Lingira

We have been on this island for 2 weeks now. It is a 2 hour boat ride from the mainland. Each day we commute to other islands by boat to run out clinics, do health education and immunisation. - This is a definate improvement on travelling on the M6 every day (except of course when it rains!) The ride each day is made even more entertaining by the fact that we all have to be carried into the boat - the water contains a nasty disease that is rife amongst the locals, but anyone who can afford the 10p to be lifted into the boat does so. (James is 6 ft 2 in and the Africans are generally small, so that is always worth watching!)
We are going out to places where there is limited medical support. We are the only healthcare workers that they will see except the immunisers for months. so we are offering basic healthcare for things such as worms, malaria, malnutrtion, dehydration and diarrhoea. The more serious cases such as meningitis and renal failure we can only give some symptom relief and prayer and recommend that they go somewhere else for further help. We know that this is unlikely to happen due to their poverty.

We are here for 1 more week.

Speech Therapy under the tree!!

This week we have done more at the clinic. I have spent 2 days doing speech therapy clinics under the trees and other home visits. I spent a day doing ante-natal work and immunisations. I also spent a day with the medical officer (more qualified than a nurse, less qualified than a doctor) where I saw many malaria cases as well as syphillis, jiggers and worms!! - Nothing like I have every seen in the UK.

We have spent 2 weeks familiarising ourselves with the culture and how they do things here. It has been a good time of preparation for the next 3 weeks where we will be more autonomous. We are going to Lingira, an island in Lake Victoria to support the medical work there = I suspect we will do lots of healthcare teaching, immunising and general clinics.

Kanglmira Clinic

We are spending 2 weeks at a clinic called Kanglmira. It is a 30 min ride from Jinja (the 2nd city in Uganda). So far I have spent a day in the pharmacy, a day doing administration and filing and a day on home visits. It seems that I am the only Speech and Language therapist in the country right now. So Friday, I did some visits and I will write a programme for the home educators to follow. Hopefully I will get some time with the staff to do some basic training. Unfortunately it is too late for some of the children. It is more important to teach them how to take care of themselves and to help in the house. Communication is managed by gesture and noises - this works and there is a bigger need.