24th & 25th February
Yesterday we moved from the Mildmay hospital to the Sky Hotel in the Ntinda district of north Kamapala, and this morning (Monday) set off the the Alcholi community. The Alcholi people come from north Uganda on the border with Sudan, but due the the violence in that area have moved to the outskirts of Kampala. Many of them work in a nearby quarry, breaking up rocks into smaller piece for use as hardcore.
We set up our clinic in a hall which served as a community centre. Five dental chairs, five Dentaid dentists, and four Ugandan colleagues. On each day we saw around 80 patients between us for pain relief, mainly extractions, but the occasional small filling as well. We also provided some oral health education to the many children who seem to accumulate wherever we show up.
The spirit in the clinics is amazing, the banter and camaraderie has to be experienced, one colleague said it felt like being in a scene fro M.A.S.H and in a way it was. No egos, everyone just out to help. I feel privileged to have been apart of it. Sadly the rest of my team have moved on as they are staying in Uganda longer than me, and are moving out into rural areas further north west. I will be spending my final three days at the Miya clinic. I will miss them and wish them luck, they are a great bunch of people.
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