Delivery time!









Tuesday 22nd June

A small drama on Sunday morning in our dining room (a grass roofed hut). One of the small cats in our compound had somehow climbed up into the roof which is lined with a yellow plastic to stop the rain and dust falling on to the diners. It was trapped between the roof and the plastic.

At 7am it was mewing, but by 10am there was no sound. We all thought it was dead and were wondering what the smell would be like as it started to decompose. But, a miracle! We saw a slight movement of the plastic, and, with the help of a long bamboo pole and a very tall Dinka, she was rescued. Drama over, they say a cat has nine lives!!

Three of us went to see the Italy v NZ game - still very well supported with lots of children down at the front. Will try and send photo.

They seem to like the ads as much as the game. There is a small cartoon African boy that appears and they love him as he gets lots of cheers. Visa and the insurance company in the ads don’t rate very highly - sorry, Ian!! The kids have not got a clue what the ads are about. They don’t own anything, so it’s not a good idea to set up a branch of an insurance co here!!

Great news! The lorries have arrived with half the load and the rest is to follow. It broke down in the mud, so another lorry went to rescue it, but it is very stuck, so the goods were transferred, although it was a smaller truck.

I am sure the rest will arrive soon. It was very exciting unpacking today, all the equipment which was ordered by many of you from the Sisters' website arrived, bed screens, a wheel chair, pillows, mattresses, trolley, urinals, bed pans, scales, it was very exciting, and to think you all made it possible.

Tomorrow, we will get them all labelled with the hospital name, then they will be on the wards in full use. The nurses have been having a sticky beak and can’t wait to use them, they love new things. The new beds have even got a back rest and wheels.

I think there is also some food arrived, but have not seen that yet. Perhaps ‘happy days are here again’ with tins of green beans and peas. I have not eaten one green thing since I left Australia, you start to miss them. Until now, it's been beans beans and more beans, wind wind and more wind............Mapuordit is called 'windy city' here!

Today P and I started teaching a crash nursing course with the green nurses. We have 7 weeks to get them up to scratch, and one will be picked out of 6 candidates to be a blue nurse (green is the lowest grade, blue the next) as we have a vacancy.

So, every morning for 1 hour in the classroom, then onto the wards for practice. It is always so much easier in the classroom as you have all the equipment, but once you hit the wards, to find a bucket and a rag to wash someone with, and a towel to dry them, is very hard.

It was the same last year; most of what I bought then has gone. That is quite understandable, as no one has anything, so if a co-patient sees a bucket, and it is not in use, they will take it as they have not got one. It’s not stealing, it’s just using.

Meanwhile, at the hospital another HIV patient has died and two small babies, new admissions, died last night both with cerebral malaria. It sometimes takes people so long to get to the hospital, it is just too late to help.

The child whose sister died last week on the way here is slowly improving; I think she seems to recognise her mother and father, but is very week and mentally not sure how she will be. The child with the snake bite has gone home OK, but into that bed came a child with a scorpion bite to the little finger. And so it goes on, the chain of misery for these people.