Kate at New Hope Uganda

Kate at New Hope Uganda

Saturday 11 August 2012

All in a week`s work!

Our first week of the 4 week break from school has been a busy one......
We visited Kakulu at home in Kiryanongo.

We spent all day on Wednesday at Katalemwa Rehab Centre getting chairs, standing frames and splints for Ivan, Fatiya, Daniel and Hassan.....
We had our monthly community outreach session on Friday which went very well but a new child came along with his Father suffering either from a strange kind of epilepsy or perhaps even 'Nodding Disease' which has been in the news recently as there have been many cases of it in Northern Uganda. Doctor`s are not yet certain of the cause and as yet, there is no cure! We sent them to the local hospital and are trying to find out what happened but as is often the case here......Dad`s phone is off!
Hassan did not enjoy the community session so much as the Physio put Plaster Of Paris on his feet to keep them straight until we receive his splints from Katalemwa.

Sadly on wednesday we also said goodbye to Emma a trainee Physio from England who had been with us for just over a week. She helped us with writing up Physio Programmes (with photos too!) for all of our children.

A highlight this week for me has been re-starting Luganda lessons. A teacher from Kampala came and taught me for 2 hours on Thursday and I actually managed to focus for the whole time which is a bit miraculous! Since then I have been reading children`s Luganda books with my housemate Christine who is Ugandan and a very good teacher :)
Just as she chuckles at my Luganda, I sometimes have a giggle at her Ugandan English. Earlier she was telling me that she saw a friend at the hospital but she didn`t greet him because he was "visiting his handkerchief!" I love the Ugandan version of English that we speak here.
I must sign off here before my head starts "paining."

Sunday 5 August 2012

Plastered walls & Harvested Maize.

It`s been a busy week. A hard week at times as I have been missing Dissan.....but Hassan, Allen & co. have kept me smiling. I had a lovely time at the Brown`s in Kampala last weekend and was even treated to the luxury of a hot bath as a birthday treat!


Progress has been made on my new house; most of the walls are now plastered, I have windows and door frames.......this evening, Hannah and I went over with the colour charts to pick paint colours :)


We have all been harvesting maize this week both on the enterprise farm and in our family group.
On Tuesday, our class went over with the rest of the school to help on the farm. Thankfully we didn`t come across the Python who was apparently busy eating a Deer somewhere in the field (or so the kids told the trainee physio Emma who has been helping in our class this week!)


.On Saturday morning we did our David family field......




..........And by the evening we were all exhausted and ready to watch a good movie, eat popcorn and chocolate cake at my house which is definately too small for 20 + people (just as well the new one has a nice big living room!)