Traditional practices, or what was set up by the organisations founders, have worked surprisingly well over the years. But for the larger modern organisation, and in the face of donor expectations, the status quo cannot be tinkered with anymore.  Yet, force feeding managers with new management guidelines or procedures would be a lazy recommendation.  Best practice is offered frequently by well meaning visitors and is politely accepted. Yet it remains undisturbed on a shelf, after the deliverer has departed.  This is a complex issue, explored in a new article in the colleaction of management papers in this blog. See Management-Not What it Seems article.

This will probably be the last of our articles and postings on Kisiizi. God Bless you all in Kisiizi in this important work. We will continue to write on this blog – but on other issues of the day.

An article written a while back has now been put on the blog as a page in the Management section. It lays out some of the issues. As a caution to the confident, and a help to the anxious.

High inflation effects all staples

We greet eachother with Merry Christmas and a Happy New year. Let’s wish Uganda one too. The nation’s political elite do not do what they should, and the religious leaders are not acting as salt and light. Biship Zac Niringye has recently accused feloow church leaders of failing the Nation in this regard. See

Furthermore, though we now have left Uganda, we still hear that child sacrifice issues rumble on. Indeed, the opportunity of a minority to get rich while the majority struggle in the face of massive inflation, has made some resort to “dark arts”. See the recent article on the BBC. For more on this topic, see Tales From The Dark Sides .

Turbine

The power company continues to grow. In September, it had 278 outside customers, not far short of its practical ceiling of 300. It has now got to the stage where it might not be able to meet full demand in early evenings during the dry season, when water flow is low and power production falls.

One way to help, is to reduce consumption by Hospital Group staff, who are currently not properly charged for their power. Meters are being installed as a plan to introduce a charging mechanism, to induce lower peak consumption. But no charging can be introduced until meters have been installed and consumption can be individually assessed for each and every unit of accommodation. Furthermore, many local staff have a very poor idea of how much electricity will really cost. Some thought the cost would be Ugx 10,000 per month, when in reality the measured usage wo8uld have cost Ugx100,000. Faced with real cash bills of this magnitude, users will switch back to cooking on charcoal.

George and Doreen Wadsworth have returned again to help manage the Company. They are still actively looking for an expat engineer to lead the development of Kisiizi Hospital Power Limited, say for two years. George was challenged as to why did the manager have to be an expatriate? The problem is that where electricity is in such short supply, who gets what and the management of the money would make a manager from the local region vulnerable to corrupt influences.

George is seeking to formalise various aspects of the Company: writing procedures for staff, bringing the accounts up to date, sorting out VAT arrears (this happens in Uganda too!). There will be some consideration on how to put into use the “surplus” power – that power that is available but does not get used during the night. Perhaps in a bakery? Commercial development is less likely to increase load pressure at peak cooking time. Some electric entrepreneurs are using the power to re-charge large batteries to provide lighting in houses where mains electric power has not yet reached.. Also for carpentry workshops, circular saws, wood turning lathes, etc. There is quite a lot of electric welding, none with eye protection!

In the future, some consideration might be given to solar power, though the frequent cloud cover may mean this is less practical than it might seem at first. But in the meantime, gross revenue are in the order of Ugx 5-8 million a month, some of which is going toward deferred salary costs, as well as towards helping the Hospital run. Which is one of the reasons the Power Company was set up in the long place – to assist the longer term financial future of the Hospital, as well as providing a secure source of power.

Or in particular, The Old Lady frightened of one mouse? Is The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street really frightened of the church mouse lurking at the gate of St Paul’s Cathedral?

Business took me on Thursday to “The City”. So I popped down to St Paul’s to see The Occupy London Exchange, that massed encampment of the “dirty and dreadful” occupying the Cathedral grounds, generating squalor and damaging local business. Well – that’s what I was told.

The reality is less, both in size and fetidness. A modest group of tents, well compressed together on one side to allow ease of access for commuters between Paternoster Square and Ludgate Hill. And on the other side to allow tourists to get nice pictures of the main entrance of the great Cathedral. How polite. Wheelie bins stand in the centre to allow all sorts of refuse recycling. The site canteen is busy with lunch prep. A guy is sweeping the right of way of rubbish (who from – protesters or commuter litter bugs?). The site “University” has quiet discussions, but the Info Tent is congested and busy with enquirers.

