Children. Children. Children!!!

Children 1.
It has been a busy week on Potters Village. On Thursday the first clinic was held for disabled children. A Christian medical charity in Mbarara (150 miles away), the ‘Organised Useful Rehabilitation Service (OURS), had been looking for a location to hold an occasional clinic in the Kisoro area and were pleased when the medical centre at Potters Village was offered.

Notices had been circulated through the churches to the villages around and about 140 children had been registered. Many of these had been an embarrassment to their parents as the local culture is to assume the children had been cursed or the victims of witchcraft, and had been ‘hidden away’ at their homes. Some parents assumed that theirs were the only children to suffer such problems as there are not the counselling and medical facilities that we are used to in England. The day was therefore not only an important day to medically assess the children, maybe for the first time, but also a chance for the parents to receive some consolation that they were not alone.

Although it was suggested that 5 of the children should immediately go into hospital in Mbarara for treatment for their club feet and other conditions only 2 have gone, as 2 of the parents did not have the money for fares and one father refused as the 7 year old daughter with cerebral palsy is too useful at home helping to carry around her baby sister. Although this may seem harsh, the realities are that families of peasant farmers are struggling to survive and every able member, no matter how handicapped, is important to that survival.

Children 2.
Malcolm spent a third week at Kisiizi Hospital to help finalise last years accounts. The most poignant moment was a memorial service held for a 4 year old child held on the same day as his funeral in Wales. James Devaney had come to Kisiizi 4 weeks earlier to support with his mother, (a nursing director who had helped at Kisiizi before), his father who was part of a team doing a sponsored cycle ride to the Hospital from Kampala. Unfortunately by the time he arrived at Kisiizi he was already suffering from an infection which soon overwhelmed him and despite being flown to Nairobi for specialist treatment he died from organ failure. Malcolm understands it was similar to the type of infection that was recently reported in Germany and resulted in the destruction of vegetables following some deaths.

For more details go to:
http://www.flintshirechronicle.co.uk/flintshire-news/featured-stories/2011/08/08/flintshire-parents-devastated-after-death-of-son-four-in-kenya-51352-29197355/
Children 3.
The journeys to Kisiizi are always interesting. This time the first leg of the journey back to Kabale was by Ambulance – Malcolm was a bit disappointed that the siren was not used!

Normally he likes to travel from Kabale to Kisoro on one of the long distant coaches from Kampala. After waiting for an hour he found out that the coaches would not continue to Kisoro, so he chose the second best option – one of the small minibuses.

Half way to Kisoro, in a remote part of the country, some young boys hailed the bus. After the driver had spoken to them, one of the boys brought out of hiding a jerry can of petrol, which was then poured into the mini bus’s tank. Malcolm is certain that the petrol was not exactly legally obtained!!!!!

And finally.

Last week we mentioned David and jenny’s birthday. However, we did not mention the cake that Malcolm made for it – or in fact two cakes!! The reason is that both cakes were disasters, having sunk deeply in the middle. It would have needed a ton of icing to produce a nice, flat topped cake from either of them.
However, they did look the perfect shape for a flan case. So over the weekend the conversion was made into a banana flan with raspberry jelly (courtesy of a leaving gift from Ellie). Talk about making a silk purse out of a sows ear!!!! It can be done.