Paint & scrub - big changes coming

Wednesday is slated as mini immunization day.  Oral polio vaccine is delivered from Kisubi Hospital, and Rose busies herself administering to all those in need.  It's mainly BKU kids who attend, and she gets through the work quickly.

Auntie carries her twins to the clinic for immunization.

Patricia is not impressed at taking the oral polio vaccine.

We visit Angel and the new nursery school teacher in the former hair salon, adjacent to the former babies' dorm.  Angel has been busy preparing for registration and hopes to open the school next week.  The little ones are given bubbles and slinkies to entertain themselves.

Headmistress and teacher of the new Princess Diana Nursery School

Arnold checks out toys

Don learns the mystery of slinky

Obama & Arnold do bubbles

Ida needs a cuddle when the play gets too rough

I have been keen to work on the former big girls' dorm which is now to be the new babies' dorm.  Workers have finished the ceiling to keep out bats and applied a new plastering job as well as a latrine and sink.  There is final touches of painting to be done, and the Mzungus are assigned the task of sweeping the accumulated dirt and construction debris, then mopping the cement floors.  It's a daunting, dirty job, and we struggle to keep up with the pace that Victoria sets by example, but finally we start seeing some clean surfaces just in time, as the bed frames and mattresses arrive, having been trucked from the old dorm.

New latrine & sink

pick up a mop and get to work, honey!

Opio works diligently

Carly applies her ingenuity in assessing space and wall area, and the bunks are finally arranged in such a fashion that the babies can all enter and exit their beds without crawling across another bunk or two.  For the first time, they will have indoor plumbing facilities and separate boys and girls' rooms.

Carly & Sue show their strength

Maggie is the clear winner of the strong woman competition

I know these bunks went together in the old dorm...

Victoria advises us that my highschool friend, David Moore, has earmarked a large donation to construct a quiet room near the dorms that will be used for bible study and school reading.  It will be named "Ruby's Room", in honour of David's mother.  She points out the grassy area where she envisions the new structure will appear.

Ruby's Room will go on the grassy area central, between the cook house & old boys' dorm on the left and the incomplete dining hall on the right

Hot and sweaty, we are glad for a midday swim at Banana Village before finding the babies enjoying an afternoon nap at the medical clinic.  It's heartening to know the safety, comfort and hygeine of the little ones will be improved by these changes.

Bridget cuddles Alicia, Angel's baby daughter

babies napping at the clinic

We hang about the dorm area, anticipating the excitement of the babies when they see their beds moved into the new quarters.  Victoria has been kind enough to take in a young woman stricken by poverty who has three children.  The lady is acting as interim auntie at the big kids' dorm.  Her children have been badly malnourished, and Victoria has taken steps to provide enriched food portions.  Carly had understood that the younger girl, Patricia, is unable to walk and may have cerebral palsy.  We find Patricia sitting on the ground, and indeed she seems very lethargic and does not attempt to walk as her twin brother and older sister scurry about and entertain us.  I scoop the little one up and am relieved to find there is no apparent neurologic problem involving her legs or feet, and we are later amused to see her demonstrate that she is able to stand and walk.  I surmise that her lethargy is the result mainly of malnutrition.

Carly plays clapping games with Judith

I tickle Patricia's toes while assessing her nerve function

relief to see the little one eventually stand and walk

We're happy to see that Maggie, the social worker, has created and posted a chore list rotation for all the bigger kids.  Maggie proudly shows off her new office in the big dorm.

big boys in their bunks

Maggie at her office door

quiet time for homework in the dorm

The little ones finally arrive and do not disappoint with their enthusiasm and happiness at graduating to the dormitory area.

Techno woes

Permit me the pleasure of a little rant over our technology frustrations during this trip.  I promise to toss in some eye candy to make it bearable.

My old blackberry phone has sat in a drawer for the past 3 years, but is still very serviceable.  North American phones are "locked", which means married to a single provider network, so you can't throw a Telus SIM card in your Bell cellphone and expect it will work.  One can find unlock codes on the internet ($6.99 for my old BB), but I was sent about 10 codes with the guarantee that one would work.  The phone turns into a brick after 10 failed attempts, so I left it in the hands of my capable friend Maurice, who seemed to have success.  I was somewhat worried because the Bell logo still appears on the screen when I fire it up.

