Uganda Day 4... Rock n Roll

 Day 4 started with a tour of the hopsital by the hospital director himself. Dr Amos is a remarkable man, with unbridled energy which he directs all towards the hospital and plans for the expansion and betterment of it.  He is not just a dreamer, he Dreams, then he plans, then he puts those plans into fruition... not unlike my little mantra Dream, plan, Do... only his is on a much grander scale.

Our tour started with an inspection of the floors. It is something that we don't even think about, a hospital with floors that are tiled so they can be easily cleaned but it was only recently that someof the dirt floors here have been tiled. The floor to Dr Amos's office is still dirt as he wanted the corridor to be tiled rather than the path to his office. All the examination rooms are now tiled, the waiting area and the Emergency room. It looks good but more importantly can be kept clean.

We looked at the Emergency room, a single room... at the time we looked the water was not working and the suction machine had been taken to be used somewhere else, but they did have an oxygen condensor. There were 3 patients in there, one on a drip, one being examined by a doctor.

We then went to the paeds wards and met a girl there who had a chest infection. Dr Amos showed us the x ray.. on an actual film which clearly demonstrated consolidation (infection) in the lower left lobe.

He was also very worried about her legs, especially the left leg which was swollen and tense and clearly infected.. he had thought the right one was ok but when he touched it, she was clearly in pain. He said if it got worse they were have to drain the leg by cutting it open and letting it drain...

The girl did not look well, on oxygen, brathing hard and seemed quite listless. The oxygen condensor had solar back up, which is really great as the electroc has a habit of just going off here when you. least expect it.

We went to see the 1. 4 kg baby. Today he was on the resuscitaire, with a feeding tube up his nose as he hadnt been feeding well and oxygen going. We gave mum some clothes and blankets for him. She was so grateful and kept thanking us which was embarrassing. He looked like he was breathing better than yesterday and was lovely and active... I think the oxygen had made a big difference.

We then toured the maternity unit where there was one woman recoving from a cesarean section there and there was a board for november to show that 27 babies had been born and 27 were alive. 7 of those were less than 2.5kg.

We were shown the ambulance which was used to bring mothers and babies from the community to the hospital or bring babies that required more medical care from the district hospital to Freda Carr in Ngora. Unfortunately the ambulance wasn't working as it needed a new battery and it was leaking engine oil. It would cost 3,000,000 shillings to repair, about £450, a fortune for them. 

On the way we saw a poster with diseases that were seen here and half of them we hadn't heard of, most of which were linked to mosquitos. Dr Amos showed us a picture of a child with some white things up his nose and asked us what was wrong with the child... turns out it was fly larvae which he had to take out one by one with tweezers.!

We were shown the new operating room which now had a solar powered light for when the electricity went off, which it does frequently round here. The floors were clean and there were sinks but no running water today.... not unusual either.

Once we had finished the tour of the hospital, James got the minibus for us and we went off on our sightseeing journey. Near here were some caves which used to be inhabited by pygmies. They had drawn some art on the cave walls and it is now a protected site. We drove for about 30 minutes and then went through a gate where we were met by a tour guide. We paid for us and for taking pictures and then started our walk to the first cave.

It was really hot and the sun was blazing. There were lots of little lizards running around adn some bigger brighter ones with orange running along their flanks.

The first cave we were taken to had a low ceiling and had been protected by  a low wall running across the front of the cave. On the ceiling were some depictions of various things such as the sun and a crocodile and a boat. The paint was made from cactus juice and ground up clay and has lasted 3000 to 5000 years.

The second cave was more of an overhang. A giant rock which looked like it had fallen off the overhang. The rock wall where the paintings were was quite high and the pygmies small. They had depicted on the wall the ladders they used, as well as boats and the sun and moon. This wall was more exposed to the wind and rain and although they had tried to stop water dripping down the wall, it was a work in progress to protect it as much as possible. The pictures here were made with animal blood mixed with fat. 

Then we went a bit further along to the 3rd cave. This was by far my favourite. It had a very low ceiling and we had to crawl a bit to get under the art on the ceiling. The ceiling art was again in white and it was a big picture of the sun. This rock art is depicted on the 20000 shilling bank note. But what I liked most was that the cave opened out like a balcony onto a beautiful view of trees and birds and more rocks in the distance. It felt so peaceful. All we could hear was the birds singing and children playing and laughing in the distance. We lay there listening to the peace and quiet, breathing in the fresh air and enjoying the respite from the sun beating down... but we had one more challenge to go. We had passed a rock that rose up high and we were told it was customary to climb it. Despite the sun beating down, myself, sam and claire were determined to get to the top and see the view stretching for miles beyond. Up we went... fairly steep in places but eminently climable and no scrambling necessary. On the way up I saw a tree move as a monkey jumped from one to the other but didnt get a good look.  We got to the top, breathing hard and looked out across the plains to the rocks back near Ngora. We could see miles.

