We have reached the end my friends

Greetings from Erie PA!!! I just finished up my first interview at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM); It's appropriate that the last post for this blog comes as I am traveling yet again. I've been back in the States for about a week now, I'm finding that gaining all the weight that I lost while over in Uganda is going to be pretty easy.

Obviously things have been a bit strange in the past few days, not standing out amongst a crowd, now having to speak a different language, even using money that is significantly smaller and all the same color. I still haven't completely processed all of what occurred in the last four months, and frankly it will probably be quite some time before I do. I want to thank everyone back here at home that took the time to read my blog and send countless messages of encouragement when I hit rough patches. I would like to extend a special thank you to all of my friends in Uganda, both local and foreign, who were such great contributors to me both professionally and personally. The main question that everyone has had for me has pertained as to whether or not I am going to return to Uganda at some point in the near future. I believe that fate will eventually bring me back to Uganda at some point in my medical career, but for the time being I'm looking forward to some time at home with my friends and family.

Would I recommend this type of experience for someone else? My answer would have to vary from person to person, there are many pros and cons of going into NGO work, especially in a developing country. Being away from people you know, in a strange environment, completely devoid of western comforts is no bed of roses. The last four months have been filled the most rewarding and heartbreaking experiences of my life, would I do it again? Yes

"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood." -Marie Curie

Almost

I'm due to check out of my "hotel" here in terminal 4 in about a half hour. I'm roughly twelve hours from McDonalds, hot showers, and all the fun gadgets I had to leave behind.

Last full day in Jinja

This morning I got on the coaster to Bugembe and did the last of my work here in Uganda. I'm headed to my favorite restaurant in about two hours to have one last dinner and say goodbye to the staff. I've been there so much in the last four months that I know most of them by name and the owner put some photos of me in the latest advertisement for the place. Tomorrow afternoon a vehicle sent by the University will pick me up and drive me three hours to Entebbe, the town next to the airport. At 9:05 on Monday morning British Air flight 62 will carry me off to merry old England, there's a good chance that my next post will be from Heathrow airport.

Floating on the nile again

Just got back from Nile River Explorers where I spent the day taking an introduction to whitewater kayaking course. We spent the morning in still water learning how to paddle, exit, and roll the kayak back over. After a quick luck we took about two hours running rapids on the Nile; a few of them really threw you around, but I managed to stay upright through all of them.

Last Medical Outreach Assignment

Yesterday I was asked to go out to a school and have a "quick look" at the students. I didn't find out till I arrived that there were over 180 students, and that I was going to be examining each one of them. Over the course of about four hours I managed to get a pretty good overview of the health of the student population. I gave each of the students a brief exam looking for any major problems, as well as dressing any small wounds that I found. After I was finished I gave a short talk on hygiene and basic health to the teachers, overall I was very impressed with the way the school was being run.

Back from Kenya

I finally got back to Jinja at about one in the morning after being on a bus for almost twelve hours. My return trip from Mombasa was rather uneventful, at least in the way of bad occurrences.
After making my last blog post, I headed toward the southern end of town in search of the ferry that would take me towards the southern beaches and my hotel. I am a firm believer that you should take public transport whenever possible; it allows you to really experience the culture. I noticed a gentleman standing next to one of the minibuses calling out “ferry ferry ferry!”, so I figured that was my ride. After about a five minute ride I was dropped at the entrance to the ferry terminal, along with about four hundred Kenyans, I crowded onto a car ferry and crossed the bay (see photo above). Finding a bus that was heading south to the beach was relatively easy, the gentleman in the seat next to introduced himself and helped me find where I was supposed to get off. Overall it cost me a little less than 500 shillings to make it from the train to the beach, if I would’ve taken a private taxi (which is what most westerners do) it would have been almost 2500 shillings.
Twiga lodge was an absolutely stunning location, right on the Indian Ocean with white sandy beaches as far as the eye could see. I had the opportunity to go snorkeling in a shallow pool; it was like swimming in one of the tanks at the shed aquarium in Chicago. I woke up early the next morning to go down to the beach and watch the sunrise over the horizon, I took the photo above at it’s peak beauty. At breakfast I had an interesting visitor; a monkey came along and sat next to my table, watched me eat for about twenty minutes before finally moving on.
It was hard to leave such a beautiful spot, but I knew that there were things that I wanted to see in Mombasa before I left. I went for a long walk through the old portion of the city; finally arriving at the largest tourist attraction, Fort Jesus. I took about an hour and half to walk around and through the entire structure, this strategic location has changed hands at least nine times in the last few centuries, the historian in me really enjoyed it.
After an enjoyable afternoon, I made my way back to the train and climbed aboard for the return trip. That evening in the dining car, I had the pleasure of sitting with a newlywed Kenyan couple from Nairobi. The gentleman was an IT man for a computer company and the lady was a stewardess for Kenya Airways. As it turns out, her uncle lives in Milwaukee, never ceases to amaze me how small the world can seem. Before going to sleep in my cabin I took the time to take a few photos of my wonderful accommodation.
The next morning I had breakfast with two recent law school graduates from Washington State, the two of them were on a celebratory vacation. At one point, as I ate my eggs and toast, I looked out the window after the locomotive let out a particularly long whistle blow. It was then that I saw five giraffes running away from the train tracks, among those were one or two gazelles that got caught up in the fray. For most of the morning after breakfast I was glued to the windows taking photos of the landscape and the train itself.
Once I got into the city it was already late morning, I walked to the bus station and got a ticket for the next bus back to Uganda a couple of hours later. To pass the time I went out for one last meal and climbed up a hill to take a photo of the city center.
Looking at my passport this morning, the once empty pages have become an indiscernible mess of stamps and visa stickers, there’s only one stamp left to get.