I chat to a few folk and ask what I’d need to do if I wanted to stay the night. Sharing tents was discussed. The problem of drunks turning up at night, violent or distressed was considered a modest problem. Perhaps I could get a space in a tent if I was willing to help this chap with cleaning the portaloos. Indeed – someone has got to do it!

It was all very low key. Modest. Small even. So why all the fuss? Why the threatened court orders? Why did the English Defence League plan to attack the site? WHY THE BOTHER? Is The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street (The Bank of England and allied financial institutions) really that frightened of this mouse at the gate of St Paul’s Cathedral?

That the strength of reaction is seemingly so disproportionate to the size of the action suggests real vulnerability. Matthew Parris (Times columnist, ex-Conservative MP) is right. For every one person at the site strongly opposed to current capitalism, there are hundreds out in the suburbs, who are uncomfortable with the current state of affairs.

Mouse keep squeaking. Then perhaps the rest of us will help The Old Lady to amend her ways.

In The Prison Barber Shop

Fancy having a staff and volunteers meeting in a prison? Mixing with prison staff and prisoners? Perfectly obvious, if you are Prison Fellowship! The annual get together was less a lock up but a break in, courtesy of HMP Heathside*. Just getting into HMP Heathside was different than my previous and only experience so far. Sniffer dogs, airport security with closer body search. The photo ID that gets you past the front gate, but gets you stopped later on. The £20 note in the back pocket? Sorry sir, can’t take it in. It was Security Snakes and Ladders and it is back to Square 1. And later I was told off for revealing in conversation to a volunteer, what trade my son was in and what part of London he did it in – because I might be overheard and it might be used to identify me by those inside to their nefarious advantage. When you are inside, you are inside another country.

Customs of this country. New “residents” lose

·         their name, and get a number

·         their clothes, and get a uniform

·         their ‘get up’ freedom, and get up when they are told to

·         their privacy in the loo, there’s no lock and its only half a door

They are doing time. We were told by a very experienced prison chaplain that our time is not really ours either. Those of us who call ourselves Christians are not free to do what we like but to work towards His Kingdom. We are doing time too. But I don’t think the parallel really works. Every day I have many little choices to make, largely made by habit and time is seemingly ours, or willingly sold to an employer. Most of us chose to leave little time for reflection. For “the lads” the choices are so, so few, the time for reflection so, so long. Jerry* said to me he lost his faith when he got into crime and still hasn’t found it yet. But he likes to come along to chaplaincy events. The fellowship is good and there’s no stress.

At our meeting, the prisoners present at this time were directly addressed, and encouraged to see themselves as ministers too. Lay ministers of Christ amongst the other prisoners and prison staff. The speaker acknowledged that for these apostles-on-the-wings, they would have to absorb so much pain of the others. It would be exhausting. But it would be part of their doing time for God.

These locked-in missionaries need encouragement. As one of the HMP Heathside* senior managers later said at our meeting, the lads who have just left will have received much, appreciating the human contact, the conversations, the chance to sing and pray and read scripture alongside ordinary men and women. The sort of interaction the rest of us take for granted. These guys are inside for years, many years, for very serious crimes indeed. They see the same faces day in and day out – simply talking to a new face is refreshing.  Perhaps my chat with Toni* about composting, composting in my garden, composting in the prison gardens, was not just a pile of old manure.

*Names changed for privacy and security.

Tonny makes a point

As one gets larger, the opportunities and the problems get more sophisticated. This is what’s happening to Kisiizi nowadays. Its greater stature brings new links, now with Liverpool, Basingstoke, Chester and Reading. And greater problems, frauds discovered as the new medical records system gets rolled out and the accounts get more examined.

Medical Superintendent Tonny Tumwesigye was in UK this summer, visiting hospitals in Chester and Liverpool with regard to the new THET sponsored collaboration. This involves other hospitals in UK (Basingstoke and Royal Berkshire) and other hospitals in Uganda (Mulago, Gulu and Hoima). The focus is on reducing maternal mortality and cross infection. The implied recognition for this mission hospital working alongside government hospitals in UK and Uganda should not be taken for granted.

