Elephants frolicking:
And getting fed their milk!
Giraffe kisses:
Baby giraffe:
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Nairobi pics
The baby elephant at the elephant orphanage:
Elephants frolicking:
And getting fed their milk!
Giraffe kisses:
Baby giraffe:
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Elephants frolicking:
And getting fed their milk!
Giraffe kisses:
Baby giraffe:
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Nairobi!
Wednesday morning I finished up my packing, and went I to Mbale (bodaboda to Bubulo and matatu to Mbale). I went first to the Akamba bus station, where the overnight bus to Nairobi was already sold out! so I went to the Gateway bus where I was able to buy a ticket. It costs 35,000 shillings to take the bus - about $15 dollars US. Then I had to change some money into US from Ugandan so I can pay for my safari in Kenya. It felt pretty crazy taking out 1.2 MILLION shillings, but obviously I'm a total badass.
I spent most of the day at Chat 'N Chino just chilling on the Internet for most of the day. Then I got on the bus. It was quite hot until even after the border. The border was an experience. They unload the bus and you go in a building and check out of Uganda. Then you have to walk across the border into Kenya. It's kind of confusing to find the immigration station. But I made buddies with a nice guy and some ladies from my bus and walked over with them. Then you check into Kenya. For US citizens you have to pay $50 for the visa. At the Kenyan station I was intrigued by a box with a sign reading "Suggestions Compliments Anti-Corruption Box". No photos...I think they'd frown upon that. The nice man waited for me, and we all walked to the bus together (I never would have found it on my own). Outside the bus there were people selling water and sodas and bananas and other stuff, but I didn't get anything. Then we finally got underway only to stop again. You get off the bus and they separate you into men and women and search everything on the bus again. Then finally we went. The bus was still pretty hot, but ok. Around 11 we stopped somewhere for dinner. Just a little restaurant on the side of the road. One of the bus guys (works for them) helped me change some money so I could buy dinner. After dinner, the bus was SUpER cold! The windows were shut but there's lots of cracks and they don't seal shut. Scout was cold. My seat wasn't exactly comfortable, so I really didn't sleep much. Just outside of Nairobi, around 4, the bus broke down and we were stopped for about 45 minutes. Finally got to the bus stop around 5, and I called Lucas, the cabbie Alix had told me to call, and he came for me. Got to Alix's apartment a little after 5 and just passed out for awhile.
The next day was Friday... It still feels pretty crazy that I only met Alix yesterday! We took a matatu (2 of them actually) to Kibera, the biggest slum in Nairobi (and all of east Africa for that matter). Where she works is called Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO). We walked through the slum for about 10 minutes until we got to their projects site. They have a school (Kibera School for Girls), a clinic, and a community center/micro finance group for the women. They also have a water tower, and so really the only source of clean water in Kibera. The slum has about a million people by most estimates, and people lack access to toilets and clean water. Most don't go to school, and life expectancy in the slum is 30, compared to about 60 years for the rest of Kenya. Their school is entirely free for the girls who attend, and they currently have pre-k to grade 3. Each year, they'll add another grade, eventually to go up to grade 8. I got a full tour, including seeing the new playground that a visiting group just built. it's on the roof of the school building, since obviously space is hard to come by in the slum. The playground on the roof:
We observed the pre-k math class (they just are starting a new curriculum so Alix was videotaping to send it back to the states for feedback. Then we ate lunch with the second graders (beans and rice) and then too smoke pictures with the girls outside during recess. They nearly rioted over who'd get to be in The first picture. it's also super adorable (and a good hygiene practice!) when they all brush their teeth after lunch. I think part of the reasoning for this is that there is guaranteed clean water at the school but at home they probably don't have it.
The kids are just adorable, and they're really great girls. In the afternoon we watched the other pre-k class (there are two) play dress up. This meant they read a book (I think it was Arthur gets the chicken pox, or something) and then they dressed up and basically acted part of it ou. Their costumes were just adorable. The clown has the green boa, Arthur's dad has the hat on and his mom has on the gold dress. They were all just too cute!
After school, we walked some of the girls to the safe house where they live. It's run by SHOFCO and is for girls who have particularly bad home lives. Man of the girls have been raped or sexually abused or other problems at home, or have lost parents, so the safe houses super important. They are hoping to add more rooms to it I think they currently have too. For about 7 girls or so. The house is more on he edge of the slum, so is cleaner and in a better area. Walking through Kibera, you are literally stepping in shit constantly. Like any wet patch on the ground should be avoided. It has a certain smell... You can just tell how unclean it is. And that was walking on one of the main paths through it - where there are not paths and houses as even more on top of each other I'm sure it's worse. For more on all of this check them out at shininghopeforcommunities.org. Me with some of the girls:
After we dropped off the girls, Alix and I walked toward her place, going through the Toi Market - just open stalls with anything and everything for sale. We looked at the place that has tons of dresses just in random piles for 200 shillings each - or about $2.40 apiece. Didn't find anything though. Seemed to be a lot of size XL and US reject items.
Last night we went to dinner with about 20 other expats (it was so many people, Alix didn't even know all of them) to Chowpaty, an all-vegetarian Indian restaurant. We were going to go out after, but I tried a bit of something Alix had ordered (stupid! I ordered my own dish and didn't want to share with other people to avoid this...) and turned out it had nuts in it and I had a reaction, and ended up calling it a night. Alix ended up not going out either and she and her two roommates ended up hanging it up shortly after I did.
So I slept SUPER well last night (really, not sarcasm, her couch is actually really comfy!). And then this morning we called Martin, a cabbie, and he drove us around all day. We went first to the elephant orphanage. It was pretty cool. They're all elephants that were found abandoned by the others or hurt somewhere and rescued by this group. You can only g there for. 11-12 everyday so it was pretty crowded. We got to see two groups of elephants get their feedings (they each get 2 huge bottles of milk), and splash around in some big mud ponds. It was pretty cool.
It was a pretty cool place. Next we got lunch... We went to KFC. Haha I feel funny coming to Kenya and going there but anyone who knows ,e knows my feelings on fried chicken, so I don't care. It was awesome. Martin had never been, so we bought him lunch, and we all got ice cream there too. Incredible.
Anyway, then we continued on our way and went to the giraffe center. It's also very cool, you get to let and feed giraffes, and you can even hold the food in your mouth and they take it and like kiss your face. Of course, being a good little tourist, I did it. There was even a baby giraffe. He was SO adorable. I didnt really get a good shot that shows how much shorter he is. But the giraffes were awesome. We got back to Alix's place a little bit ago. And I skyped with my dad for his birthday... so happy birthday rich!! Tonight I think we are going out for ethiopian food (we want some meat tonight!) and then to a bar close to her apartment, so if we get tired we can crap Out easily and go home! I leave on my Masai Mara safari tomorrow, and come back into Nairobi Tuesday afternoon, so the next post will be then!
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I spent most of the day at Chat 'N Chino just chilling on the Internet for most of the day. Then I got on the bus. It was quite hot until even after the border. The border was an experience. They unload the bus and you go in a building and check out of Uganda. Then you have to walk across the border into Kenya. It's kind of confusing to find the immigration station. But I made buddies with a nice guy and some ladies from my bus and walked over with them. Then you check into Kenya. For US citizens you have to pay $50 for the visa. At the Kenyan station I was intrigued by a box with a sign reading "Suggestions Compliments Anti-Corruption Box". No photos...I think they'd frown upon that. The nice man waited for me, and we all walked to the bus together (I never would have found it on my own). Outside the bus there were people selling water and sodas and bananas and other stuff, but I didn't get anything. Then we finally got underway only to stop again. You get off the bus and they separate you into men and women and search everything on the bus again. Then finally we went. The bus was still pretty hot, but ok. Around 11 we stopped somewhere for dinner. Just a little restaurant on the side of the road. One of the bus guys (works for them) helped me change some money so I could buy dinner. After dinner, the bus was SUpER cold! The windows were shut but there's lots of cracks and they don't seal shut. Scout was cold. My seat wasn't exactly comfortable, so I really didn't sleep much. Just outside of Nairobi, around 4, the bus broke down and we were stopped for about 45 minutes. Finally got to the bus stop around 5, and I called Lucas, the cabbie Alix had told me to call, and he came for me. Got to Alix's apartment a little after 5 and just passed out for awhile.