Mombasa

After an interesting ride to Nairobi (one that involved me being detained for an hour), I got to take an incredible overnight trainride across Kenya. I just arrived in Mombasa and my task for the day is to make my way south to a lodge on the Indian ocean.

Off to Kenya

It feels like I just got back to Jinja...probably because I just did. In a few hours I'll head to the same bus station that I started my Rwandan excursion from, except this time I'm headed in the opposite direction. My journey this evening will take me west into Kenya, I hope to reach Nairobi around lunchtime tomorrow. From Nairobi I'm planning on taking a train down to Mombasa to see the Indian Ocean, after a night there I'll simply do the reverse. Here we go again

Kibuye – Kigali – Jinja

The ride through western Rwanda was absolutely beautiful; I’ve included a few photos that I took leaning out the window on the way back from Kibuye yesterday. I forgot that since I was much further south the sun goes down about an hour earlier than it does in Jinja. As a result, my four o’clock bus to Kibuye from the capital did not arrive until after dark and during a rainstorm. Upon my arrival I was informed that the hotel that I was planning on staying at had closed six months ago, luckily my guidebook had a list of other area hotels. I stood under an awning watching the rain, thinking about what to do for about twenty minutes before a kind gentleman came up and introduced himself. My new friend turned out to be a Ugandan born Rwandan Journalist working in the area, he was nice enough to show me to a hotel and get me checked in. After saying goodbye I got accustomed to my room and made a wonderful discovery…THE HOTEL HAD HOT WATER!!!!
Since my last hot shower was on June 8th in Wisconsin, I found this to be quite a treat. After a shower that I guess must’ve lasted about a half hour, I wandered upstairs to have dinner on the hotel’s terrace. No matter where you are in the world, you find that some restaurant will always have some form of spaghetti with tomato sauce (at least I think it was tomato sauce). Before heading to bed I turned on the TV in my room to see what was on, only one channel came in and a soccer game was on (big surprise). The funny thing was that as I watched the channel kept changing, I learned later that all of the TVs in the entire hotel ran off of the same cable box. In other words, the remote is up in the restaurant and whatever is being watched on that TV is what’s on throughout the entire hotel.
The next morning I woke up and walked out onto the balcony attached to my room and was treated to a great view of the bay and Lake Kivu (see above). Over breakfast I was told that if I wanted to reach Kigali before the evening I would have to take the ten o’clock bus. This didn’t leave much time for sightseeing but when I planned this trip I told myself it was more about journeys than destinations.
Next began one of the most interesting parts of the trip thus far, I climbed aboard a small bus bound for Kigali yesterday morning with the intend of having a short ride with another night in Kigali. About a half hour outside of Kigali we caught up with a Kampala coach bus (the company I road to Rwanda with), it appeared that it was heading to Nairobi (via Kampala). After mulling it over for a few minutes it occurred to me that life would be a bit easier if I headed back to Uganda on the same day. Once we reached the city center I jumped out and ran the few blocks from the Sorta tours office to Kampala coach, I bought my ticket and stepped onto the bus as it pulled out of the station, I manage to get a photo of the taxi park just as I was settling into my seat. I was able to clear immigration much faster this time around, though through a misunderstanding I was only given a seven day visa, so essentially the questions of whether or not I was going to Kenya has been answered.
The only disadvantage of taking that bus was that I missed lunch, luckily I had a bunch of wheat biscuits and cliff bars in my bag. Ten hours later I was in Kampala, however I still had to change buses to get back to my house in Jinja. I walked along the row of buses till I found mine and threw my bag in an empty seat; when I got off to find a bathroom I couldn’t help but notice the gentleman welding a lugnut to one of the rims of my bus, I’m not expert but that’s not something I like to see being done to a vehicle I’m about to ride on. The nice thing about Kampala coach is that they give you a bit of food when you stop in a major city, so I got in line by an area that looked like a kitchen (kinda) and got my plate of rice and several pieces of goat’s meat. When I walked over to the eating area the sound of forks hitting plates stopped briefly while I found a spot to sit, the idea that it’s not polite to stare doesn’t apply here.
I was thankful when the bus finally left the station, after a short ninety minutes we crossed the Nile River and I knew that my stop was only about two minutes away. Unfortunately the bus blew right through Jinja and continued moving West, I moved to the front of the bus as quick as I could and tried to explain to the conductor that I need to get off. I was finally able to get them to stop in a town called Bugembe, a place that I’ve worked in but is no short distance from town. It all worked out okay in the end; I signaled a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) from across the street and was at my door about fifteen minutes later.
That’s it for Rwanda, back in Jinja for two days, next stop…Kenya

Kigali

Originally I put up a two sentence update because I was in a hurry, but now that I have time before my bus leaves for Kibuye I'll write some more.