The medical insurance programme bedevilled hospitals finances (as a large non-paying debtor) when Bill was there. It has now been fully brought in-house. No longer Microcare but Kisiizi Health Society. This now ensures that the programme will continue and that premiums and claims will be more adequately processed, which was very far from being so in past years. The “characters” that ran Microcare in past years seemed to be no longer commercially active in Uganda.

Relations with Spencer Trust was also an issue a year ago. It seems that it no longer gives to the Hospital, but directs funds though local representatives. In our minds that was is a pity, as Spencer Trust had been a significant donor to the needs of the Hospital complex.

As for Registered Nursing Training, the Kisiisi School of Nursing is planning to start offering this, which will be an upgrade route for Enrolled Nurses. The advantage for the Hospital will be that the student nurses will not be completely “green” village youths but students who already have significant nursing experience, and will be an effective nursing force on the wards when they do their work placements.

Tonny reflected, with prayerful thanks on:

• The successful roll out of the electric power project
• The many long term donors
• Commitment from staff

However, there are significant challenges for prayer. We cannot take for granted the on-going commitment of individuals who give. The Ugandan Ministry of Health has cut back the amount of funding it gives to hospitals (including Kisiizi Hospital) for Public Health.

Key staff leave Hospital employment, in particular nursing staff, where turnover remains high. Interestingly there are now a number of people who go to work in Government hospitals because the salaries are higher, but seek to return to Kisiizi as there are better benefits (secure accommodation, water, electricity, internet). And better standards of work.

The Diocesan Bishop is the Chair of the Board of Governors. Rt Revd Edward Muhima has now retired and is replaced by Bishop Patrick. Pray that the new bishop will have a similar wisdom and heart for God as his predecessor.

Pray for the spiritual life of the Hospital complex. It is recognised that the former fires have burned low. Kisiizi is currently blessed by a new Assistant Chaplain, and pastoral work which has been not followed up so much, is now restarting.

The rollout of the new medical information system has highlighted instances of fraud, e.g. theft of drugs, and theft of money in cashier operations. This is distressing, especially i a place where spiritual values are recognised as important and human need are recognised as so large. On the other hand, you should not be shocked by this. Kisiizi salaries are still low, inflation high and the demands of school fees, kinship obligations and simple greed arising from imported consumerism press heavily on the most solid citizens, let alone the others.

We knew well one of those caught, a person whom we viewed positively. A person who was happy to proclaim themselves as balekole, “born again”. We have emailed that person hoping to open a dialogue on repentance, reconciliation and moving on. But Bill now works with Prison Fellowship England & Wales, and knows those too who have become “born again” in prison, to fall back to drugs upon release. At one level someone has to judge, as Hospital Management did and swiftly, to protect the Hospital and keep it going. On the other hand, this is only interim-&-practical judgement. The deeper can’t be done by us.

Odd – there’s much that seems familiar from the documentaries on HMP Manchester and the YOI institution on the TV.  And I’ve worked in a disabilities college, which in mild ways had some echoes (individual assessments, small bedrooms, security awareness, collective living and catering). Yet there was nothing like seeing it in the flesh.

There was always the background of security. The locking and unlocking (and the noise of clanking keys and clamming doors).  Counting people in and counting them out again. No photos, no mobiles, no notes please. The netting to prevent tennis balls of dope being hurled over. The Prison Officer always “shooting the bolt” before going into any room/office/cell, to ensure the door does not slam shut and leave you locked in. Interestingly, the smell was not bad. All institutions have aromas, and this one was not too awful. Really.

When we passed though a very large chapel, I asked whether there was a lot of takers. “In Oh yes. Two services on Sundays for the Anglicans, two for the [Roman] Catholics. And there’s two more on Fridays for the Muslims, plus things for the others too. When inside, a lot of prisoners get religion, and some of it is for serious”. “Some of it is for serious” was not meant cynically. But he did add that Sunday services often can be lively in the wrong sort of way, giving the opportunity to sell Simm cards, sell drugs, have fights, etc.