The next day was Friday... It still feels pretty crazy that I only met Alix yesterday! We took a matatu (2 of them actually) to Kibera, the biggest slum in Nairobi (and all of east Africa for that matter). Where she works is called Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO). We walked through the slum for about 10 minutes until we got to their projects site. They have a school (Kibera School for Girls), a clinic, and a community center/micro finance group for the women. They also have a water tower, and so really the only source of clean water in Kibera. The slum has about a million people by most estimates, and people lack access to toilets and clean water. Most don't go to school, and life expectancy in the slum is 30, compared to about 60 years for the rest of Kenya. Their school is entirely free for the girls who attend, and they currently have pre-k to grade 3. Each year, they'll add another grade, eventually to go up to grade 8. I got a full tour, including seeing the new playground that a visiting group just built. it's on the roof of the school building, since obviously space is hard to come by in the slum. The playground on the roof:
We observed the pre-k math class (they just are starting a new curriculum so Alix was videotaping to send it back to the states for feedback. Then we ate lunch with the second graders (beans and rice) and then too smoke pictures with the girls outside during recess. They nearly rioted over who'd get to be in The first picture. it's also super adorable (and a good hygiene practice!) when they all brush their teeth after lunch. I think part of the reasoning for this is that there is guaranteed clean water at the school but at home they probably don't have it.
The kids are just adorable, and they're really great girls. In the afternoon we watched the other pre-k class (there are two) play dress up. This meant they read a book (I think it was Arthur gets the chicken pox, or something) and then they dressed up and basically acted part of it ou. Their costumes were just adorable. The clown has the green boa, Arthur's dad has the hat on and his mom has on the gold dress. They were all just too cute!
After school, we walked some of the girls to the safe house where they live. It's run by SHOFCO and is for girls who have particularly bad home lives. Man of the girls have been raped or sexually abused or other problems at home, or have lost parents, so the safe houses super important. They are hoping to add more rooms to it I think they currently have too. For about 7 girls or so. The house is more on he edge of the slum, so is cleaner and in a better area. Walking through Kibera, you are literally stepping in shit constantly. Like any wet patch on the ground should be avoided. It has a certain smell... You can just tell how unclean it is. And that was walking on one of the main paths through it - where there are not paths and houses as even more on top of each other I'm sure it's worse. For more on all of this check them out at shininghopeforcommunities.org. Me with some of the girls:
After we dropped off the girls, Alix and I walked toward her place, going through the Toi Market - just open stalls with anything and everything for sale. We looked at the place that has tons of dresses just in random piles for 200 shillings each - or about $2.40 apiece. Didn't find anything though. Seemed to be a lot of size XL and US reject items.
Last night we went to dinner with about 20 other expats (it was so many people, Alix didn't even know all of them) to Chowpaty, an all-vegetarian Indian restaurant. We were going to go out after, but I tried a bit of something Alix had ordered (stupid! I ordered my own dish and didn't want to share with other people to avoid this...) and turned out it had nuts in it and I had a reaction, and ended up calling it a night. Alix ended up not going out either and she and her two roommates ended up hanging it up shortly after I did.
So I slept SUPER well last night (really, not sarcasm, her couch is actually really comfy!). And then this morning we called Martin, a cabbie, and he drove us around all day. We went first to the elephant orphanage. It was pretty cool. They're all elephants that were found abandoned by the others or hurt somewhere and rescued by this group. You can only g there for. 11-12 everyday so it was pretty crowded. We got to see two groups of elephants get their feedings (they each get 2 huge bottles of milk), and splash around in some big mud ponds. It was pretty cool.
It was a pretty cool place. Next we got lunch... We went to KFC. Haha I feel funny coming to Kenya and going there but anyone who knows ,e knows my feelings on fried chicken, so I don't care. It was awesome. Martin had never been, so we bought him lunch, and we all got ice cream there too. Incredible.
Anyway, then we continued on our way and went to the giraffe center. It's also very cool, you get to let and feed giraffes, and you can even hold the food in your mouth and they take it and like kiss your face. Of course, being a good little tourist, I did it. There was even a baby giraffe. He was SO adorable. I didnt really get a good shot that shows how much shorter he is. But the giraffes were awesome. We got back to Alix's place a little bit ago. And I skyped with my dad for his birthday... so happy birthday rich!! Tonight I think we are going out for ethiopian food (we want some meat tonight!) and then to a bar close to her apartment, so if we get tired we can crap Out easily and go home! I leave on my Masai Mara safari tomorrow, and come back into Nairobi Tuesday afternoon, so the next post will be then!
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Wednesday, March 28, 2012
TOMS Part II and Part III
Monday morning we did a TOMS shoe distribution at Bumasata Primary School. It was a small school (only about 300 or so students) but it was a tough site. It was really close to the AAH guesthouse in Bududa where I was staying with Cait and Lacey. Some of the team members (S6 students who are taking a year off before university) met us at the guesthouse. Alex, who lives across the street from the guesthouse had people meet at his place, his family owns a bar called Zone 7. So we met up there with Alex, Barbra (the girl who hiked Mount Nusu with me and Cait on Sunday), and Solomon. The other volunteers all live closer to Mbale, so they ride into Bududa on the truck. Frank drives, and Rachel, Judith, Eric, and Enoch ride along with him. We all ride in the back of the truck on top of the shoes. It was a pretty fun ride to Bumasata, since it was only about 10 minutes.
We arrived at the school and problems began. Kids had heard about the distribution (how they hear about it when Lacey doesn't even tell Frank, the driver where we are going until we leave, I have NO idea!) and ran to the school. The real problem stems from the fact that the teachers put these kids on the list who don't go to the school, and then when we get there they say "oh they are late" or "they are carrying matoke to the market" - this is a very popular excuse. Basically they are just trying to sneak shoes to kids who don't actually go to school. The whole point of the TOMS program, other than physically distributing the shoes, is to increase school attendance. We also do health education lessons for the classes while we give the shoes.
Anyway, this school was just a boatload of problems. However, despite having to boot out about 35 kids from P1 who were actually from a neighboring school (I was thinking that you'd think they'd be smart enough not to wear another school's uniform to Bumasata!, but no!) the distribution went pretty quickly and we were done by a little after noon.
We went back to Zone 7 for a soda and chapatti (courtesy of Lacey via AAH's outreach fund) and then I went up to the Arlington Junior School (AAH's school) with Cait. I got to meet all the teachers and have lunch with them, and then Cait and I went to the library to choose a book for me to read to the P6 class. We chose "The Princess and the Pea" - but a version with an African twist where they also taught you to say hello in Swahili and 2 other languages (I forget the names of them, but they are the Ethiopian and Somalian languages). It was pretty fun, and I think the kids really enjoyed it.
That's (obviously) me reading to the kids. The Arlington school is super impressive - they have ALL of their P7 kids get Division I or II (and more in Division I than II, and I is the top ranking!) when they complete their PLE exams. Most other schools are lucky to get a few in DI or II and are mostly in III or IV. Also, the kids all wear uniforms and SHOES (not TOMS, they are required to wear like black lace up leather shoes), since its a scholarship school. They can only apply to start in P1, and after that they don't accept new students. When you enter a classroom all of the kids stand up and greet you in unison. It was obvious that they were actually doing WORK too - they didn't have overcrowded rooms, and they all had paper and pens and pencils out and were writing when we came in. Its very well run, even by US standards.
After the school visit, I went to the FIMRC clinic (literally right next to the school) and showed the infant care clinician videos to their staff. There are 10 videos (we did this at our clinic, but in two sessions), and then after each I took notes on our "focus group" discussion. I was just pleased that the videos worked, everyone came together and watched it, they had some good comments about the videos and seemed to enjoy it moderately. It was really good to have it completed since Lisa needs to send the data back to the states by the end of March!
Tuesday was another school visit - this one was Buyobo Primary School. It was out in Sironco, which is pretty far from Bududa district. Lacey and I got up around 6 and tracked down the 3 kids from Bududa and we all took a matatu into Mbale. We met up with the others there, who were already waiting with the truck, and then we drove about an hour to get to the school, so our trek in total was about 3 hours! The school was HUGE. They had over 700 kids so it was by far my biggest distribution yet. But our team worked REALLY well together, and even though we didn't start giving out shoes until almost 12, we were done by about 4:30.
They had a whole building they weren't using, that had been built in 1954. They've had newer buildings built since then, including the P6, P7, and library building that was just built last year. They had snuck in SOME kids (at every school this inevitably happens at least a little bit), but on the whole was much better than most, especially Bumasata. This was surprising (that they had snuck in so few) because this school had known well in advance the exact date we were coming since they have a link with the microfinance women's group in Bududa.
This is me, Lacey, and Solomon in the truck in the morning en route to the school.
