Rarer than the mountain gorilla....

...is the Coventry City supporter! However we managed to track one down in the wild bush of South Western Uganda. Here he is spotted with a very pleased Alan:

Off into the wild...

Together with Alison's brother and his girlfriend, we headed out to the West of Uganda towards Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, one of the few remaining habitats of the rare mountain gorilla. En route, we encountered the tree-climbing lions in Ishasha, one of the few places in the world where they exhibit this behaviour.

The girls are too young to actually track the gorillas, but they were able to join us on a walk through the Impenetrable Forest, which they attacked with gusto. Armed with a walking stick and a backpack containing lunch, a waterproof and a dry change of clothes, they hiked for 5 hours each way on 2 consecutive days. Admittedly, Bella did get rather attached to her guide (physically and emotionally!) for sections of the journey, but it was thoroughly enjoyable and we avoided the rains for the most part.

Since someone had to stay with the girls, we split up to track the gorillas. Jonathan and Siobhan visited them in Buhoma on one side of the forest, and Alison and Alan visited them in Nkuringo. On both trips we got up very close and personal to the big fellas and it was an amazing experience all round.

Visiting a rainforest in the wet season does bring certain challenges. We hired a vehicle to take us the last part of the trip to Nkuringo as it was too far for the girls to walk the whole way. The driver duly turned up in a saloon car and struggled to make it up some very steep and slippery mud roads. After a rather hairy slide towards the road's edge we exited the vehicle shaking and watched as the driver over-revved the engine and blew up his radiator.

We were grateful to arrive unscathed in Nkuringo and enjoyed the amazing views from there in to Rwanda (our next destination) and the Congo. We were also entertained with some fabulous cultural dancing by the local children, including some scary gorilla dancing to get us in the mood!

Dragon's Den- African Style!

As part of the income generation project with the Touch Namuwongo Community volunteers, Alan organised a Dragon's Den style forum for the volunteers to pitch their business ideas to a panel of experts. On the panel were Alison' brother, Jonathan who is an investment banker in London, Kevin the CEO of International Hospital Kampala, our friend Amos who runs a tour company in Uganda, and Rita, a lawyer from the hospital with experience in similar microfinance schemes.
Using funds from donations and some of the 'dragons' own money, we are distributing loans to the ideas deemed most innovative and likely to succeed. In the first session we had ideas ranging from a fish mincing machine to an ID card business. The other volunteers watched on and hopefully learnt some valuable business skills for their own ventures.
Once the loans are paid back over a 6 month period, the process will start again and the money will be ploughed ino the next winning entries.

This guy is pitching for funds to expand his onion selling business. The dragons are sat on the right.

...last patient of the day

We figured it was time to update you on the progress of the Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) programme which Alison has been helping to develop for the Touch Namuwongo community project based at IHK, particularly as some of you very kindly donated funds to get it up and running. The clinics are now well under way, with around 20-30 patients per clinic coming through for advice and testing for Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) and cervical cancer screening. The clinics are free of charge and are targetted at the members of the community that cannot afford to pay.
There has been a very high uptake which is likely only to get higher as more people learn about the service on offer. Alison has worked closely with the Ugandan medical staff who will continue to deliver the service and raise the profile and importance of sexual and reproductive health within the underpriveledged communities in Uganda once Alison has left.
Your generous donations helped to launch the service and the funding which allows its continued delivery is largely coming from Oxford University in the form of a research grant. The objective of the research project is to develop a risk tool to identify those members of the population most at risk of contracting STDs. This is being achieved by testing all patients currently presenting at the clinic for a range of STDs. Once developed, this tool will subsequently be validated and put to use in the local community and further afield.
We are currently working on raising funds to allow this much needed service to continue for the community once the research is over. As this service is also lacking in the private sector, Alison has helped develop a similar package for the hospital and we are in the process of developing a model which uses the profits generated from this private service to subsidise the service offered to the community. This model of using the infrastructure and resources provided by the private arm of the organisation to help the community, is at the heart of IMG and helps sustain many of our community projects. That said, this model can only provide a part of the solution to meeting the unending health needs of the community and as such we still rely on and are very grateful for any charitable donations through the Suubi Trust (http://blog.suubitrust.org.uk/)
Alison has really enjoyed the community work and has found it the most rewarding job she has ever done. The people with whom Alison works have continually impressed her with their willingess to learn and take on these new challenges and she has felt priveledged to be a part of such a dedicated team.
Inevitably, this line of work, although rewarding, can be emotionally draining, especially with the high number of HIV positive diagnoses and the high rate of non-consensual sexual encounters at such an early age. This could never have been more apparent than the other week as Alison's last patient of the day stepped through the door. Her sad story has really touched a nerve both personally and throughout the organisation. Appreciating that her story will not be appropriate for some of the younger followers of our blog we will not go into the detail here, but if those of a stronger disposition could spare the time to read more about her story and help in any way through the Suubi Trust (http://blog.suubitrust.org.uk/giving/) then please follow the link to Last Patient of the Day

