For personal reasons Rachel decided to leave the expedition and return home once we had finished our month at the Pillar of Faith Home for Needy Children in Kisumu, Kenya. It was a tough decision for her to make and one that was extremely sad for the whole team. She has put a huge amount of work into the project and her talent for caring for children will be sorely missed. She is living at home in Germany for now and has already set to work raising funds and creating publicity. It will be greatly beneficial to have a team member available to use the phone, Internet and prepare a schedule for our return in early April.

Rachel and friend at the Pillar of Faith

The newly built chicken house at the Pillar of Faith

Jonathan covered in cement

Our time at the orphanage was extremely rewarding and beneficial. We completed a superb chicken house which was filled with young chicks. These will provide eggs and meat for the children and should, in time, create an income for the orphanage. The money we raised through the children’s Christmas concert was used to buy a goat. When we set off it was being fattened up for Christmas! Our last task was to give the children a talk about HIV and AIDS, how it is spread and how it can be prevented. Demonstrating the use of condoms was awkward but I’m sure very worthwhile. For further information about the orphanage please click here to refer to the section on this site devoted to our three African projects.

The team set off for the border with Uganda at Busia and then on to Kampala, its capital. The next day they headed on to Rushere Hospital in the village of Rushere seventy miles north of Mbarara near Lake Mburo National Park. I, meanwhile, remained in Kisumu for three days with Rachel as she organized her flight home. With her safely but sadly in the air I took a terrifying matatu ride to the border and then climbed upon a lorry and rode with its cargo of chickens to Kampala. Here I met Joan Hall, the hospital’s administrator, who took me on to Rushere.

Rushere Hospital

Uganda is a breathtakingly beautiful country but is struggling to recover from its recent civil war. The reign of terror began in 1971 when Idi Amin staged a coup, forced President Milton Obote into exile and began to massacre anyone who opposed his regime. The country’s economy and infrastructure collapsed and hospitals and schools were forced to close. Amin was finally overthrown when the Tanzanians, along with some Ugandan liberation groups, invaded. The troubles continued, however, when the Tanzanians turned on the Ugandans due to lack of pay for their services. Obote returned but in his quest for absolute power drove the country into further chaos. During the 1980’s Yoweri Musuveni began to build up a guerrilla force made up largely of orphaned teenagers. The force became the National Resistance Army (NRA), which finally achieved a clean sweep of the corrupt administration and peace finally came in 1986. Now, sixteen years later, Uganda has the fastest growing economy in Africa, is beginning to attract tourists and is being given much attention from the world’s charitable organizations. There is still so much to do though. Rushere Hospital is one of many rural hospitals struggling to develop and to serve the community. Not only is the hospital battling to recover from the chaos caused by Amin, but until the 1950’s the area was uninhabited due to the predominance of Tsetse Fly. Once the Tsetse Fly were eradicated the once nomadic pasturalists slowly began to move in and settle. The result is that the area surrounding the hospital is extremely remote and perhaps less developed than the rest of the country. The area’s population began to swell but people were forced to travel over ninety miles to reach the nearest medical centre. President Musuveni lives in the area and, with his newfound popularity, was able to find a Christian group in the U.S willing to build a hospital in Rushere. It was built and opened in October 1992. The President patronises the hospital to this day. We were lucky enough to meet the President at his home yesterday. It was an incredible experience to meet a man with such under stated authority and such natural presence. Following our meeting another one has been scheduled for 15th January between Joan Hall, Dr Moses, the President and the Minister of Health. They are due to discuss the provision of a hospital ambulance and funding for the hospital’s expansion.

Joan Hall, the hospital’s administrator, is an elderly English lady who is devoted to ensuring the hospital can expand and gain a firm financial foundation for the future. Before she can begin the task of approaching trust funds and potential long-term financial supporters she is keen to complete the task of thoroughly organizing the hospital. It is here that we come in. We arrived and set about arranging and filing the past ten years worth of patient’s medical records into precise chronological order. Then, to our delight, we were told that the hospital was due to slow down for Christmas and New Year and that we should take time off.

Mark in the Festive Spirit !

Lighting up Lake Mburo National Park

On Christmas Eve we headed for Lake Mburo National Park where we enjoyed Christmas with Hippos, Zebra, Warthog and Antelope. It was an unforgettable experience as we enjoyed fairy lights and Christmas crackers and opened presents to the sound of nature. We moved on to Lake Bunyonyi on the border with Rwanda to see in the New Year and, again, had an unforgettable few days surrounded by overwhelming natural beauty.

A Christmas Sunset

Close to nature, a water buck at Lake Mburur

Back at the hospital we are now hard at work. We spent two days emptying out the hospital stores; a task that has needed doing for the past ten years. To the delight of the hospital staff we came across a paraphernalia of useful equipment. Sterilizing equipment, beds, sheets, drip-stands, test tubes, crutches and much more were uncovered in an operation comparable to an archaeological dig. An anaesthetic kit was discovered which was the last piece of equipment required for the opening of the newly refurbished operation theatre. We even came across a huge x-ray machine dating back to the 1950’s. We are hopeful that we may be able to coax a medical museum into buying it. The floor has been re concreted and we are currently producing an inventory of the newly discovered equipment and building storage units in preparation for their being put neatly back. It seems that once home our continued efforts on behalf of Rushere Hospital will be concentrated on raising the funds necessary to build a new children’s ward and staff quarters to accommodate the extra nurses that will be required.

As a team we are on good form. We have done little driving over the last month and a half and have thoroughly enjoyed having time to meet and get to know people. Helen continues to collect some superb video footage of our experiences and is growing steadily more optimistic about the success of her documentary. We have another two weeks here in Rushere before setting off on the long road to South Africa. Once again, thank you for your interest and do please continue to check the website on a regular basis.

Jonathan Besley - Project Leader

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