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.