Fitting kids for sheos - its what I do best! The real problem here was that we were out of sizes 31, 32.5, and 34, so if kids didn't fit in a 30, we had to push them to a 35 or not give them shoes. Ultimately, what we did was try to save 35's and push kids who were a 35 to a 36, so that those inbetween kids could have the 35. But it was really tough turning them away and saying that they might not get a pair (all of those in-betweeners eventually got a pair). The rationale here was that it is better to give out pairs that fit to one kid and not any to another, than to give both kids shoes that don't fit. Its just tough. Lacey said that for next year, we'll be able to give TOMS a list of sizes. Whoever gave us the shoes must not have thought about the fact that there are a lot more kids in P1, P2, and P3 than in P4-P7. We had too many of the big/huge sizes (like 46.5 and 48) and not enough small ones!
Anyway, once we got shoes for everyone, and did our count (this consists of re-making pairs of shoes of ones that got separated, emptying each bag of shoes, and making sure its all the same sizes and left and right together (held together with a rubber band) and then counting each bag. Once a bag gets to 40 you start a new grain sack of that size, then you report ALL of the number of that size to the person with the master list. It does get confusing with everyone counting and yelling out numbers!) then they had made LUNCH for us. It was awesome! Rice, really good matoke, chicken AND meat, and COLD water. What a day. Lunch was a big highlight, even if it was at about 5 PM.
Then we rode back to Mbale in the truck. I was in the back, with Lacey, Alex, Solomon, Judith, Rachel, and Barbra, and we had QUITE a conversation about boys and girls. Alex (who I imagine is kind of a ladies' man, he's quite cute, and I'm pretty sure he knows it!) was the main one talking, we kept asking him what he finds attractive in a girl, and why he wants multiple girlfriends (really common amongst the men here). It was just a hilarious conversation, mostly with Alex fighting with the three girls - about staying faithful, multiple girls, and when/if she should "say yes", and what happens if she says no (Alex says they usually wait and them come back later and say yes!).
From Mbale, Alex, Solomon, Barbra, Lacey and I took a matatu back to the guesthouse, where Jennifer (their housemom) had prepared a great dinner of eggplant (stewed with other veggies, and something that tasted curry-ish), matoke, salad (a rarety - raw cabbage, carrots, and cucumbers, with salt pepper and vinegar to make a sort of dressing), and fruit (pineapples and mangos, YUM!). Before dinner I had had a (very) hot bucket bath - I kind of got the proportions wrong with the water, but it ended up being very nice. I also got to meet Alex, the other guy (british) staying at the guesthouse. Kind of a character, but a nice guy. Cait was looking up movie quotes online and asking everyone what they were, she found some online game you could play with it, which was kind of fun.
Today, Wednesday, was my last day over in Bududa. I got to sleep late (about 8:20) and then Mike (the same guy who had taken me and the girls around Mbale, and who took me and Peter on the waterfall hike) came over to take me on my "coffee experience". We walked to his house (kind of past where the FIMRC guesthouse is) and he had the coffee beans there (usually you get to go pick them yourself, too, but since its still dry season (everyone is just WAITING for the rain, especially in Bududa where everyone is on a water shortage, its truly a drought, not just like a "don't water your lawn drought") there's not coffee yet. He said the best time is the rainy season in October/November. So the coffee was there, and we first had to husk it. So you put the coffee beans in this deep wooden bowl, and grind at it with a big stick (sort of like a huge mortar and pestle). Once that was done, we had to separate out the husks from the beans. Mike's wife, Lydia, did this by putting it in a big flat kind of metal bowl, and just shaking it around. The husks flew out, leaving the beans behind. This is the sort of thing I could never do on my own. Next was roasting the coffee - just talking about a coffee roastery put me back in senior year of high school - mmm roastery. Anyway, she just put the beans in a pot over a VERY hot fire with dry firewood for about 15 minutes. It started to smell just INCREDIBLE and when she took them off, they were black and looked just like coffee beans you'd get at any grocery store or gourmet shop at home. We spread them in the flat metal bowl to cool the beans, kind of stirring them around with a big stick:
So M&D, this one's for you! 1 kilo of Ugandan coffee, husked and roasted by yours truly!
After Mike packed up the coffee for me, we went into Kikholo and I bought us a soda. Mmmmm fanta. Its really my favorite here because when soda isn't carbonated so much (as happens out here), coke gets kind of gross, warm sprite sucks, but warm fanta is like orange Hi-C. Heck yes.
Then I went back to the guesthouse, and Jennifer was waiting for a matatu with me, but we gave up and I took a boda to Bunamubi and caught the matatu there, took that to Bubulo, and then took a boda up to Matuwa, where I spent the afternoon working on my Menstrual Cycle grainsack diagrams for Girls' Group and also packing for Kenya! I leave tomorrow.... getting excited. Now just ate dinner, and Lisa just got back from Bududa as well (she was at the board meeting over there) and we're going to watch a movie. I'll be in Mbale during the day tomorrow if anyone wants to FaceTime or Skype around 8 or 9 AM EST! Holler.
PS Hollis is dumb. You won't get drafted. Stay in school!!!
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We arrived at the school and problems began. Kids had heard about the distribution (how they hear about it when Lacey doesn't even tell Frank, the driver where we are going until we leave, I have NO idea!) and ran to the school. The real problem stems from the fact that the teachers put these kids on the list who don't go to the school, and then when we get there they say "oh they are late" or "they are carrying matoke to the market" - this is a very popular excuse. Basically they are just trying to sneak shoes to kids who don't actually go to school. The whole point of the TOMS program, other than physically distributing the shoes, is to increase school attendance. We also do health education lessons for the classes while we give the shoes.
Anyway, this school was just a boatload of problems. However, despite having to boot out about 35 kids from P1 who were actually from a neighboring school (I was thinking that you'd think they'd be smart enough not to wear another school's uniform to Bumasata!, but no!) the distribution went pretty quickly and we were done by a little after noon.
We went back to Zone 7 for a soda and chapatti (courtesy of Lacey via AAH's outreach fund) and then I went up to the Arlington Junior School (AAH's school) with Cait. I got to meet all the teachers and have lunch with them, and then Cait and I went to the library to choose a book for me to read to the P6 class. We chose "The Princess and the Pea" - but a version with an African twist where they also taught you to say hello in Swahili and 2 other languages (I forget the names of them, but they are the Ethiopian and Somalian languages). It was pretty fun, and I think the kids really enjoyed it.
That's (obviously) me reading to the kids. The Arlington school is super impressive - they have ALL of their P7 kids get Division I or II (and more in Division I than II, and I is the top ranking!) when they complete their PLE exams. Most other schools are lucky to get a few in DI or II and are mostly in III or IV. Also, the kids all wear uniforms and SHOES (not TOMS, they are required to wear like black lace up leather shoes), since its a scholarship school. They can only apply to start in P1, and after that they don't accept new students. When you enter a classroom all of the kids stand up and greet you in unison. It was obvious that they were actually doing WORK too - they didn't have overcrowded rooms, and they all had paper and pens and pencils out and were writing when we came in. Its very well run, even by US standards.
After the school visit, I went to the FIMRC clinic (literally right next to the school) and showed the infant care clinician videos to their staff. There are 10 videos (we did this at our clinic, but in two sessions), and then after each I took notes on our "focus group" discussion. I was just pleased that the videos worked, everyone came together and watched it, they had some good comments about the videos and seemed to enjoy it moderately. It was really good to have it completed since Lisa needs to send the data back to the states by the end of March!
Tuesday was another school visit - this one was Buyobo Primary School. It was out in Sironco, which is pretty far from Bududa district. Lacey and I got up around 6 and tracked down the 3 kids from Bududa and we all took a matatu into Mbale. We met up with the others there, who were already waiting with the truck, and then we drove about an hour to get to the school, so our trek in total was about 3 hours! The school was HUGE. They had over 700 kids so it was by far my biggest distribution yet. But our team worked REALLY well together, and even though we didn't start giving out shoes until almost 12, we were done by about 4:30.
They had a whole building they weren't using, that had been built in 1954. They've had newer buildings built since then, including the P6, P7, and library building that was just built last year. They had snuck in SOME kids (at every school this inevitably happens at least a little bit), but on the whole was much better than most, especially Bumasata. This was surprising (that they had snuck in so few) because this school had known well in advance the exact date we were coming since they have a link with the microfinance women's group in Bududa.
This is me, Lacey, and Solomon in the truck in the morning en route to the school.
Fitting kids for sheos - its what I do best! The real problem here was that we were out of sizes 31, 32.5, and 34, so if kids didn't fit in a 30, we had to push them to a 35 or not give them shoes. Ultimately, what we did was try to save 35's and push kids who were a 35 to a 36, so that those inbetween kids could have the 35. But it was really tough turning them away and saying that they might not get a pair (all of those in-betweeners eventually got a pair). The rationale here was that it is better to give out pairs that fit to one kid and not any to another, than to give both kids shoes that don't fit. Its just tough. Lacey said that for next year, we'll be able to give TOMS a list of sizes. Whoever gave us the shoes must not have thought about the fact that there are a lot more kids in P1, P2, and P3 than in P4-P7. We had too many of the big/huge sizes (like 46.5 and 48) and not enough small ones!
