Day 7

Diary for thursday 30th feb

Up early.. No car alarm birds here .. !! Hooray !!

Quick up & shower , the bus is leaving at 8 am  for our first clinic in  a Mbale slum.

We arrive in the bus at the crossroads down to the church in which we are having our clinic. This is the church that Leonard, one of the Ugandan team of dentists goes to and on the door the dental clinic has been advertised for some time , announcing the arrival of the dentaid team.

The clinic is all,set up from the equipment in the bus very rapidly.
Jo is literally doing "tree-age" ( triage , sorry !! ) with Steven so all have an identified dental need by the time they get to the dentists on duty.

We are very lucky today to have for the first time the new Rotary international sponsored dental chair which cost £2000, and is complete with led light and basic suction ..... Wow !! This chair compared to the majority of the " private clinics " and government clinics that I saw in the hospital is state of the art !!  Dentaid have done an exceptional job of packing the wheelie  bin in which It was all delivered with journals , materials etc !! Well done to them !

The team on today consist of  Barbara, Jo, Mitchell , mark , Leonard , Gilbert , Joseph and Louise.. Good job ... We've got 100  pt's to see in 30 deg heat !!

I felt sincerely humbled when I was treating some of my patients, they may all have no material possessions but their manners and respect simply put the woeful standards in the UK to shame.  One girl of 16 I saw today had had a 3 hour walk to get to us , had to have a very difficult extraction of her lower left second molar and faced a 3 hr walk home in increasing sunshine . I will never forget her and gave her some crayons , for which she expressed such gratitude you would think I have given her vast sums of money . She was one of the nicest 16 yr olds it has ever been my pleasure to  treat . I will not forget her. She was called Ndegemu Nata and I will post a picture of this incredible girl on my return to the uk , or on finding reliable wifi . and here is the picture .... ( shame i look like mr burns from the simpsons !!!! )

I found the clinic very hard  work due to the working position and have to say my back ached like I can't describe when we'd finished but I felt very satisfied with the teams achievements during the day as many many People  who simply can't afford treatment we got out pain due to Barbara's long term efforts in amassing a superbly high quality range of forceps, materials etc. I got so much pleasure in using the gloves and local anaesthetic I had brought out from my patients donations and valued every item due to its finite nature, unlike at home where it is easy to be complacent about things like sundries . Thankyou to all of my patients and Skegness round table for the funding to be here, making a difference to people's lives.

The end of the clinic, brought welcome relief and a tired team. One of the local elders assured Barbara her mass of highly valuable equipment would be safe overnight in his church as it would be guarded ... After some discussion we packed the equipment into a corner and went back to our hotel , wondering what the next day would bring!  ( a local man slept on the mud floor all night to e nsure it's safety as the elder did not want to break his word , which is incredible as the equipments valued we left was probably more than most of the People who live here would amass in a lifetime ) .

Mark and I found a local hotel which gave us free wifi and uploaded some pictures etc to Facebook and then an excellent meal ...... Which. I have to say felt somewhat less easy than at home as people who hadnt eaten anywhere near that quality of food , or amount where not thousands of miles away but within earshot... Scary indeed.

Through the wonders of Skype I spoke to my children, mya and Megan at home Mya was crying as she was missing me as it is the first time I've been away from her for so long ... I'm not ashamed to say I shed a tear after the call as their lives are so different to those here and I am missing them terribly.

The funniest thing happened whilst walking home as mark and I shone the road ahead with our  phones To avoid being run down , but mid conversation mark vanished  in silence. ..his light vanished and I turned to my right to see he had simply dropped into a 6 ft hole at the side of the road Into mud and water ( well at best water , it was very brown !!!!! ) .. Obviously I found no humour in this and actually my ribs hurt from laughing myself to sleep at the hotel once we,d got there on a motorbike taxi !!!!! Sorry mate , I shouldn't have laughed so much !!!

Bed and rest , ready for another busy day tomorrow.

Day 6

Diary for Wednesday 29th feb.

We are today travelling to Mbale and this is in essence a rest day so enroute we saw many wonderfully engaging towns and

Barbara knew about an amazing area at the source of the Nile and we all had a boat ride and saw many fantastic birds, colours and sights including being 3 ft from a black mamba snake !!

We called at a Ugandan style KFC .. Ie a truck stop where the locals will sell you freshly cooked chicken or liver done on charcoal at the roadside . -- very very tasty if a little intimidating when dozens of locals are all plying their wares through your bus window !!

