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Published: October 10th 2011
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Hi friends!
We’re still thinking of you all from Uganda and looking forward to catching up properly when we’re home in a few days’ time.
The last few weeks of our elective have been super! We were together on paediatrics ward where we were given a lot of responsibility – scary at first but great for our learning. For most of the week we were admitting and treating patients ourselves. On Thursday the doctor said she was leaving a bit early on Friday so asked if we could cover – once we had agreed she mentioned that ‘leaving early’ meant leaving at 6am(!) so we were left to do ward round & manage the ward ourselves. Yes we did use the phrase ‘continue current management and review by doctor on Monday’ at lot!
We’ve taken up netball training with the nursing students. We were slightly intimidated when at our first practice we discovered they were training for the Ugandan National Championships in a few weeks’ time! Practice seemed to go well, however the next day in the doctors meeting the on call doctor announced that one of the nursing students had been admitted with a broken foot after
vigorous netball training session the night before! We had a great time training with them and know our skills will be greatly missed at the national championships!
Our love and knowledge of Manchester United continues to grow having now watched our first full match - we won (Yes!)…though we now can’t quite remember the score or who we were playing! The match was shown in the local cinema (projector in a wooden hut) which was packed to overflowing. It was a great atmosphere. Some of the details of the game were lost on us…we accidently supported the wrong team for the first few minutes!
We’ve become very accustomed to standing out because we are white. Everywhere we go children will shout ‘Muzongo, Muzongo’ which can either be translated as ‘white person, white person’ or ‘ghost, ghost!’ On paediatrics we had one child with pneumonia who was too sick to talk or cry but as soon as she had been resuscitated with some oxygen she found enough breath to scream ‘muzongo, muzungo, muzongo, muzongo….!’ Our treatment had clearly worked! On one occasion we were literally surrounded by school children who were daring each other to touch our skin. We
only managed to convince them we were friends not foes when their teacher arrived and announced that we were Man U supporters – word had obviously spread!
One evening the nursing students put on a dance and worship show. We were very impressed with their natural dance talent and sense of rhythm…we expect that they were equally impressed with Jessy’s solo attempt at African dancing - she was unexpectedly hauled up onto the stage much to the delight of 150 Ugandans…we think the phrase ‘oh my goodness muzongo dancing’ may have been used! For those of you reading this who have ever seen Jessy dance we can hear your screams of horror from all the way over here!
We have been incredibly privileged to go on another prison mission visit. After praise and worship we both spoke to the prisoners about what it means to be a Christian and how God loves us and them so much He sent His only son to die for us. It was humbling to be reminded that we have done nothing more than they have to earn this love.
We cannot believe how quickly 6 weeks at the hospital has flown
past. One thing which has really made it special for us is genuine friendship with all the doctors. Having thought our elective would be just a holiday we have in fact learned a real passion for medicine and desire to be good doctors.
Massive thanks to Dr Rory, Dr Anne, Dr Santa, Dr Deus, Dr Adam, Dr James, Dr Peter, Dr Steve, Dan, Dr Nicky, Prof Fabian, Dr Ben, Sister Rachel, Dr Justin, Tania, Denise, Rose, Scovia, Maggie, the Nursing students and the many other friends of Kiwoko hospital we could name. You guys made our elective as amazing as it was and a time we will never forget. Thank you.
Thank you also to friends back home who have been praying for us, e-mailing, texting etc. Congratulations for making it to the end of the blog! We will be signing copies on our return…we expect a rush so please arrive early and form an orderly queue.
So much love to you all
Jessy and Joanna xxxxxx
PS appologies for the Oscar style speech at the end…we are practicing for when we need it at The National Netball Championships, the MTV award for best dancer and
The Booker prize for best blog.
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