Anyway, once we got shoes for everyone, and did our count (this consists of re-making pairs of shoes of ones that got separated, emptying each bag of shoes, and making sure its all the same sizes and left and right together (held together with a rubber band) and then counting each bag. Once a bag gets to 40 you start a new grain sack of that size, then you report ALL of the number of that size to the person with the master list. It does get confusing with everyone counting and yelling out numbers!) then they had made LUNCH for us. It was awesome! Rice, really good matoke, chicken AND meat, and COLD water. What a day. Lunch was a big highlight, even if it was at about 5 PM.
Then we rode back to Mbale in the truck. I was in the back, with Lacey, Alex, Solomon, Judith, Rachel, and Barbra, and we had QUITE a conversation about boys and girls. Alex (who I imagine is kind of a ladies' man, he's quite cute, and I'm pretty sure he knows it!) was the main one talking, we kept asking him what he finds attractive in a girl, and why he wants multiple girlfriends (really common amongst the men here). It was just a hilarious conversation, mostly with Alex fighting with the three girls - about staying faithful, multiple girls, and when/if she should "say yes", and what happens if she says no (Alex says they usually wait and them come back later and say yes!).
From Mbale, Alex, Solomon, Barbra, Lacey and I took a matatu back to the guesthouse, where Jennifer (their housemom) had prepared a great dinner of eggplant (stewed with other veggies, and something that tasted curry-ish), matoke, salad (a rarety - raw cabbage, carrots, and cucumbers, with salt pepper and vinegar to make a sort of dressing), and fruit (pineapples and mangos, YUM!). Before dinner I had had a (very) hot bucket bath - I kind of got the proportions wrong with the water, but it ended up being very nice. I also got to meet Alex, the other guy (british) staying at the guesthouse. Kind of a character, but a nice guy. Cait was looking up movie quotes online and asking everyone what they were, she found some online game you could play with it, which was kind of fun.
Today, Wednesday, was my last day over in Bududa. I got to sleep late (about 8:20) and then Mike (the same guy who had taken me and the girls around Mbale, and who took me and Peter on the waterfall hike) came over to take me on my "coffee experience". We walked to his house (kind of past where the FIMRC guesthouse is) and he had the coffee beans there (usually you get to go pick them yourself, too, but since its still dry season (everyone is just WAITING for the rain, especially in Bududa where everyone is on a water shortage, its truly a drought, not just like a "don't water your lawn drought") there's not coffee yet. He said the best time is the rainy season in October/November. So the coffee was there, and we first had to husk it. So you put the coffee beans in this deep wooden bowl, and grind at it with a big stick (sort of like a huge mortar and pestle). Once that was done, we had to separate out the husks from the beans. Mike's wife, Lydia, did this by putting it in a big flat kind of metal bowl, and just shaking it around. The husks flew out, leaving the beans behind. This is the sort of thing I could never do on my own. Next was roasting the coffee - just talking about a coffee roastery put me back in senior year of high school - mmm roastery. Anyway, she just put the beans in a pot over a VERY hot fire with dry firewood for about 15 minutes. It started to smell just INCREDIBLE and when she took them off, they were black and looked just like coffee beans you'd get at any grocery store or gourmet shop at home. We spread them in the flat metal bowl to cool the beans, kind of stirring them around with a big stick:
So M&D, this one's for you! 1 kilo of Ugandan coffee, husked and roasted by yours truly!
After Mike packed up the coffee for me, we went into Kikholo and I bought us a soda. Mmmmm fanta. Its really my favorite here because when soda isn't carbonated so much (as happens out here), coke gets kind of gross, warm sprite sucks, but warm fanta is like orange Hi-C. Heck yes.
Then I went back to the guesthouse, and Jennifer was waiting for a matatu with me, but we gave up and I took a boda to Bunamubi and caught the matatu there, took that to Bubulo, and then took a boda up to Matuwa, where I spent the afternoon working on my Menstrual Cycle grainsack diagrams for Girls' Group and also packing for Kenya! I leave tomorrow.... getting excited. Now just ate dinner, and Lisa just got back from Bududa as well (she was at the board meeting over there) and we're going to watch a movie. I'll be in Mbale during the day tomorrow if anyone wants to FaceTime or Skype around 8 or 9 AM EST! Holler.
PS Hollis is dumb. You won't get drafted. Stay in school!!!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Stuff I forgot to say!
My previous post I was pretty zonked out, tired from the hike this morning, my allergic reaction, and Benadryl. So here's some more stuff.
Thursday morning before we did any work, the girls and I climbed the nameless mountain that is literally across the road from our house. We didn't get all the way to the top since the footing got really bad and we were slipping and sliding everywhere! But we did get pretty close. Whenever you hike here, little kids inevitably join up with you. So we had some kids join us, which is also good because they know where they're going and can function sort of like a tour guide as well as entertaining you.
Me on the hike.
It's like that when (on the rare occasion that I force myself to go) I go running. Little kids run along with you, laughing at you and imitating you. I ran down a huge hill once for like 20 minutes, so I decided I could power walk back up (it was almost like doing a stairmaster it was so steep!). This girl was walking behind me swinging her arms and panting hard (like me, I have a hard time up here since the altitude is so high it hurts to breathe when I run, it's like running in the winter when it's really cold and dry).
Just wanted to post some more pics too:
This is a pretty good sample of people at the clinic (picture is taken in front of the clinic itself!). And I'll even describe who they are and what they do.
Back row:
Anthony (health outreach coordinator - he oversees the community health educators (CHEs) and the community health groups. I think he also over sees the PEPs (patient education programs - they educate people about health issues/sanitation while they are waiting to be seen at the clinic),
Esther (one of our "house moms" she cooks and does laundry for us),
prisca (she works in the lab),
Rachel (this Rachel is Jackie's sister, she is currently volunteering at the clinic, but she is qualified to work station 4 like her sister, Jackie. She also did a lot of interpreting for the residents while they were here),
Mary (medical college of Wisconsin (MCW) resident),
Jackie (short for Jackline, she's super nice, works station 4 usually - dispensing medications, doing injections and any IVs. She sometimes also does station 2)
ME
Anthony (a CHE)
John (works station 1, takes temperature and weight, does basic triage, signs people in to be seen)
Front row:
Stephen (a CHE, also the chairman in the town)
Rachel (MCW resident)
Joshua (works station 5 doing exit interviews to make sure patients know what was wrong with them and why and how to take their medications and what they do. He also gives vaccinations on immunization days (mon and weds))
Patrick (assistant health outreach coordinator, very spirited guy! Certified trainer, he ran the VHT training sessions with me and doug)
Aidah (a CHE, also is training to be a house mom. This is important since her English is a lot better than Esther's so she is easier to communicate needs to. Very sweet woman)
Ground:
Lisa (American attending physician! Oversees the clinic and Me)
Sarah (another housemom, does a lot of cooking and stuff around the clinic as well)
Hopefully everyone feels like they know "my peeps" better now. These are the people I refer to most. For some reason Sam isn't in this picture, but he's a great guy, works mostly station 2 (vitals and can send patients either to lab, station 3, or station 4) and sometimes station 3 (fill patient exam, really what you probably think of when you think of seeing a doctor. The examination room)
Sweet deal. More pics:
Making chapatti last night at the Zaale's.
Me and Aidah (one of the Zaale's grandchildren who lives with them - there are three of these adorable little terrors running wild there!)
Talked to M&D on the phone tonight. They told me how Markel's parents asked after me in Columbus! Made me feel super cool and famous haha. I was also overjoying to get iMessages from Emily AND AMC telling me that Syracuse had lost this weekend! How glorious. This really is all for today. Will update on TOMS shoes on Tuesday most likely.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Thursday morning before we did any work, the girls and I climbed the nameless mountain that is literally across the road from our house. We didn't get all the way to the top since the footing got really bad and we were slipping and sliding everywhere! But we did get pretty close. Whenever you hike here, little kids inevitably join up with you. So we had some kids join us, which is also good because they know where they're going and can function sort of like a tour guide as well as entertaining you.
Me on the hike.
It's like that when (on the rare occasion that I force myself to go) I go running. Little kids run along with you, laughing at you and imitating you. I ran down a huge hill once for like 20 minutes, so I decided I could power walk back up (it was almost like doing a stairmaster it was so steep!). This girl was walking behind me swinging her arms and panting hard (like me, I have a hard time up here since the altitude is so high it hurts to breathe when I run, it's like running in the winter when it's really cold and dry).