The next stop was at a prehistoric cave painting site , we found a local man who knew where the paintings where and took us to what was a picture of true Africa. The paintings were simply awe inspiring and the added bonus of being able to play the rock drums under the paintings in this religious site was something I may never experience again and was very special and gave a superb opportunity to get some fantastic pictures.

Next stop was Mbale , a busy , energy full town of about 25,000 which was to be our home for the next few days for outreach clinics and a vist to Mt Elgon hospital to help Barbara establish a dental clinic there with Dentaid whic Mark and I look forward to being able to assist on in anyway we can.

The Sunrise hotel in Mbale is an old building but very comfortable and the staff are very kind and happy , so it will be a good base for our time there.

Day 5

Diary for Tuesday 28th feb .

Woken by the car alarm birds .. Running theme that !

Left Kolping hotel at 8 am to travel the short distance to the university hospital of Malago.

Mark had a very bus morning for the students planned and had an in depth practice exercise for them to complete , this didn't need me so after having met the prosthetics teacher who had heard we were in town I asked if I could go and observe the students on his prosthetic clinic.

I asked if he minded me teaching the students and he said he was very happy as he had very little experience of prosthetic work .. He was the prosthetic tutor!!

The students had patients for dentures in the chairs and I discussed the pros and cons of leaving second molars off the full denture setups ... The senior student was initially unsure but her patient was complaining of a full mouth and thought she couldn't cope with the dentures . The dentures had been reduced as much as possible and when I convinced her to let me take the 7's off the patient immediately felt at Lot more at ease with her try in !

Another student I watched for 20 minutes scratching at a wax bite block ( used for recording the bite with dentures ) . I went to help her and within 30 minutes we had made new bite blocks , taken impressions and the patient was very grateful as she was facing having to make another trip of 6hrs ( round trip ) to get the impressions done as the student had told her she would not finish the required work at this appointment!!

On leaving the hospital Mark presented to Apolo the initial start of enough materials , and equipment for him to be able to start a basic denture laboratory , which is going to be called Melbo Lab, a fitting legacy for our trip here.

day 4

diary for monday 27th february

Again awoken @6am by the car alarm birds !!

Really looking forward to today as we get to go and see the Mulago dental hospital and the new dental technician training school.

On our arrival after yet another interesting journey through Kampala we were met by the dean of the dental school and some members of his teaching staff.

It has become clear that in Uganda there are 2 level of dental training , a 5 yr course and a 3 year publi dental health course. The 3 year qualified dentists have an emergency and pain relief remit and the 5 yr students have had a ugandan BDS equivalency ( on paper  --- I watched on final year student attempt to take out buried roots of a lre from a 6 yr old girl .... she hadnt managed to get local in and so with topical only was using an elevator to remove the roots .. despite the fact that the abscess wasnt coming  from the roots .. it was from the grossly carious lrd !!  shes 3 months off being qualified , but she has only been seeing patients clinicaly for 1yr ! )

The clinial dental school had been supported by Belmont and the level of equipment was excellent , although the cross infection control seemed to leave a lot to be desired !!

We were "fortunate" enough to see where the students then have to go to work for 1 yr after qualification .. ( have got some pictures but they wont upload ... ! )  -- no wonder in clinics like this the Vt's encourage the patients to go to see them at their private clinics.

A small partial denture here on the government price list are from roughly  one hundred pounds in cost.

The students seemed to really get a lot from the day and all said they really enjoyed it. Many thanks to all our sponsors for making this possible as we really are making a difference to the first batch of dental technology students in uganda. Hopefully from here the provision of dentures etc can get better.

After a busy day we took a couple of the students for a coffee and then it was evening meal & an early night !

Day 3

Diary sunday 25th feb

Awoken @ 6.30 by the car alarm birds !!

No clinics today .

Quite an interesting itinerary ahead today ... Barbara has arranged a trip into the Centre of Kampala to see more of Kampala and to go a church called the Wototo central central church.. They are a group of churches and cover the whole of Kampala.

The church service in wototo central church was full, literally to the rafters and even has an overflow seating area with a projector to show the service direct to those that couldn't get in!! The "congregation" we're full of amazing vibrant energy and sang and danced relentlessly to the incredible choir ladies and the central " band" . There was a lot of happy clapping and an immensely long sermon , timed to perfection by the use of countdown clock onto the back wall of what was a classic British old cinema as most of the buildings are British leftovers from the 1950's. As one service ended we left in a huge throng and the next mass of people awaited to get in!!

