Day 12

Tuesday 6th March

Not quite such an early up today as the hospital at Mt Elgon is only a few minutes drive away and the ugandan team are meeting us there, so a lie in , shower,  brekkie ( malarial medications -- must remember them !) & were off !!

Steven is in good form again with his infectious smile to welcome us onto the bus with the ugandan special handshake that were getting used to !

Off we go to Mt Elgon Hospital ... this should  be a treat and a serious improvment in surroundings from what weve been used to !

                                      the road into the centre of Mbale en route to Mt Elgon Clinic


The clinic at Mt Elgon had been advertised to staff and patients of the hospital and as usual , the dental need of the ugandan population was emphasised with the numbers arriving , mainly adults today . The room we were working in was a waiting room , with  a marble floor which was freshly mopped ---- massive improvement !!

The first  patient was the doctor at the hospital who had liased with Barbara and he got the privilege of using the new, rotary supplied dental chair ..... thankyou Romsey Rotary club, Uk, a superb gift !

                                                 the new chair , with light & suction box

The clinic was again very very busy and I now start to do "chair- hopping " as a lady has arrived in need of a denture and Mark is using the donated dental equipment and materials to show the ugandan team how to do impressions of good quality and how to make a denture using basic techniques, so the ugandan dentists quite rightly have all disappeared to watch him & hopefully pick up skille that will form part of the legacy of our trip to Uganda ... what they learnt from him during that demonstration was invaluable to them and only  made possible due to the very  kind donations we have had to enable us to be here with so much stuff!!

Thanks here to Schottlander ( massive stock of denture teeth & materials )  , the patients of both Mark and I , and Lois of Cygnet House Therapies ( donation of a dental motor to trim & polish dentures ) ....

We saw between us  about 100 patients again and Mark and the team managed what was probably a first in Uganda , a one visit , single tooth partial denture .... well done guy, and one very very happy patient !!

After the clinic  Mt Elgon hospital treated us to lunch which again was rice & beans for me as I didnt fancy the boiled banana accompaniement .... my word these ugandan lads have some appetite -- how the hell do they stay so slim -- maybe its just my metabolism slowing ......??

After clinic we were shown round the hospital by the Head Nurse which was , to say the least , eye opening !! This was the hospital laundry at the entrance to the operating theatre  .....

NHS in different lkight maybe , anyone complaining?

 We saw some of the patients in the hospital , one i wont forget is the little girl we saw with extremely deep burns to her arm and torso after an accident with boiling water at home ... mark and i both felt quite upset when we saw her as we're not used to seeing this kind of injury ... teeth are one thing  ... disfiguring burns to a small child is entirely another ... the room she was in was tiny, did not look fantastic and we wondered just what kind of treatment she'd be getting at home with grafts etc ... the intervention here is financially based and her parents didnt look like they could afford much for her as the wounds were open , undressed and looked to be being left to granulate over.

Im missing my kids again and nearly have tears in my eyes.

Moving swiftly on we get to see the room for the new dentaid surgery and it looks a significant improvement over the surgeries we have seen in Mbale ... the patients are going to love this !!







 private dental  surgery in Mbale  .. ."haircut and teeth out sir?" ... would you even go in there for a haircut in the uk?

                

the room for the proposed new UK spec surgery in Mt Elgon Hospital

just slightly different to the above .....??

Mark and I take a lot of measurements of both of the rooms and we use our joint experience in surgery design to draw out a basic design that requires minimal changes to the rooms. Luckily the floor in this room has loose tiles and is going to be replaced so I am able to suggest that an electrical outlet in the middle of the floor to supply the dental chair , this will avoid the trip hazard of a power wire over the floor and will make it look much better ... I just hope it happens , the senior nurse thinks it will but I'll beleive it when its been done !

Clinic, lunch , tour and design visit over Mark and I head off back to the bus to get it packed up which in the increasing heat is flippin hard work for most of us  in the heat and once its done we all get in the bus once more and go back to the Sunrise motel. 

This is our last night in Mbale at the sunrise hotel so we headed off on a motorbike taxi to the Mt Elgon hotel where by now we're regular wifi users .... tonights special though, we've organised a Pool contest between the ever confident Joseph and Gilbert as Uganda vs UK ( weve sold ourselves as pool experts although to be honest we're both bobbins !!!! - but its the psychology that counts !!! ) 

         motorbike taxi in Mbale .. this was a genuine picture of a guy waiting for fares !!!!! Would you ?

Well im glad to report that UK was victorious in the Pool contest and we had a fantastic  night with Gilbert and Joesph and some randoms who were dancing away to my music ( we had no choice but to officially refuse to listen to the love songs that the hotel were playing and they seemed only too happy to put something good on ...... although good is dependant on who you are .. Mark did his normal and took my playlist off , changed it to his,  which is a trick hes has had since we were at college together as he has always claimed superior taste  in music , throwing my cassette tapes into the back seat of my car .. well as times progressed he removed my ipod and put his on ... the reception that his choice of Gypsy punk music was , shall we say less than warmly received !!!  point proved mark?? ) 

Back to Sunrise Inn, ready for our journey south tomorrow back to the outskirts of Kampala and the beginning of the end of our trip ....................................... :-( .