Just wanted to post some more pics too:
This is a pretty good sample of people at the clinic (picture is taken in front of the clinic itself!). And I'll even describe who they are and what they do.
Back row:
Anthony (health outreach coordinator - he oversees the community health educators (CHEs) and the community health groups. I think he also over sees the PEPs (patient education programs - they educate people about health issues/sanitation while they are waiting to be seen at the clinic),
Esther (one of our "house moms" she cooks and does laundry for us),
prisca (she works in the lab),
Rachel (this Rachel is Jackie's sister, she is currently volunteering at the clinic, but she is qualified to work station 4 like her sister, Jackie. She also did a lot of interpreting for the residents while they were here),
Mary (medical college of Wisconsin (MCW) resident),
Jackie (short for Jackline, she's super nice, works station 4 usually - dispensing medications, doing injections and any IVs. She sometimes also does station 2)
ME
Anthony (a CHE)
John (works station 1, takes temperature and weight, does basic triage, signs people in to be seen)
Front row:
Stephen (a CHE, also the chairman in the town)
Rachel (MCW resident)
Joshua (works station 5 doing exit interviews to make sure patients know what was wrong with them and why and how to take their medications and what they do. He also gives vaccinations on immunization days (mon and weds))
Patrick (assistant health outreach coordinator, very spirited guy! Certified trainer, he ran the VHT training sessions with me and doug)
Aidah (a CHE, also is training to be a house mom. This is important since her English is a lot better than Esther's so she is easier to communicate needs to. Very sweet woman)
Ground:
Lisa (American attending physician! Oversees the clinic and Me)
Sarah (another housemom, does a lot of cooking and stuff around the clinic as well)
Hopefully everyone feels like they know "my peeps" better now. These are the people I refer to most. For some reason Sam isn't in this picture, but he's a great guy, works mostly station 2 (vitals and can send patients either to lab, station 3, or station 4) and sometimes station 3 (fill patient exam, really what you probably think of when you think of seeing a doctor. The examination room)
Sweet deal. More pics:
Making chapatti last night at the Zaale's.
Me and Aidah (one of the Zaale's grandchildren who lives with them - there are three of these adorable little terrors running wild there!)
Talked to M&D on the phone tonight. They told me how Markel's parents asked after me in Columbus! Made me feel super cool and famous haha. I was also overjoying to get iMessages from Emily AND AMC telling me that Syracuse had lost this weekend! How glorious. This really is all for today. Will update on TOMS shoes on Tuesday most likely.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
goodbye to the girls, and off to Bududa!
Thursday was the girls' last day in Matuwa. Started off the day with their final article presentations and then I wasn't feeling so well ( it was just super hot, I don't think i was having a fever or anything) so I napped a bit. Rachel had the first pregnant women's group meeting at 2, so I attended that, which we hope will become a regular thing. Following that was the second session of the clinical newborn videos which sort of turned into a party, since Lisa had gotten sodas and glucose biscuits for everyone. Then we all went outside the clinic and took lots of pictures!! Including jumping pics which the ugandans are now Fascinated by!
Left to right: Esther, Sam, Natalie, Rachel, rachel, rando guy who thought this looked fun, Jackie, Mary, me, and Sarah.
Thursday night was fun, for the girls last night we made drinks (I bartender). I muddled mango with sprite, then added vodka, tang and country time mix. Quite good actually!
They left on Friday morning and Lisa went with them so she could go to Mbale for the day. I stayed home and worked on my personal statement and resume for georgetown's premed committee application. Just had kind of a lazy day, did some laundry (we have to wash our own underwear), etc. Lisa and I had dinner together and watched the south park movie.
Friday was frustrating since my Internet didnt work at allllll. But Saturday morning I fiddled with the microsim card and it came back. W00t. Saturday I went to the zalle's house. Maayi took me to a sort of party that was across the river (very short walk) from their house. These women were blasting music drinking the local brew out of a teapot and dancing up a storm! I even joined in a bit (for the dancing, not the local brew!). Maayi said they get together at someone different's house each week to do this. A lot of kids and other people were hanging out too but the dancing group of women really stole the show.
Maayi is the one at the far left (my host mom). I helped make chapatti for dinner, so I am now fully prepared to make them when I return home.
Dinner as always at the Zaale's house was splendid, we had both pork and meat - very spiffy. I really didn't sleep so great last night so I was quite tired when I woke up at 6 to take a boda boda to the Arlington guesthouse in Khoholo (I had the spelling wrong previously, it's pronounced like cho-ho-lo). I met up with Cait, the volunteer coordinator, and Barbara (one of the S6's who helps with the TOMS distributions) and her younger brother Dennis, to hike to the top of mount Nusu!
It was a tough hike, and took about 3 hours to get to the top, but it was gorgeous and so worth it!
Me, Dennis, and Barbie, doing a jumping pic!
Just amazing views, all around. I took lots more pics, don't worry!
We returned to the guest house and had just bucket bathed when rain began! They haven't had water here for awhile so this is a very good thing. Cait ran around flushing the toilets with the water, which was much needed! Lacey was trying to make bean burgers for lunch, which didn't work out so well (some issue with the pressure cooker or something), so she ended up making pasta. I bit into mine, and then asked if there were by chance nuts in it - it was a G-nut sauce, so I spit it out, we made me some eggs, and I popped a Benadryl. Soooo I'm probably going to nap now since Benadryl knocks me out!
TOMS shoes continues tomorrow and Tuesday! And I leave for Kenya on Thursday!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Left to right: Esther, Sam, Natalie, Rachel, rachel, rando guy who thought this looked fun, Jackie, Mary, me, and Sarah.
Thursday night was fun, for the girls last night we made drinks (I bartender). I muddled mango with sprite, then added vodka, tang and country time mix. Quite good actually!
They left on Friday morning and Lisa went with them so she could go to Mbale for the day. I stayed home and worked on my personal statement and resume for georgetown's premed committee application. Just had kind of a lazy day, did some laundry (we have to wash our own underwear), etc. Lisa and I had dinner together and watched the south park movie.
Friday was frustrating since my Internet didnt work at allllll. But Saturday morning I fiddled with the microsim card and it came back. W00t. Saturday I went to the zalle's house. Maayi took me to a sort of party that was across the river (very short walk) from their house. These women were blasting music drinking the local brew out of a teapot and dancing up a storm! I even joined in a bit (for the dancing, not the local brew!). Maayi said they get together at someone different's house each week to do this. A lot of kids and other people were hanging out too but the dancing group of women really stole the show.
Maayi is the one at the far left (my host mom). I helped make chapatti for dinner, so I am now fully prepared to make them when I return home.
Dinner as always at the Zaale's house was splendid, we had both pork and meat - very spiffy. I really didn't sleep so great last night so I was quite tired when I woke up at 6 to take a boda boda to the Arlington guesthouse in Khoholo (I had the spelling wrong previously, it's pronounced like cho-ho-lo). I met up with Cait, the volunteer coordinator, and Barbara (one of the S6's who helps with the TOMS distributions) and her younger brother Dennis, to hike to the top of mount Nusu!
It was a tough hike, and took about 3 hours to get to the top, but it was gorgeous and so worth it!
Me, Dennis, and Barbie, doing a jumping pic!
Just amazing views, all around. I took lots more pics, don't worry!
We returned to the guest house and had just bucket bathed when rain began! They haven't had water here for awhile so this is a very good thing. Cait ran around flushing the toilets with the water, which was much needed! Lacey was trying to make bean burgers for lunch, which didn't work out so well (some issue with the pressure cooker or something), so she ended up making pasta. I bit into mine, and then asked if there were by chance nuts in it - it was a G-nut sauce, so I spit it out, we made me some eggs, and I popped a Benadryl. Soooo I'm probably going to nap now since Benadryl knocks me out!
TOMS shoes continues tomorrow and Tuesday! And I leave for Kenya on Thursday!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
TOMS (Part 1)
Monday was the TOMS shoe distribution at Matuwa Primary School (school built by Arlington (AAH) just down the hill from our guesthouse). The girls and I met up with Cait and Lacey (the volunteer and outreach coordinators from Arlington's Bududa side, respectively) at around 9 at the school. We met the school administrators and also the team that they have assembled to do the distributions. They're a really nice bunch of kids, all S6's (secondary year 6) and they take a year off before going to university, so this is what they are doing. They are all hoping to go to university, but I'm not exactly sure on what the status of that is.