At one in the morning on Saturday I climbed onto a bus in Jinja, I could tell it was old and most moving parts on the inside were broken. Thankfully I was really tired and managed to sleep most of the night despite the driver's interesting style of driving. Crossing a border overland is quite an interesting experience; when you fly from country to country there are nice signs and people to tell you what to do, when I crossed on Saturday morning all people did was point. After a few stamps at the Ugandan side, I had a short walk through the interim zone between the two countries; it became apparent to me that Rwanda was very hilly quite different from central Uganda. Three hours later the bus stopped at the outskirts of Kigali, stepping down from the bus it occurred to me that I spoke neither Swahili nor French. The gentleman at the ticket counter was nice enough to point me to the money stand as well as advise my how to get into town. A few minutes later I was zipping through the streets of Kigali seated on the back of a motorcycle taxi; in contrast to Uganda, all moto-taxis have to carry helmets for their passengers.

After wandering around for about a half hour I chose a hotel near the center of the city. I was still really tired from the journey so I only walked around the city for a few hours before spending the rest of the afternoon and evening watching TV in my room. I ended up having dinner with the manager of the hotel on the terrace facing the city, I learned that he was actually a Spanish law student taking some time off, the hotel was actually only opened a week before and is part of a development plan.

I woke up this morning and went to one of Kigali's museums to pass the time. I'm scheduled to leave for Kibuye in about an hour, so I'm brushing up on my middle school level french. The adventure continues...

And we're off!

My bus tonight will take me from Jinja to Kigali in about twelve hours, I should be in Kigali by lunchtime tomorrow. I've included a map of my planned route with this post; from Kigali I'll head to Lake Kivo on Sunday afternoon, I've heard that it's a beautiful place to watch the sunset. After that I'll make my way back to Jinja sometime in the middle of next week.

Departure

Tomorrow I leave for Kigali on an overnight bus, I should reach the capital around lunch time on Saturday.

On a similar note, I thought that I'd make it official that I am returning home earlier than expected. Due to medical school interviews I will be returning to the US on October 5th, about a month before I had intended. While I am sad to cut this journey short, I feel that I really have done some great things in these several months, and I have a feeling there are still a few great experiences yet to come.

Update

I know I haven't been posting much lately, I've been pretty busy with preparations for next week. I'll be leaving for Rwanda on Friday of this week, I decided that I'm going to take a week off to do some traveling. After a few days in Rwanda I'll return to Jinja for a day or two before heading to Kenya at the end of next week. I imagine I'll have quite a few stories to share

Old world Jinja

The first first aid class taught by local instructors was held on Friday afternoon underneath a tree on the east end of Lingira island. I was very proud of how my students performed with their tailored curriculum, i think that in the course of a few months this important knowledge will disseminate throughout the community. It never ceases to amaze me how enthusiastic Ugandans are when learning a new skill; when you give knowledge, people run with it.

I had a nice lazy Sunday today, ran some errands in town and had lunch at a local restaurant (1500 shillings or 75 cents US). On my way home this afternoon I took a detour through a section of Jinja that I had never been in. I noticed that there were quite a few abandoned buildings that were from the pre-independence era (50s-60s). These dirty shells of buildings must have been magnificent when they were new, when you walk past you can't help but wonder what it must have been like to like in Africa over half a century ago. One building was clearly a hotel at one point, the roof looks like a wonderful place to have a party.

Quickie from the Island

I'm back on the islands for two days, tomorrow is the first class taught explicitly by my students. Hope it goes well!!!

I'm doing what?

Today I went to a new clinic on the other side of the river with the intention of helping out the lab technician. When I arrived, my contact greeted me, showed me to the lab, and said "here are your students" as he opened the door. I was then left in the clinic's lab with eight students from the Jinja school of nursing and widwifery.

After several seconds of them all staring at me, I managed to say "do you guys know how to prick fingers?". The resounding no provided me with my first lesson for the day; I ended up working with these students for about five hours straight, demonstrating various clinical tests and talking about the importance of lab safety. Just goes to show, you never know what opportunities may present themselves.

New Place

I thought I'd throw a few photos up of the new place. My room is about three times bigger than at the old place, the food is made by students of the Italian cooking school, and I have a private bathroom.

You'll notice that the building that I'm living in is only half finished, I feel like that happens quite a bit here. My room is on the far right of the building.

It's the wrong side of the road, not the left!

This weekend I had the opportunity to visit an orphanage in Wakiso, a small town about thirty minutes northwest of Kampala. The village is very nice, well kept lawns as well as wonderful classrooms and living facilities. Right now there are about one hundred children living on site, a few of them were nice enough to take a picture with me. The one at the lower left has only been there for a month, they tell me that he starts to pick his nose when he gets scared.

The medical officer who showed me around has lived here for several years with his family, they were nice enough to host me for lunch (Kraft mac and cheese and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I was in heaven). When it came time for me to leave, they were nice enough to not only give me a ride back into town to catch a taxi, but let me drive their car from the village to the taxi park. I can cross driving on the opposite side of the road off of my list of things to do here in Uganda. One marked difference I noticed is that the turn signal is on the opposite side of the steering column, they all laughed when I turned on the windshield wipers and looked surprised.

