Day 13 – witchcraft and malingering

We waken to the crashes & flashes of an early morning thunderstorm which brings a few hours’ relief from the heat and lowers the dust levels in the village.  I reflect with some sadness that I have only one sleep remaining before my flight back to Canada.

Jannet and Rebecca are already at the clinic with Rose when I arrive.  Rebecca spent a good night with no further evidence of bleeding from her mouth but says she doesn’t feel very well and seems content to nap on & off on the stretcher.  Jannet says she felt nauseous  this morning and vomited after lunch.  Again, her physical exam is unremarkable, and she also lounges in the clinic most of the day.

Rebecca rests

Nurse Rose checks bowel sounds

Rose summons the remainder of the older kids for vision screening, aided by Alicia.  Everyone else has decent distance vision of 20/25 or better, so Justine is the only child with poor vision who will need further assessment.

Rose teaches Rebecca to write her name while Janat looks on

I visit the young ones’ dorm and laugh as they ham it up for me once they realize the purpose of the video function of my point & shoot camera.  I am saddened to hear their auntie will also be leaving tomorrow.  She had accepted the job as a temporary position, and Victoria always knew she would be seeking work in her vocation as kindergarten teacher.  Salama, the pregnant girl who is now staying with Rose will combine efforts with Pauline, a young woman awaiting the start of vocational school, to fill auntie’s spot until a more permanent candidate can be found.  The current auntie has been devoted and holds an obvious love for the children.  She will be missed.

Jovan

Obama guards the door

Jovan & Lydia

Nurse's job includes drying tears

Rona meditates

This evening Alicia & I are invited to dinner at Herman’s house.  Victoria spirits us off immediately following afternoon prayer service.  It is about a 2 ½ km walk in a direction which is new to me, taking us by some interesting homes, including one that was abandoned after the neighbours drove out a couple for practicing witchcraft and tried setting the building ablaze.  Apparently witchcraft is still quite common, and witch doctors thrive, particularly in the countryside.

Vincent & Rubegga

Arnold's nose is an endless spring

children watch dinner cooking (food is wrapped in banana leaves and cooked in a pot) at Victoria's childhood home

Victoria's childhood home

buildings tainted by witchcraft practices

Herman’s home is on his father’s property.  We first visit the home of Victoria’s childhood, and she points out that the bricks are mortared with mud rather than cement.  A poor family is allowed to live in the house provided they keep it up.  We also visit the adjacent family plot, which includes the grave of Herman & Victoria’s father.  Herman has built a newer place just a little further along the road.  He describes the ups & downs of his life, from studying aeronautical engineering at Brown University in Rhode Island, to living as a refugee in Kenya during the Idi Amin years, and later getting a job with the International Civil Aviation Authority based in Montreal.  He lived in Mozambique during those years, then relocated to Halifax when the US wouldn’t allow his family to move as permanent residents, and the Canadian immigration lawyer advised his best chance would be to apply as an entrepreneur in a maritime province.  He spends at least two months every year in Uganda but says his children feel very much Canadian and are not all that happy about visiting Africa when he does.

After a lovely meal including tilapia from Lake Victoria, we walk back along the now very dark roads and shudder as the many vehicles & boda boda on the main dirt road pass us by. 

cleaning out the chick's area

Richard tends to the chickens

Arnold helps with laundry

the morning thunderstorm leaves a few puddles but causes surprisingly little mud

boys plan another football match

Day 12 – going to the zoo

News flash!  I have finally started publishing some of the individual formal portraits on Page 2 of this blog.  Look for the link at the top of this page.

Janat is feeling ill and stays home from school – bit of a fever and decreased appetite with headache.  Malaria quick test is negative and physical exam reveals nothing alarming, so she just rests on the clinic stretcher, takes some Ibuprofen and is feeling improved by later afternoon.   On one of my return trips to the clinic I meet Joseph, an interesting young man who is Rose’s cousin’s brother.  He is very articulate and describes his job working for the Ministry of Health.  Trained as a refrigeration technician, he now works with the government vaccine program and his job entails travel to all corners of Uganda ensuring integrity of the cold chain for vaccine storage, troubleshooting problems and maintaining the refrigeration units which include regular electric, solar, kerosene and gasoline technologies.  He says there is still a lot of misunderstanding & suspicion about vaccines among certain tribes and the poorly educated.  We have a lively discussion about differences & similarities between Uganda and Canada.  He says he’s felt safe traveling & staying extended periods everywhere in the country, even along the Sudanese border to the north where I’ve heard dire reports of atrocities by the Lords Resistance Army.  Joseph invites me and Alicia to dinner this evening and Rose agrees to guide us there.

Rose & Joseph at the clinic

Janat feeling better once school is out

Friends who have visited or lived in Africa advised me to be sure to take in a Safari or see some of the sights while visiting here.  Reading the travel books, it seemed Murchison Falls or a mountain gorilla trek would be exciting, but either would involve 2-3 days away from BKU which seemed excessive if we were only staying two weeks.  We compromised on a day trip to an island on Lake Victoria which is a chimpanzee sanctuary, but after spending time here and being told the Entebbe zoo is quite good, Alicia & I agreed we would have more fun taking kids to the zoo.  So, I asked Victoria to book a minibus and we would take the young ones in the afternoon.  The older kids would be in school and have apparently gone previously with other volunteers.

