Home sweet home

After a rather longer journey home than anticipated I have safely landed, showered, eaten, slept and awoken much refreshed. Time for my last update on this blog, ready to close this chapter in the life of Charlotte, once medical student, soon to be doctor (eek).

After leaving Kiwoko (with more than just one tear being shed – Dr Raul kindly asked if I would like an IV line to rehydrate during the doctor's meeting on my last day - above) I headed into Kampala where I met Mark who accompanied me as far as the Airport Guest House in Entebbe, ready for my flight to Nairobi the next morning. I was so glad of his company, not just for the journey but during my whole time at Kiwoko – it was a lovely way to end my happy 2 months by waving goodbye to him in Entebbe.

I spent the weekend in Nairobi with Kieren (ex-youth leader from P’s and G’s, now working in Nairobi at Cheryl’s Children’s Home). I was so pleased to be able to visit Cheryl’s, which has strong links with P’s and G’s church and which there has been so much fundraising for over the years. The children were lovely and there was a real sense of home about Cheryl’s. There is a primary school on weekdays, which serves the residents of the home and local children. Secondary school aged children from Cheryl’s go to boarding schools in Nairobi during the week, although there are plans to build a secondary school to be run by Cheryl’s itself. On Saturday morning I was put in charge of a jewellery making session, with boxes of beads, wire, elastic and thread to use to make bracelets, necklaces and earrings of a sellable quality. The classroom we were in soon descended into chaos, with beads everywhere! The kids seemed to enjoy themselves, and made some nice things, ranging from definitely sellable to possibly sellable, to ‘interesting’.

Other highlights of the weekend included a visit to the infamous Carnivore restaurant where I ate so much that meat I struggled to sleep because of tummy ache! Dinner feast included pork, lamb, beef, sausages, chicken, turkey (see pic for ‘serving suggestion’), ostrich meatballs (v. tasty), roast crocodile (tastes fishy but not in a very good way) and camel (delicious, like roast lamb).

We also paid a visit to the giraffe sanctuary where the giraffes eat from your hand (and mouth if you let them…I opted out of this one after a giraffe sneezed all over me).

I left Kieren’s at 5am on Monday morning (after he stopped me from being ripped off by the taxi driver) and headed for the airport. After a relatively smooth journey from Nairobi (only delayed by an hour because a couple of the flight crew were ‘stuck in traffic’ – easily imaginable given the ‘interesting’ Kenyan driving, in which red lights are more of a guideline than strict rule) my connection to Edinburgh from Amsterdam was cancelled due to some ash spewing from a now rather famous Icelandic volcano. I met a lovely Yorkshire lady on the flight, a grandma of 5, we made friends, exchanged Africa stories and ended up both going to stay with my Dutch friend near Amsterdam for the night. (See pic below of us excited to be on the top floor of a double decker train). She was well cool for a grandma, at one point we were both running along a platform at the train station, her clutching a bottle of wine (as a present for my friend, she’s not an alcoholic grandma!) - I told her she was way too young to be a grandma! She managed to get on an early flight home, leaving me in charge of her luxury lounge pass where I happily installed myself in a very comfy armchair with a never ending supply of tea, juice, beer on tap (which I didn’t sample), cake, biscuits, internet…aaah bliss.

I arrived safely home on Tuesday afternoon, after being upgraded to business class and enjoying complimentary food and drink, giggling like schoolgirls with the two (very) Scottish ladies next to me. By some miracle my rucksack was actually waiting for me in Edinburgh airport, and (by less of a miracle since they’d been waiting for 24 hours already!) so were my parents.

So now it’s time for me to knuckle down to serious revision, first exam is a week on Wednesday. I hope I’ll see lots of you over the summer, thanks for your messages of encouragement over the past couple of months; I look forward to catching up with you in person.

Welaba Kiwoko!

This is the last update I will write from Uganda, as I leave Kiwoko tomorrow, heading to Nairobi for a couple of days to visit Kieren from P’s and G’s, arriving back in the UK on Monday evening all being well. I am a little worried about the ominous ash clouds that still seem to be causing a bit of disruption in air space and would appreciate your prayers for a safe and speedy homeward journey.

