Carolina, Max, Karthik, Androuw, John and I all arrived safely in Entebbe just outside Kampala last Sunday. We spent a brief night in Entebbe, then spent all day traveling on Monday to our village, a little place called Kiholo (chee-holo) in the Bududa district in Southeastern Uganda. We have no internet access there, so this weekend we rode in a Mutatu, which is a white van packed full with people, two hours to the closest city so that we could have a little email and blog time!
A brief overview of our week so far:
MONDAY
We arrived at our guesthouse, complete with pit latrines, bucket and cup showers, and spotty electricity. It's charming and we like it! As we walk through town, we meet and greet everyone. The local language is Lugisu, which we are slowly picking up.
TUESDAY
Clinic today; the clinic is a gorgeous 15-20 minute walk from our guesthouse, definitely the most beautiful commute I have ever had. The clinic is very well organized, I was so impressed. There are five stations, and they see about 50-60 patients a day, which is a lot. I spent the day first in the lab, and saw malaria on a blood smear! Then I moved over to triage, which required a lot of Lugisu. I had a blast learning different words from the patients who were waiting, who thought I was hilarious every time I made a mistake, which I sometimes did on purpose just to get a laugh.
The Clinic:
WEDNESDAY
I spent the day with Michael, another volunteer, doing teacher training for a new school for orphans. The school is really run down, in huts made out of mud and smeared with cow dung for support (sounds disgusting but this is actually a common practice). They pack the kids in these tiny little rooms, and the teachers are all volunteers and have no actual experience. It was a fun day, I enjoy doing that kind of teaching, I just wish I had more to contribute!
Everyone else spent the day at the clinic again, rotating between stations. Carolina helped stitch up a little girls' hand, which was apparently a lot more challenging than in the ERs we are used to, with a very blunt needle and 2-0 stitch.
THURSDAY
Clinic once more today, I think everyone is starting to get the hang of things!
We also watched the Zimbabwe-Uganda game. It was really strange... We were packed in a mud hut with 30ish people on benches, but they had this awesome TV. It was a crazy juxtaposition.
FRIDAY
Woke eaaaaarly in the morning, and hiked with everyone up the local mountain, Mt. Nusu. It was a little rough with my cold, but it made it! It took about 5 hours total, starting and ending at our guesthouse. It was so beautiful. At the very end we had to hike along the ridges of two other peaks to ours, it was amazing.
THURSDAY
Clinic once more today, I think everyone is starting to get the hang of things!
We also watched the Zimbabwe-Uganda game. It was really strange... We were packed in a mud hut with 30ish people on benches, but they had this awesome TV. It was a crazy juxtaposition.
FRIDAY
Woke eaaaaarly in the morning, and hiked with everyone up the local mountain, Mt. Nusu. It was a little rough with my cold, but it made it! It took about 5 hours total, starting and ending at our guesthouse. It was so beautiful. At the very end we had to hike along the ridges of two other peaks to ours, it was amazing.
That's all for now! We will update more when we have internet access!
~ Monika and the Uganda LMU Team
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