Saturday was an absolutely incredible day. We drove about 3 hours to a rhino sanctuary and as we drove into the restaurant/office area there was one massive, male rhino just strolling about as if he owned the place - which in effect he did because no one was going to tell him to leave! Once he had wandered off a little way we could pass by and got our things sorted to go out and have a look for some more rhinos.
We drove for about 10 mins and then walked for 5 mins and there under the trees, right in front of us were 3 enormous grey animals having a little doze in the shade. We were all in complete awe of these incredible beasts that looked so serene and yet we knew how deadly they could be. We moved round so that we had a better view of them and then stood about 5 metres away from them just staring in wonder (and of course taking ridiculous amounts of photos). There are only 15 rhinos in the whole of Uganda (Idi Amin killed and ate the rest when he went mad from syphilis) and they all live in this rhino sanctuary where they can be free to live as wild animals in a very large environment but still protected by the rangers from poachers.
Once we had taken in enough of these amazing creatures and they had shuffled about enough to scare us witless, we went back and had a delicious picnic, lovingly made by Heather which included chocolate and coffee cup cakes - they were divine. The journey back was just as bumpy as the journey there as it is mostly dirt roads but we stopped off at the local King's burial ground on the way home. It was spectacularly unexciting with multiple graves of the King and his assorted family that were all pretty understated but it broke up the driving a little.
We went out for dinner in the evening at a curry restaurant and I honestly thought my taste buds were going to explode. I was overcome with taste and spice and mmmm it was so delicious after the bland food that I have become accustomed to.
On Sunday I attended church in the morning with my new family and spent the afternoon at the Mustard Seed orphanage. This week we took sweets and they are finally learning that if they behave and sit still in a line, they will all get a sweet or two so we were slightly less mobbed.
Monday was a standard day at Azur clinic with 2 septic babies that I had to take over to paediatrics for medication. We transferred one lady over to Hoima Hospital because she had had an illegal abortion (all abortions are illegal here) and from the scan we could see that there were still products left in her uterus and it had many holes in it that had become septic. I got another quick boda-boda drive into town on the back of the male midwife's bike to buy a jerry can - I love riding on the back of boda's, it is so liberating and all the Ugandans find it hilarious seeing a mzungu on the back.
Yesterday was a pretty crazy and not great day at Hoima hospital. We started by just popping into Azur to pick something up and in the 5 minutes we were there, a woman gave birth on her bed to a 32 week, premature baby that then had trouble breathing. As a result, we transferred baby (with mum in tow) over to Hoima hospital in the ambulance and installed him in the neonatal unit for better care with oxygen and an incubator. Once we had sorted him out we went over to maternity to find Charlie and Rob (one of the maternity hub doctors) and get to work there. We jumped straight in delivering a mother who had had 7 previous pregnancies and once baby was delivered she bled a lot so she needed a fair amount of looking after. I then went into theatre with a mother who had pre-eclampsia and was carrying twins both of whom were in breech position. Thankfully, both her babies came out screaming as I caught them straight from the tummy and they were both healthy and good weights - which is rare with twins out here.
After this, the lady that we had transferred the day before due to the illegal abortion was taken into theatre to be sorted out. Almost immediately after she had gone under the general anaesthetic she went into cardiac arrest. Charlie, Rob and 3 of the local doctors all tried to resuscitate her but in vain and she very sadly died on the table in front of us. It was hard to watch because the locals kept trying and trying for a lot longer than was necessary because they were convinced that her occasional gasps were a sign of life, yet in reality they are a sign that she has died. Eventually after not having a pulse for half an hour, they gave up. It was really heartbreaking to see because I had held her hand as she went under on the anaesthetic and she died, leaving 2 children behind, from something so preventative if abortion was made legal out here. When they opened up her abdomen later, it was full of puss so she was clearly severely septic. As if that wasn't enough, Charlie and Rob then did a c-section on a woman whose baby had died in-utero, so I had to take that baby, wrap it up and put it in a box (that's what they do with dead babies). The placenta had also come apart in the uterus and wouldn't come away from the uterine wall so they ended up having to do an emergency hysterectomy (removal of uterus) so that woman will go home with no baby, no uterus, and a large, painful scar :(
I also watched a gyne examination of a 7 year-old girl who had been raped by her uncle which was absolutely awful knowing what that poor child had been put through and that someone could have the capacity to do that to someone so young! To top off a pretty awful day; as we left we went to check on our baby from the morning on the neonatal ward and when we got there, there was no nurses/doctors and no baby. When we eventually found a doctor she told us that the baby had passed away at midday. I definitely dealt with far too much death for one day.
This morning, I was invited over to Thad's for breakfast which entailed his infamous American pancakes which were absolutely incredible - they are so so delicious and provided another assault on my subdued taste buds.
Hopefully the next couple of days will be a bit less morbid but you never know what is going to happen!
I am now exactly half way through my time in Uganda which saddens me as it is going to be very hard to leave this place and the people that have become my family and friends.
Lots of love to all back home xxxx
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