Easter – from death to life

As well as treating the sick, Kisiizi Hospital also has a tourist attraction. One of the reasons the hospital was built here was the availability of water, and in particular for the hydro-electric system serviced by the local river and waterfall.

 

For the local tribe (the Bakiga - pronounced Baa-chiga) the waterfall has cultural significance, with a sad background. Daughters were valued in part because of the custom that still exists that a suitor has to pay her family if he wants to marry  – this custom, the bride price, still exists though the price of several cows has been largely replaced by cash equivalent. 

 

However, in Uganda if a daughter became pregnant before marriage and before a bride-price had been agreed then this not only brought great shame on the family, but meant that her value as a potential bride was shattered.

Different family groups had different practices. In the neighbouring town of Kabale the practice was to abandon a pregnant daughter on a small island at the centre of a lake to either die, or be claimed by any man who wanted her, who might not normally be able to afford a bride price.

In Kisiizi the custom was that the family would take the daughter to the top of the waterfall, and push her over to her death.

The task of execution was given to the eldest brother, because he would have expected the bride-price received for his sister to be used to pay for his own bride, and her pregnancy had denied him of that money / herd of cows.

Fortunately the custom of executing pregnant daughters no longer happens, in part due to the teaching of missionaries who first came to the region about 100 years ago, though the custom of bride-price continues.

A few years ago a sculpture was erected showing the change to Kisiizi. 

Once this was a place of death and grief for unmarried pregnant women and their families;

 now it's a hospital sharing the good news of Easter, and a place of joy and new life.

 

To celebrate Christian new spiritual life, on Good Friday services are held to remember Jesus’s sacrifice so that we might live. One of the local catholic churches held a walk of witness which passed the hospital, which was one of the places where they stopped and prayed for the area.

Footnote:

If you are shocked by Bakiga culture,the local young women here are shocked by how little value Britsh culture places on our daughters. Our custom was that the bride's family had to pay a dowry to the groom's family before the marriage. It is still common for the bride's family to pay for the wedding.

Ho, Ho, Hoe!

 In an attempt to keep fit (and to try and not put on too much weight) Malcolm goes for a 3 mile walk every morning, usually before breakfast. Because the hospital is  at the bottom of a valley this is 1 ½ miles, and 1 ½ miles back along the same road. As the sun rises between 6.30 and 7am this means  he  starts out in the dark.

 

Most of the people he meets are school children. Schools start very early here, with many children getting to school by 7am. The school day is much longer then in the UK with lessons ending about 5pm, just in time for the children to walk home before it gets dark

As  Malcolm walks the same route at the same time every day he has become a familiar sight, greeting the children in English and sharing ‘high fives’.

Last Thursday most of the children were carting gardening tools, presumably so that they could do  some digging to help tidy up the school  grounds. Some of the children were carrying traditional hoes. Others were carrying large machetes; knifes over 40cm long used for cutting grass, and which would be regarded as a dangerous weapon if carried in the UK.

 

Today is Palm Sunday. Here palm trees are plentiful so members of the Hospital chapel brought them to the service.

 

When Malcolm arrived he at first wondered if all branches had to be left outside.

 

He needn’t have worried. The branches were outside so that those who forgot to bring their own could pick off a few leaves to wave during the hymns

“Charity Begins at Home” – or maybe not

 When working abroad you need to be careful what you say. George Bernard Shaw called Britain and America two countries divided by a common language. Sometimes  Malcolm hears a  Ugandan say something in English which has a completely different meaning to the one he knows.

An example: ‘Charity begins at home’.

 Last week he attended a two day training course with the Board of Governors of the hospital. This was held in one of Uganda’s most recently declared cities , Mbarara. (pronounced ‘Oom  -bar – rara’.)

 

The training was attended by almost all the Board members, including the Chairman of the Board, Bishop Onesimus. Most of the Board members have been recently appointed so the training concerned the powers and responsibilities of the Board and its members in Ugandan law.

The training organisation,(the Ugandan Protestant Medical Board) was recently involved in producing a Policy document for the Church of Uganda on Health Ministry, and copies were presented to the Bishop for the Diocese.

During the training the phrase ‘Charity begins at home’ was used, which to Malcolm meant that we should take care of our own family (or country) before helping those outside our family (or country) which is sometimes an excuse not to help others. In Uganda it means don’t criticise or try to sort out other people’s problems or faults until you have sorted out your own. i.e. take the plank out of your own eye before taking the speck out of your neighbour’s eye.