Auntie dutifully ensures the little ones nap before lunch and bathes everyone right after lunch.  They arrive at the big house to dress in good clothes and it’s a bit of a scramble to find clothes that fit everyone and sort of match.  The minibus turns out to be a regular minivan with seats for 7.  Rona and Jovan stay behind because they are so young and there is a lot of walking involved.  The driver, 4 adults and 10 kids climb in and we’re underway, bottoming out on a couple of the dirt road ridges despite the driver’s careful maneuvering.  A couple of the little ones cry out of fear.  Possibly their only experience with an automobile is linked to traumatic events and being uprooted from their family and community.  They quieten when Angel threatens the next person to make noise will have to walk.

Ten kids (I kept count all afternoon), Angel, Richard, Alicia and our driver at the zoo entrance

Lydia:  what do you mean that crocodile needs a meal?

Shira

fascinated by the mountain gorilla statue

 

I am thrilled to see the Zoo box office takes credit cards.  My Mastercard works after the VISA is declined.  Monkeys scamper about the parking lot and throughout the walkways, proving lots of entertainment and sometimes anxiety for the kids.  The exhibits are quite good, but there is a lot of walking involved, and the children soon  tire.  We finally make it back to the playground area, but the best attractions (an inflated jumping castle and a motorized swing carousel come at a price, so the kids make do with the free swings, slide and teeter totter.

Since Alicia is staying, I want to convert the remainder of my USD to leave with her and Angel directs the driver to a forex on the far side of Entebbe which actually does NOT demand a premium for my aged $100 bill or the 20’s.  We purchase a supply of ice cream cups at the supermarket and have the driver stop at a park where our little companions enjoy a rare treat.  Lydia absolutely amazes me.  She is only half done her dish of ice cream by the time we load back into the van, so I sit her on my knee for the return journey to ensure she doesn’t soil the vehicle.  She takes only tiny portions of the dessert with each scoop of her wooden spatula, as if to savour every morsel of flavour in that treat.   She is not even completely finished by the time we return to BKU.

Rebecca in a dancing mood

the path to the giraffe compound takes us by Lake Victoria'sshore

kids terrorized by monkey

Angel points out a tortoise while Richard looks on

several of the kids had never been on a swing

don't know if you can see it, but swarms of gnats lifted when I ran ahead of the group to snap this shot

Alicia and I shower and dress for our dinner out.  I don the African themed shirt which Victoria kindly gave me as a present.  Rose directs the minivan taxi about 2km up the road towards Kampala.  Joseph operates a side business, a pub and restaurant, beside the apartment he rents.  He introduces us to his cook and staff, then his business partner John, who is a secondary school teacher in his day job.  We are seated at one of the tables and Joseph orders a Nile Beer for me and a Club Ale for himself.  The girls have sodas.  I quite enjoy the taste of both the Ugandan brews.  A platter of pork with vegetables and a side dish of cabbage and tomato arrives some time later.  Our hosts explain that the Ugandan custom is to eat with one’s hands, although they have brought forks for the foreigners.  Much to Alicia’s chagrin, I agree to try the local customs and wash my hands in the basin which the waitress offers.  Alicia reluctantly joins in.  I have grown leery of trying meats in this country, but the pork chunks and this entire platter are quite to my liking and I eat with relish.

You may find this hard to believe, but I brought my camera to this event also.  Joseph quite excitedly says he would love to have pictures for advertisement on the web.  After a couple of quick lessons, he is running about with my Nikon snapping promotional shots which I promise to forward.  Rose talks to Auntie on the phone and learns that Rebecca has had a little bleeding from her mouth when she tried to eat dinner.  A further check and she discovers she’s missed five calls from Victoria, who is sure that her guests have befallen some dire tragedy at this late hour.  At 10 pm we bid our kind hosts farewell and squeeze into a crowded minivan taxi back towards BKU.  Friday is International Women’s Day, a national holiday in Uganda, so the village streets are quite lively even at this late hour.

Joseph's chef prepares a meal

John, Rose & Joseph

den of iniquity

Rose & I determine that Rebecca’s bleeding is likely caused by teething (her lower central incisors have just erupted) or a canker sore on her tongue and possible early viral infection.  Rose decides she will have Rebecca sleep with her tonight, just to keep a closer eye on her.

In a lot of ways, these Bright Kids are now getting better health care than the majority of children In the surrounding community.  They have daily (and nightly) access to an experienced nurse who knows their medical histories well – unless she is chaperoning a visiting doctor to a neighbourhood pub.  Some of the kids have serious chronic diseases, but these have been well documented and are being monitored & treated.  In terms of improving overall care and outcomes for these kids, I think probably early childhood education/stimulation and reduced crowding in the dorms currently rank higher than health care as priorities. 

 Rather than leave our extra suitcases here, Victoria has asked me to bring back some items for sale.  Richard & Alicia are modeling the BKU T-shirts and hand-made necklace.  The white ones sell for $15, the orange ones are $10 and the hand-strung bead necklaces are $5.  I will start taking orders any time.  All proceeds in support of the kids.

Gloria

chickens are once again corralled after an attempted jailbreak

Dan

Victoria greets a couple of schoolgirls home from studies