...now that I’m back again from Uganda after my all too brief visit over the last couple of weeks. As usual, I’m missing Kiwoko Hospital and all my Friends in Uganda greatly, and the grey, cold, damp Edinburgh autumn hasn’t been helping either. It took quite an effort to say goodbye to everyone again this time - almost a year since my last visit, and I hope it’ll not be quite so long next time before my next trip.
The Kiwoko Chase was the first highlight of my stay – the day after I arrived at Kiwoko. About 50 walkers and 80 runners took to the dirt roads around the hospital for a 16.5km race, for which I was Guest of Honour. As someone who doesn’t usually run (hill-walking and cycling are my usual activities) this was only the second time I’d run over 10km, and the heat of the morning, the sun beating down, and the altitude all combined to make it as touch a run as I remembered from my last “Chase” in 2007. I remember running up the kilometre long hill back into Kiwoko Town looking forward to turning right at the roundabout with only 500yds then left to run, and then finding out with disappointment that the route continued straight on through the town and back to the hospital by another route adding a km to the distance I was expecting! At least I was able to reach the end with enough energy left to deliver a speech and give out prizes later in the day. Many thanks to the many people who sponsored me to run – I’ve raised over £1500 for the work of Kiwoko Hospital – and there’s a link on this site if you’d still like to donate!
My busy weekend continued on the Sunday with a party and Official Opening for a Bakery which one of my friends had built. I’d helped support this venture financially, so again I was Guest of Honour! This event included a full Ugandan meal, various party games, and the obligatory speeches. Bosco John is an unusual Ugandan who manages to look forward beyond his next meal, and has provided for his family by building six rooms to rent on his property so he can get school fees for each of his six children. He currently bakes buns in a charcoal oven, but his new bakery will employ some local people as he trains them and then sends them out to sell the products. There’ll also be a small cafe which I suspect might get decent use from some of the many visitors to Kiwoko, hopefully as well as some of the locals!
Once the working week got started, it became apparent that I’d arrived in the middle of a hernia camp! Worldvision Uganda had arranged for about ninety of their children to get hernias and other minor surgical conditions fixed, and about fifteen children were arriving daily and getting operated on. We got a second operating table into the main theatre, and this allowed three of us to work on different kids simultaneously, with two of us together in the main room and a third in the minor theatre. I’d brought some oxygen sats probes with me which came in handy as it allowed us to monitor all three kids safely.
By the end of the week all the children had had their surgery and things quietened a bit. A friend from the UK is spending a year working as an anaesthetist in Kampala, and I was pleased to welcome her for a day to Kiwoko and show her round a rural mission hospital – I think it was an interesting and eye-opening experience for her, and fun for me to show-off my hospital! Lots of people visit Kiwoko for short periods of time, and get a variety of experiences, but its only by staying in one place for a number of months that you can really start to understand why things work the way they do in Uganda. There was a decent bunch of foreign students and other volunteers at Kiwoko while I was there, and I hope they got to experience some of the spirit of the place and the people who live and work there. I think many of them realised why I go back again and again...
My second weekend was spent visiting friends in Kampala. I took Mark and Helen out for dinner in a local Thai restaurant which was a novel experience for them. We were able to join up with my anaesthetist friend and her housemates to make it a very Western experience! I’d managed to plan meetings with Zai, Maureen and Christine on the Sunday, which although logistically complicated worked well, and I was taken to visit Maureen’s new hospital in Kampala. I sponsored her through her nursing training, and it’s really good to see her using the skills and qualifications she’s gained, and be so proud of what she’s accomplished. Emma, the other student I sponsored has also qualified, but is looking for work at the moment – she stayed on at Kiwoko to see me before heading back to her home in Kenya, hopefully to return soon when a job becomes available.
In so many ways I’m envious of my ex-pat friends at Kiwoko. Ken & Judith kindly let me stay in their spare room, and Rory, Denise & Gideon fed me well throughout my visit. It was so good to see them all again too. They get to stay in Kiwoko, and a large part of me would love to be back there more permanently. It seems that God currently wants me to stay in Scotland, however, as shortly before my holiday I had an interview for a job as Consultant Surgeon in Dunfermline, near Edinburgh, and was successful in getting what was my first choice of jobs in the UK. I complete my training at the end of this month, and it seems that I’ve been working towards this new job for the last thirteen years.
So I’ll be staying in central Scotland for the foreseeable future, although I’ll hopefully be able to visit my other home in Uganda frequently. Either way, I hope to see you soon...
Steve