Arnold seems to have settled into life at the babies' dorm and is now showing his sweet nature consistently

Bridget was encouraged by her parents to come and work at BKU while waiting to start college in the summer

Victoria says the Airtel network is best, since her staff use that and it's more expensive to call phones on a different network.  A day or 2 after we arrive, I purchase a SIM card, plop it in, load on some air time and successfully make a couple of calls.  Brilliant!

The next day, when I attempt to call anyone, I'm immediately disconnected.  I change one setting to "global", but still no luck.  Simon (the driver) says his buddy is a cell phone wizard, and drops the phone off with a promise to get it back the next day.  Long story short - we don't get the phone back until after we've returned from safari, it's flagged as having no air time left despite me making only 2 calls on the 20,000 UGS, even then needs to be reactivated by Airtel and finally seems to be working fine the last 2 days of our two week trip.  I leave it for Carly to use and hope fervently we'll have no problems with it on our return to Uganda sometime in the future.

Ida is Obama's baby sister, now a Bright Kid herself.  Very beautiful but often struggles to get along with her mates.

Obama & Sanyu clown around with a happy dance on the sand pile

workers plaster outer walls of the old salon which is now headmistress Angel's office for the new nursery school

The wifi hotspot I purchased at Airtel causes less grief.  It works fine for 3 hours the first day then dies completely.  When I return it, of course, it fires up & works fine for the clerk.  Over time I discover it will die from overheating at times, but revives if I pull out the battery and let it cool for 10 minutes.  It seems to be faster than the internet USB sticks which Victoria uses, the data plan is cheaper, and up to 9 users can connect wirelessly.  Best of all, Rose can now connect to the internet - her Linux computer could not operate the USB sticks.  I leave the unit in Carly's care and she will leave it with Jackie after her placement finishes in 2 months.

it's amazing to see baby Praise starting to walk already

Rose can now research medical information on the internet

There is no final triumph on our last challenge, however.  The old BKU office printer requires one black ink cartridge and 3 colour catridges, each of which is frighteningly expensive in Kampala.  After consultation, Carly generously purchased a monochrome Canon printer that takes only a black cartridge which can be refilled quite inexpensively.  Rose has reports she wishes to print from her computer.  The Canon software is for Windows and will not run on the Linux machine.  The Ubuntu flavour of Linux includes many Canon printer drivers, but none for the 4410 model.  I research online and eventually find reference to a print driver package that may work.  Installing it on Rose's computer causes me hours of frustration on Monday and today (mainly because of my very limited familiarity with Linux), but I finally succeed only to find that the new expanded list of printers seems to include the 4100, 4200, 4300, 4500, but NOT the 4400 series.  Loading the others does not allow us to print.  So, I admit defeat but verify that, with her internet access, Rose can now email her word processor & spreadsheet documents to Jackie, who can print them from her Windows laptop.

Any guest of Banana village will remember Joel's friendliness & customer service

BKU van slows for another cow parade

A pleasant interlude midday is provided by accompanying Kato to his school near Kisubi.  It's a beautiful campus sitting atop a hill with a lovely view.  The institution is obviously doing well as evidenced by active construction projects, and we are happy to be greeted by the four other BKU kids who attend.

lovely school campus

Back at the big house, we all celebrate when Victoria gets the news that Gloria scored top marks on her final government exams, and she now awaits entrance to university!

The evening sees some misbehaving and adventure.  Jackie & Carly want to go for pizza, and Sue has not been in a mutatu (public taxi van), so we grab one into Entebbe to visit our favourite pizza joint (apart from Banana village).  The food is great, but we are again inflicted by shooters courtesy of Carly and it's very late when we exit the mutatu in kabona.  Jackie is unsuccessful negotiating with the driver to detour to Banana Village, and we are just tipsy enough that Susan agrees to hop on one of the motorcycle taxis with me for our first boda boda ride.  Everyone survives, and more happy memories are sown.

