Squeak Piggy Squeak

A civilised start this morning, breakfast at 8am and a short sit in the sun in the car park while we waited for our lift.  

It was a short drive to the local diocesan Health Post in Karambi Parish (not to be confused with Karambo where we visited yesterday). Opened in October 2024 offering basic level 1 services, they upgraded to level 2 services in February 2026 and now have a maternity room.

We were shown the waiting room, the laboratory, where we learned the biggest number of patients are suffering from intestinal parasites, the office, the sparce medicine store, and the pharmacy where pills are dispensed in small bags.

Then we were ushered into the maternity room, despite having a mother and one day old baby in situ. A new baby girl being cuddled by her proud big sister was a photo opportunity too good to miss, we checked with the mother first of course.

The clinic is basic but very clean, bright and welcoming, the mattresses are in a fair condition, but equipment is scarce.  They told us how they serve a population of 5000 with just 2 nurses, one midwife and a limited medicine supply.

A presentation had been prepared on the development of the Health Centre, their achievements, challenges and dreams.  Their greatest asset is undoubtedly a large plot of land where they dream of building a hall for community health training and youth advisory sessions.

They would also like to grow crops and keep livestock as a way of funding the centre and addressing the challenges of malnutrition.

Today they were preparing for a blood donation session, run in conjunction with the Red Cros, this was something new for us, we have never known blood donation in a clinic before. As in the UK it is a voluntary exercise and it was good to see a number of men completing forms presumably to give blood.

Day to day survival is obviously on a shoestring here but it is encouraging to see thought being given to self-sustainability. Undoubtedly yet another potential area of work for our support.

As we waited to leave we watched the procession of people heading home from market with an assortment of livestock, some of which was not going willingly, the squealing of pigs could undoubtedly be heard across the hills.

A short drive to the Cathedral and diocesan office, which has hardly changed since Carmen’s last visit in 2018.

And then a short walk across the road to St Emmanuel School, the new private church run nursery and primary school. Currently serving children from Nursery 1 to Primary 2 but planning on P3 – P6 once the classrooms currently under construction are completed.

The constant stream of men and women (babies on backs) staggering down the hill, heads laden with bricks and cement, and the army of men working on the construction on this steep hillside, suggests completion will not take long.

We visited each of the classrooms where we were greeted by the children wishing us good morning and requesting we ‘feel at home’. The primary students were reserved and quite formal but the youngest nursery children, once they got over their reservations about the muzungu all came to touch us. Nursery 2 were happy to stay at their desks, nursery 3 sang and danced and were very polite but as we left the classroom their teacher came running out, please come back, the children want to hug you. We duly obliged and there was a rush of hugging children.

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One of the joys of being here is the total lack of compliance and red tape. Hands are held, hugs are given, children are comforted, love is freely shared without fear of reprisal.

A meeting with the diocesan accountant to ensure our financial compliance request was well understood was soon over, he had no doubts at all what was required.

The diocesan staff, who have been instructed to take care of us in the bishop’s absence, drove us back to the guest house and joined us for lunch. There is a wedding reception being held here this afternoon and we think we had first dibs at the food!!!

We spent a pleasant hour with Archbishop Erneste and Rev. Francois exchanging information about jobs, family, life in the UK etc before they took their leave. The diocesan staff are few and all have many roles, they undertake an impossible volume of work, and we are very conscious that we are an additional drain on their time and resources.

With an afternoon off we are writing the blog and facebook post early, maybe we will sneak off to the market later!!!