Hanging out in Kampala for the weekend was a lot of fun, I hadn't been back since I arrived in early June. I took some time to visit Garden City, a place that is virtually indistinguishable from the US (ie - parking lots, malls with elevator music playing, food courts). It was quite a strange feeling walking around in those stores after spending the better part of three months in Jinja, can't imagine what it's going to be like after I return.

Quick Update

I just got back from touring an orphanage in a small town called Wakiso about a half hour north of Kampala. I had quite a bit of fun there, but I'll wait to write about it after I'm able to download the photos.

I got my first request for an interview today, so I'm celebrating with a milkshake and french fries at a cafe in Kampala. It's relieving to know that I'll at least interview at one school.

Administrative work

Life seems rather relaxing as I sip on my African tea (milk brewed with tea leaves and spiced with pepper, cinnamon, and ginger) and watch the sun set over the west end of Jinja. I’ve found that two crowds populate flavour’s coffee house during happy hour; there’s the silent crowd individually working on their laptops and then theres the groups of tourists passing through. For the most part I’ve seen that those that come here to use the internet are with the NGO crowd, I’ve met quite a few Peace Corps volunteers here as well.
I figured that I’d throw one of my fun photos from this last weekend, the above image is myself, and the other three volunteers that live on Lingira. We decided that it would be fun to have movie nights while I was there, though I should mention I failed in my assignment to get a variety of movies. We ended up watching two of the star wars movies this weekend, we always hope for sun during the day so I can charge my laptop in the solar outlets. On the way back from our work we managed to find some soda in the village of Choya and the girl pictured front right (Amanda) has wonderful skills at making popcorn.
The other two individuals behind (Left, Kelsi and Michelle, Right), are the only remaining members of the EDGE project left in Uganda. The other nine of the original eleven members that arrived in Uganda in mid-July have all returned to the United States. I’ve found that it’s important to maintain friendships with other Muzungus here, it helps to be able to converse with other Americans every once in awhile. So far I haven’t met anyone that’s staying past mid-October so it could get a little lonely around here right before I leave.

Back to the Island

I feel a bit spoiled because in some ways the internet here on the island is easier to access than it is on the mainland. One of the long term staff has a mobile internet adapter that you can just plug into a USB; since Lingira is only a few miles from the mainland the cell phone towers still reach.

I returned to the island on Thursday in part to say goodbye to the We International team, they left for Wisconsin early yesterday morning. The first photo from today’s post shows me pulling up the anchor in Victoria bay, I was lucky enough to catch a private boat and avoid the overcrowded and often coal-filled public boat. After returning to the base on Lingira in early afternoon, the clouds were just right for a spectacular sunset. Two of the members of the We team are photography students, when I caught up with them at the edge of one of the Camps called Choya, I snapped that photo.

I’ve had a few inquiries as to how the food is here on the island, so last night I took a moment to photograph what was served for dinner. Rice and G-nut sauce is the main staple here at the SHIM base; in case anyone was wondering, G-nuts are basically peanuts. Now that there are only a few of us here at the base we’ve been getting better food for breakfast (eggs, chapatti, and pineapple), but the lunches (pocho and beans) and dinners have essentially been the same.

I took Friday morning to prepare for my First Aid instructor course and had the opportunity to sit in on the farmer’s association meeting in the afternoon. The girls from UW that just left were part of a new student organization called the Empowerment through Development and Gender Equality (EDGE) project; it was their work that got the farmer’s association off of the ground. The meeting had quite a bit of disagreement amongst its sixteen members, but I felt that it was borne out of a strong desire to improve the situation of agriculture on the island.

I divided today into two separate sessions with my small class, this morning I focused on reviewing and sharpening first aid skills that I taught last week. Around lunch I handed out practice teaching assignments to my students and told them to take three hours to prepare.

I was very impressed with the enthusiasm and confidence that I observed during the afternoon session (4th picture). These five individuals have only undergone about eight hours of training thus far and only two of them have had previous medical experience. Yet, when it came time to demonstrating the skills that I showed only a week before, they appeared proficient (5th picture).

I will be returning to the mainland tomorrow morning and I’m planning on taking the day off; it seems that I’ve been working on weekends quite a bit these days. Initially it was my plan to keep my feet on dry land for awhile, but after talking with my students at the end of today’s session it looks like I’ll be returning again on Wednesday. In between then and now I have to finish their teaching manuals and put together a First Aid training box for the island. That being said; this sound be a busy week, I’m starting work at the main hospital’s lab in Jinja on Tuesday and starting a similar position at the children’s hospital/training the triage staff in the use of a new blood pressure/vitals monitor on Wednesday. Somehow I’m going to have to figure out how to finish that up and still have it to the boat dock at 2 pm to catch the public boat. On Friday I need to leave the island early so I can make it back to the Capital by mid-afternoon, I am finally fulfilling my promise to visit my friends that initially took care of me in my first few days here in Uganda.

Musawo

I decided to take the day off after getting back from the islands yesterday afternoon. There are still a few restaurants in town that I haven't tried; this particular coffee house (indulge) has free internet if you buy a meal. I thought that I'd take a moment to recount my experiences of the last seven days.