Mucking Out...!

Kampala is filthy! Almost everywhere you look there are piles of rubbish. The drains are clogged with plastic bags. You often get wafts of sewage whilst out and about. In the slum areas, which are located at the bottom of the hills near the swamps, this is magnified, as everyone's waste (including personal!) gets washed down by gravity towards them. There is no council-sponsored waste collection so it is down to the communities to keep their environment clean. From what we can see this does not always happen. In neighbouring Rwanda, the government has taken more drastic steps; plastic bags are completely banned and community clean-up days are organised every month to keep the waste levels to a minimum.
On Saturday, we helped organise a similar clean-up day in our local community in a deprived area called Namuwongo. VSO gives a small budget to the volunteers clustered in any given area to spend on a local project, which will in some way help improve the lot of the local community. It was a case of opportunity meeting need, as the Touch Namuwongo project in which Alison is involved has been looking to start a clean-up programme and we had some funds to buy the equipment needed. So we joined forces and purchased wheelbarrows, shovels, wellies, gloves, etc. The community were 'mobilised' to attend on Saturday morning and over 400 people turned up and duly collected their gloves and tools and set to work collecting the rubbish and digging out the ditches. Amy, Zoe and Bella joined in for the 'light cleaning' and seeing little white kids helping out swelled the numbers of locals further. Those with a keen eye may spot the girls wearing their Monkey Lou superhero t-shirts (donated by Laura Bramswell-thank you!) in a bid to save the planet

After a couple of hours of mucking out before the midday heat, everyone was rewarded with a specially commissioned t-shirt and a chapatti each. We then enjoyed some Ugandan dancing and speeches by the community leaders, before distributing some mosquito nets and delivering some health education and income generation training. It was also another good opportunity to sensitise the community to the sexual and reproductive health service that Alison has developed for them, although with numbers already at 20+ per day, there is some concern that the service may become quickly overwhelmed.

The day will hopefully now kickstart regular cleaning sessions around the different parts of Kampala and having cleared up some of the mess, people may think twice about dumping their rubbish in public.

Who needs Barbie...

...when you can make one of these!!?












Bella gets into the local crafts and seems quite pleased with her handiwork.

Seventies Revival!

Two of our good friends, Natalie and Sean, recently turned 30 and 40 respectively so they joined forces to make 70 and the obvious party choice was a 1970's theme! Through a combination of an extensive second hand clothing market, cheap tailors and an eye for bad taste, guests were able to cobble together some pretty impressive outfits. Not sure if you'll recognise a couple of familiar style gurus in these pics, but needless to say Alan took a while to prepare for the event with a rather fetching porn-star chopper moustache.
There were some luminous 70's cocktails and funky tunes to see us through to the small hours. Not sure Uganda in the 1970's was quite the same so there were a few bemused faces in the bar.
The girls are relieved that Alan has now removed the offending item from his top lip (although he's holding on to his sideburns for a bit longer!) and they have allowed a goodnight kiss again.

Reaching out to the community...

We recently attended one of the Outreach days run by the Touch Namuwongo project, which is part of the charitable community arm of the hospital where Alison works.
Members of the community can come along every other Saturday and get HIV tests and various medical advice for free through an extensive network of local volunteers. The outreaches are held within different disadvantaged communities around Kampala. It is a very impressive service and lots of people were taking advantage of the opportunity to improve their health and increase their medical awareness. Although they had their work cut out keeping all the children entertained as well...

7th Heaven!

