Uganda trip and cheerleader daughter

[devildeac]

Claire's group reached Mbarara and had a day or so of getting acquainted with each other and the city. They are staying in a hostel and they feel safe. They are located adjacent to a 9 hole golf course. Perhaps I should send Oz to visit . Food consists of a lot of carbs (fruits, veggies and grains) with some meats, including goat. They will be exercising regularly and their work begins Monday or Tuesday. She'll be sending reports every couple days so I shall update CTN as I receive them. Dukediv2012 will be setting up a Skype connection in the very near future for us. He is counting the days until her return .

If you're paying, I'll go!

I'll take care of the greens fees.

[Lavabe]

Lots of carbs? What grain are they eating? Millet? Corn?
Couldn't be more monotonous than the rice diet over here, is it?

[devildeac]

Lots of carbs? What grain are they eating? Millet? Corn?
Couldn't be more monotonous than the rice diet over here, is it?

Not sure. That'll be the next email. Or, you can ask her yourself. She'd love to hear from you.

[Very Duke Blue]

Thanks for the update. Sounds like things are going good for Claire and the group. That's always good news. Can't wait to hear more.

[Lavabe]

Lots of carbs? What grain are they eating? Millet? Corn?
Couldn't be more monotonous than the rice diet over here, is it?

Not sure. That'll be the next email. Or, you can ask her yourself. She'd love to hear from you.

PM me the email.
Any scouting reports on the beer there? Anything more than Tusker (from Kenya)? Some honey beer?

And remember... beer can be safer to drink than the water.

[TillyGalore]

Lots of carbs? What grain are they eating? Millet? Corn?
Couldn't be more monotonous than the rice diet over here, is it?

Not sure. That'll be the next email. Or, you can ask her yourself. She'd love to hear from you.

PM me the email.
Any scouting reports on the beer there? Anything more than Tusker (from Kenya)? Some honey beer?

And remember... beer can be safer to drink than the water.

Aren't you friends with her on Facebook?

[Lavabe]

Regarding Facebook: It takes forever to load each page of facebook with the connections that we have here in Madagascar. What that means is that I have to limit my facebook use. It loads lots of images, and those images, links, and bells & whistles eat into my allotted 40MB a day. ALSO, connection speed varies by hour of day. For example, in my early morning and late night, I simply CANNOT get onto things like FB, cnn, etc... Likewise, when CB&B said I should go to Newsweek.com, that also uses lots of MB, so I can't access it easily. And I have it much better than those in the cybercafes.

I believe Uganda is a little better than Madagascar, but I suspect that it's not like what one gets in the US.

[devildeac]

The real purpose for the trip started this week. Days begin about 7 AM with about a 1.5 hour trip to the work site, a Women's Health clinic in a small town and are mainly patient registration and interviews until about 5 PM and then a 1.5 hour trip back to the hostel at which she is staying. Not too many details yet. They can be explained soon when we learn how to Skype tonight and can have a more detailed conversation. No health issues yet. She did call on my birthday but the minutes were limited.

[CameronBornAndBred]

The real purpose for the trip started this week. Days begin about 7 AM with about a 1.5 hour trip to the work site, a Women's Health clinic in a small town and are mainly patient registration and interviews until about 5 PM and then a 1.5 hour trip back to the hostel at which she is staying. Not too many details yet. They can be explained soon when we learn how to Skype tonight and can have a more detailed conversation. No health issues yet. She did call on my birthday but the minutes were limited.

Skype is awesome. It's what I use for my phone. Do you both have webcams? That is fun, too.

[devildeac]

The real purpose for the trip started this week. Days begin about 7 AM with about a 1.5 hour trip to the work site, a Women's Health clinic in a small town and are mainly patient registration and interviews until about 5 PM and then a 1.5 hour trip back to the hostel at which she is staying. Not too many details yet. They can be explained soon when we learn how to Skype tonight and can have a more detailed conversation. No health issues yet. She did call on my birthday but the minutes were limited.