I left for a small island by the name of Lingira on Monday morning, it takes about an hour and a half to reach it by boat. By boat I mean a rickety wooden craft that is powered by a single outboard engine. I met up with the We International team once I reached the island, almost all of them are from Wisconsin. I spent the rest of the day getting settled into my room on the base; it wasn't as bad as last time, very few bugs and access to power during the day.

I spent Tuesday familiarizing myself with the base and the villages on the north end of the island. It was that day that I met a gentleman named Cornelius, he serves as the clinical officer for the entire island. He had heard of my training and suggested that I train several of the community members in first aid. As we developed the program, we decided that the best course of action would be for me to train several people well enough to pass on the knowledge to the rest of the community. I'm actually returning to the island this Thursday to finish the training of six community health workers.

Wednesday morning I got on a small boat owned by the clinic on Lingira and traveled another hour and a half into the bay to an even smaller island. That morning/afternoon was basically three hours straight of young children being placed in front of me, me giving them shots (mostly DPT and measles), then moving onto the next.

Thursday and Friday were a bit more relaxing, I sat in on several meetings being run by the team already on the island and made a quick supply run for the island staff.

Saturday morning I met with my class of six for the first time, the training that I had to offer took about four hours. One issue that I ran into was that they didn't seem to understand that when practicing abdominal thrusts, you're not supposed to use as much effort as you would if you were actually trying to help a choking person. I have come to admire the enthusiasm that my students usually show during class, they have a desire to learn these basic skills that I seldom see in my US students.

Sunday I had the unique opportunity of attending a Ugandan church service, quite a lot of singing and drumming.

This week I don't have a lot on my plate, I'm trying to wrap up the last of my secondaries for my med school apps. Just a quick update on that; out of 18 schools, 17 have requested that I fill out secondary applications.

On the island

I can't make this long, I'm borrowing a friend's laptop that has a satellite connection. I've been on the island since Monday morning, I've been hopping around different spots in the outer bay giving vaccinations. Tomorrow i'm headed out to one of the really far destinations, should be about two hours on a boat to get there. This saturday i'm starting a test program to train community health workers, I currently have 6 community leaders scheduled to take a first aid course. The long term goal is to train them to teach the course to the rest of the population.

Personal Reflections

Today’s date, the 8th, marks the two month anniversary of my departure from the United States. I find it funny that as I write this it is almost eight AM central time, approximately the time I boarded a bus in downtown Milwaukee that brisk morning in early June. I started writing in a journal after my first full day here in Uganda, I would have liked to have had a detailed account of the flight over, but I had no writing utensils until I arrived in the capital (you’d be surprised how much trouble that gave me during my three flights).

In many ways the experience thus far has been completely different from the way I pictured it when I initially concocted this crazy idea.

I guess we should go back even further than my departure from the US; over a year ago I was wandering around Kampala with the rest of the group from Wisconsin. I was still quite jetlagged, having only been about 24 hours off of the plane, and frankly just wanted to go back to our guest house and lie down. It was during a stop in the main post office that I was approached by a white gentleman who plainly asked “are you guys from Wisconsin too?”. He explained that he was the CEO of an NGO called We International based out of Madison.

Seven months later, I shared my idea of returning to Uganda with David while eating lunch at a Madison diner. Sitting in that booth with snow blanketing the scenery and bitter cold temperatures blowing through the cracks in the door made Uganda feel like more than a world away. With a full semester of school left this journey seemed more like a vacation to look forward too rather than an extended project.
Another half a year goes by; I rub my eyes as the EgyptAir plane (which was older than I am), descends into Entebbe international airport. As step from the plane, the equatorial heat (even at 4 AM) that I remember so well covers me like a blanket. Am I really going to be here for five months?

After a month in Jinja, I marvel at how fast my time is going, but an still daunted by the fact that it will be another 120 days until I taste anything that even resembles a cheeseburger. I continue to struggle with the local language and culture, I’ve realized at this point that the dose of Ugandan culture that I received last time was a fraction of the amount I’ve been handed. Am I going to make it another four months?

August 8, 2009: As I finish the last of my sandwich at the muzungu frequented coffee house and down the last of my coke, I realize that real Heinz ketchup the most widely distributed soda in the world are all I need to feel at home.

So what do I think of my time here thus far? The following is a list of things I feel that I’ve gotten significantly better at since getting here: Drawing blood, speaking Luganda, and playing pool (thanks British volunteers).

As the “summer” begins to wind down, the groups of westerners seen during the high season begin to show with less frequency. In my short time here I’ve seen a slew of other volunteers come and go; I’ve had the unpleasant task as of late of saying goodbye to many of the other long term volunteers. By the time October rolls around, almost all of the friends I’ve made thus far will have returned to their countries of origin. I remind myself that I have not even reached the halfway point of this journey and there is still quite a bit of work ahead of me, both here and in the US. The most recent development is that I am looking to spend some time in Rwanda, not sure how long, but I would leave sometime in mid September. Given that August seems to be speeding along, it won’t be long before I’m constantly refreshing ESPN.com to keep track of Badger games or writing letters back to my Mom’s class.

Am I really going home in just twelve weeks?

