This week our visitors are two senior Obstetricians from Simpsons. This is their holiday time and they wanted to visit Bwaila to experience a little of how they could help, with perhaps someday coming back for a longer term.

We visited the orphanage and had a cuddle with many of the children. We appear and they wrap themselves around our legs desperate to be lifted. They fight each other to get our attention and when you sit on the ground you can have 3 on your legs and 2 in your arms.

For an hour of play and attention it gives a big smile and laughter. There were 3 new children who had been brought in from Likuni because they were so malnourished and they sat quietly in a corner. They were about two or three years old, one little boy did smile and giggle when I tickled him. It must be so strange for the new arrivals coming into such a different environment.

One little baby had died the day before. She had been HIV positive and developed thrush and other symptoms. The nuns took her to hospital where she had died soon after and then took her little body back to Likuni.

This was my teaching week in the village and taking the doctors with me was going to be a treat for the women. It was a great morning. We recapped on what they had learnt from the last lesson and it was very encouraging. The first thing that they had remembered and were amazed at was that they had millions of eggs in their bodies ready to make babies! You can imagine if you had never known that fact.
The talk this week was all about’ Minor problems pregnant ladies had’ and ‘bleeding in early pregnancy’

The doctors then held a small clinic for over 20 women who wanted to share their problems. We had no treatment with us but the women were just as happy to receive advice. A baby with a fever was advised to go today to the clinic and another baby was discovered to have a cataract. There were lots of aches and pains and menstrual problems. The women again sang for us and were very hospitable sharing their food. Beatrice worked hard interpreting the whole time but also sharing her knowledge.

The doctors spent the mornings in the hospital shadowing the only Norwegian registrar. I continued with my visits and organising the painting of a mural in each of the new hospitals, one in the Kangaroo Room and one behind the nursery reception desk.

There are 8 pupils from the International School who put their names forward to help paint and I met and arranged with the headmistress of a local girls school to ask 8 girls and a teacher who will act as interpreter. We have 4 artists who are in the planning stages and who will do the main drawing. I visited a paint supplier who is willing to donate the paint for some advertising, which is wonderful. So a community project will commence at the beginning of April.

The feeding programmes are developing. The volunteers from the 2 new feeding stations met last Saturday with Thoko who leads the one which has been working very well for two years. I was delighted that the meeting I set up materialised, it does give hope. I now have the names of the children who are going to attend one of the feeding stations and the lists of all the equipment needed, for example the huge cooking pot and the bowls.
My sister, daughter and niece are coming over from Scotland to spend Easter with us and bringing 200 IKEA bowls with them which are much cheaper in the UK.

I anticipate the first feeding station being ready to open in about 2-3 weeks once all the equipment has been bought and of course the porridge. The volunteers are either widows, grandmothers who are bringing up many children whose mother has died or women who are HIV positive. In this way they also can be fed and this in turns makes them stronger enabling the Anti Retroviral Drugs to be more effective.

Yes! Oscar has gone back to his village!

Lots of delight and excitement when the family appeared at Bwaila on Friday afternoon to take him home. I had received a phone call on Thursday from my link in The Village of Hope. The village chief had at last given permission for Oscar to be looked after by a family member. I gather they had waited to make sure Oscar was going to be OK because he was born premature. Anyway all papers were signed and the family which included, the aunt who was going to be the main carer, a brother and the chief himself who was an uncle, all arrived.

They were accompanied by a representative from the social services dept who was driving them back to the village.
After a feed talk and some tins of milk given, the health book and papers filled out and Oscar getting all dressed up in his Sunday best, he was on his way. He did look so cute. What a relief and an accomplishment. He would still be in the nursery for a long time if the issues were not pushed. I cannot begin to explain how this culture works.

Beatrice and I will visit Oscar in the next two weeks and keep providing milk and support but will keep links with the Village of Hope and the social services.
What is wonderful is that Oscar is with his family now and he has two brothers who are also being brought up by other family members. Hopefully now he will have a chance of life, his life not our life.

Sadly on Thursday a young mother died in Bwaila. She had aids and was very ill in her pregnancy. She died in a ward with 3 other women, with very little nursing care and certainly not the pain relief we would expect. The baby was being looked after by the guardian and unfortunately no one took down the physical address of the relatives so we could do a visit to see if they were managing. The family left the hospital with the body and the baby quite quickly. The only fact we know is if they want more milk they would come back to the hospital.