Great expectations?
Having been responsible for visitors and students for the previous five years, it is now a different joy and refreshing change for Judith to come back to Kiwoko in her capacity as Occupational Therapist. In practice this has involved working on the wards alongside the physiotherapy team. It is a steep learning curve adjusting one’s expectations and western mindset, and providing therapy that is appropriate to the local cultural context and environmental conditions.
Kato, a truly gentle and humble man has lost all movement and function from the waist down secondary to TB. His upper half is also weak and he has difficulty sitting up with no support. In a western context there would be a lengthy list of items that would be required in order to facilitate his return home and management at home. At the very least a wheelchair and a good bed. But Kato is going home to his one roomed thatched mud hut that is no bigger than our bathroom. He shares it with his wife and five children. Such items would only be a hindrance. So he goes home to be nursed on a mattress on the floor.
How did he get home? On the back of a motorbike, sandwiched between the driver and his wife with his lifeless legs strapped to his wife’s legs to prevent them from dangling into the wheels. On a follow up visit to his home with Solomon the physiotherapist, Kato’s caring wife describes the journey home with laughter.
Whilst I find myself feeling somewhat helpless and thinking this is all very unsatisfactory, I realize how different our expectations are. Despite all the pain, anxiety and uncertainty, Kato must be passing through, his only request is a photo and he simply smiles and thanks us for caring.
How often do we find ourselves in situations where we wish we could wave a magic wand and make everything better. The inability to do so can make us feel inadequate or worse still can cause us to shy away from the person or situation. Yet, like Kato, so many just long to know that we care by simply being there alongside them.
Thank you for your continued prayers and support for the work and people of Kiwoko.
Source: CMS Ireland Ken and Judith Finch | 24 Jan 2012 | 12:00 am GMT
Only 2 passed...
We got the results from our nursing school finals last week.
A good Christmas present.
Not one of our 40 students failed. We had 4 distinctions, 34 credits and 2 passes. These results keep us amongst the best nurse training institutions in the country. Such results obviously reflect the hard work of students and staff – both in the classroom and at the bedside.
Obviously I am a little biased regarding the qualities of some of the teaching staff – but the results speak clearly for themselves.
Training health workers has been central to the work of Kiwoko hospital since the early days of health care under the leadership of Dr Ian Clarke. Such training continues to be central to what we do. Training staff who can then work in Kiwoko is critical for us – otherwise many of our posts would remain unfilled, or we would have to accept poor quality staff. Most health workers in Uganda want to work in Kampala, however most Ugandans (who therefore need health care) live outside Kampala.
In addition to those whom we wish to work at Kiwoko, training health workers to leave us and be good nurses working elsewhere is central to why we train. Much healthcare in Uganda is of poor quality – often due to deficiencies in the health workers – sometimes clinical knowledge, but sometimes their heart attitudes are the real problems that allow them to steal drugs, refuse to treat patients before being paid a bribe, or simply not being coming to work when they should. The papers have been full of such cases this year. While all that takes place in Kiwoko cannot be perfect, people know that such practices will not be found here. If they come here they will find staff who care for them to the best of their abilities within the available resources. Developing such staff is important.
So – well done to the staff of Kiwoko Nurse Training school.
And thank you to everyone who helps support them in different ways.
Rory
Source: CMS Ireland Rory, Denise & Gideon Wilson | 10 Jan 2012 | 12:00 am GMT
Crashing into your surgeon's car
On the day before Christmas Eve Dr Leonard was driving to Kiwoko from Kampala. He is one of our Junior doctors whom we are sponsoring for training in surgery and he was up to help out over the Christmas weekend. A few miles short of Kiwoko he observed a motorbike coming towards him swerving backwards and forwards across the road. He stopped and watched helplessly as the drunken man crashed into the side of Leonard’s father’s car. Leonard put him in the back of the vehicle, brought him to hospital and later took him to theatre to stabilise his fractures.
Sadly many here find the Christmas season a time for extreme alcohol consumption and many of the problems that can go with it. Thankfully we do have something to celebrate, but I don’t think that putting ourselves in hospital is how God would wish us to acknowledge such celestial occurrences. God has been one of us and understands what it is like to live here.
On Christmas Eve some staff sing carols on the wards and give out small gifts to the patients. As Asiimwe our Personnel Manager was briefly preaching to the patients on male ward including our recalcitrant motorcyclist, I was struck at the similarities between the Christmas story and what we are trying to do in Kiwoko.
Like Dr Leonard, God meets us at our point of need and wishes to treat us and heal us. Amazingly He wishes to do so despite our rebellious and even aggressive and damaging attitude towards Him. He does so at a point where we cannot help ourselves and all we can do is accept his free offer of assistance. Sadly of course there still are consequences for our actions too – just as the man has some weeks to spend in a hospital bed and in plaster cast and Dr Leonard still needs money to replace his father’s missing wing mirror, so the consequences of our sin can need more than even forgiveness to fully sort out.
