Discovered Paradise

I don’t know why it took Liz and I two months to go to Amarula Lodge.  We eventually made it and there will be no stopping us now.  It’s a Kenyan-run lodge a few kilometres out of town where they have a pool, a good but expensive restaurant, a decently stocked bar and if you really want to you can use the gym but when it’s over 35⁰ its preferable to cool off in the pool.  The only problem is getting there.  We have been going in a rickshaw but it’s expensive. However, we have just been informed that our request for bicycles has been approved so if the heat doesn’t beat us we will cycle there.  The other luxury there is wi-fi, not quite the same as at home but I can send photos one at a time and John can post them on the blog for me.

The college has been a little unsettled recently.  Sister has just left and will not be returning for some time.  We have also had a lot of holidays, often without prior notice, which disrupts teaching plans.  I think I’m the only one that has teaching plans here.  We had a thank-you celebration for the Kenyan UN battalion who support the college.  It was a great day. The students performed a “Dinka Dance” and sang a lot of songs.  It was really entertaining.  Our language teacher appears to have done a bunk with our money and without completing the course.  Watching paint dry would be preferable to attending his lessons so there is no great loss but a lesson not to pay upfront.

I think my battle with frogs and horrible beasties at night is over.  My door has been repaired and the gaps filled in so hopefully there is no way in for them anymore.  It’s amazing how much noise a frog can make trying to get out of your room.  I didn’t fancy any of the creepy crawlies getting into my bed, or standing on them in the dark, so I’m pleased that the door has been fixed.  Smokey continues to greet me every morning and anytime he thinks I have food.  A feral cat has given birth to 4 kittens in Liz’s garden.  I’m really looking forward to seeing them.

Liz and I were invited to visit a community farming project last weekend.  It was my first trip out of town, apart from going to Amarula.  We can only travel to secure areas on authorized trips so we don’t often get the opportunity to see the countryside.  We also visited a monastery which was abandoned during the war in an area where many people were killed in a massacre.  We were filthy when we got back from all the dust, our hair and skin turned orange and dust clouds rose from our clothes if we touched them.

I’ve continued to support the students at the hospital.  I’ve never seen such terrible conditions.  Yet despite it all there is some good work there, particularly surgery although there are no anaesthetics so they use horse tranquilisers during surgery.  The TB and anthrax wards are the saddest places to visit.  Nurses give the drugs then leave the patients unattended.  I think they are afraid of catching TB.  A lot of these patients are HIV positive and they are afraid of that too, but there is no excuse for leaving the patients in such appalling conditions, uncared for in filthy wards with no water or sanitation.  People know about it but blame others. No one accepts responsibility.

On a brighter note I’ve booked to come home for Christmas.  The college will be closed for a month.  I’m really looking forward to the cold weather and hope for some snow and ice.  I’m looking forward to catching up with everyone..

Captain Carson

Smokey Enjoying Tuna

Sterile Theatre Drapes Drying

Amarula Lodge Hotel

Roads After Rain

Water Delivery

Insect Life

Another Crtter

Creepy Crawly

Nasty Critter

South Sudanese Starbucks

Stored in TB Ward

Rubbish in Ward

Labour Suite

Health Centre

Outside Ward

Vultures Hanging About Hospital

Grazing in Grounds

Lunchtime Outside Ward

Chilling in the Shade of the Ward

Hotel Sign - to stop my bad habits

Hotel Sign - Just in case I forget

Typical Houses

Village

Swampy Area

Countryside

Local Crops

Farming Group

Break Time for a Farmer

Monastery Abandoned During War

No Room for Errors

I got really excited yesterday when the temperature dropped to 25º in the shade.  Winter is approaching and all the locals are wearing jackets, if they can afford them, and protecting themselves from the cold.  The downside was it was too wet to go out.  Everywhere was flooded, there was no transport, boats were required, and all the shops were shut.

Some of my students have gone to Wau teaching hospital for their clinical placements.  I have been going there in the mornings to teach them in the wards.  The wards only run at 30% capacity for a number of reasons.  No one would ever criticise the Edinburgh Royal after seeing this place. Everything you do and teach has to be adapted for the environment and limited resources.  Malawi had so much compared to here.  Goats and dogs wander round the hospital and sometimes go into the wards.  Water is pumped in the yard for the wards, patients sit under the trees with their families when they are able to mobilise, and some of the buildings are derelict.  If you can’t pay for drugs you don’t get them.  Staff and visitors sometimes have a whip round to pay for drugs or catheters etc for patients.  A few months ago a patient died after surgery so a relative went there and shot and killed the surgeon. So I’m hoping I don’t make any mistakes.  I think someone should consider an effective complaints procedure.

In the afternoons I’ve been returning to college and teaching there.  No matter what I’m teaching I finish each class by asking them to work out a drug dose and a drip rate. I realised, to my horror, that many of them lack basic maths skills, or sums to you and me.  Everyday I tell them that there are 1000 mgs in a gram and 1000 mls in a litre and they continue to make the same errors.  As far as they are concerned there is anything between 50 -5000 mls in a litre. They are not so extravagant with mgs and grams but make huge errors including 100 grams in 1 mg.  I’ve given them a formula to work out drug doses and drip rates.  Sometimes there is a glimmer of hope then it fades away the next day. 

Most of the students are lovely people, some have been soldiers since they were kids, many of them were refugees, and some are supporting families.  They have to study by candle light; some of them never saw a text book until they started nursing college.  They have learned by rote and have never had to understand anything or work anything out.  They just remember things.  Trying to get them to think critically or see the bigger picture is daunting task.

The students have started calling me sister; they used to call me teacher.  Sister means lots of things here.  There are the nuns and they know I’m not one of them.  Sisters on the wards they tend to call “the in charge” but mostly sister means friend.  It’s a term of acceptance as being one of them.  The street boys call me sister too.  If they call you mother that is showing respect and if they call you grandmother that shows the greatest respect but there is no warmth in these names or acceptance.  So it’s good to be sister.

If anyone wants to email me John can give you my new email address but messages are still forwarded from my lineone address.  I hope all is well and you are enjoying the cooler weather.