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| Our fabulous local staff. |
As predicted, today was emotional. We went to Kisimenyi school for the first time. Clinic was busy, very busy in the afternoon, and again we saw some very sick infants and adults. Then "wrap-up", our end of clinics debrief. We all sat in a classroom at tiny desks, facing the blackboard like oversized kinder garden kids. Project manager Peter thanked everyone, and we gave each team , and each member a round of applause " pickupmycoffee" in Kiswahili ( I am clearly phonetically spelling these words!) then the goodbyes to the local staff, which set us all off again, with hugs all round, and promises to see each other again next year. Thankfully, one of our team has been making a film for Camps( he used to be a cameraman), and he needed us singing the "Jambo" song one last time, so we cheered ourselves up by singing along at the tops of our voices.
After dinner we had a talk from John ( the ex- cameraman), who is now a psychiatric nurse. We will arrive home at Christmas time, after having been in one of the poorest areas in East Africa. We have treated people with no shoes, kids whose school uniform is all they own, with the arms hanging off, girls whose threadbare skirts have been passed down so many times they are either way too big, or way too small. We complain that we are hungry before the lunch truck arrives, only to remember that many of our patients are lucky if they have one meal a day. We may have only been here a short time, but the commercialism of Christmas, what we have, compared to those we have looked after, is likely to be difficult for some to come to terms with. John reminded us that we were to feel thankful for what we have, to appreciate and love our families and friends, and to remember what we have achieved here. A bit more leaking at the eyes all round....
Tomorrow we have another rest day at the posh lodge, then Tuesday some are on Safari for the day, and some of us ( who have been on Safari before) are trekking up he nearest peak with some local rangers for a little look about. Wednesday the greater part of the group are going home, while Rach and I are ,rather smugly, going to the beach for 6 days. As Peter reminds us daily, there have been challenges, the weather changing the best laid plans daily, but the staff here have been amazing, and we have finished the programme having completed the amount of clinics we set out to do. As I write, there is much screeching of laughter coming from the bar, games being played, and general rowdiness.
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