Zoe had some of her friends around to celebrate her 7th birthday. There was a treasure hunt in the garden, face painting and pizza making (the wine bottles pictured were used as rolling pins- honest!)

judging by the mess a good time was had by all...

...and then we got cleaned up in the bath...

Painting Kampala Red...

Our friend and fellow VSO volunteer Jan launched her career as artist in residence at our regular Friday eveing haunt, Fuego's. Jan is an art and design teacher back in the UK and runs a charity here in Kampala which sends disadvantaged children to school. She has also found the time to capture Uganda on canvass and we helped her set up her first exhibition, which was a resounding success. One of the sales of a picture called 'Butt Naked' was to Dorthe, pictured here with Jan.

Back to Skool...

All 3 girls are now back at school with Bella returning this week after Zoe and Amy returned last week. Bella was really excited about starting full-time, although the novelty may start to wear off!

8 weeks was a long holiday and Alan especially is looking forward to some 'me' time. We have plenty to be cracking on with as Alison starts her STI research project and Alan embarks on more building work at the Royal Pride Academy and some income generation projects. Only a couple of months left until we return to England- wow!

Then Alison's Turn...

2 days after Bella's birthday, it was Alison's turn to wear the birthday cake hat of shame! We travelled back from Jinja on the morning of Alison's birthday. Our friend Jan then offered to look after the girls whilst Alan and Alison went for a massage, before returning home to find a house full of friends and a birthday tea with cakes, sandwiches and other delights.

We even had room for dinner at a posh Italian restaurant in town. We weren't too sure where the restaurant was located in town in order to direct our taxi driver. He pulled over whilst we got directions on the phone, but one of Kampala's ubiquitous policemen didn't like where he had stopped, so got in the car and insisted on taking our taxi driver to the police station to charge him. Bad news for our driver, but turns out it was good news for us as the policeman knew the way to our restaurant and so could direct our driver on the way to the police station!

Fantastic rissotto too!

Bella's Bouncing Birthday

Proving that you can get hold of just about anything here for a price, we hired a bouncy castle for Bella's birthday and erected it in the garden as a surprise. Initially, she was somewhat overcome and didn't want to get on with the other children. However, once she had warmed up, we couldn't get her off it and she went on to have a whale of a time with all her friends (and ours!).

We then went off to Jinja, the source of the Nile, to stay at a holiday resort for a couple of days. It was very relaxing and great fun with plenty of swimming, including a little pool for Bella to try out her new ring.

Well I'll be jiggered!!

Alison recently turned her hand to some minor surgery on our balcony when our friend Sabrina, who was visiting Kampala, discovered that an unwanted guest had burrowed into her toe. She had picked up a jigger, which is a type of flea that lives on the ground and hops onto people's feet, making a home under the skin from where it ejects hundreds of eggs...nice!? Initially, Alison tried to duck out of the extraction on the grounds of no local anaesthetic, but after some training via Youtube videos of jiggers being extracted with safety pins and leaves, it was decided that the procedure could be safely carried out at home with a needle, some disinfectant and a piece of wood to bite down on! Ably assisted by Alan and Natalie, the operation took somewhat longer than expected as the blighter was well dug in. In fact, by the end of the operation there was a question mark over whether it was in fact a jigger and not part of Sabrina's toe!

The patient seemed none the worse for her ordeal and hobbled off without too much discomfort, and has since reported a complete recovery - thank God!

Working with the Parents at Royal Pride

On Sunday we organised a health education day with the parents of the Royal Pride Academy. Alison came armed with various homemade visual aids (including the 'Tippy Tap' featured below) and she talked to them about relevant issues such as safe water, HIV, malaria and family planning with a focus on prevention. There was a really good turn-out (over 100 kids and 100 parents) and plenty of audience participation including some very detailed questions along sexual themes!

The schoolchildren performed some songs and dances around the various themes of the day- some of them quite emotional as there were several orphaned by HIV and other diseases.

Alison and Natalie set up an impromptu deworming clinic and there was a clamour for the tablets

We also handed out the last of our supply of reading books so each child had a book to take home. We wanted to encourage more of a reading culture and get the parents involved at home. Even though some of the parents themselves are illiterate, we feel it is important they give the children time to improve their reading skills.

