Friday, September 11, 2015

Visitors Visitors



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SAM_1357 We had so many people come to see the babies.

The meant hosting all of them! But it was worth it.

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It was great to see Joseph and his family. His wife and I were pregnant at the same time. It was fun to bond over our size as we grew together. Their baby is now 6 months old.
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It was great to be able to read some of the new books with the children when they came to visit.


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The neighbor children also enjoy it when we come out to visit. They seldom come to visit us because they say that they are dirty, which is true but not my rule to keep them out. So we make many trips outside to visit them.


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We do enjoy these crazy kids!

School Vacation



In Uganda many children attend boarding school from a very young age. This is because some of the best schools in the country aren't within walking distance. This results in multiple extended holidays during the school year. This holiday Isaac's nieces were asked where they would like to spend their vacation, in village with their grandmother or at Uncle Isaac's holding babies.



It doesn't take anyone long to figure out what two teenage girls decided. So Mable and Peninna came to spend their last two weeks of holiday with me and the boys.

It was such a blessing to have extra hands to hold babies, wash diapers, cook meals, do the laundry, etc.
We took them out to the mall their last weekend for a meal as a thank you. Mable was impressed that the owner of the restaurant was a well known Ugandan musician. She got a little star struck when she saw him sitting at the table next to us. :)



New Tires and More!

Thank you for all who donated to help us get new tires.
SAM_1396We were only in Uganda a week when Isaac took the car in for new tires. He went with one of our pastor's, so we went to a place for quality work and tires (many off brands in Uganda that are no good). They didn't buy the expensive ones $400 a piece but the next step down. We are very happy to have tires now that can travel in the rainy season.



We when we got back our timing belt was screaming! So Isaac went and had that fixed as well. It is a blessing to have the extra cash to make sure that our practical needs are met! Thank you all for the very practical donation. 

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

When in Rome, do as the Romans

When I was young I was always told, be careful who your friends are, you might end up like them. The power of association goes beyond just doing things like those around you but sometimes there are no other options then to follow suit. In this case I'm grateful for the healthcare I am able to access for my babies.

We went for a check up at the hospital where Isaac works. The boys were put in these "swings" and hung on a scale. Then they had to get a shot that is not offered in the states, the BCG. We ended up waiting quite a long time because the shot is given to newborns so the nurses were within the maternity ward giving out the shot.
The nurse told me that the shot wouldn't give a fever but would blister and scar the skin. I remember when I was teaching in Burundi and was reading a book about scars. The children started pointing out their BCG scar. It was funny because you could tell where a child was born depending on where the scar was found. Burundi and Rwanda, on the forearm, Kenya and Uganda on the shoulder. India and other Middle Eastern countries, no scar because they didn't receive the shot. My boys have now been marked as Ugandan :)

There's a Chicken in my Kitchen

Yesterday when we got home from church we pulled into the garage and went to unlock the door that leads to the kitchen. The chicken live in the back yard but it sounding very loud beyond the door. Isaac and I kept saying, "I think the chicken is in the kitchen" and "How could it get there?" To our amazement when we opened the door there was a chicken in our kitchen! It was the black one. That is the one that recently came to us as a baby gift from village. I'm guessing that it was used to walking into the owners house whenever it wanted, I know the previous owner and would say that is a pretty good guess. 
We are still stumped on how it go in. We are thinking it might have flown up to the window and then squeezed through the security bars, so much for security. :)
Oh we did spend the next 2 minutes chasing it around the house trying to get it to go back outside where it belonged.

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

A Week in the Doctor’s Shoes

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted about Isaac. He’s normally too tired when he gets home to share about his day. But you are in luck. Last night he shared with me about his week so far. Please enjoy, I tried to keep it less medical and not too gross, although living with a doctor I’m getting more used to the stories that come during dinner time conversation. ;)
For Isaac and I our least favorite part of the week would be when Isaac is scheduled to be “on call”. A typical “on call” means that from 8am one day to 8am the next he is the doctor who is in charge of his surgery department at the hospital. On a normal work day though the “working hours”, 8am-5pm Mon-Fri, the hospitals is full of staff to care for things as they arise. This is very different when the “on call” lands on a weekend.
This Sunday Isaac was “on call”. He got to work at 8am Sunday morning to start work. Traveling through the 72 bed ward Isaac checked on all the patients that were there, reading their charts, discussing with nurses and talking with the patients and caregivers about how things were going. As things came up with those in the beds he took care of this or that, ordered what was needed and so on.
Being a hospital known for good care and placed in the capital city many people come in with emergency cases. This Sunday was no different. Isaac was called away many times from the bedside of a patient to take care of emergency cases. Road traffic accidents are common and so patients came in with trauma, others with fractured limbs and all needed cuts stitching up and wounds cleaned. He had one patient who came in with a clot in the brain. Isaac worked together with the neuro surgeon to evacuate the clot, as he calls it.
Then in the night he is allowed to go to a room to sleep and they will call him when he is needed. Well Sunday night he didn’t get the privilege of getting to bed. At 10pm they called him to come and care for a 7 month old. This baby’s intestines were causing pain. Medically they call it a intestinal obstruction which specifically is called intussusception. Isaac explains most types of procedures with me and he explained that one part of the intestines went into another part. In the case of this baby one part of the intestine had gone gangrene and he had to cut that part out. Then he had to sew the two tubes of the intestine, now open, back together to allow for normal use of the intestine. I just think this is amazing!!! He finally finished with the baby at 1am! Can you imagine starting one task at work at 10pm and not finishing until 1am! I’m glad Isaac has that stamina and I’m sure the child’s parents do too.
Sometime Monday morning, before the day staff had arrived for their day’s work Isaac was called in for a road traffic accident. Part of this man’s chin bone was broken and there were lacerations that needed to be stitched up. Isaac stabilized the bone and did the sewing that was needed.
On the program for Monday was a goiter to be removed from a patient’s neck. While Isaac was finishing up with the chin accident and the patient scheduled for Monday was brought in. After that surgery Isaac was able to leave the Operating Room and went back through the hospital on “rounds” making sure that all his patients who were in the “in patient” ward beds were doing well. Now we know why Isaac comes home tired after his “on call”.
Tuesday started early with class. After he attended class he went to visit his patients in the ward. Then off to prepare his new patient for their scheduled surgery. This was a major surgery that needed to be done. The patient needed a hernia taken care of. The hernia was part of the stomach going into the chest. He got to work with the cardio thoracic surgeon to open the chest, find the bottom of the esophagus that meets the stomach and repair the hole. Oh and then put it all back again. This started at noon and didn’t finish until 2:30pm.

And this is only the first half of the week! Isaac is grateful that he is at a hospital where he gets to work on a variety of types of cases and that there are senior doctors to guide and instruct where needed. Living in the capital city is not our ideal but we are happy for all the things that are being accomplished during this season of our lives.