Weekend update

Hello everyone,

Just thought I'd give you a brief update of our weekend.  On Saturday we went to lake Mburo national park which was amazing.  We saw zebras, warthogs, buffalo, monkeys, baboons, hippos and crocodiles!

Yesterday we went to the beach for my birthday - a place called lake Nabugabo with a man-made beach; a popular hang-out with locals from Masaka.  We had a really lovely time.  The students kindly bought me a card and present - the previous day at the national park I had seen Felix in the souvenir shop with a cuddly zebra.  I asked him who it was for and he looked at me (in hindsight slightly suspiciously!) and said it was for him!  I was fooled...  In the evening, Barbara and Joseph at the guesthouse organised a cake (which looked alarmingly like a wedding cake!).  We were then played a cd of range of happy birthday/celebratory songs including an African 'happy birthday' and Cliff Richard's 'congratulations' which continued for 20 minutes!

This morning, Felix, Nadia, Emma, Sarah-Jane, Rachel and I have been on the paediatrics ward round.  There were a number of children with malaria, diarrhoeal illnesses and injuries following road traffic accidents.  There is a young boy with tetanus who the doctors are trying to source antitoxin for.  Also a toddler with severe burns having poured tea on herself.  We were all particularly struck by one 11 year old girl who had been hit by a motorcycle and sustained a significant scalp injury that required suturing in theatre.  We watched as the bandages were removed on the ward round - the child sat stoically with tears dripping down her face as it was so painful.  We were all wincing (I had to leave and stand round the corner at one point).  Her parents were not present and she had not received analgesia but she didn't complain.  My instant reaction was to go and sit and hold her hand and give her a hug.  When her mother came in I left them alone, but from the other side of the ward I could see them sitting separately on opposite beds.  From what we have see so far, reactions to pain and distress here are strikingly different to those in the UK...

More to follow soon (at the moment the internet connection is too slow to update photos but I will keep trying).

Amy