Skype is awesome. It's what I use for my phone. Do you both have webcams? That is fun, too.

We certainly do. I am not sure her 3 year old Mac does.

[CameronBornAndBred]

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!

[CathyCA]

WOW!

Thanks for posting. I can't wait to see her pictures.

[devildeac]

Just finished a Skype call with Claire (yes, she Skyped us instead of ol roy- ) and she sounded good. She actually sounded better than a cell phone call from her dorm at Duke. Working 10 hour days or so in her women's clinic with a bit more efficiency and spent the day today at Lake Mburo National Park and had a great time. No pictures to transmit here or on Facebook as her capabilities and access are limited but she is storing all her data and should have hundreds when she returns. It was great to hear from her.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Glad to hear she's safe and sound and doing well!

[Lavabe]

Glad that Skype will work for you. The continent has much better internet speed WHEN YOU CAN GET A CONNECTION than over here in Mad-land. We are told that high speed broadband-like service might reach the capital next year, and us in the north in three. Having said that, SECTION 21 was a blast last night!

Please tell her to take plenty of good primate, landscape, and people photos if she goes into Kibale National Park. I might want to use them in lecture.

People around here tell me that Uganda is lucky in that it was a British colony, not a French one, just in terms of how much infrastructure it has.

[Ima Facultiwyfe]

My gosh, DD! Surely you're so proud you must have busted every button on every shirt you own by now. What a special girl she is. Thank her for us all when you talk next.
Love, Ima

[Lavabe]

Submitted via proxy from Devildeac. (SQL errors tonight, causing problems. I blame his "guests")

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!

<SNIP>
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.]

Wait a minute... there are many more than EIGHT Baha'i Temples in the world.

In re: "drugs taken by primitive Ugandans ": although there is a science of paleoethnobotany that looks at human use of plants in a longer time scale, the use of medicinal plants in lieu of western medicine is practiced around the world, and has also given rise to many of the very drugs that we commonly use in Western medicine (e.g., curare, Madagascar periwinkle -- used for certain types of leukemia, etc...). These people are HARDLY primitive. As an anthropologist, unless you are talking about fossil hominin use of plants, I'd beg you to rephrase, as these rural people are NOT primitive.

I don't dispute the poor conditions of the medical clinic. I once overheated and was forced to attend one of these on my way to northern Madagascar in 1989. I DID get injected twice. Basically, the hospital was a cement slab with a little cover, and the doctor did use as sterilized a needle as he could find. No privacy. Yeah... the conditions you are describing are quite common.

I think now that you've experienced a little of life in a developing country, an intro course in cultural or medical anthropology would be REALLY useful. I think it would also be ideal for Rolvix, given his interests in global health.

I'm sure we'll have a fun time come Christmas at the devildeacs!!

Important question: in the nighttime sky on the Equator, what does the Big Dipper look like? Can you also see the Southern Cross there? Over here, the Southern Cross is easy to spot, and the Big Dipper is upside down. What do you see on the Equator?

STAY WELL!!

[TillyGalore]

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.

Wait a minute... there are many more than EIGHT Baha'i Temples in the world.

In re: "drugs taken by primitive Ugandans ": although there is a science of paleoethnobotany that looks at human use of plants in a longer time scale, the use of medicinal plants in lieu of western medicine is practiced around the world, and has also given rise to many of the very drugs that we commonly use in Western medicine (e.g., curare, Madagascar periwinkle -- used for certain types of leukemia, etc...). These people are HARDLY primitive. As an anthropologist, unless you are talking about fossil hominin use of plants, I'd beg you to rephrase, as these rural people are NOT primitive.

I don't dispute the poor conditions of the medical clinic. I once overheated and was forced to attend one of these on my way to northern Madagascar in 1989. I DID get injected twice. Basically, the hospital was a cement slab with a little cover, and the doctor did use as sterilized a needle as he could find. No privacy. Yeah... the conditions you are describing are quite common.

