last.second.com !

We are thinking of starting this new website as we found life was so frenetic much of the past months!  Hence the delay in posting on this blog…. So apologies to our readers, wherever you are, but we’ll fill you in on some of the action…

We greatly enjoyed seeing Mark and Ruth again.  We were able to attend Ruth’s Post-Graduate Certificate of Education graduation at Homerton  College, Cambridge and felt very proud of her.   Sadly many in her year had dropped out due to the pressure of the course but Ruth had excellent school placements which she enjoyed [and had the satisfaction of being told she is a “natural”].

She was appointed to a good job as a primary school teacher in Islington, North London, from September.  This was from her first interview, so again very encouraging.  She has a good flat in Crouch End with friends so it has all fallen into place very well.  We smile as we recall her as a young girl lining up her dolls and teddies and taking role-call, now she will fulfil the dream!

Mark has also done extremely well with his PhD in Reading.  He has had an excellent supervisor and has already published some papers.  He is now back in our home in Macclesfield writing up his research on crystal structure of medicines etc etc [far too complicated for us to begin to understand…].  He still enjoys playing drums and keeping fit.

We were able to have 5 days all together on holiday in Barcelona which was lovely.   

Hanna and I also managed to visit Holland and stayed with her father and saw all the Dutch family so it was good to catch up with them including Justin and Amber who were on leave from their work in Turkey.

We were able to visit Ian’s mum and her husband Peter who were well.  Unfortunately time didn’t allow us to see all the rest of the family on this trip.

Ian was able to visit Geneva for a couple of days to present a paper of work we had done in Kisiizi as part of the World Health Organization African Partnerships for Patient Safety programme.  What he didn’t know was that the paper was part of the “Implementation Academy” at the second international conference on prevention and infection control.  Turned out Kisiizi was up against China, Malta, Germany etc…. but, to our surprise and delight, Kisiizi won first prize!  It turned out that a lady from the Ministry of Health in Kampala was attending the conference so she was excited that Uganda won but then a little surprised to see a “muzungu” go up to get the prize!  If you wish to see the abstract of our work click below:

Kisiizi abstract paper

Hanna and I hosted the first week of the Christian Medical Fellowship Developing Health course in north London and, as always, it proved an inspiring time as we met more extraordinary people working in some very challenging resource-poor situations to bring health and wholeness to people often living at the edge of survival. 

We were able to meet up with some Friends of Kisiizi, and spoke at some churches that have prayed for Kisiizi and supported aspects of the work here.  We also had encouraging meetings with the Chief Executives of Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading and Countess of Chester Hospital.  We met some colleagues due to join us in Kisiizi in the next few months and went up to Yorkshire to help discuss plans for our new Mental Health unit.

But all too quickly it was the pressure of packing for the return trip…. We had booked Qatar airways as it was the cheapest but, for the first time ever, found our hand-luggage being weighed!... NOT a good idea!  It took a lot of arrow prayers and fast talking to persuade them that we needed to take all our luggage which included an anaesthetic machine and surgical instruments… so rather a hassle at Manchester, but then off to Doha.  Arrived about 1am to a temperature of 33 degrees and high humidity – not pleasant at all so hate to think what it would be like in the day time!  Then onto a bus for a good 20 minutes standing to get to a terminal to join a queue to get on another bus back the same 20 minute journey for the second leg flight to Entebbe…. Not our best trip!  But arrived on time and safe with all the luggage so much to be thankful for.

Had a lovely welcome party here in Kisiizi which was very kind of the staff to arrange.  As usual, within 48 hours or so it felt like we hadn’t been away….