Kansanga Medical Mission and Eilidh's arrival!

On 26^th July a team of 7 from Kiwoko Hospital met at the hospital gates at 5am to get a matatu to Kampala. Personally I had anticipated being able to sleep the 2-3hour journey down to the capital. I should have known better. A month of travelling in matatus should have taught me that sleep was inevitable. However, I had figured the lack of sleep would over-rule allowing me to sleep most of the way down. So we set off, jiggling and ‘shoogiling’ (This may not be a word.) about in a very small space with the window stuck open. Within about 10mins the whole team had fallen asleep. Apart from me. Classic Muzungu. Did I mention the radio was on full blast? So I couldn’t even hear the person beside me speaking never mind trying to sleep through it. He soon fell asleep anyway so there wasn’t much chat. A lot of “cold” air and 2 hours later we arrived in Kampala where it was just about light and everyone was already well into their morning’s work. The matatu dropped off non team members and then the driver took us directly to the centre we were based at for 3 days. Kansanga Miracle Centre run a month long conference in June and during the last week they hold a 3 day medical mission for people from the local slums to attend. I will now quote from Kansanga’s website as they have succinctly summed up what their purpose is and feel free to google them should you wish to know more.
“Kansanga Miracle Centre Church embraces all calibers of people seeking; love, salvation, deliverance, encouragement, healing, acceptance, comfort, refuge and answers to their questions and concerns. As a Ministry we believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of Heaven and Earth and His only begotten Son Jesus Christ, our LORD. He was crucified died and was buried; and rose again from the dead; and ascended into Heaven and He is seated on the right hand of God the Father; He will come again to judge the living and the dead; His Kingdom will have no end.
Our Spiritual Core Values

§         We are committed to discipleship and spiritual growth in the Word through the Gospel of Jesus Christ

§         We value all believers and ministers, serving God according to their giftedness.

§         We value the building and supporting of healthy family relationships.

§         We are committed to the truthfulness, trustworthiness and authority of the Bible.

§         We are committed to strong pastoral leadership and biblical Stewardship

§         A mature committed Christian generation built on faith principles

§         We are committed to prayer and Fasting

§         We are committed to reaching to others with the message of hope.

§         We are committed to dynamic praise and worship.

§         We are dedicated to the payment of Tithes.”

So basically, a large Pentecostal church that seats 8000 on a Sunday morning and has 5000 regularly attending members. And I thought Carrubbers was relatively big. Anyhow, the church has a member who used to work at Kiwoko who recommended having staff to assist for the medical mission. So this is how we ended up here at 7am on Wednesday morning. We got given scrubs and a pair of sunglasses as uniform. Why the glasses I have no idea! But I just accepted them and said thank you very much. Breakfast at 8am. More appropriately phrased as…a slice of bread and ginger tea. A brief orientation and introduction to some of those running the medical mission. A photograph of everyone and then allocation of roles amongst the nurses. They called me doctor. I tried to explain I wasn’t a doctor but they just said not to worry but that I was a doctor. (I think this is because the majority of Muzungu’s they’d had previously were all doctors.)
So I was in paediatric clinic assisting another doctor. He was really helpful and lovely to work with. The patients had been queuing since 6am as for many of them it is the only opportunity to be treated. Health care is not free in Uganda so a free health clinic attracts many people who may or may not be ill. Some just come to see what the fuss is all about! Majority of the children we seen has cough, fever, flu and itchy skin. We seen 65 children the first day from 9:30-3pm. A lot of them hadn’t seen a white person before. So being allowed to sit on my knee was a great excitement for some…and almost verging on torture for others! It was funny how differently they reacted. The only problem I had was the heat inside the tent, which was phenomenal. So I asked for some water about 12pm to see if that would help the situation. At 1:30pm someone arrived with a cardboard box of 24 litres. Not quite what I’d anticipated but I was very touched by the effort involved in trying to locate safe drinking water for the white person. I did share the water just in case you were wondering!
So we finished up about 3pm and then had some free time. Richard (team leader from Kiwoko) and I headed into the city to do some messages which I thought would take maybe an hour. And 3 hours later we returned!
There was an evening service every night of the conference (Working Faith International Gathering.) And for week 4 Jerome Barber was speaking. (Some apparently famous guy from the US who I’ve never heard of, but maybe some of you will know him as the team were very excited about meeting him.) I don’t really know where to begin. The service almost deserves a blog on its own. Loudest service I have ever been in. Loudest music I think I have ever heard. A lot of clapping, waving and dancing. Very difficult to make out the words due to the echo and the loudness. But they were familiar songs. So maybe one hour of singing. And then a one hour talk, throughout which the guy sang a song because it reminded him of his point. So we all stood to sing it with him and then continued to the next point. Wayne…I think you should try this some Sunday, just for a change. So that was a bit surreal. And I think by this time exhaustion was becoming more apparent which just increased the bizarreness of it all. Anyhow, after the service we had dinner. And then a team meeting followed by my record time for getting into bed. The second day was very similar although I left at 3pm to head back up to the hospital.
I then worked my last shift in maternity on Friday. Ended up having massive discussions with one of the staff who concluded I was disadvantaged in life because I was half-caste having one parent from NI and one from Scotland. I reassured her I wasn’t. She didn’t seem massively convinced. Here there are certain tribes that believe strongly in only marrying from their tribe and not to be adding “bad blood” into their tribe. Some tribes do not mind at all. There seems to be a lot of variation between tribes and the ‘strictness’ of what they can and cannot do.
In other news, Eilidh has arrived!!!! So that was an exciting moment. So it’s been great to show her round a bit and get caught up! Her bags have also come with her. For those of you who don’t know, I met Eilidh in first year at university. She is a physio student from Shetland who is studying at Queen Margaret Uni. We attend the same church in Edinburgh and have served together on Core Team (student ministry) for two years. We are also hoping to live together in September, if we pass the test of surviving two weeks in Uganda together! So it’s been brilliant to see her again and looking forward to the fun we’ll have over the next two weeks before I finish at Kiwoko Hospital.
That’s all for now. Well done if you’ve made it to the end of this marathon blog!
Sarah