facelift.  Plaster patching is applied with fingers.  The brushes are large and coarse.  There are rollers, but no trays, so it’s a matter of dipping the roller into the bucket of paint and spreading it evenly with your fingers.  Victoria helped the work moved along pretty quickly

Sue & Alicia watched by several of the little kid dorm residents

I went to the clinic where Dr. Durga was already involved assessing a couple of sick infants – one the daughter of a BKU worker and the other a neighbourhood Mom & daughter.  Durga is a great and patient teacher, and I think she will help both Rosemary & I greatly.  Luckily, most of the kids seem to have an upper respiratory virus infection and just require symptomatic treatment and expectant watchfulness.  Arnold, however, turns out to be suffering a ripping ear infection, so I am confident he will be back to his usual gregarious self within a couple of days.

One of the beautiful ill babies

Arnold watches me while the moms & Rose watch Dr. Durga examine a baby

Happy mom and not so happy babe

Introduction to the EMR went pretty well, but after entering Rose as a user, her password login would not work.  I recall the same thing happened when I entered myself in the system and perhaps it validates new users at midnight or something like that.  We went through several of the software modules before we were both getting rather tired, and the kids started pouring in again for assessment or follow up.  I finished off by showing Rose how to load one of the movie DVD’s which we brought and I’m amazed how riveting the kids found the English cartoon which most would not understand.

A large cohort of ill BKU kids

Not too ill to have some fun

Justine watches Hakim while his mom goes to the dorm to help Sue

A cow by the washstand

One of the projects our funds are helping along:  construction of a wall and extension of the cattle stables to ensure better survival of the cows

Rose gives a couple of older boys the task of posting notices for the upcoming immunization clinic in the community

 Next was a visit to Sue, Angel & Alicia who were fitting kids for donated shoes and clothing.  The BKU kids greatly value their clothes, and keep track of whose  is whose clothing very carefully.   The young kids then hammed it up for the camera and even Matron asked to pose for a few portrait shots.

Dr. Durga, Rose & I pose with medications donated by the Brother's foundation of USA

Susan fitting shoes

Sandra & Obama

looks like they're behind a glass wall, doesn't it?

Sonyu does a little dramatic work for the camera.

Don poses

Matron poses

Alicia & Sue brave the rush hour traffic on the way back to Banana Village

Back to Banana Village for dinner.  Met two guys who are here on a project sponsored by Carlow University.  Mike and Kevin just came off a great tour of Tanzania including lots of wildlife sightings.  Gotta do the tourist/adventure tour one of these times!  They are doing several projects in Uganda including one with BKU.

Pauline & Leonard returned late after an emotionally draining day spent visiting the burn ward in Kampala and interviewing several acid attack survivors.  They were obviously emotionally raw after the experience, and I think our discussion help debrief them a little.  Noble work they are doing with this new documentary film.