Corner of the garden aka rest home for wheelchairs

 I've been told that my blog is boring.  That no one wants to hear about the intricisies of water supplies but more of daily life and the work of the hospital (although dodgy water supplies (along with power supplies) are of course, part of daily life (and sometimes feel like the final straw)). 

Electricity (or lack of it) is a topic of discussion at the moment, power supplies are being rationed impacting not only on individuals but also on business and therefore potentially on the economy.  As you may expect, people in general are not happy about the situation - there is power but apparently the government are currently refusing to pay their arreas to the power company, who in turn are rationing the supply...when (and how) will it end, who knows.....As you may expect the hospital here has back up power supplies and a diesel generator for emergencies. Fuel is very expensive here, similar to UK prices but with petrol being more expensive than diesel.
Chilled out in the guest house garden on Saturday.  Think I may have mentioned in an earlier blog that there are some great birds here (not that I'm particularly a fan of birds) with amazing colours that you can't fail to like (Mrs Meekley you'd be in bird heaven), check this one out
http://www.africa-uganda-business-travel-guide.com/Uganda-Birding-Safari_-.html

Did a bit of exploring of the town yesterday, it was a bit quieter so I could see more. There are quite a few colonial looking buildings and a large clock tower in the centre of town.  Most of the buildings are fairly run down, the banks however were quite smart.  The banks and some of the shops had armed guards out front - very chilled out and relaxed though, don't think they were expecting much activity. Football is very popular amongst the men -I think the betting shop was the busiest shop I passed, everyone jostling to make their bets. You could bet on 'Money City v Man U'. Many Man U fans here - not sure 'money city' would have been a good bet as it turns out!  Am glad I am a vegetarian - the butchers shops have great big hunks of raw meat on the counters in the street - it was quite hot yesterday so they must have been maturing nicely...

Spent some time on the ward earlier with Collin who captures the stories of the mothers and before and after photos of the children, some of which are then selected and used for publicity in the US.  Most of the spina bifida children are very young, babies some just a few days old,  Charles we saw this morning is one that I checked in at outpatients last week and is now just a week old - tiny.  My favourite patient that we saw was Olivia (possibly 11 months old) - she was all smiles - although got serious when the big camera came out - she has hydrocephalus and is being operated on v soon. You can see in the photo that her head is enlarged, although hers was quite small compared to some others who often needed their mothers to support the weight of their heads. These children are often unable to walk or even sit.  One of the mothers that we spoke to was HIV+ and was being advised on what to do in order to protect her baby who is HIV-.

The little boy in the photo had had a brain tumor, he wanted to have his photo taken, he was a little bit shy.



Olivia and mama