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Email from Uganda.

Here is an email I received from my friend who moved to Uganda to work as a nurse at the childrens hospital. I like her emails because they are real, she shares about what she is experiencing and how it is effecting her.

Have a read...

-----Original Message-----
From: Kristen S [mailto:kristenss@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, 13 May 2010 8:13 p.m.
Subject: Praying that some of my babies will not be ‘special’.

I think I am turning into one of those people who lives in denial until the last possible moment as I desperately cling to hope that it will all turn out perfect. I picked up a new abandoned malnourished girl from the hospital yesterday. She is about two and a half years and the first thing that went through most peoples heads when they saw her is “she’s going to be special”. Special is referring to our babies/kids with special needs. So with her, Joe and Caleb now we’re collected quite a few, very quickly. But I keep hoping for the miracle. Praying that the arm will move, the head will grow big and there is a whole functioning brain inside, that words and steps will come. And that once they are physically healthy everything else will fall into place. Denial?? Faith?? At the same time these are some babies that just as they are light up the world, and each day I learn something new about them, about myself, about life and about God. And I am realising that what I define as perfect limits God.

We lost Mary this week. She was the little preemie I wrote about picking up from Mbarara last time. She went really really quickly. So though we grieve the loss of this little one we had this amazing opportunity to love so briefly we also celebrate the fact that she is now whole, healed and complete. I am finding that I am appreciating the present and being present in the present so much more here than I have before.

So what do you do on a Tuesday evening in Kampala when you don’t want to go home? Annie, Jill and I went to the local hospital Neonate intensive care unit to see if there were any preemies. You know you are in Africa when you can walk straight onto a ward of sick preemie babies, check them all out, read their files, see two cases of spina bifida, one who also had fluid on the brain, set up CPAP for a baby…..getting the picture….you would never have the opportunity back home to do any of this. But it was a good night as we walked away with no babies as all these babies had family.

While I am in Kampala I have had the opportunity to be a part of the Watoto nurses training at the babies home and have come to a fresh appreciation for my education. I’m having to let go of my mind set that I am so outside of my scope of practice (which is true for back home) to understanding that I actually know a bit about this stuff. Don’t be mistaken there’s still a lot I need to learn about illness’s and infant health, how to cannulate even a piece of grass so you can get blood out of it (apparently that is one skill the nurses here are great at, its getting blood from anything) and how to improvise when we run out of different supplies (who knew nasogastric tubes had so many functions). But I have been taught how to multiply by four which as they are taught by rote over here many cannot do, so checking respiration and heart rates is easy for me but hard for them. I know how to calculate medications based on weight rather than just looking at a baby and guessing what amount to give them. Oh and that it is ok to talk to the doctor. By the way there’s a paediatric neurologist over here who would love a nurse from down under if anyone is keen.

The plan is I am moving to Gulu sometime this week at this stage until the official opening of the babies home in June. The plan is to help them do what needs to be done before the opening and support the 2 nurses up there in finding their feet in their role. So am not sure at this stage what internet contact will be like - everything is even a little more random and unpredictable up there.

Thanks for the messages and support from home, I am feeling loved.

Kristen xxoo

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