Submitted via proxy from Devildeac. (SQL errors tonight, causing problems. I blame his "guests")
Agandi from Uganda! I’ve been in the country for almost 2 weeks now, and I thought it might be nice to send an update about our trip. I apologize now for the length. Hopefully the subheadings will make it easier and a little more organized. I won’t be offended if you don’t read the whole email, but for anyone who is interested – here it goes! Oh and feel free to visit our group DukeEngage blog (
http://dukeengageuganda2010blogspot.com) for information about our trip from a more general perspective. Pass this email along to anyone that I forgot who might be interested, too
Also I can send an email with a few pictures if you want! I would send them now, but the internet isn't working very well.
Kampala
We flew into Entebbe on Wed, June 9 and drove straight to Namirembe Guest House in Kampala (the capital city). Thursday we visited a gov’t owned hospital, New Mulago, and saw some really poor conditions. We also got a driving tour of the city and of a pretty ridiculous museum. Since it is the only museum in Uganda, it covers everything from evolution to the Olympics to drugs taken by primitive Ugandans to ways of reducing Uganda’s carbon footprint. On our way out of town we visited the Baha’i Temple, one of only eight in the world. We crossed the equator on the way to Mbarara!
Mbarara, Tank Hill Hostel
We were able to settle into our temporary 8-week home over our first weekend in Uganda. We are staying at Tank Hill Hostel, which is typically an off-campus dormitory for university students. As the name explains, we are on a hill that seems to have comparatively expensive/nice homes… and there’s a golf course next to us. Thankfully we have single rooms (with two closets and two desks!) and 3 shower and bathroom stalls per floor.
Brief first impressions: lots of bugs (ants, grasshoppers, moths, some cockroaches and bees), good rooms, cool view from top of hill, decent variety of good-tasting food. Convenient walk to town for groceries and restaurants.
Kashongi
The majority of our work will be carried out in a sub-county called Kashongi. Our group is loosely divided between two projects – Safe Motherhood and Rainwater Harvesting. I will mostly work in clinics for Safe Motherhood, in four health centers in/near Kashongi. These centers are very poorly equipped, and I am in charge of the daily medical supplies. It takes 1-1.5 hours from Tank Hill to the various health centers.
Last Monday we toured Kashongi and these health centers; we also sat in a ‘county council’ meeting to introduce ourselves and the projects. I won’t go into many details about our work so far, but I’ll just say a few things. Every day starts later than anticipated and lasts even longer than expected. We see about 50 women every day, Mon-Thurs. We have a nurse (Sister Jackie) and sonographer (Sister Gloria), a couple other staff to help translate, and several community volunteers.
On top of organizing the clinics’ client flow systems, our team from Duke takes vitals, records prescription info and ultrasound reports, and types all of the medical records into a computer program.
Oh there is so much I could say about these first three days of work! Most of all, we hope to become more efficient so that we can appreciate our time with the women and start to develop relationships with them.
Mayanja Memorial Hospital Foundation (MMHF), Mayanja Memorial Hospital (MMH), Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST
Progressive Health Partnership (the Duke student organization in charge of these projects) partners with MMHF for finances and local staff. Dr. Benon Mugerwa is the founder and an integral part of our work – he is also just an amazing guy. We work in the Foundation office every Friday afternoon to print/copy, do data analysis, etc.
On Friday mornings we shadow physicians or help in the laboratories of MMH and MUST. It is quite an experience to see the patients and very poor conditions of a hospital in a developing country. All of the hospitals lack staff and resources; for example, the women must bring their own sheets and walk (when fully dilated) from the pre-labor waiting area to the labor ward!
[Side note: After explaining the standard procedure for seeing a pregnant woman in early stage of labor, the resident (doctor) asked if I wanted to measure the dilation of the patient’s cervix. I said absolutely not.]
Random
Landscape: very hilly, lots of green grass and trees, crops like plantains everywhere, cows/goats in the middle of roads, very dusty, awful roads
Weather: awesome – much better than expected; cool/cold mornings which heat up to mid-80s by noon or 1pm; very very little rain right now
Rainwater Harvesting project: I am not involved with this aspect of the trip right now, but there is more information on our blog; basically we are working on education campaigns and water surveys (collecting samples of water from various areas around Kashongi)
World Cup: huge around here – signs and billboards declare “Let’s Go Africa”; we watch the games at Tank Hill or at an outdoor restaurant/bar called Heat
Telenovelas: also huge around here – dubbed into English from Spanish haha
Reading: without tv’s or constant internet access, I’ve already finished 3 books! (The Shack, The Help, and The Last Song; working on Blood Done Sign My Name)
Running: we have a small loop around the hostel to run. One of the guys in our group is on scholarship from track, so he has met a lot of local teenage runners on his long daily runs! We even went to a track meet one weekend, which was on a spray-painted track around a football (soccer) field ?
Music: their music and dancing is awesome and so fun
Church: I went to a Pentacostal Church outside with several friends, invited by one of our wonderful translators, Becky. It was quite a three-hour experience! They sang many familiar songs, surprisingly, such as Here I Am to Worship and How Great is Our God. The Pastor started in 2 Chronicles 20:1-14, but we aren’t really sure where he ended up!
WOW. So long, I apologize again. I miss you all very much. I also miss warm showers, not having to sleep under a mosquito net, salads, and smooth roads. Thank you so much for your prayers, especially for the women and families we will be serving. I will probably send out another update within the next 2 weeks!
Duke born, Duke bred, cooking on a grill so I'm tailgate fed.