June rushed past, as we prepared for our MAF "Home Assignment" back in our passport-country of England. A country where I am the only member of my family with long-term roots. My husband is South African and my children have grown up across 5 African countries, feeling more like "home" is within Africa rather than England.
Despite this fact, England always welcomes us warmly and we are made to feel loved and "at home" for the few weeks we spend there. We are ever grateful for the kindness and support of family, friends, church families and MAF supporters. We had a special and wonderful time in the UK, for which we are very grateful.
We arrived back in Uganda on August 14th, Harry was overjoyed to have his family back, bouncing energetically from one Parker to the next.
Even the cat deigned to acknowledge our return with a swift rub around each pair of ankles!
Since our arrival back in our Kampala home, life has been FULL ON!
Two days after our arrival, the new academic year was due to begin...
In a flurry of preparation, it was straight down to "Garden City" shopping centre the day after landing. In Kampala. the children's school requires us to buy all of their books and stationery. A new school year means stocking up on pencils, pens, paint, exercise books, folders files... etc.
The fuel in our newly-serviced car was low and the traffic was more chaotic than I had remembered! The trip took longer than I had budgeted for, which often seems to happen when I return from the order of the UK to unpredictable Africa, but happily our children had their school resources all ready for the first day of school.
(photo credit: clipart)
The children had just 2 days of school- a Friday and then a Monday. On Tuesday, a public holiday was proclaimed for Eid! School was shut and we had an unexpected day at home. Esther had a friend to visit, but by the end of the afternoon, Esther was looking poorly. Her sunny disposition was muted and she was running a low-grade temperature.
"Oh, she's just over-tired with the journey and getting back into Kampala life", we told ourselves.
Esther started to feel quite dizzy and her temperature was persistent. We kept her at home on Wednesday - another day without routine.
On Thursday, Esther presented herself in the kitchen at a late 8:45am, one and a half hours after her brothers had left for school. To her and my horror, she was COVERED in bright red spots! Her head hurt, her fever was still present. She described feeling like she was moving around in a dream.
An hour later, we arrived at the doctor's surgery, to be told that Esther had rubella (German Measles). Without a doubt, she had picked up the virus in England and unwittingly brought it back to Kampala! She was tearful. And her mother was tearful. How could I have missed her vaccination for rubella? Did that mean I had neglected my duty as her Mum and miss a booster or in fact both MMR vaccinations?
The doctor and I examined Esther's records of vaccination and could find NO mention of MMR ever being administered. The records were hard to decipher- one set of records was from South Africa, where all of her inoculations had been recorded in Afrikaans! Neither myself nor the Ugandan doctor could fathom what they all meant! But MMR was not among those written.
Next, we examined her English medical records. Next to the gap marked "MMR" there was only a tick- no date and no doctor's signature. What did the tick mean? Had I ticked that gap to remind myself to get this inoculation or had I ticked it when it was administered? It was a mystery to me- I simply could not remember what I had meant when I ticked that box 10 years ago!
Next, we looked for some records of her medical history through her time in Tanzania, Kenya and South Sudan, but all we could find were her tropical vaccination record. Thankfully, I had been scrupulous in keeping up to date with her tropical diseases immunisation schedule- but not so organised with her general childhood illnesses. I felt terrible. I looked guiltily at the doctor. He smiled warmly at me.
"Don't worry", he said, "she will get over this and then we can arrange a new schedule to get her vaccines up to date."
His kindness stilled my tears; but I still felt bad for Esther.
On Friday evening, she rested in darkness in her bed, cloistered in her room while 10 pre-invited guests joined us for a BBQ at home. The visiting children communicated through the lattice window and mosquito netting. Poor Esther. She was too unwell to care about what was happening outside and she certainly did not feel like eating any BBQ chicken kebabs, but still- it's never pleasant to miss out. :-(
My little girl lay mostly in bed Thursday and Friday, finally emerging on Saturday mid-morning. Headache, chills, fever, vomiting and sensitive eyes, not to mention the unsightly rash, were hopefully on their way out. That afternoon an American doctor friend kindly came to examine her and reassured us that she was doing well. She suddenly seemed brighter and more energetic. That evening, her spots started to fade before our very eyes!
With the nasty spots fading, the worst was over. Today, she returned to school. Horray!
I drove her and 6 other MAF kids to school this morning, with a little drama on the way... I managed to get our enormous car stuck in a tight spot down a narrow mud road! With tears of frustration and panic, I had to reverse my vehicle uphill and over slippery mud as the wheels lost their grip and spun in protest at my manoeuvres. The tight corners and mud were challenging for reversing, not to mention the 10 minutes I wasted trying to get back on to a better route to school!!! Grrrrrrr! A little bother- but we still got to school on time (just!!).
Trouble with German measles has not been the only disturbance of Kampala life over the past week. Political unrest has resulted in riots in town and security restrictions on our movement around town, interfering with our everyday life. See this BBC link:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-45257309
As often happens in life, the trouble happened to coincide with visitors arrving! Two lovely, wonderful MAF UK supporters are visiting us here in Uganda for 2 weeks. Jan and John said they wanted, " to just see your everyday life". Well, they've definitely seen a bit of reality here in our Ugandan life!
They've had their city tour cancelled because of riots. They sat in my car as I did a hasty U-turn on a main road where security concerns necessitated a swift change of plan. The street we were driving had become too dangerous to drive down.
They spent a day at the doctor's with Esther and I last Thursday- and what a comfort they were to this upset MAF wife and her measley daughter! Such a blessing to have them with us.
They have done emergency babysitting of my poorly daughter when I had to rush out and collect other kids from school and was not allowed to take my contagious Esther in the car with me.
They have seen our Kampala life, in all its unpredictability and chaos... as well as the joy of our community, the thrill of a MAF flight and a visit to the beautiful Speke resort. But that is another blog post!
Until then, I am glad we have got over the most recent spots of bother and I look forward to a more settled period ahead!