We started with the kids in P7. Primary school goes from P1 to P7, and since kids often miss a lot of school either due to illness, their menstrual periods (girls only, obviously), or having to come out of school to work for their parents in the fields and whatnot, kids can be a variety of ages in any of the grades. The P7's were mostly probably about 13 or 14. They were pretty easy to fit, since they were old enough to pretty much get the shoes on on their own.
The method we used was we took an empty classroom and set up in there. We had three desks (with bench seats attached) and sat on the bench side, with the desk behind us. We kept spares of a bunch of sizes on the desk, and then behind the desk were big grain sacks with all the sizes of shoes in them, lined up along the wall with the smallest at the left end (size 27), all the way up to size 48 at the far right side of the room. The TOMS shoes that they distribute are (luckily) a bit more sturdy than the ones you buy in the store at home.
They have a more durable rubber bottom. All of the shoes are black canvas slip ons, there are no choices for the kids regarding style. The shoes are pretty hard to slip on, however - they do loosen up over time but for this first fitting, it was kind of a battle to get the shoes on some of the kids. This is particularly so since many of these kids have never worn shoes, and they have all sorts of blisters, calluses, and boils on their feet, some have jiggers in their feet or other infections, so it can be a huge struggle for them.
After P7 went, then P1 came in. It was pretty tricky to get the little kids to uncurl their toes and to pull the shoes onto them. We all learned how to say "push!" to get them to push their feet into the shoes. In order to get the shoe on, they really had to push the toes all the way in, and then pull the heel part up around the heel. The little kids were really cute and super excited to get the shoes.
So once we fitted a kid, we used a permanent marker to write the shoe size on their hand, then they stand in line, where they have the class list and check off each kid. This is important to keep track of the number of shoes given out and the sizes, as well as to make sure kids don't get two pairs of shoes! Another issue is that even though the distribution point is kept a secret until the team arrives (the school administrators didn't even know, so its just kind of a surprise in their day, but that sort of stuff happens a lot more often here, so its not a big deal, and since its free shoes for their kids they welcome the intervention!), kids will run home and tell siblings or friends who don't attend the school to come and get free shoes. The usual way to tell if kids are "imposters" is to survey their classmates - kids are surprisingly honest and are willing to turn in the traitors (I think they're probably afraid if people who don't actually go to school there get the shoes, we'll run out and there won't be enough!)
Anyway, following P1 cam in order P2, P3, and P4. Then we took a break for lunch (one of the team members went into the village and got chapatis, and Cait and Lacey had brought sodas for everyone), and then did the nursery kids. Not every school has a nursery, so again its important to make sure its an actual program there and not just little kids that have shown up for free shoes! Then we did P5 and P6.
Here is me fitting some kids for shoes.
Left to right: Cait, Natalie, Mary, Rachel, me, and Lacey. It was a really cool event to take part in, and I'll be doing two more distributions, on Monday the 25th and Tuesday the 26th, when I'm staying in Bududa with Cait and Lacey. Of course, I don't know what school we'll be doing yet - its top secret!
Yesterday, Rachel and I went to the clinic run by Jan (woman whose hospice in Mbale we went to last Friday on the way to Jinja), at Basunguwyi (not sure on that spelling). Her clinic was just getting a fridge for vaccines and medicines that people brought from the UK, so we got roped into a little project for that. Since they couldn't turn it on for 24 hours after transit, they needed to turn it on this morning. However, these people had a flight to catch in Kampala or something and they couldn't wait so long for it to cool after they turned it on, so Rachel and I took a boda this morning at 6:30 to the clinic, so we got there just before 7, and turned on the fridge. That way, when they could get to the clinic from Mbale around 8:30, it would be well on its way to being cool, so they could make sure it worked before having to head back to Kampala. The clinic was just interesting to see how another set up runs. Jan (the doc from the UK) clearly gets infuriated with the level of her clinicians quite frequently - which I could understand since the residents here have expressed the same thing quite often.
Rachel examined some patients, including a girl with an umbilical hernia (she was 5, so it would need to be removed surgically) and a woman with mastitis of her breast (it was her first baby, and they waited 6 days for her to come in, so she probably needs a surgery now too, she was referred to Mbale Regional Hospital). The last patient we saw was a boy who had allegedly had convulsions, yet the father couldn't accurately describe how he had convulsed, what it had looked like, how long they lasted, when they were, how many he'd had etc. Jan got kind of mad, and wanted to know how he expected her to treat the boy when he wouldn't tell her a proper history! History giving and taking here is just a lot different than in the states/UK/etc, but it really does need to be brought up to speed in order to be effective.
Yesterday after clinic, we presented on articles. The girls need to do a certain amount of "academic" stuff for their residency while they are here, and so they have been doing presentations on different developing world health topics. I gave my talk yesterday, about international organizations and NGOs, and focused on the Millennium Development Goals, particularly goals 4 and 5 (focusing on maternal and child health and development).
Today was more presentations in the morning (I just had to do the one, since I don't have any specific requirements!), after Rachel and my trek to Jan's clinic to turn on the fridge! We were back by about 8, and this morning was unbelievably buggy. There were mosquitoes everywhere!! It rained last night (hadn't rained in a few days, everyone had said March would be the rainy season, but its not here yet. I guess its coming in late!) so maybe that contributed to the bug situation. I was lighting mosquito coils everywhere and spraying bug spray and even like the toxic spray that kills everything including you if you stay in the house with it! By the time we started presentations they had lessened a bit.
I went over the plans for Girls' Group with Lisa, and she really liked my ideas to have it meet bimonthly with one meeting a month to be a lecture/discussion, and the other meeting an activity (still with a health learning/self-esteem goal in mind, of course). The focus of the group will be more correctly shifted to be a health education group, and the funding (100,000 shillings/month, or about $45) will be used for supplies, speakers, and excursions, and not for gifts, as had been happening in the past. I spent most of the afternoon laying out my curriculum. In April after my trips (I'll pretty much be away from this Saturday, March 24 until April 11!) I'll be doing a lot of data entry of the baseline data from the clinic before Doug and Lisa arrived so we can tabulate more mathematically how the clinic and the population were doing before. Then we'll start collecting data on patients in the same manner to compare 2012 to the 2010 data that I'll be organizing on the computer. She said if it gets published, that my name would be on it, too, so that's pretty cool.
Then in the very late part of the afternoon, we showed these clinician training videos that a friend of Lisa's sent for part of a research project that she is doing. These videos were all about newborn medical care (care for the umbilical cord (it showed an umbilical hernia, so it was cool I just saw one in person the day before today!), physical exam stuff, weight and nutrition, etc.). We showed 5 of them (about 5-6 minutes each) to the staff, and then led a focus group for them to discuss the videos and give any suggestions, what they liked or didn't like, etc. In the video, whenever it mentioned referring to a larger health center, they showed this dillapidated old green van that caused all of the staff to laugh whenever they saw it. I thought this was pretty funny, since our only form of transport is a boda boda (like when the pregnant woman arrived here in labor at 8:30 PM, she had to take a boda to Migale Hospital), an old van is at least better than that! They all said they liked the videos, and I think that since video is pretty new and rare here, its a good learning tool for our staff.
Now I'm just sitting on our back porch, having a cup of tea and watching another uhhhhmazing Ugandan sunset. I wished I had my camera this morning on our boda ride, since the sunrise was just amazing (our sunrises here aren't so spectacular since they have to rise up over the HUGE mountain out our front door, so by the time you actually see the sun its already super bright, also because I'm usually still asleep when it happens since my room has a Westward facing window!). Tomorrow is the girls' last day here so we'll probably be in clinic and will also be showing more of the clinician videos for that project. When I'm in Bududa next week, part of my job will be showing the videos to the clinicians and the FIMRC clinic and leading the focus group there as well.
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We started with the kids in P7. Primary school goes from P1 to P7, and since kids often miss a lot of school either due to illness, their menstrual periods (girls only, obviously), or having to come out of school to work for their parents in the fields and whatnot, kids can be a variety of ages in any of the grades. The P7's were mostly probably about 13 or 14. They were pretty easy to fit, since they were old enough to pretty much get the shoes on on their own.
The method we used was we took an empty classroom and set up in there. We had three desks (with bench seats attached) and sat on the bench side, with the desk behind us. We kept spares of a bunch of sizes on the desk, and then behind the desk were big grain sacks with all the sizes of shoes in them, lined up along the wall with the smallest at the left end (size 27), all the way up to size 48 at the far right side of the room. The TOMS shoes that they distribute are (luckily) a bit more sturdy than the ones you buy in the store at home.
They have a more durable rubber bottom. All of the shoes are black canvas slip ons, there are no choices for the kids regarding style. The shoes are pretty hard to slip on, however - they do loosen up over time but for this first fitting, it was kind of a battle to get the shoes on some of the kids. This is particularly so since many of these kids have never worn shoes, and they have all sorts of blisters, calluses, and boils on their feet, some have jiggers in their feet or other infections, so it can be a huge struggle for them.
