Uganda day 7...

 Another early start... today we were back at the nursing school training year 2 nurses and midwives. Just after breakfast and before we setoff, we filled up a bag of plastic bottles which had been left strewn around the field from the party yesterday. We had been meaning to clean uo earlier but hadnt had the time and we thought we would make a start. Bag filled and left behind our accommodation... job started! 

We got to the nursing school promptly at the start time of 0900 and waited for the students to arrive at their start time of 0900 Ugandan time which turned out to be 0940. Claire had discovered yesterday that Ugandan neonatal teaching was a bit different from ours as they started with 49 ventipation breaths rather than our 5 inflation breaths, which explained why some of the girls had difficulty in grasping what we did. So Claire asked who would be the teacher for this and asked if he could come and speak to me about our way of doing it which is in accordance with the World Health Organisation. 

Allan came to talk to me whilst we were waiting for the students to turn up and I showed him what we did and the reason behind it. It seems that Uganda is in the process of rewriting their guidelines and may well adopt the World Health Organisation way.

In the meantime he was very happy to learn our way and I appointed him neonatal resus champion! 

We swopped email addresses and I promised to send him materials via email to help him with his teaching. 

Again today Margaret was coming to teach about personal hygeine though this time we were getting her to speak to each group separately. She started with Sams group and we cracked on with our teaching.

The first group we had were midwives and seemed a little quiet initially. The ice breaker of birthing the baby for resus out in the garden worked well and animated the group a bit more. We ran through the resuscitation algorithm a couple of times before getting the students to do it themselves. You could pick up the ones who were going to be good, they were helping the others who were a little more nervous. They all counted together tge numver of inflation breaths and all chimed in when I asked questions. Given the slightly smaller group this time, I tried to add in a bit about neonatal infection as well and how to recognise the early signs and symptoms. Even with the added stuff we finished a little early and then I made a colossal mistake in Ugandan terms... I let the students go off for a little break and asked them to be back at 11 for Margaret's talk. I should have already learnt this week that Ugandan time is not the same as English time!

At 11:30 they started to drift in... in twos and threes. Margaret had already arrived and I felt a bit bad for her. She does get paid daily to come andnteach but she has a 3 hour journey to get here on public transport i. e minibus, which is 10 times more crowded than the Reading to Paddington train in rush hour! Not fun at all!

I went over to another group of students sitting studying for their exams bext week and asked them where our group had gone. One of this group ran off to find the other group and I started chatting to this group whilst I was waiting. These girls were from the groups we had taught on Friday andnthey had lots of questions for me... Did I have children... I have step kids... did I want children of my own .. no (cue gasps!) I asked them if they were expected to have children and they all  nodded and said yes in a strong affirmative. I said because I dont have children, I can travel to see them and I have more money to spend on travelling. They loved that idea. I think it was a big surprise for them to find a woman who was happy without children and could show them the benefits to it.

I asked them about where they wamted to work... here in Ngora? or in Kampala? UK they said. I asked if they had passports... No!

Inexplained they needed passports and then to apply for a visa and find a job... that it was possible... it would bot be easy but it would be possible. One of them wanted to come with me back to the UK!

It was lovely talking to them and finding out a bit about their hopes and dreams and understanding the reality of their lives here. So different from mine. Yet we talked easily and it felt like I had veen here for ages... I had settled in.

I realised that Margaret now had her class back and had started talking so hurried back over so I wouldn't appear rude. Some of the other visiting  rotarians had arrived and were sittiing in on the talk and would stay for our afternoon session. Aside from the party day our paths had not crossed much and it was nice getting to know them better too.

Margarets talk again focused a lot on personal hygiene amd a little on menstrual hygeine, her main message being that women and girls had a right to menstruation and to not be ashamed. I loved how, when the class got a little rowdy, instead of telling them to shut up, she said 'are we together' and the class shut up! I might start using that at home.

She overran a little, but given that the girls had pitched up late, she did really well to get everything she wanted in. When she finished, a girl from the group stood up and led the others in their 'appreciation' clapping. It's essentially 3 claps, followed by another 3 and then 1 to round it off. She then did another appreciation ritual for the students, which involved picking imaginary flowerd and giving them to yourself.... at least thats what I understood it to be.

Myself and Claire, Gillian and Sam and the visiting Rotarians then headed back over to our accomodation to have some lunch. We discovered that the children had emptied out the bag of plastic bottles that we had collected.  Little buggers...! So we picked them back up and put them back in the bag, this time leaving the bag in our accomodation. 

Cooking lunch over a gas stove is always fun.. here we sometimes have little choice. Our electric today had not come on at all. It is very intermittent here and although there is solar, the light is not very bright so we sit with our headtorches on.

Basically when there is electric you use the opportunity to charge up battery packs so that when the lights die suddenly you can charge your torch or your phone or watch.

Water is also a bit intermittent. Our shower is generally cold water, some days it is warmer because it is sun warmed water from the tanks. Sometimes it goes completely, usually when a naughty child has climbed up to the water tower and turned off the tap!

Lunch was nice as we actually got to chat to the others. It has been so hectic here that when they have been in Ngora, either they or us have been busy.

Lunch done and we went back to teaching. This afternoon we had the nursing students. They were slow to arrive as usual and drifted in with the latecomers dragging their heels. This group however were animated and interested from the very beginning and asked lots of good questions.

They seemed to get the hang of the inflation breaths very quickly, with the whole class shouting out 1 2 3... 2 2 3... 3 2 3...4 2 3.... 5 2 3... with gusto.

There were some really bright sparks in this group and I can see one or two of them being the next Grace in the future.

At the end of the class, I tried to do the appreciation clap for them, not sure I got it right, then they did one for us. All good fun but I think if I tried it in the UK, I would get some very funny looks!

After teaching we had time for a quick change and then we were being taken to a rotary club meeting. Ngora was forming their own Rotary club, led by... yup you have guessed it... Grace. Not sure when that woman stops for sleep! Dr Amos picked us up in his car and drove us there. He asked if we could drive and we all said yes. He then said we were to have his car to drive home and he would go back another way in the morning. Cool!  I of course offered to drive... excited to try a little off roading! 

The meeting was a bit long and honestly for me a bit dull. I sat there writing my blogs, my ears pricking up every now and again as our names came up and we were formally appreciated for our presence by varying people. They went through the history of the rotary club which was quite interesting... formed in Chicago in the early 1900's  as a means for business contacts to get together and network and it has spread from there all around the world. It seems like forming a new club is quite complicated and takes a long time.

Once that was done and the obligatory photos taken we headed to dinner at the hotel. In true Ugandan style, the room for the meal was being used so we were ushered to a table outside, which was fine. No menu... just goat curry and rice! The goat meat was mainly on the bone and I didn't touch that... one or two pieces weren't and they tasted quite nice and the rice was good!

I wasn't the only one that didn't really eat the meat but I did feel guilty that it had been wasted. At least it wasn't our goat that we had won in the auction... Jim, as the goat had become known was still alive and well and eating the grass at the front of the hospital, the last I saw. 

It was a nice evening and we all piled in the car... me in the drivers seat.... crap... an automatic. Firstly I had to work out how to move it out from park! It took a minute or two but we got there, the lights worked and after a slightly jerky start where I had to remind myself that the clutch wasnt the clutch but the brake.. we were off.... very slowly... watching out for boda bodas and potholes! We made it back to the hospital without incident and no damage to Dr Amos's car and parked it neatly under its cover. 

The days were going quickly now and it felt like we were on the back end of the visit. 

Another few teaching days and we would be done and heading home.