The church runs 4 services a day and Ran very very proficiently and the cost of the contents of the church seemed in very stark contrast to the income of the majority of the rest of the congregation .. The preacher delivered his sermon from an iPad!! I have views about this I won't post on here.

We left for Meal in nearby supermarket food court which is very nice.

The " best" shopping centre in Kampala was quite basic and had all you could need but at a basic level.

Mark and I wanted to visit the local craft market and we plucked up the courage to ride on a Buda Buda ( a motorbike taxi ... No helmets !! )

The craft market was all locally made gift type produce and the haggling was much fun, Mark made an offer on one item that had the lady ringing her boss to see if could accept it !!

Came back to kolping hotel & finished off our lectures / presentation in readiness for the following day presenting and lecturing at the university of Makarere , which is a division of the hospital of Malago.

Day 2 ...

Diary of 25th February 

Up early this am for Breakfast .. , 
Changed into scrubs for the clinic.

interesting Bus drive  into the slum, where a large collection of street children were all being occupied by tv.  There were Male & female mangers looking after the kids, which numbered roughly 150. 

The clinic was assembled from the variety pack of boxes stored in the bus. - pictures to follow
 

Clinic started at approx 10.30 

I treated a number of patients , all with wonderful  manners who 
Literally  have nothing . I also trained and worked With the Ugandan dentists , Ambrose , Fayed.
. 
Mark applied fluoride varnish for the first time and performed ( literally - bit of booty shaking!! ) an excellent role as DHE as we do want to leave a legacy behind so that they can help themselves and reduce the decay experience but sweets are so cheap , and coca- cola ( 2 ice cold bottles of coke , 3000 ugx = 90p. !!  ) the decay we see here is the tip of the iceberg the country will face on its current path Of an increasingly cariogenic diet.

The children were beautifully behaved & many spoke excellent English despite being some of the most poverty stricken children and all were very grateful for the use of modern dental equipment ( albeit in its most basic form ) 

The clinic finished & was packed away by approx 2pm.

The local people kindly provided us with lunch of rice and non spicy chilli con carne which is barbara's request from them as their gesture to us for the services we provide so that it is not seen as totally free. 

The experience and the gratitude expressed were humbling . 

After a quick shower and change from the scrubs mark and I went for a walk into Kampala , surprisingly our lungs coped very well with the acrid fumes and the smell of raw sewage and local food ... A heady combination !! 

Evening meal has been done and we look forward to another day tomorrow .. Albeit no clinics as we are spending some more time in Kampala.

Day 1 -

Diary of 24 th feb 2012.

Quite a relaxed start with a swim and spa at the hotel

Left for flight ba63 to entebbe airport And had a fantastic breakfast in waggamammas in terminal 5.

Flight delayed by 1hr but gave us the chance to get a couple of iPhone charge extender cases as when we're rural ...we really are rural !!

Arrived entebbe airport at 11.30 local time ( 3 hours ahead of the uk )

Barbara & driver met us in a large , typical African looking run down bus and then we passed out on the "m25" from kampala through a mass of shanty town like places with a party going on all the way down the road until we reached the sunset motel entebbe. We saw a nice big accident and were reliably informed that more people die of rta's than HIV here !!

Barbara told us about the child "prison" offically known as a rehabilitation centre for street kids who are " in the way" ... The officials deny its a prison but it houses children from 18 months old up to 12/13 and they apparently live in total squalor and have absolutely nothing.

A colleague of Barbara's is trying to sort out a project where she can , for 30 dollars a month remove , house, feed , love and educate these children. This lady on one occasion arrived at this place at the same time as a coach with some Americans on it bartering for the children .. They were to be sold for body parts.

Mya and Megan's clothes and toys are to go to some of the most needy children in existence and I feel very proud they have sent them , it's a shame I can't take some to give them personally , and see their faces Light up.. But maybe it's a good thing I don't see it as the images sound like they would haunt you for life.

Hotel is absolutely fine ... Has a shower & toilet & actually looks semi-appealing !! Room is very nice !

Unpacked all my stuff .. Didn't take mark long as he hasn't got anything with him ... Literally !! Mr 2 pairs of pants boy !!

Got the dental stuff all sorted into one case to leave on the bus and it all appears to have arrived intact !! Miracle!!

We have power here so were getting everything charged up to the max , and we are here until Wednesday , including doing some lecturing on Monday and tuesday at the dental / dental technician training college.

Barbara has sorted quite an interesting itinerary and I suspect that the hotel and all we've seen so far is lulling us into a false sense of security!

Alarms set for 7 for breakfast !! Our first Ugandan meal!