After P7 went, then P1 came in. It was pretty tricky to get the little kids to uncurl their toes and to pull the shoes onto them. We all learned how to say "push!" to get them to push their feet into the shoes. In order to get the shoe on, they really had to push the toes all the way in, and then pull the heel part up around the heel. The little kids were really cute and super excited to get the shoes.
So once we fitted a kid, we used a permanent marker to write the shoe size on their hand, then they stand in line, where they have the class list and check off each kid. This is important to keep track of the number of shoes given out and the sizes, as well as to make sure kids don't get two pairs of shoes! Another issue is that even though the distribution point is kept a secret until the team arrives (the school administrators didn't even know, so its just kind of a surprise in their day, but that sort of stuff happens a lot more often here, so its not a big deal, and since its free shoes for their kids they welcome the intervention!), kids will run home and tell siblings or friends who don't attend the school to come and get free shoes. The usual way to tell if kids are "imposters" is to survey their classmates - kids are surprisingly honest and are willing to turn in the traitors (I think they're probably afraid if people who don't actually go to school there get the shoes, we'll run out and there won't be enough!)
Anyway, following P1 cam in order P2, P3, and P4. Then we took a break for lunch (one of the team members went into the village and got chapatis, and Cait and Lacey had brought sodas for everyone), and then did the nursery kids. Not every school has a nursery, so again its important to make sure its an actual program there and not just little kids that have shown up for free shoes! Then we did P5 and P6.
Here is me fitting some kids for shoes.
Left to right: Cait, Natalie, Mary, Rachel, me, and Lacey. It was a really cool event to take part in, and I'll be doing two more distributions, on Monday the 25th and Tuesday the 26th, when I'm staying in Bududa with Cait and Lacey. Of course, I don't know what school we'll be doing yet - its top secret!
Yesterday, Rachel and I went to the clinic run by Jan (woman whose hospice in Mbale we went to last Friday on the way to Jinja), at Basunguwyi (not sure on that spelling). Her clinic was just getting a fridge for vaccines and medicines that people brought from the UK, so we got roped into a little project for that. Since they couldn't turn it on for 24 hours after transit, they needed to turn it on this morning. However, these people had a flight to catch in Kampala or something and they couldn't wait so long for it to cool after they turned it on, so Rachel and I took a boda this morning at 6:30 to the clinic, so we got there just before 7, and turned on the fridge. That way, when they could get to the clinic from Mbale around 8:30, it would be well on its way to being cool, so they could make sure it worked before having to head back to Kampala. The clinic was just interesting to see how another set up runs. Jan (the doc from the UK) clearly gets infuriated with the level of her clinicians quite frequently - which I could understand since the residents here have expressed the same thing quite often.
Rachel examined some patients, including a girl with an umbilical hernia (she was 5, so it would need to be removed surgically) and a woman with mastitis of her breast (it was her first baby, and they waited 6 days for her to come in, so she probably needs a surgery now too, she was referred to Mbale Regional Hospital). The last patient we saw was a boy who had allegedly had convulsions, yet the father couldn't accurately describe how he had convulsed, what it had looked like, how long they lasted, when they were, how many he'd had etc. Jan got kind of mad, and wanted to know how he expected her to treat the boy when he wouldn't tell her a proper history! History giving and taking here is just a lot different than in the states/UK/etc, but it really does need to be brought up to speed in order to be effective.
Yesterday after clinic, we presented on articles. The girls need to do a certain amount of "academic" stuff for their residency while they are here, and so they have been doing presentations on different developing world health topics. I gave my talk yesterday, about international organizations and NGOs, and focused on the Millennium Development Goals, particularly goals 4 and 5 (focusing on maternal and child health and development).
Today was more presentations in the morning (I just had to do the one, since I don't have any specific requirements!), after Rachel and my trek to Jan's clinic to turn on the fridge! We were back by about 8, and this morning was unbelievably buggy. There were mosquitoes everywhere!! It rained last night (hadn't rained in a few days, everyone had said March would be the rainy season, but its not here yet. I guess its coming in late!) so maybe that contributed to the bug situation. I was lighting mosquito coils everywhere and spraying bug spray and even like the toxic spray that kills everything including you if you stay in the house with it! By the time we started presentations they had lessened a bit.
I went over the plans for Girls' Group with Lisa, and she really liked my ideas to have it meet bimonthly with one meeting a month to be a lecture/discussion, and the other meeting an activity (still with a health learning/self-esteem goal in mind, of course). The focus of the group will be more correctly shifted to be a health education group, and the funding (100,000 shillings/month, or about $45) will be used for supplies, speakers, and excursions, and not for gifts, as had been happening in the past. I spent most of the afternoon laying out my curriculum. In April after my trips (I'll pretty much be away from this Saturday, March 24 until April 11!) I'll be doing a lot of data entry of the baseline data from the clinic before Doug and Lisa arrived so we can tabulate more mathematically how the clinic and the population were doing before. Then we'll start collecting data on patients in the same manner to compare 2012 to the 2010 data that I'll be organizing on the computer. She said if it gets published, that my name would be on it, too, so that's pretty cool.
Then in the very late part of the afternoon, we showed these clinician training videos that a friend of Lisa's sent for part of a research project that she is doing. These videos were all about newborn medical care (care for the umbilical cord (it showed an umbilical hernia, so it was cool I just saw one in person the day before today!), physical exam stuff, weight and nutrition, etc.). We showed 5 of them (about 5-6 minutes each) to the staff, and then led a focus group for them to discuss the videos and give any suggestions, what they liked or didn't like, etc. In the video, whenever it mentioned referring to a larger health center, they showed this dillapidated old green van that caused all of the staff to laugh whenever they saw it. I thought this was pretty funny, since our only form of transport is a boda boda (like when the pregnant woman arrived here in labor at 8:30 PM, she had to take a boda to Migale Hospital), an old van is at least better than that! They all said they liked the videos, and I think that since video is pretty new and rare here, its a good learning tool for our staff.
Now I'm just sitting on our back porch, having a cup of tea and watching another uhhhhmazing Ugandan sunset. I wished I had my camera this morning on our boda ride, since the sunrise was just amazing (our sunrises here aren't so spectacular since they have to rise up over the HUGE mountain out our front door, so by the time you actually see the sun its already super bright, also because I'm usually still asleep when it happens since my room has a Westward facing window!). Tomorrow is the girls' last day here so we'll probably be in clinic and will also be showing more of the clinician videos for that project. When I'm in Bududa next week, part of my job will be showing the videos to the clinicians and the FIMRC clinic and leading the focus group there as well.
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Monday, March 19, 2012
Jinja!
Thursday was a pretty typical clinic day - I shadowed Mary and Natalie, a woman gave birth at the clinic In the afternoon as well. Our most interesting patient was a boy about 8years old whose eye had been poked out with a stick - sounds like typical playground antics gone wrong. We are pretty sure that he's lost vision in the eye (his right eye). We were holding up fingers to count and items to identify while covering the other eye, and he just didn't say anything. Now a lot of kids are kind of scared of muzungu's in general (kids have literally burst into tears upon seeing us, you never get used to it and makes you feel pretty horrible), but this didn't seem like that. I guess if I was 8 years old and lost my vision I'd be pretty scared and untalkative, too. Just a really sad story. We made him a sterile bandage to keep over it and he is supposed to come back this week, so maybe things will have improved. This is really one of the biggest problems - we just can't do much procedure-wise or test-wise at the clinic, and while we can refer people to the Health Center IV in Migale, or Mbale regional hospital, people from our clinic often just can't get there (even though BT HCIII pays for the transport, they'd still have to pay when they got there), so they just don't go for the extra care. Really sad.
Friday morning we headed to Mbale, and went to Cure, which is an international project that is a neurosurgery center for kids with hydrocephally (I am positive that I am spelling that wrong). Anyway, they have all this extra fluid trapped in their heads and while here in the US a shunt is typically used to drain the fluid into the midsection of the body, that kind of procedure leads to a lot of infections, and particularly would cause problems here in Africa - so at Cure they have pioneered new surgeries that they practice and which have actually spread about the world because of the work that has been done there. It was a really nice facility (mostly funded by donor $$$'s but they said they are trying to be self-sufficient within 5 years). We saw some of the patients at Cure, both those waiting for and recovering from surgery. They were also having a parents meeting, that occurs monthly, of parents of kids who have had the surgery, so a lot of the kids were hanging out outside the meeting and we got to play with them - it is really amazing how far they've come since their surgery. Doctors had said some of these kids would never be able to walk, and we were playing some pickup soccer with them. Just an incredible place.