Waiting room blues & girly sleepover

Monday morning we are up and moving early, but it seems that one thing after another delay's Rose and my departure for Entebbe.  Let me fill you in on the euthanasia episode.

I ground up sufficient phenobarb tabs to do the job for the puppy, and Carly and I sprinkle it over a nice mix of chicken & cooked potato leftovers with some beef broth in a bowel.  We have some trouble clearing the other dogs out of the area around the big house, and the sick dog is lying in big Moses' room, so we plop the bowl into the room and close the door.  Unfortunately, Moses sees this and starts to cause a ruckus, It becomes apparent after 10 minutes that the dog is not about to quickly devour the food, so we have one of the boys leash him with a rope and bring him to an empty room in the building by the piggery.  The room can be securely latched and padlocked, so we hope he will soon eat.  It is late in the day (this was Thursday last), so thankfully heat will not be an issue.  After several hours we return to find the dog has eaten only a little of the chicken scraps and is sleeping but still alive.  He normally will gobble down scraps with gusto, so obviously he detects there is something wrong with the food and will not partake.  Since we are leaving early the next morning, we just bring the dog out and let him go.

We don't figure out any better plan during the duration of our stay.  I don't want to risk someone getting bitten trying to establish an IV line or even intramuscular injection, and Carly can't stand to take up the offer of some of the boys who offer a quick termination with a shovel or hoe, so we essentially admit defeat and just let it go.

a social worker addresses the waiting parents while the doctor looks on

I get to cuddle a waiting patient

a mother picks up medications from the pharmacy window at TASO

this is about a third of the large waiting area

Rose and I are taking Kato to Entebbe for his HIV check-up at TASO (The Aids Support Organization) clinic.  By the time we arrive there at about 9:45, the room is already filled with children and parents who are checked in ahead of us.  A social worker spends about 20 minutes delivering advice in Lugandan to the assembled parents.  He covers such topics as the importance of nutrition and compliance with regular medication dosing.  The doctor comes and also speaks about the importance of early assessment for fevers or cough that could signal important complications.

Kato is a strong, silent type - he does very well in school

It's close to noon by the time Kato is assessed.  The doctor is pleased with his weight and overall appearance.  He has made progress since starting the antiviral drugs about 6 months ago.  Kato himself is a young man of very few words, and he refuses our offers of food or beverages while we wait.  He requires a blood count and enough medication to carry him until his next appointment in 3 months.  We move over to the large reception area and wait for him to be called for bloodwork.  Another social worker speaks to the crowd in the large waiting area, again mainly educational advice regarding nutrition but also precautions to prevent disease transmission.  I am impressed that the clinic uses these opportunities for group education.

main street, Entebbe

pharmacy

We are finally done at about 2:30 and walk several blocks to one of the main streets of the city.  We need to get more malaria treatment tablets, because the pharmacist in Kampala made an error transcribing the list and gave us only 5 doses rather than 50.  Fortunately, the Entebbe pharmacist agrees to give us a wholesale price which is close to what we would pay in the bigger city.

believe it or not, this is NOT crowded (relatively speaking)

mutatu

We are travelling by public taxi van (mutatu) today because the BKU van is running errands to schools and Kampala.  We do, however, run into Angel and her son Abraham when we're walking back through kabona, so we admire Abraham's new school uniform.

shops in kabona

Abraham in his new school duds

Carly hatched the idea of Sue and her sleeping over at the big girls' dorm last week, and tonight is the night.  Unfortunately, it is also the night for the neighbouring cult members to howl and chant their pagan rituals until morning light.  The BKU girls cheer ecstatically and practically lift the ladies off their feet when they arrive at the threshold.  The dorm is freshly cleaned and the bunk made up as pristinely as circumstances will allow.  The happy group play games and Susan is surprised to see the girls eat dinner close to 8 pm.  Soon after it is lights out, but Sue and Carly both later claim they only could doze for minutes at a time with the noises and strange surroundings.

girls' dorm with the ladies' bunk in the far left corner