I think now that you've experienced a little of life in a developing country, an intro course in cultural or medical anthropology would be REALLY useful. I think it would also be ideal for Rolvix, given his interests in global health.

I'm sure we'll have a fun time come Christmas at the devildeacs!!

Important question: in the nighttime sky on the Equator, what does the Big Dipper look like? Can you also see the Southern Cross there? Over here, the Southern Cross is easy to spot, and the Big Dipper is upside down. What do you see on the Equator?

STAY WELL!!

Lavabe, I don't think cheerleader daughter was calling present day Ugandans primitive, I think she was referring to Ugandans from days long before any of us were even a twinkle in anyone's eyes, like a couple of centuries, or a millennium or two ago.

[Miles]

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.

Wait a minute... there are many more than EIGHT Baha'i Temples in the world.

In re: "drugs taken by primitive Ugandans ": although there is a science of paleoethnobotany that looks at human use of plants in a longer time scale, the use of medicinal plants in lieu of western medicine is practiced around the world, and has also given rise to many of the very drugs that we commonly use in Western medicine (e.g., curare, Madagascar periwinkle -- used for certain types of leukemia, etc...). These people are HARDLY primitive. As an anthropologist, unless you are talking about fossil hominin use of plants, I'd beg you to rephrase, as these rural people are NOT primitive.

I don't dispute the poor conditions of the medical clinic. I once overheated and was forced to attend one of these on my way to northern Madagascar in 1989. I DID get injected twice. Basically, the hospital was a cement slab with a little cover, and the doctor did use as sterilized a needle as he could find. No privacy. Yeah... the conditions you are describing are quite common.

I think now that you've experienced a little of life in a developing country, an intro course in cultural or medical anthropology would be REALLY useful. I think it would also be ideal for Rolvix, given his interests in global health.

I'm sure we'll have a fun time come Christmas at the devildeacs!!

Important question: in the nighttime sky on the Equator, what does the Big Dipper look like? Can you also see the Southern Cross there? Over here, the Southern Cross is easy to spot, and the Big Dipper is upside down. What do you see on the Equator?

STAY WELL!!

Lavabe, I don't think cheerleader daughter was calling present day Ugandans primitive, I think she was referring to Ugandans from days long before any of us were even a twinkle in anyone's eyes, like a couple of centuries, or a millennium or two ago.

That's what I thought too.

[devildeac]

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.

Wait a minute... there are many more than EIGHT Baha'i Temples in the world.

In re: "drugs taken by primitive Ugandans ": although there is a science of paleoethnobotany that looks at human use of plants in a longer time scale, the use of medicinal plants in lieu of western medicine is practiced around the world, and has also given rise to many of the very drugs that we commonly use in Western medicine (e.g., curare, Madagascar periwinkle -- used for certain types of leukemia, etc...). These people are HARDLY primitive. As an anthropologist, unless you are talking about fossil hominin use of plants, I'd beg you to rephrase, as these rural people are NOT primitive.

I don't dispute the poor conditions of the medical clinic. I once overheated and was forced to attend one of these on my way to northern Madagascar in 1989. I DID get injected twice. Basically, the hospital was a cement slab with a little cover, and the doctor did use as sterilized a needle as he could find. No privacy. Yeah... the conditions you are describing are quite common.

I think now that you've experienced a little of life in a developing country, an intro course in cultural or medical anthropology would be REALLY useful. I think it would also be ideal for Rolvix, given his interests in global health.

I'm sure we'll have a fun time come Christmas at the devildeacs!!

Important question: in the nighttime sky on the Equator, what does the Big Dipper look like? Can you also see the Southern Cross there? Over here, the Southern Cross is easy to spot, and the Big Dipper is upside down. What do you see on the Equator?

STAY WELL!!

Lavabe, I don't think cheerleader daughter was calling present day Ugandans primitive, I think she was referring to Ugandans from days long before any of us were even a twinkle in anyone's eyes, like a couple of centuries, or a millennium or two ago.

That's what I gleaned, too, that she was referring to decades or centuries ago.