4th of July Celebration in Uganda

Dear Friends
July 4th- America’s Independence Day----in Uganda! What a fun time it was for all. Not just myself and the American Medical students, but two Dutch girls, two German women as well as several young women from the UK. Let’s not forget the Ugandans who lent us their beautiful country in which to celebrate.
I had it in mind that since last Independence Day had come and gone with only a red-white and blue hair ribbon to mark it (except, I did meet Dr. Kevin Dieckhaus who has made it possible for all the medical students to be here, as well as supplying 2,000 Rapid HIV tests for our Outreach Program!), I would have a celebration above and beyond anything Uganda has known for July 4th. And I did!!
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-------First I needed to make a homemade barbeque grill from available items, hence the photo of me grilling chicken over two Ugandan Segeries, with the oven rack held up with empty formula cans (that was Michael’s donation). Then the seating was comparatively easy as they are cutting down so many trees here, that I had both seating and firewood to boot. Add a few balloons, a music mix from my computer , a remaining bag of marshmallows to roast and voila’---a gathering of which any American could boost
--Marshmellows around an open fire was both yummy and educational for many.

-------Then comes dear Sheba with his drums to get us up off our logs and dancing.
------Immaculate, Bernadette, Joseph and Sheba provided the drumming and music

------I know I’ve said this before but ---I so wish the mini videos I took of the party could be part of this Blog, because they are hysterical! Waltraud, Dr. Damian’s wife decided we should sing our National Anthem , so Lisa and I gave it a shot: We were awful!((Rosanne Barr sounded good next to us)-ha. Come on, admit it our National Anthem is not an easy song for anybody (except my Heather) to sing, but to make it worse, we forgot the words! How embarrassing!

Dutch Girls Duet-------------------------UK Quartet

Waltraud and Merike -duet - of the German National Anthem

----Then each represented country, sang their National Anthem and, of course, the Ugandan were best.:partially because there were more of them but partially because it is much easier to sing. Waltraud sang both with the Ugandans AND joined Marike in the German Anthem as well.. Eveline and Liecha from Holland did a credible job, while the girls from the UK pretty much giggled thru “God save the Queen”.

------O, yes the Fireworks! They are not allowed without a permit so the several little flares pictured here lit up the Ugandan sky for only a minute or so, but even so, you could hear a few

“Ah’s and Oh’s”

------All in all it was a delightful evening and one I am unlikely to forget.

------Enjoy the photo’s and be glad you couldn’t “hear” me and Lisa sing_ha.
------------------ GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!!!
-----and UGANDA and ENGLAND and HOLLAND and GERMANY
------------------------------------God Bless The World

---------------------Let their be PEACE on Earth and Let it begin with Me

--------------------me and Sheba cut a rug ( or in this case the grass)

4

Michael Turns One Year Old Today!

The best laid plans of Mice and Men- in this case babies birthdays celebrations:

Prince Michael turns One Year Old today, July 18th, but all celebrations needed to be postponed as he has the Chicken Pox’s and will be in Isolation thru the weekend!.

I received a call from Potters Village that he was covered in “pox” marks and indeed he was, but now several days later, they are at an all time high, hence the pictures of Michael in his Birthday Suit ( literally ) with nothing but the radio on (ala Marilyn Monroe) and calamine lotion from head to toe-smile..

We do not immunize for Chicken Pox in this country, as we do in the States, so his being up to date with him immunizations couldn’t and didn’t protect him from the effects of being exposed to so many other little ones. But , as you can see from these photos , he doesn’t seem to be suffering terribly.

I was about 5 years old when I had them and my mother reported that I was both a miserable site and an equally miserable patient as I somehow managed to have Chicken Pox’s and Mumps together!.



The main thing to celebrate is that Michael has survived at all, let alone to “suffer” a childhood disease. Only a year ago he was born in Kisoro Hospital, where his twin died at birth and after being transferred here to St. Francis Hospital, his mother died a couple of days later. No one, absolutely no one, expected this 0.9 kg. (less than 2 lbs.) baby to make it, but God and Michael had other plans.