Underneath the seemingly sanitised and controlled environment, I got to know:

• the ethnic balance did not reflect the catchment
• over half had mental illnesses
•  on spot checks, 7 to 20% were drug positive
• bullies possibly made up over 10% of offender

We had curious and unthreatening stares from offenders, plus the occasional nod and hallos. But the environment did not foster conversation. I asked someone who was an old hand at prison visiting who commented “they won’t say much to visitors like you as the Prison Officers would be highly suspicious. It’s all about control, keeping the lid on.” Underneath there was another world, quite different, that I could not get a glimpse of.

Interestingly, when I discussed with someone who has experienced prison from the inside, he commented “it is a polarising environment. On one hand, mental illness, physical abuse, drugs, violence while on the other, religion, education, and self improvement of various sorts.” Putting it another way is the prison proverb “you can either do prison, or it can do you.”

Bill

p.s. Prison Fellowship exists to help offenders engage with Restorative Justice, find faith, ”do prison” and not be done-in by it.

p.p.s. Sources and location withheld for security reasons.

First Dance

In the last four weeks both our children got married. Both happy occasions. Both with lovely
spouses. But even with mother-&-father-in-law behaving properly – marriage is for more than just two.

The Modern Marriage Model is bi-lateral. A contract with just two parties. It is nuclear, narrow, and sometime neurotic. The focus can be on the ideal couple cheered on by the “smug marrieds”, with singles, the divorced, widow(er)s, and gays there to wish well on their friends, but feeling out of it.

In the beginning, there was no marriage. Gen 1: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. God said let there be light. God said let the waters
teem with living things. Then God said let the land produce living creatures.
And God saw it was all good. God had created a wonderful world that we all know and enjoy together. But…..

….. God wanted to enjoy all this with someone too.

God is relational. He (she?) wanted someone to share his joys with. To talk with. He wanted someone to like and be liked by – as well. He wanted an intelligent, sentient, loving being. He wanted to create man. Gen 1: So God created man in his own image. To be friends, to appreciate each other’s handiwork, and to appreciate each other.

However, God is so big, so profound. Not one for chit-chat. And he often seems busy in other places (in Afghanistan, Somalia, perhaps?). Man is relational too. God knew this. Gen 2: The Lord God said: it is not right for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. And God made woman. Woman is God’s final act of creation, His finest work. (And after he made woman – what did he do? He had a rest. He took a day off.) Someone for man to be in relation with, as well as with God. A sort of holy trinity.

Where does the 6-pack of Tennants Bitter come in then? In a way, via Uganda. When we worked in Uganda, friends of our children invited them to spend Christmas Day with them. Then last Christmas, they suggested to us that perhaps we’d welcome that family to Christmas day in our house. Well sure! They were welcome. And along with “Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh”, someone also brought this Tennants 6-pack. I’d never had it before. And it was unexpectedly good.

Our children and their friends have kept in touch with a lot of people, over what is now quite a long time. Not a crowd of people just happening to be on the same  bus to the same party. But a relational network. That kind of household will not be like the Modern Marriage Myth: nuclear, narrow, neurotic, but open, welcoming, keeping friendship connections alive. It can be unexpectedly good.

The Western Model of the fully realised person being a self contained individual: Cogito ergo sum, is the very reverse of that. The rather overused African proverb “it takes a whole village to raise a child” has the correct take on this. Put in other words it says: Because we are – I am. Sure, in Uganda
as society rapidly changes we’ve often seen that this decreasingly applies. But
Because we are – I am, starts in the right place. Let’s be blunt: Cogito ergo
sum, like cigarettes, eventually is fatal.

This applies wider too. To the Church and society. The Church is relational: with different parts all joined up, likened to a body (1 Cor 12, Rom 12, Eph 4).
Indeed – God is relational in Himself, the Trinity. In God’s very core, the aspects (persons) of the mysterious Divine are in relation with each other.

For many of teh recent English rioters, life is Nike ergo sum. But for the rest of us, Because we are – I am, is the only way to be.