I’ve dropped the ball a little on writing blogs again, so, let’s play catch up. I hope you’ve had a good week!
It hit me recently that despite being in my final week already, I’ve barely explained what day to day life here looks like, let alone most of the work that I’ve been up to.
So, here is a brief account of what I’ve been doing.
I’m currently living within the grounds of a hospital here in Uganda, called Kiwoko Hospital. It’s plonked in a rural town, with it’s main features being a big field for football and volleyball each evening, a market for veggies, and a whole lot of friendly faces. The work the hospital do here is incredible, and they go above and beyond for patients in the most desperate of situations. As you probably know, my focus is based around mental health this has led me to working alongside Derek, the psychiatrist here at the hospital, and the community health team.
Due to the cost of travel, illness and how completely rural some people live, hospital teams spend a lot of time travelling directly to patients and treating them where they are. This often means travelling many miles, covering different districts and treating a huge number of patients upon arrival. I’ve noticed the team work tirelessly through mealtimes and breaks to provide care to everyone they can.
I have been travelling with the community team to various groups throughout the week, and it has been a real honour to watch them work and contribute in my own ways, the best I know how. The main groups I have been working with, include mothers with children who are disabled (most often Cerebral Palsy). Here, disabilities are highly stigmatised and their condition often seen as a product of witchcraft. Many of these mothers face an incredible amount of hardship, backlash from the communities, and are often left by their partners.
So, the team frequently visit support groups that have been set up for mothers (and occasionally fathers) to attend in various places. Parents travel incredible distances to attend. We roll up in a minibus loaded with equipment and mats, which are laid out in sections on the grass.
At one station, mothers and their children see the physiotherapist, who moves them through sequences of stretches and movements to help with development.
“Their minds are young, so sometimes we can help retrain the brain and connections, so that they can develop.” Moses told me, as I sat with him and he guided me through what he was doing. He held up a plastic spiked ball- the kind that looks like a dog’s toy, and rolled it across a baby’s hand as she lay sprawled out on the brightly coloured mat.
Her mother lovingly looked on, and gently prodded the child’s shoulder, to attract their attention to Moses.
“When the muscles are too relaxed, this helps them to engage.” He then proceeded to lift the child, gently jamming their legs between his own, crossed across the mat. The child stood, supported in an upright position, wobbling and wide-eyed as Moses shook a rattle. He then demonstrated to the mother, how she would do this too.
Over on another mat, Derek and a co-worker sat with a heavy book open wide across their laps, examined all the children and taking notes, talking with parents and prescribing medications.
And finally, their was the large mat, where several tarps were laid down under the shade of the trees. A colourful array of rugs were placed on top, and the sunlight dappled across mothers lovingly cradling their children and waiting patiently to be seen.
The day was often long due to the numbers and needs. So, this is where talks often took place and my work came into play. Some team members provided discussions on various life skills, often about ways to earn money, on education, nutrition and other topics. They had a fantastic way of connecting and engaging with patients and family members, and it was clear to see, even when speaking a different language, the hope that they inspired to these mothers.
This is when I began running classes with mothers. With their babies laid down beside them, they took time to bend over a page and paint, draw, express and talk. I was usually asked to begin by explaining my own personal experiences with various challenges, the coping mechanisms I used, and how art can help.
I then continue to share how to make black ink from charcoal and use it for drawing, to then lead them through exercises alongside therapists, to think about emotional expression through their art.
I won’t lie, this was difficult in the beginning. Many had never tried anything like this before, both emotionally and artistically- and most had never painted. On top of that, explaining the purpose of what we were doing through a translator sometimes felt slightly lost. Culturally, people’s wants and needs are often different too, so I was often met with some surprising answers to questions.
One boy who attended with his mother, joined the painting. On this particular day, everyone had been asked to spend time drawing something that gave them hope for the future: a goal or something that brought them joy.
As financial burdens play a big part in people’s worries here, may people drew paper notes for 50 000 Ugandan Shillings (￡10, and the largest note in Ugandan currency). Some drew houses, some drew cows.
This boy, for the entire session, poured his heart and soul into drawing a ball. He gave it to me afterwards, and I still think about it a lot.
We gradually learnt how to diversify the discussions, to phrase and word things differently, ask different questions and tease out thoughts and ideas in simplified ways. It’s taken time and been an interesting learning curve to pull out more in each session.
From here, I also started to teach paper making, especially as we returned to the same groups for a second time. This has gone down incredibly well, with everyone very keen to get involved and learn. This is a completely new and different skill that can be used to produce materials that could be sold and potentially generate additional income- as well as being fun, mindful and used for art.
I usually do two days per week travelling to the communities doing this, and have recently picked up a third day where I’m teaching a group in the HIV clinic how to make paper, and this will lead to making greeting cards. I have absolutely loved working with this group- they are all artists that make crafts already, so they were very eager to learn something new, as I am from them. They make incredible baskets, mats and jewellery from what they have at hand: including rolling up old paper to make beads etc.
I also pop in to various group therapies on the hospital where asked, and share my story to help de-stigmatise mental health and encourage others to share their experiences.
On my other days, I have been painting the hospital. This has proved challenging to squeeze around, gather supplies from the city (2.5 hour travel one way) and prepare for with rainy season well under way. I began painting the outside of Paediatrics ward, which came with delays and setbacks due to the weather. The wall sat prepped and ready to go, shiny new with undercoat but the rain permitted no progress for quite some time. In the meantime, I’ve began painting the inside of female ward, which is almost finished. Time is running out rapidly here, so there is lots to fit in before moving on.
And, that’s a wrap. This is generally where my commitments lie during the day, and then of course I do personal commissions and work in my own time to support what’s happening. Two months will not be long enough, and with communications from Derek and the team, I know that they will be work continuing after I have left- so we are making plans and preparations to keep up the programme we have started going and ensure it is sustainable while I’m not present. The plan will be to keep coming back with more skills that we can provide to the communities, programmes to support mental health and finding ways to support the ongoing work from afar in the meantime. All exciting stuff, and setting up a long term project feels good.
So, I hope this gives you a general idea of what the week looks like! From here, we go to Kenya for a few days, and then NZ on the 9th. It’s crept up far too fast.
I hope the day has been good to you :)
-Becky