"Enjoy some cheesy goodness"

I finally got one of the three packages in the mail today, there was a note inside with the title of this post as the tag line (Thanks a bunch Heather). I couldn't help myself and managed to eat one of the Doritos and one of the Cheetos bags before I sat down to dinner tonight. I'm gonna try and save the mac and cheese dinners for a weeknight when I really need it.

Spent today at the clinic, was a rather slow day, only saw one or two patients an hour. The main body of the We International group should be arriving at the airport shortly, I'll be leaving Monday morning for the Islands to meet up with them. As far as I can tell my main role with the Medical team will be first aid training. Since I'm going to be on the islands all next week, I won't be able to put up another post for awhile.

Unexpected day off

Today I was supposed to attend one of the outreach clinics for antenatal care to function as the mobile lab. However, as of this morning, my organization was not only out of HIV test kits, but finger lances and cotton as well. So basically I didn't even have stuff to prick my patients with...oh well. Things should improve by the end of the week or the beginning of next at the latest. I've found a place in town that I can enjoy fries with real ketchup and coke for a reasonable price, so that's basically how I've been spending my day along with working on applications.

So I was reading through CNN.com, the following headline caught my eye "Researchers say they found malaria's origin: In chimps". It's a pretty interesting article, I'd recommend having a look if you're into this kinda thing.

It's also interesting to note that the headline just underneath this one was "Dog crashes into own reflection"...Way to go CNN

I suddenly feel much cooler (temperature-wise)

So I knew that my hair was getting a bit long for my tastes, though there isn't really a place for muzungus to get their hair cut around here. Getting a new look also served to entertain most of the base staff, both western and Ugandan. Given the reactions that I've gotten from my Ugandan friends, tomorrow should be an interesting day at the clinic.

More Projects

So today's series of photos come from the second half of last week. As part of the series of lectures on cleanliness that I've been giving at Women at Risk, I decided to construct a hand washing station in the backyard of the building. I got the design idea from a similar device that I saw when I was here last summer. The children came back for lunch right about the time I finished setting it up and seemed to be rather amused with the thing. The only problem I found was that the can was way too small for the amount of people using it. I think that next week I'll go back and install something that holds a lot more water.

Today I visited an organization that is in the early stages of development. One of the staff members here at the YWAM base has a vision of starting a sports ministry program. For the last couple of Sundays I've been visiting the group of kids that he works with, watching their progress. I have to say that I've been rather impressed with this group of kids, when I first saw them all they did was chase after the ball in a large group. During today's practice, I watched them operate as a team, even performing defensive and offensive shifts. Diedone, the staff member pictured at the left of the group photo hopes to one day turn this small project into an NGO.

Saturday

Looking forward to another lazy Saturday on the belt of the Earth. I have some good stories from this week, but I need to pull some photos off of a friend's camera still. In the mean time, have a listen to the link below, it's a song that I hear at least two times a day around town.

http://m.b5z.net/i/u/6129093/m/Bread_n_butter_-_Radio_n_weseal.mp3

Rejuvenation thy name is DORITOS

So I was cleaning my room about an hour ago when one of the other volunteers knocked on my door. She handed me this bag of doritos saying "is this that stuff you're always talking about?". I just about danced around the room while eating them, I've been looking for doritos all over Jinja but up till this point had been unsuccessful.

Not much to report over the last few days, I've been putting a lot of time into completing secondary applications for med school so some of my projects have had to take a back seat for awhile. This Friday I'm taking a team of five to the clinic, having all of us walking to the taxi park together should create quite a stir.

Progress

Today I went to another session with Women at Risk (WAR), I was pleased to find out that one of the children that I examined a few weeks ago has started to resolve his skin condition due to the hygiene training. Today's lecture was on the importance of hand washing, I'm going to go next week and show how to construct hand washing stations out of water jugs, sticks, and some string.

My friend in today's picture is one of the WAR children, I believe that this is his second appearance on the blog. A few weeks back I posted some photos of me working, I think he is the child that I was examining in those pictures. Tomorrow I'm heading out into the village with no set agenda, I'm taking my trauma bag with me so I'll just patch up any bumps or bruises that the parents present. The rest of this week should be relatively light, the only thing that I have on Friday is a brief first aid review with one of the base staff.

Climbing is hard, but it's easier than growing up

Day 1

Left Jinja in the morning for Mbale, ended up getting literally thrown onto a moving bus, they don’t seem to like to wait. Arrived at a place called Rose’s Last Chance about four hours later, run by a lady (Rose) who realized that it would be a good idea to open up a backpacker’s hotel at the base of Mt. Elgon. Our nightly rate of 20,000 shillings (<$10 US) included a bed, plus a huge dinner and breakfast. Rose is also a close friend of the chairman of the Mt Elgon porters and guides association, so we didn’t have to worry about arranging meetings. We ended up getting three porters to carry our excess equipment; I wasn’t comfortable with this initially, I would have rather carried my own gear to the top. However, this type of work is the main source of income for the community and it wasn’t that expensive anyway (roughly 15$ for each porter for the whole trip). Met our guide (Isaiah – pictured above), who was surprised to hear we wanted to climb the mountain in three days instead of the normal five.