The day was a great success and much appreciated by the parents and teachers. Next on the timetable is to return with some much-needed supplies such as mosquito nets and condoms through an outreach day with a local clinic, where HIV testing will also be on offer.

The Humble Tippy Tap

One of the things we took along to the Royal Pride School was a Heath Robinson device called a Tippy Tap. This is a basic handwashing tool for use where there is no running water. It consists of a jerry can of water threaded along a horizontal stick across two supporting sticks. A piece of string is attached to the lid of the can, which is tipped up with a foot pedal made from another stick at the end of the string. The water comes out of a small hole in the jerry can when tipped up.
They are especially useful in schools since the children do not need an adult to help to lift the heavy water carriers and there is very little water wasted. It is also very cheap to make from local materials (about 30p).
At the Royal Pride school there is no water source nearby so it has to be carried from the nearest tap in the community. Therefore handwashing and basic sanitation is a major issue and an area to focus on in the prevention of the spread of disease.

Zoe, with our friends Geoff and Sabrina, demonstrating the Tippy Tap. Geoff and Sabrina have been introducing this technology in schools in Western Uganda

More Birthday Frolics by the Lake

Last weekend we returned to the scene of Amy's birthday celebrations, Lake Nabugabo. This time it was to mark our friend Jan's birthday. When we arrived at the lakeside 'resort' there were several hundred students having a rave with a massive sound system and much dancing. To our surprise and relief they wound this up by 6pm (imagine that?!) and we were able to take over with a BBQ spread including fresh fish from the lake and the obilgatory marshmallows for toasting. We camped out next to the water's edge.


Bella got some practice in for her birthday this weekend...

When Did You Last Get Serviced?

Alan's artwork was put to use again (below). This time to invite staff to a health screening day that Alison had helped to organise at IHK. It seemed to work, as instead of the 50 or so staff that were expected, the numbers approached 300 (including 60 cervical screens, amongst other things!)before the doors had to be closed, for that day anyway! Another health screening day has been timetabled for next week for those that could not be accommodated, and one enthusiastic participant even asked if they could be held quarterly!
The health day gave Alison a great opportunity to test drive the sexual and reproductive health screening package which she has been developing and is in the process of incorporating into the community project at IHK. The plan is to also offer the package to corporate staff from other organisations within Kampala and use any profits to subsidise and maintain the community project, in which there is the greatest unmet need.
Despite this potential revenue, the community project is still lacking in funds and so any additional financial support would always be much appreciated, and can be channelled through the Suubi Trust website www.suubitrust.org.uk earmarked for the STI programme. A huge thank you again to those who have already contributed to the running of this programme.

Customer Service Training at Safari Lodges...

...it's a tough job, but someone has to do it! Alan landed himself a Gordon Ramsey style role of troubleshooter for a chain of 3 safari lodges around Uganda. Keen for some diverse viewpoints he took along 4 extra critics, all of whom were keen to contribute. Amy took on her role very seriously and was always chipping in with useful tips- these normally involved wanting to make things softer, particularly pillows and toilet paper!

We normally spent the first day or so observing as 'mystery customers' before focussing on some areas for improvement through training sessions including some entertaining games of chinese whispers and something involving balloons.

It remains to be seen whether the lodges will be better places to stay as a result of our visits, but they have some new recipes to try out and some new artwork on the walls courtesy of the girls!

Feeling Blue

the girls weren't too happy with their new roomate at one of the lodges!

Respect!

Never again will we take Jasper for granted...

Jasper and the girls...

whilst Alan was putting the staff at the lodges through their paces, Alison was doing the same with Jasper on the roads through the National Parks. Sometimes with unfortunate consequences...

...not that the girls seemed that bothered!

Cake..? Me..? Never!

Bella caught in the act at a friend's 30th!

Bomb Avoidance

You may well have heard by now about the bomb blasts in Kampala on Sunday night during the World Cup Final. Fortunately for us, we were out in the West of Uganda at the time and headed back on Monday. No-one we know was affected by the blasts, but both bomb sites are at places we have visited in the past year. The hospital where Alison works, IHK, was inundated with patients so Alison was sorry that she was not around that night to help out.
Our journey back into Kampala was slowed down somewhat last night due to tightened security, but life has returned to normal for most in Kampala.
Update on our trip West to follow...