Nurse Esther

Today was the second day of school, and the day that we had arranged for the nurse (Esther) to come and give a check up to all the children (now slightly over 100, many children came today). The nurse arrived shortly after we did and we set her up in one of the empty classrooms (baby and middle classes went together in one classroom). She had a notebook and thermometer, although not much else. She said that next time she will bring more supplies, but that this time was late notice. Oh well; better than nothing. We began with baby Hellen (the baby sister of Sylvia/Joseph/Javel/Immaculate/James). The three youngest children in that family really worry me. They are such an amazing family, but living in such dire poverty. It is common in this area for children under 5 to pass away, and Immaculate is 4, James is 3, and Hellen is not yet 1. Immaculate and James have worms and malnutrition. The nurse thinks Hellen has a UTI, and suggested we bring her to the clinic for a test, which we will do. Compared to other children their age around here, they look sick to me. She checked up all the kids and wrote down whether they were okay, whether they need simple treatment (de-worming meds, cream for fungal infection, all of which we bought today) or whether it is more serious and we need to take them to the clinic.

We started with the baby class and then moved up until all kids and teachers had been checked out. The teachers talked to the nurses about migraines mostly. Lots of the kids, especially the little ones, had worms. Many had fungal infections. A few had mouth infections and need dental care. Others need urine and blood tests for different sicknesses. We plan on taking them all this week, if we can manage to arrange it. Baby Hellen is my top priority. She never smiles, always has a runny nose and a cough, and has big swollen cheeks. James and Immaculate do as well, and so we are going to really make it a priority to get them healthy. So much of it is proper food, but there are other factors as well.

Most of our day was spent getting kids (3 or 4 at a time), bringing them to the nurse, escorting them back and getting others. Only one cried (he didn’t want his temperature taken). I also spent about an hour interviewing all the p3 kids. The cook didn’t show up today and Hellen was busy making lunch, so I went solo with no translator, but the kids were old enough to speak a decent amount of English, and so it went well. Many of them didn’t live with their parents; some had died and many were in the village. Most said rice was their favourite food. One cutie said that his hobby is studying!

It was interesting seeing how many of the kids have medical issues; particularly fungal infections and worms. I am hoping we can arrange to bring them to the clinic this week, and that will be interesting for sure! On a happy note... baby Hellen tolerated me holding her for a whopping 30 seconds before she cried!! It is always a strange feeling when a 7 year old can soothe a baby better than I can, but I guess the little kids here take care of the babies just as much as the mothers do!

It was also interesting to get a better look into the frustrations of running a school in Uganda. Hellen has called and called the primary 5 teacher and he hasn’t answered his calls and hasn’t shown up to school. They are attempting to make due, but I walked into the classroom and three of the girls had fallen asleep! (update: he finally showed up the following day). Similarly, both cooks didn’t show up. This means no food for kids. We provided them with bananas on the first day, but that is all they got during the whole school day, and if we hadn’t been there it would have been nothing. The following day only one cook showed up (of two), so only half the kids could eat (the kids that stay the whole day; those that go home at lunch time went home having no lunch, even though those little ones are more prone to sickness and malnutrition). Because they can’t pay high salaries, these are common problems.