The climb down was a little tougher on the knees but we made it without incident and headed back to the minibus... gave our guide a good tip and then headed home.

James, our driver, had other ideas. He wanted to go via his house so we could see his village and his grandchildren. So we thought we would just drive round, say a quick hi and then go again as we had to pick up one of the nurses to talk on the radio about the party tomorrow.

But no...

We pulled up his 'driveway' i. e mud track and it opened out into a clearing. In this clearing sat a small, very small brick house and 2 other traditional mud huts with banana leaf roofs. He stopped the van and motioned us out to meet his family who had started gathering. His wife Mary (I think), one of his sons and many grandkids (he has 11). We greeted them all in turn with hello in ateso, the local language to Ngora,  Yoga and received the reply Yoga Noi. Then to our delight they took us ocer to a table and some chairs and morioned us to sit down  I had noticed some crops so the son took me over to inspect them. Sorgum, Maize, Irish (which is what white potatoes are known here as). Did they sell these crops I asked... no the answer... just to feed the family. Maybe if they had a good crop there would be some to sell but it seems that the last two years have had very unpredictable weather patterns which has not helped the crops grow well.

We then sat down and Mary brought out some spaghetti, some meat and some Irish... laid out some plates and forks and water and asked us to help ourselves to lunch. Now although it has haplened on my travels before, I find it very humbling to be offered food by local people in their houses. They have very little and yet they are willing to share what they have.

Lunch done we said our thank yous... practicing our Ateso... Yalla Ma... Yalla Ma Noi... thank you, thank you very much....  What a privilege!

We hopped back in the bus and drove back to Freda Carr Hospital and picked up Grace and a few others and then drove to Soroti to the radio station.  The three of  us were happy to disappear for an hour or so whilst they were speaking on the radio, Gillian was going to stay to speak a few words... so we had a hour to explore Soroti!

Gillian hadn't been keen on us riding on the boda boda motorbikes but now we were left to our own devices, I was determined to get a short ride... when in Rome!

So we walked into Soroti town a way, bought some banana cake and then found a place to buy a coke and sit in the shade. Soroti was busy... but not totally manic like Kampala... small town busy... We got a lot of stares, being the only Muzunga (white woman)  around but we were getting used to that. We often said Yoga to anyone that stared at us, and watched their faces more often than not, light up and reply Yoga Noi. There was often laughter to hear the Muzunga speak Ateso but that was ok. I think they were surprised that we had bothered to learn a few words.

We waljed up to the market area but decided not to go in yet as Gillian and Grace had said we could all go together when the radio thing was finished. 

We walked over to the boda boda waiting place... 3 people to the radio station, not far, how much?

2000 shillings each... thats about 50p each. Done deal. We hopped on and clung onto the drivers... Faster.. faster... what fun... diving round the traffic and bumping over the potholes. It only took a few minutes but was great fun... probably more so because I felt like a naughty school kid as Gillian hadnt wanted us to go on them... but she didn't need to know..

We went into the radio station, which had the Poland saudi arabia match so sat and watched that until they were done. Grace seemed pleased with the publicity for the party and thought it had gone well. Then off to the market ...

The market place was massive and looked like a football stadium from the outside. We walked in and bang... chaos.  Rows and Rows of stalls selling vegetables, all huge in size. Watermelons that looked like tgey had been on steroids, onions the size of my fist.... and so many people!

We walked round the lower level... meat in  butchers shops round the side, fresh and smoked dried fish on the other side... chickens, alive, in cages in the middle and a crush of humanity running round the stalls. We bought some fruit and loaded up our bags with oranges, paw paw, tomatoes, onions and I bought a watermelon. Job done. We went up some of the other levels, one had flour and spices, one level had cloth and seamstresses... but the market was about to close up so we had to leave.

Back to Freda Carr in the minibus and then a nice dinner of rice and some fresh greens bought from the market. We sat around chatting until quite late and then me and Sam went back to our room before heading out for a night walk.

It seemed a bit of a slow night for wildlife with even the toads being a bit quiet though we spotted one or two sitting in the grass. A bit further ahead, I spotted movement and went over to find a massive beetle, half the size of Sam's phone, stumbling around the grass. We walked around for a whole longer, shining our torches in holes. in the geound and up trees in the hope of spotting something cool, to no avail. So we headed back to our rooms.... then as we were nearing the door, we heard rustling and I caught something spikey trying to burrow into the leaves. It looked like a hedgehog...  we couldn't see its face and it was too small and not enough black on its spines to be a porcupine.. so I settled on hedgehog and we left the poor frightened thing alone.

We went off to our repective rooms, headtorches on as the electric had gone again and settled down to contemplate our long interesting day and how much we had seen and done.

Out like the lights here!