(The most terrifying / exciting part of the training was Malcolm driving the 100 miles back to  Kisiizi in one of the Hospital’s large, 4 wheel drive Toyota Landcruisers, much of it in the dark on the local rough mud roads. The passengers commented that he seemed to be trying to hit all the holes in the road!). Despite not driving a car with a manual gearbox for a long time he only stalled once!

Concerning charity, there is not a large range of new clothes available to buy in Uganda, partly because there is little manufactured here, and partly because people don’t have the money. There are many tailors who will make a dress for a couple of pounds for labour. The most common source of clothing is second hand, often from surplus items sold in bulk for import to developing countries by Charity shops or collectors of recycled textiles in the UK and other countries.

Traders selling second hand clothes can be found everywhere including outside the hospital.

 

Closer to home, Malcolm's house has a garden complete with bar-b-que and shelter. 'Private' land is not so private in Uganda and someone saw an opportunity while Malcolm was away to bring their goats to feed on the grass. Still, it saved looking for a lawn mower!

Earth to earth

 When Malcolm takes a morning walk along the main road from the Hospital to the neighbouring village there are often interesting things to see. Main road? Heavy lorries use the road but it is made of earth and stones (murran) which dries to a rough, hard surface. However, when it gets very wet it turns to mud.

Just by the Hospital a heavy lorry  got stuck in a muddy patch of road and almost toppled over. The only 'rescue services' are anyone who happens to be nearby. In this case another lorry offered to tow the trapped lorry out of the hole.

 

As for the road, don’t expect the Highways department to repair the potholes. Either traffic will smooth out the ruts, or it will gradually dry out and become a series of road humps to slow down the traffic.

The road may have been made wet by the water from a stream which runs near the road. The water is relatively clean - the spring that feeds the stream further up the hill also provides water for the hospital – boiled before drunk! The stream is also useful for washing clothes – and your children!

One of the shops nearby is a coffin makers. Death is much more common here (the life expectancy is mid 40's) and there is less taboo about coffins than in the UK. Coffin manufacturers display their products openly and you often see them transported on the back of a motorbike or a car – possibly not empty! (Photo taken in Kampala a few years ago)

Along the local road you often see piles of bricks. The soil here is ideal for making mud bricks. There are no big brick companies. It’s a cottage industry and owners of several houses cut into the hillside to quarry the soil and cut it into brick shaped lumps. (This process has the added benefit of converting the slope into a building plot.)

The bricks are then allowed to dry in the sun.

For a longer lasting brick huge pyramid kilns of dried bricks are built with a space for a wood fire in the centre. When the pyramid is complete the fire is allowed to burn for several days in order to bake the bricks. When cooled down, the pile then become a stock of bricks ready to be sold or built into a house by the owner

Wanna Rolex guvnor?

 

This week just a few photos of local tradespeople.

The local milkman is a rare sight in England. Here many of the locals own a few goats and sometimes a cow or two (and occasionally a turkey!) which they raise to get some extra income.

 

To distribute the milk they may send their children door to door. Sometimes there will be old fashioned milk urns strapped to the back of a motorbike which then delivers to customers.

 

Milk is sold by the jug, and poured into any container that the customer brings, which could be a saucepan, a jug , a plastic bottle or in this case a jerry can with the milk being measured out in an orange plastic  jug.

 

There a couple of things to be careful when buying  local milt:

-          The milk may be watered down, and the water may not be clean

-          It will be natural, unpasteurised milk from cows which will probably have brucellosis, so needs boiling and cooling before use.

 

Bread (usually sweet, with extra sugar) is a popular food. There a several small local bakeries who will deliver to houses of regular customers as well to small grocery shops.

As for a ‘Rolex’, this is an egg omele

tte rolled inside a chapatti which is called a ‘Rolex’, derived presumably from ‘Rolled Egg’s! They are often cooked fresh from stalls outside a shop or café, and cost about 45p. As for hygiene, you get what you pay for!

Finally one of the items the hospital gives to new mothers, particularly those with little money is a pack of knitted baby clothes and blankets, usually gifted by supporters from the UK. Malcolm asked Sister Eunice, the maternity in-charge, for a photo of the stock so that the UK organiser would get an idea of what is needed.