Day 2

Woke up at 6, grabbed a quick breakfast, and then met our ride to the trailhead. Incidentally, our mode of transportation was a squad of motorcycles, all of which didn’t seem to be fazed by the muddy roads. After a short ride up into the hills we started hiking, fast forward eight hours later and we were at mude cave camp (2900m). I was rather surprised at how good our dinner was, we packed fresh vegetables and managed to make pretty decent pasta over an open fire. That night was probably the coldest I’ve experienced since Wisconsin winter, it’s a strange feeling to know you’re twenty miles from the equator and you can’t sleep because your teeth are chattering.

Day 3

Most of the group was already up from the cold at 6; we quick downed some tea and bread and left with our guides for the summit. The initial climb was rather flat, the interesting thing about Mt Elgon is that the summit lies very deep within the park; you can’t even see it from the park entrance. After about two hours of hiking we finally got to the point where we could see our destination (second picture, highest peak in the background). It was about an hour after that when we breached the rim of the caldera (third picture), it was quite a site not only can you see well into Kenya, but the geological formation is the largest extinct volcano in the world. After one final push we made it to the summit at about noon, we only stayed on top for about twenty minutes because of the low temperature, but we managed to get in our fair share of photos (last three). You’ll notice that the flag we made for the trip has the four different countries of origin displayed. Funny thing is that the five of us that made the ascent have only known each other for a few weeks at most, some only a few days. Going left to right, Andrew (Australian - teaching English), Sylvain (Swiss – music teacher), Melanie (Canadian – occupational therapist), Me, Jen (American – Law student). We ended up descending one camp lower than originally planned that evening due to heavy rain, by the time we reached our campsite everything was completely soaked. That night we stayed in the small hut that is usually used only by the porters and the guides, I was sleeping on the ground about two feet from the fire so at least I was warm.

Day 4

Woke up to a beautiful day, had an uneventful hike down to Rose’s Last Chance to recover for a day before heading back to Jinja. I actually felt like I was in a zoo, we were in an area surrounded by a low wooden fence, the local children stopped by in droves to stand at the fence and stare at us. I didn’t get to stay in a room this time around, the place was overbooked so tents were set up in the front yard and I had to spend another night in the cold (though I had blankets this time instead of a thing sleeping bag).

Day 5

The school children were back again this morning, one of my friends was handed a letter by one of the children basically just asking for money. The other travelers staying at the hostel ended up giving out packs of tissues to the kids; I also saw a few random items like hats getting thrown out. We were lucky enough to find a taxi that had an honest conductor; he didn’t overcharge us and even helped find a connection to Jinja when we got to Mbale. Made it back to Jinja at about lunchtime today, I was going to keep the beard that I’d grown over the last two weeks, but I was getting a lot of odd looks from the base staff. Celebrated our return by eating at the expensive Chinese place in town; figured that I needed a good meal to get back into the swing of things this week.

Tomorrow I’m headed back to work, I’m showing a new volunteer how to get to the rural clinic in the morning, and then I’ll probably just work in the lab for the rest of the day. Wednesday I’m back at women at risk teaching hand washing and basic hygiene, then Thursday I’ll probably go along with the children with disabilities team just to patch up any cuts or bruises the kids might have.

Into the wild

Not much has happened so far this week. Tomorrow morning I'm heading to the eastern border of Uganda to tackle Mount Elgon (pictured above). The climb should take about five days so I won't be updating until sometime next week, should have some good stories.

One month gone

This last week has been pretty packed, my clinic day on Monday was basically back to back patients for several hours. The antenatal clinic had it's busiest stop of the month on Tuesday, I personally saw over twenty mothers in the mobile lab. I took Wednesday off to play golf, though I wouldn't recommend it here, I only got through six holes before I ran out of balls. Thursday I spent with Women at Risk teaching basic first aid, the girls seemed to have a lot of fun bandaging each other up. Finally on Friday I went to the big clinic day for Spring of Hope, I was working in the pharmacy most of the day, we ended up dispensing epilepsy medication for over seventy patients. The photo above is from Friday, the director of Spring of Hope asked me to give a brief talk on basic nutrition. The gentleman standing next to me, Emma, is translating for me since I don't really know much beyond "ladies and gentlemen, how are you today?".

The weekend has been very relaxing thus far, except I got a pretty bad sunburn at the pool yesterday. I'm only working till Wednesday of this week, I'll be leaving for Mt. Elgon on Thursday morning, with any luck I should be at the summit by Saturday afternoon. Time seems to be going by pretty quickly, its hard to believe that I've been gone over a month at this point. I already have plans that are going to shoot me through the rest of July pretty quick, and since I'll be leaving for a major project in August I imagine that it'll be September before I know it.

Side note on food

So sitting here in the office on the 4th of July has got me reminiscing once again about food. It seems that all I do in my free time is think about food. Funny thing, there is a Chinese restaurant in town that is REALLY good. I went there this week after a rather long day, ended up getting a huge meal of sweet and sour chicken. It did show the difference in the financial aspects of local and muzungu life. My bill was 20,400 Ugandan shillings, that converts to just under $10 US. The average monthly salary of local laborers is approximately 60,000 shillings

4th of July in Uganda

So surprise surprise, Uganda doesn't exactly celebrate the 4th of July. I am wearing a US flag pin on my shirt today, but that's about the extent of my celebration. We had our usual muzungu breakfast this morning and I'll be heading to a friend's house in a bit for dinner. I tried to get my hands on some fireworks but unfortunately they're not as common as they are in the US

The first picture for today's post comes from my work yesterday, I giving a brief lecture on the importance of hand washing. Apparently it had some effect, one of my co-workers witnessed a lady diligently washing her hands after coming back from the bathroom later that afternoon.

