Yesterday Christian’s grandmother died, luckily Christian had seen her the evening before at the hospital, and this morning I was trying to sort out logistical problems with trying to ensure she gets to go to the burial. I could not get anyone on the phone so I decided to drive down there quickly before the Siddans’ left for Kampala, and arranged for Judith, our reserve matron, to take her to the burial tomorrow. While I was there I found out that Elisabeth was having some complications with her teeth, you could see obvious swelling of her cheeks. I had to get the car back for the Siddans’ to go, so I dropped it back and Phil went in Henry’s car to pick her up and take her to Rugarama Medical Clinic, apparently the best place to go to get dental treatment, this is also where we take any children that are sick. We could take her to the hospital for treatment also, but we have heard that they usually just rip teeth out as a fix, and give aesthetic if they have it.
Phil arrived home from the dentist at around 12:30pm, with the news that Elisabeth had to have 4 teeth removed. This is obviously from not cleaning teeth properly, and most of the damage would have been there before she came to us, but has highlighted to us that we need to go over personal hygiene issues. It is hard for the older children especially if they have grown without such things. Phil said that the experience was too traumatic for Elisabeth and after one was removed the dentist decided to stop and told us to come back in a few days. We will definitely be taking Benalita, Elisabeth’s mother, to help with reassuring her next time. She has been given painkillers until we take her back.
At lunch time today power went out for over 24 hours. This is not a major problem, except when you are trying to do something important and have to try and email something back home in a rush. The laptop was flat, and then all the internet cafes in town promptly started to close as they have no power. The joys of Uganda. We went to pay for furniture we ordered in preparation for new children and the owner of the furniture business told us that they had a building for rent with 54 rooms. This was not good for Akanyijuka, as it was a flat without much area for large numbers of children; not really fitting in with where we want to go. It may help for getting more numbers, but I think we need something different for our next expansion move. It could be, however, good for the next phase of the drop-in centre. The Wards and Pastor Edward have been talking about getting the boys off the streets and into accommodation. They have given them a picture of hope for the future, but now need for that picture to start to come into action or else they will start to go back to their old ways and any changes that have been seen may be lost.