So I hope that you don’t get so drunk that you crash your motorbike, or that anyone crashes into you in the next while. More than that though, I pray that you have a fresh experience of receiving freely from God in 2012, experiencing His forgiveness and real healing in many ways.
In Kiwoko we’ll continue caring for those who need us.
Thanks for standing with us to enable us to continue such work.
Happy New Year
Rory
Source: CMS Ireland Rory, Denise & Gideon Wilson | 30 Dec 2011 | 12:00 am GMT
He swims with leeches
Denise’s blog last month regarding her dactylic decoration excited some interest. Gideon’s involvement in such activities didn’t pass so many by either.
So I thought that I’d better add on some more – not that I also have taken to painting my toenails as some have suggested, but that Gideon was swimming with leeches at the weekend. Not I grant you that there is a direct link with toe nail decoration and leech attraction/repulsion (as far as I know, but perhaps such research if well conducted could lend itself to publication in a future Christmas edition of the BMJ?)
Gideon and I were swimming in water which was slightly murky. For all the grandmothers reading this – fear not, there were probably not that many bugs present. He takes a few minutes to get into the water usually, but then is unstoppable. He obviously has not fully mastered things such as floating, but with his father supporting his tummy he moves his arms and legs and believes that he is propelling himself across the surface of the water. Usually his yelps of glee do not result in swallowing any of the water due to careful positioning from his coach. On returning home he demonstrated his swimming technique to Denise in the plastic basin in which he has his evening bath – and she was certainly convinced.
In case the title has you reaching for the phone to contact social services – fear not, no wound or creature made it to Gideon. However his father experienced four of the blighters latching on to his legs! One big one had a good drink and after being detached demonstrated well the anticoagulant properties it possesses as the small wound took many minutes to stop bleeding. I also noted the anaesthetic properties when a well meaning local applied some methylated spirits to the wound as his guaranteed cure for the persisting bleeding. (Which incidentally didn’t help much, although as already noted at least it wasn’t at all painful due to the local anaesthesia.)
So I’m not planning to stake Gideon out and have the leeches feed on him to help him get over the last remnants of his chicken pox. Indeed I have even used my legs as bait to see if the particular pool is now free of leeches so it will be ‘safe’ for him to swim in as I suspect he would be upset at a finger of slime attached to his leg. But just in case any of our friends/Godparents were growing concerned that his development was lopsided – it is probably just as delightfully rounded as his parents!
Many thanks from Gideon and ourselves for everyone who sent greetings or gifts. We are really blessed that so many people support us and help us care for Gideon Mugisha.
Happy New Year.
Source: CMS Ireland Rory, Denise & Gideon Wilson | 26 Dec 2011 | 12:00 am GMT
Sweet enough?
Last weekend I had a surprise visit from a fellow clinical instructor at the school. He is currently attending another nurse training institution for additional training, and had just called to visit his Kiwoko friends on his days off. It was lovely to catch up with him, but also incredibly interesting listening to stories about the training institute that he is attending and making comparisons to our own here.
Due to the rising inflation and economic challenges in Uganda, many boarding institutions have implemented changes especially to the diet they provide, in order to make money stretch to cover wages etc. So my colleague was telling me that they had stopped providing sugar for students. Sugar would be taken in tea and added to porridge for breakfast. This means that tea would have to be taken ‘dry’. This is the term used to describe tea without milk or sugar. Not appealing to most Ugandans!
To many of us that doesn’t sound like the biggest hardship as we hypocritically (in my case) stop taking sugar in my tea then have a mars bar or a bun/biscuit of some sort with my tea! In Uganda most people cannot afford sweets /chocolate/biscuits or sweet fizzy drinks (called sodas here). This may help you to appreciate more the significance of not having sugar in your tea (or porridge).
My colleague (in his role as elected student leader) had been to see the principal nursing tutor and complain about the lack of sugar. He felt like he could cope better if they cut out anything else from the diet but not sugar. Sadly for him his plea fell on deaf ears.
Last week I had been to Kampala to do my weekly shop. I had decided to buy some 1 kg bags of sugar to use as Christmas presents. I hadn’t explained why to Rory in case it sounded a bit crazy. So, before Dan left, I presented him with his early Christmas present – a bag of sugar. I wish you could have seen and heard his reaction – pure joy. I honestly don’t think he could have been more happy had I given him a million Ugandan Shillings!
I don’t know that I would be skipping if someone gave me a bag of sugar for Christmas. However a big slice of lemon meringue pie with fresh cream (preferably from Donaghdee Garden Centre) would certainly get a similar response!
Whatever your heart’s desire is for Christmas this year I hope that you get it!
While we hope to get more blogs up over the next while, this may be our last before the great Feast on 25th. Thus we want to wish all our friends, family and supporters a Happy Christmas and thank you thank you for all the support over this year – not least those who have sent greetings, cards and gifts for us and for our Gideon.
Happy Christmas!
Rory Denise and Gideon.
Source: CMS Ireland Rory, Denise & Gideon Wilson | 12 Dec 2011 | 12:00 am GMT
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