The corpse

Compound cook & family

Students on the ward with new toy!









Friday 9th July

Our green nurse, who has been in prison all week, is now allowed out during the day to work, then goes back in the evening. He has now been joined by another one for a similar offence - it is hard to keep up with what is happening to them all....even harder to teach them about bed-bathing and hygiene when you know they will not have seen water or had a change of clothes for many days. Never mind not having eaten....

Well, the tree I wrote about is down after lots of drama, but the man who chopped it down has now refused to move it. A slight altercation in the office and a few threats with the axe, then he took his money and left!!

So this once-magnificent mahogany tree lies like a giant corpse across the path and outside the children’s clinic. Already the children are playing there, and mothers are sitting on the trunk. On the large branches they hang their babies in their goat skins, it’s becoming quite a feature! It’s a shame, as the workmen had planned to build a shelter for Mums and babies in that very spot. It will now I think be built around the fallen tree. Unless Ian you could get a chain saw in your bag....!

Malaria continues to be a major reason for admission to hospital, but as the weather is now colder, respiratory infections & pneumonia are a close second or a combination of both. Most people have very little clothing, so get very cold at night.

Two more admissions for scorpion bites during the week, both fine now, discharged after two days. A poor lady was admitted who had been to see the local witch doctor with her inguinal hernia - he just chopped it off. Now we have a strange infected colostomy type arrangement. The things these people put themselves through before they come to hospital never cease to amaze me.

The new medical ward will be opening tomorrow. We will start moving patients in during the morning, and it has been extended to increase the bed numbers due to all the HIV patients that are now coming in for treatment. It is very smart and has two single rooms for the very sick patients, a nurse’s station, and a shower.

The shower will not be used until Nov time when we hope the hospital will be able to put in a new water system with a new solar pump. It will be the nearest thing to a modern ward South Sudan has ever seen!! Very exciting, when the lorry arrived there were 10 new beds (with back rests, five pillows, 6 new lockers, and an examination couch). Once again, some of them came from funds raised in Australia and in Italy. Many thanks to all.

Final judging tomorrow of the cleaning, so the mops will be out first thing, I hope. Already there is a bit of jealousy about who they think is going to win. Deep down, they all know who the real cleaners are. A band of about 8 who take pride in their work and do it willingly and often, not just for ‘The Cup’, a mix of nurses and cleaners.

So, think of us at 6pm on Saturday night serving a cup of orange juice out of a large dustbin (a powdered type with added sugar). For food, we have asked a local lady to make 160 mandazi - not sure if that is correct spelling - it is like a deep fried donut found all over this part of Africa. Very solid!! You get 4 for one pound, so the cost is about A$20.
With it we will serve some jam (but still looking for jam) - bet you all wish you could be here! You might even get a toffee too.

It would have been nice to serve something healthy, perhaps to have killed 4 cows, 2 goats and 10 chooks, but the practicalities of all that would be too great and it would have been Pauline, the other volunteer and me doing all the arranging. The problem here also is if the rest of the village hear there is free food around there would be a riot. So the juice and donuts are fine.