You .need to understand that there is no modern equipment here, only hot water bottles and an occasional nasal gastric tube for feedings. But thanks to Sr. Vastina, the Charge Nurse of Maternity and the Nursery ( a closet size room within the Maternity Ward) and many caring nurses and nursing students, Michael made it thru those first 2 months until I was told in a dream , to go meet and fatten up this tiny baby. The rest is history, if you have been following my Blogs since Sept.. and he now weighs about 16 lbs, can sit up , squirm his way anywhere he wants and has the sweetest disposition you can imagine. .

One of the Nursing Students named him Michael, after the Archangel Michael,, because of his strength against all odds .Though he is often called Professor Michael , as some believe he will be a Pediatrician , turned Professor in his later years, as he goes about telling his own personal story (smile),I wonder about potential celebrity, as all one needs to do is take the camera out of the bag and he breaks into huge posing smiles (Ha).

In any case, it is apparent that God has a very specific Plan for Michaels life, and I am honored to have had the opportunity to be a part of that Plan..

My friend Mary Johns turned me onto an author named Alexander McCall Smith, who writes thoroughly entertaining novels based in Botswana, Africa. . I recently completed one in a series of “The NO.1 Ladies Detective Agency” entitled “In the Company of Cheerful Ladies”, and eagerly await more in this series being sent to me (as we speak) by good friend (and recent visitor ) Carol Balderree.

The last paragraph in this book really spoke to me and I can’t read it without feeling it is talking about me personally and my experience here in Uganda. It reads:

“Mma Makutsi gathered her thoughts, standing before the window looking out to the trees in the distance and the evening sun on the grey green hills beyond the trees. She had so much to think about: her past and the place from where she had come: her family who would be pleased about this news, her late brother who would never know about this, unless, of course, he was watching from somewhere, which he might be, for all she knew.
She loved this country, which was a good place, and she loved those with whom she lived and worked. She had so much love to give—she had always felt that—and now there was somebody to whom she could give this love, and that, she knew, was good, for that is what redeems us, that is what makes our pain and sorrow bearable—this giving of love to others, this sharing of the heart.”

--------------------------------------------AFRICA
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--------Let Go And Let God---

--------- Part Two ------ Let Go and Let God

I arrived here yesterday with two specific challenges (don’t ya just love how we can turn a problem into a challenge just by changing the word? ) Try it—it actually works! The word “problem” sounds so final, so unfixable. Somehow with “challenge” comes hope and a sense that we have some say in the outcome.

In any case, back to the two challenges: the first Michael is finding a more comfortable place in my life, though I imagine it will be an ongoing process. The second has to do with my work in the Pediatric Ward at St. Francis Hospital

I was delighted when an opportunity to split my time between Public Health and Peds came along. Having been a Pediatric Nurse for so many years, I missed using my skills and definitely missed caring for ill children.

Shortly after my vacation there was a Continuing Education Class from an MD connected with the Minister of Health on “The Leading Cause of Deaths in Children in Uganda”. The answer was decidedly Malaria, which almost every child in Uganda has had once or twice. The outcome depends on the severity of the illness and, the timeliness of the treatment.

During his presentation the Dr. said that they had come to our Pediatric Ward some 4 or 5 months ago and randomly took x amount of charts as a survey. The results were astounding on many levels but what knocked me off my seat was the % for doing heart rates (pulses) on the children was only 8% and the % for doing respirations (how many breaths one takes in a minute) was a whopping 0% !!!

If indeed more pulse or respirations had been taken, they were not recorded and any medical person will tell you “If it’s not been charted, it not been done.”

This was my open door to work in Peds and I jumped at the chance In April, I started to go there after lunch and take and teach how to take Vitals (Temperatures, Heart Rates and Respirations) on every child. Since I have had so many years experience with listening to “breath sounds” I threw that in as a bonus, in hopes it would give the medical personnel some extra information on which to they could base their treatment...