I spent last week with Dr Peter on surgery again, although with less theatre time this week – instead I took to covering the ward while he was operating, clerking new patients and reviewing others, and getting some studying done if it was quiet. I really like the continuity of care here – patients being looked after by one doctor for the majority of the time, occasionally being seen by the on-call doctor if new issues arise - by the end of the week I knew all of the patients on the ward, what operation they had already had or were waiting for, what their current issues were and when they were likely to be discharged. When coming to write discharge summaries it is so much easier to actually know the patient, rather than trawling through pages of notes to work out what has happened while they’ve been in hospital. Plus it means that ward rounds are actually interesting because I want to know how the patients are recovering/responding to treatment and it’s so encouraging to see them improve and be discharged back to health.

A couple of patients spring to mind from this week. One guy in his 30s sent to the ward from outpatients with a ‘7 year history of scrotal swelling’. Scrotal swelling was an understatement – he had a hernia the size of a basketball which was now affecting his work as a cattle herder because it was so heavy. The previous evening I’d been practicing my slick finals-style hernia exam on the long suffering Dr Carolyn who had obligingly agreed to perch a banana and two oranges in the correct anatomical position for such an exam. I was pleased to have an opportunity to practice on a real patient (not pleased for him, of course, I pitied his 7 years of giant herniation) and to have my diagnosis of massive right inguinoscrotal hernia confirmed by Dr Peter when he reduced it in theatre the next day. The patient was pleased to be relieved of his swelling and was discharged a couple of days later, fit and well.

On Sunday afternoon Carolyn and I went on a little revision-break visit to the hospital farm which supplies milk to staff and patients. We took a bodaboda from outside the hospital which, after much skirt rearrangement to cover up our exposed ‘genitals’ (knees), was actually reasonably enjoyable compared to bodas in Kampala. After navigating our way around the potholes and even doing a little off-roading to avoid a cow we arrived bang on milking time. We were given our own cow and bucket and proceeded to milk it with surprising success - we reckon we got about 2 1/2 litres out of her (admittedly in the time it took the milkmen to fill several buckets) and were very pleased with ourselves. We had a nice walk back to Kiwoko in the warm afternoon sun and when the milkman arrived this evening we were very pleased to ask for 2 cups please, feeling proud that we'd personally milked this milk with our own bare hands. We set the milk on the stove to boil and settled down to play Settlers of Catan (addictive board game). About half an hour later when an interesting smell started to waft through from the kitchen we suddenly realised we’d completely forgotten about the milk. NOOOOOOOOO! It was absolutely burnt solid, completely dry and blackened in a thick layer onto the bottom of the big pan. The pan was so big it hadn't even boiled over. It then took another half hour of scraping with knives and wire wool to get it clean again. We laughed. A lot. Neither of us have ever worked so hard to not get any milk!

This week I’ve been in outpatients department – the equivalent of a GPs surgery combined with A+E. I was expecting to sit in with one of the clinical officers but when I pitched up on Tuesday morning I was told they were short of staff so I would run my own clinic, and was given a room, a translator and a steady stream of patients with all sorts of weird and wonderful complaints. The Oxford Handbook of Tropical Medicine has come in very handy! There seemed to be a lot of mzungu-fearing children this morning – there’s a familiar look that passes across their faces when they come into the room, see white skin, grab mama’s leg for reassurance and then burst into fervent screams if you dare approach them, no matter how much cooing or distraction is used!

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here in Uganda; there have been tears, laughter (a lot of that!) and daily challenges. Kiwoko has earned a very special place in my heart – after my gap year in Nepal I thought there couldn’t possibly be a cooler country in the world, but you know what, I think Uganda might just be that place. I have been so lucky with the people I’ve met and the friendships I’ve made. I will be back….! If anyone reading this blog has ever considered taking some time out to go abroad I would highly recommend Uganda as a welcoming, exciting and very beautiful country. I’m looking forward to catching up with you all back in the UK very soon.