The other day as I left the pool at the resort nearby, I noticed a familiar logo on the back of a parked car. I went up to it and found the vehicle of a Marquette alumnus, small world huh.

Caught in the act

One of my co-workers took these photos with her phone last week. The first is the clinical lab that I'm helping out one day a week, I believe that I'm prepping a blood sample. The other is from my day working with Women At Risk.

Starting Routines

So my weekends here are almost getting into a routine.
Saturday: Go to a restaurant in town and have a decent breakfast and converse with the other volunteers. Eventually make my way to the paradise resort and bum around the pool for a few hours trying to get rid of an awful farmer’s tan.
Sunday: Go to church down the street, have lunch with more Muzungus, inevitably discuss work for the week ahead.
Lunch yesterday was actually with a large group of people from the US. Some were here on their own account, a good portion were from a small school in California. Later decided to take advantage of the US actually being in soccer final and watched the US vs. Brazil game at a local resort last night.
I’m trying to implement what could become my weekly routine for most of the time I’m here as far as work goes. Today I helped the clinical lab with overflow, Tuesday I’m slated to do outreach, Wednesday I’m going to try and get to a small village to draw some blood from several children, Thursday teaching First Aid, and Friday working with disabled children.
The picture posted above is taken from the edge of the pool area, in case you were wondering the river in the background is indeed the Nile.
I’ve also included a photo of the building that I’m currently housed in.

International Relations

So not much has been going on work wise in the last few days; I’ve been taking half days to work on medical school applications. My co-worker who had her money stolen has been giving statements at the police station all day, not sure what they’ve been doing with the culprit. When I came back to the base yesterday around lunch, the guy was tied up and lying on the ground in our backyard, not more than a few yards from my room. I wasn’t actually here when the “disciplinary action” was taking place, but from what my co-workers tell me several men shoved a tire over his upper half so he couldn’t move and then he was repeatedly beaten with a stick (cained). One of the senior staff informed me that the culprit was about to have his ear cut off until the national director of YWAM stepped in.

On a lighter note, I was invited to the other side of town to have dinner with a group of volunteers. It’s always interesting eating with groups of people here due to the diversity of nationalities. The table felt a bit like the UN, considering that I was the only American and the rest of the table was made up of Australian, English, German, Swiss, and Ugandan. The picture above displays two of my hosts for the evening; Andrew, an Australian (who absolutely loves south park) staying at the St. Moses boarding school working with children and Barbara, a German with a background in social work. Their driver’s name is Joseph, he’s actually one of three guys that I use to get around since many Boda drivers don’t speak very good English and may try and overcharge you. Incidentally, I took that picture while riding on another while we were flying down a dirt road.

This week had been letting me see a few more aspects of our partner organizations around Jinja. Yesterday I had the opportunity to help out at the school of administration teaching Microsoft word. I realized after class that most people in the west really take for granted the skill required to simply operate computers. I was also impressed with the speed at which the members of the class learned in the course of only an hour and a half. Tomorrow I am going to spend some more time in the clinic, probably in the laboratory. Friday I’ll be going to visit another branch organization called Women At Risk (WAR), which specializes in pulling women out of the prostitution business.

Thief

So last night one of the YWAM volunteers reported that nearly five hundred dollars of hers was missing. The staff went searching for the suspect last night, but didn't find anything. I'm currently in town at an internet cafe, I just got the following text from a co-worker, "Hey. Thought you might like to know they caught the guy who stole Kristens money. They've just been caining him in our front garden!".

Island times

This weekend I had the chance to visit one of the islands in lake Victoria, Lingira. YWAM has a small base in the main village and it is also home to the couple that will be playing host to the We International team that is coming in August. The small boat anchors far enough off shore that you cannot cannot reach it without getting wet. Because this is the case, there are several people on the shore whose business is to pick you up and carry you to the boat (as seen above).

The island itself is incredibly small, I was able to walk around the exterior in about 2 hours with a group of volunteers. I also had a chance to run up to the top and take some really good photos at sunset. My stay on the island was fairly short, we got there at noon and then left the following morning. Upon my return, a bunch of us decided to cook what the locals would call a muzungu breakfast (eggs, pancakes, French toast). Other than that the weekend was uneventful, spent the rest of the time relaxing at a friend’s house and at the local pool.

Today I was back at the clinic working in the laboratory, I spent about 6 hours straight (minus a 5 min lunch) pricking fingers and drawing blood. My current plan for the week includes teaching a first aid course tomorrow, working at a vaccination outreach station on Wednesday, going back to the clinic on Thursday, and rounding out the week with a visit to an organization called Women at Risk (WAR). The main purpose of this group has been to rescue girls from a life of prostitution.

I’m hoping to submit my med school applications in the next two days, as it is I plan to use half of tomorrow to finalize them. Hope all is well with everyone else