The response has been mixed and when I say mixed I don’t mean different reactions from various people, I mean different reactions from individuals depending on how what I do or say affects them at the time.

Most greet me with “Welcome” and “Thank you for the work”. One Charge Nurse even encouraged the nursing students to learn how to do Ob’s ( Observations) , or Vitals, by taking turns going thru the Ward with me. Their response is one of surprise that I know “how” to take a pulse or respirations on a child or that it is done at all. I find most of the nursing students willing and anxious to learn, it’s the trained nurses and Clinicians(like our Nurse Practitioners ) and M.D.’s (except Dr. Leonard Ssenyonjo) who seem uninterested in anything I have to say.

OK, so what is the challenge I face? To save all the lives of all the children in Uganda? Nooo To get all the medical personnel to like and respect me? Nooo

My challenge is to touch each child with love, smile at each mother as she nurses her sick baby, report my “observations” to the Charge Nurse, then simply “let it go” and leave it in God’s hands.

I am reminded of the adage “Let go and Let God” and my humorous interpretation, which is “I am perfectly willing to Let God, as long as I don’t have to let go”

Not so funny when I realize that in regards to my afternoons in Peds, I’ve been exemplifying my interpretation, not the original adage.

I usually return home between 5 or 6PM frustrated and a bit angry at everybody, mostly myself. All the classes we had on how cultures differ can not prepare you for what appears like apathy in treatment.

My primary aggravation, as I walk home in the evenings, is the non-aggressive treatment of an elevated temperature. Initially it is good to let the body attack the microorganism itself just as it’s best not to treat diarrhea in the beginning, in hopes the body will heal itself BUT-yea, “but” , when the temperature goes on and on and is very high, the child becomes dehydrated, gets weaker and sometimes dies.—unnecessarily? I can’t answer that as I am neither God or a Physician. I do know that there are simple ,basic things that can be done to hydrate the child and decrease the temperature. : like tepid sponging, encourage fluid intake, IV fluids and alternating between Tylenol and Ibuprofen.

The only one that is done here is “sponging” and that is done by the caregiver (usually the mother) who often has little training in how to do it.

The past two weeks, I have had the honor to work with a nursing student named Habeb, who actually obtains* hot water in another part of the hospital to mix with the cold for sponging a child and teaches the mother how to do it.

*It seems that the solar system installed in the brand new Pediatric Building, only gives warm water in the mornings, nothing but cold water the remaining hours. I don’t know if it is the way it is set up or if it is broken and I am afraid to ask.

Sponging is the only treatment for elevated temperature, while you wait and see if any of the antibiotics hit the spot. Drinking water or anything is not encouraged, in fact I rarely even see a drop of water at the bedside. The explanation is the difficulty in obtaining good drinking water and lack of education regarding it’s benefits.

So, it brings me back to my original “challenge”, How do I serve in silence, or at least truly “Let it Go” at the end of the day? I already know the answer----Do all I can and leave the rest to God. ----------------–I just don’t know HOW to do that!

This is not a rhetorical question. I am really interested in your response.---all of you, not just my spiritual sister Mary Johns (smile) Come on, figure out how to make a “comment” or send a response to my email address.

Blessings and Thanks (in advance)

-----------------------------------------MARIE-----------

My abode while staying at Lake Mutanda

PSS Next Time I’ll share the joys of having four American Medical Students, Two Law students from Holland and One young woman from Germany, , all staying in the guest house for one to two months. The main joy being “Yahoo, I can talk fast, without measuring each word for clarity and simplicity!”

---I am having a 4^th of July Party on Friday for all of them, as well as other from Kisoro Hospital, so there should be many photo opportunities.

----In spite of our dear President Bush, I am proud to be an American and hopeful for the future of our country.------------ GOD BLESS AMERICA !!!

Time for the generator to be turned off and go Nite Nite