If physios had eight hands, 3 for therapy, 5 for swatting mosquitos....the trip would be a cinch

Ensuring people commit to follow up appointments can be difficult, so on a quarterly basis the team travel to see patients in each district. Last weak I was part of that team. I was told I would see allot of cases, and they weren't kidding. We had approximately 150 people through the doors, over two days! If only physiotherapists had eight hands, 3 for therapy, and five for swatting mosquitos, the trip would have been a cinch. But we don't! So here is the round up of that week, the clinics, chaos, karaoke even malaria!

The transport we had for the trip was spacious enough for 14 people, including the driver, plus one live chicken, that joined us from the half way point!

After 7hours driving, we arrived in Gulu and rested for the night in a local hotel. One of the doctors, Emanuel, had been told about a local restaurant that served traditional ethiopian food, a welcome change from beans and rice, or rice and beans. Despite the local area enduring a third day of imposed power cuts, our friendly host cooked the most fantastic food. Our meal included some injera, Ethiopia's staple bread. The injera is made from a mixture of rice flour, teff flour, tepid water and yeast. The mixture is fermented for 4 days, and then cooked on a hot iron... It is thin, with an odd spongy texture. We used our batch to mop up all manner of different meat and vegetable dishes from a huge platter.

The great food from the night before gave us enough energy to attack the the clinical chaos of day one, at Gulu regional referral hospital. The picture bellow shows the venue. It was previously funded by an Italian NGO that has since pulled out, which means the facility is suffering as a result. We saw 65 patients through the door and I lost count of how many were on my mat for physiotherapy.

Lira was the next stop, and the numbers increased again to over 85 patients. It just isn't possible to offer that many people your best, one after the other after the other. Knowing it would be tougher, we decided to approach things differently, and deliver group therapy. This is the first time cure has attempted this and it worked a treat!

When we had finished we were happy, but all of us needed a rest....I decided to jump on the bus and visit one of my new friends, Katie Rae, who had been staying in Jinja at the Sonrise Orphanage. I decided to stay in a nice guest house and relax after sharing my room in lira, with the mushrooms that were growing from the ceiling.

I had dinner with Katie Rae and the family she has been working with. They have now adopted two great children from the orphanage who will join their family of 5 in the US. (Getting to know the children and working through the legal process has taken them over a year) Katie Rae and I stayed on for karaoke.

On sunday morning I joined them at a local church, where I met all the children living at the orphanage. Afterwards, I had lunch and headed back to Mbale. It was a great weekend, which has given me some great memories. Not least, Katie Rae's rendition of "hit me baby one more time". Unfortunately, I began to feel ill while I was away with the team, and this got worse over the weekend. My ride back to Mbale by matatu taxi was cramped, with 6 people rammed into the space designated for only 3, it was like this on every row. It was hot, somewhat smelly and I was presenting with all the typical signs of malaria. The doctors at Cure prescribed me antibiotics, which seem to work in record time. 2 days later, I was fit again and able to tackle my work with Cure, introducing a new regime of physiotherapy ward rounds, which will include education for mamas to teach them how to work with their children.