Following Cure we went to Joy Hospice in Mbale (these were the other two places we were supposed to get to the day we went to Mbale Hospital and TASO, but ran out of time). The Hospice is run by a British doctor named Jan White who has been here for many years (she also runs a clinic that is outside of Mbale, closer to us, that Rachel and I are visiting tomorrow). The hospice has 10 beds for inpatients, and is designed to provide Palliative care.
Then finally we were on our way to Jinja! We got to the Nile River Explorers Campsite at about 5 (or maybe a little after?) and met up with Megan, Rachel's sister-in-law. Had a few drinks while we sat on the patio overlooking the Nile River and watching the sun set. Just gorgeous. The bar there had satellite TV - I commandeered one TV and put on the NCAA Tourney! At home, the tournament (as anyone who is reading this probably/definitely already knows!) is on four channels the first weekend. Well, internationally, everything is lumped together into ESPN. So all of the games were squeezed into one channel, meaning that they switched between games a lot. I didn't see much of the gtown game until the second half, and I was also following along on gamecast, since they had Wifi there too. It was quite a place. Internet, satellite TV, cold beer, and good falafel - wonderful. Also, the British girls that we had met at Sipi Falls were there, so that was kind of cool too, and I ended up in a raft with one of them the next day.
Saturday was the white water rafting. Never having been rafting before I wasn't really sure what to expect, but when our group of 4 (Natalie didn't raft) had to split up I wound up in the "Hardcore" raft, with a girl who went to Georgetown (we actually sort of recognized/knew each other, she was class of 2010) and 3 of her friends all of whom are working over here, Megan, and Cat (one of the British girls, who really didn't want to be in the hardcore boat and sat out one of the rapids in the safety boat). Our guide was Bhupi, from India, and he was really cool and totally down with flipping over with us! There are 6 rapids that you go through, we flipped 4 times! I bought a DVD of the trip so I can show anyone interested when I get back, and there's also a picture with CDs (unfortunately, I cannot get the pictures on to my ipad so I can't share them here yet, but they'll be up when I'm back in the US). Our boat definitely had the sickest wipeouts and the most intense ride. On the third rapid, which is called "the hole" or the "grave", you have to get out and walk around the part where its a Grade 6 rapid since its too intense. Then you get in the boat, and basically go straight down into the whirlpool where you just get POUNDED. I was underwater for a pretty long time, and finally was able to come up, gasping for breath, and saw everyone else from my boat floating down the current - and I was stalled out and couldn't float downstream since I was just off the main current. One of the kayakers (they have these guys in support kayaks who come and rescue you if you get separated from the boats) came and got me and took me to the safety boat (where Cat was since she had opted to skip that rapid). We had some fresh pineapple for lunch and then it was on to the fourth rapid (where we flipped... TWICE). The last rapid was the coolest, since we did the "Flying Squirrel". Everyone sits in the back of the raft, except one girl (the girl from Gtown, Shannon) who sits on the very front of the raft. Then you go over one wave, and then there's a HUGE wave. You go up it... and there's a great chance you're going to flip. Of course we flipped, and lost Shannon! When we got to the end, she was already there, since one of the kayakers had picked her up. It started pouring rain just as we got to the end, where they had a barbeque lunch waiting for us (not a typical "barbeque" - like beef sandwiches and baked potatoes, haha, but it was good).
Went back to the Campsite, and since it was St. Patty's day it was a pretty big party. We were all tired (and the backs of my hands were super sunburned!) so we didn't stay up too late (especially since I knew I was going bungee jumping early Sunday morning). But it was fun, we had a cake for Rachel's birthday (which was yesterday), so that was fun. They also showed the video from the rafting trip up on the big screen, which was pretty ridiculous.
Sunday morning - I headed over to adrift, but I knew I was short of money for bungee. So I was going to pay with a credit card and just deal with the 5% surcharge, but the machine wasn't working. I took a Bodaboda into Jinja to get cash, and came back. By this time I was super nervous, but the guys on the tower were really awesome and helped reassure me a little. My boda driver took pictures, and another girl I found took a video - you can hear me screaming choice words throughout. Hopefully the school kids watching from the bank didn't hear me! (That's something you see - throughout the rafting, kids were watching us from the bank, same with the bungee. They're just like "wow look at all these crazy muzungu's trying to kill themselves for fun!). Anyway, I got out there, and they guy was like, hold the bar above your head and shimmy forward. I was like, can't I just go? He said yes, and I don't know how I made myself do it, but next thing I knew I was flying through the air! The first fall wasn't actually THAT scary, but once you bounce and go back up, the second fall is super scary since I didn't know exactly when I'd start falling again, so that is when I started screaming. By the time you're done, I just wanted it to be over, since my ankles hurt from the wraps they put around them, and my feet were like shaking. All I wanted was that thing OFF of me! But Here's the evidence:
After, I took a boda boda into Jinja, and met up with the girls at Flavours, the typical sort of muzungu internet cafe that they have in all the big towns/cities here. All the other expats hang out there, and sure enough the British girls arrived shortly after us for lunch, haha. Our trip home was fairly eventful - we trekked across Jinja with all our stuff and got a mutato, but it wasn't really the right once, since they have more like express ones that don't stop as much, but this wasn't one of those! We just kept stopping and right after Iganga we stopped for about half an hour! It was hot as hell in the mutatu and there was really nothing we could do about it except wait. It also rained on the way back and the windows on mutatus are notorious for leaking, so I got kind of wet sitting next to the window. However, sitting next to the window is always preferable to sitting in the middle (of a row of 4. The vehicles are Toyota Hiace if you want to Google Images that) since you can rest your head on the side, and you can control the amount of window/air that you get. We got to Mbale and decided to take a car back to the village (also probably practical since the mutatus don't really run after dark on Sundays, since you know, normal people are home then). I called Emma (the driver who picked me up at the airport when I first got here) and he came and drove us back up to the village. Plenty of space and AC along with some easy listening/boy bands - made for a relaxing and luxurious ride back to Matuwa.
We got up here, and had ANOTHER cake for Rachel's birthday. Mary had brought cake mix and icing, and Doug baked the cake (using stones in a pot to make a sort of convection oven, and the cake took about 6 hours to bake!), which was super awesome. I wish I had thought to do that for my birthday... bummer. No cake for me. Well that's sort of not true, the other girls probably won't eat the extra cake, so I probably can pretty much call it mine. I got on gamecast for the second half of the game. It sucked. My predictions about me being out of the country and us going far were wrong - well next year I'll be able to stalk the team to my heart's content so BRING IT ON.
I am tired now, and power is out, so I don't want to kill my iPad, and so I will write about today (Toms Shoes day #1 of 3 for me!) tomorrow.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Friday morning we headed to Mbale, and went to Cure, which is an international project that is a neurosurgery center for kids with hydrocephally (I am positive that I am spelling that wrong). Anyway, they have all this extra fluid trapped in their heads and while here in the US a shunt is typically used to drain the fluid into the midsection of the body, that kind of procedure leads to a lot of infections, and particularly would cause problems here in Africa - so at Cure they have pioneered new surgeries that they practice and which have actually spread about the world because of the work that has been done there. It was a really nice facility (mostly funded by donor $$$'s but they said they are trying to be self-sufficient within 5 years). We saw some of the patients at Cure, both those waiting for and recovering from surgery. They were also having a parents meeting, that occurs monthly, of parents of kids who have had the surgery, so a lot of the kids were hanging out outside the meeting and we got to play with them - it is really amazing how far they've come since their surgery. Doctors had said some of these kids would never be able to walk, and we were playing some pickup soccer with them. Just an incredible place.
Following Cure we went to Joy Hospice in Mbale (these were the other two places we were supposed to get to the day we went to Mbale Hospital and TASO, but ran out of time). The Hospice is run by a British doctor named Jan White who has been here for many years (she also runs a clinic that is outside of Mbale, closer to us, that Rachel and I are visiting tomorrow). The hospice has 10 beds for inpatients, and is designed to provide Palliative care.
Then finally we were on our way to Jinja! We got to the Nile River Explorers Campsite at about 5 (or maybe a little after?) and met up with Megan, Rachel's sister-in-law. Had a few drinks while we sat on the patio overlooking the Nile River and watching the sun set. Just gorgeous. The bar there had satellite TV - I commandeered one TV and put on the NCAA Tourney! At home, the tournament (as anyone who is reading this probably/definitely already knows!) is on four channels the first weekend. Well, internationally, everything is lumped together into ESPN. So all of the games were squeezed into one channel, meaning that they switched between games a lot. I didn't see much of the gtown game until the second half, and I was also following along on gamecast, since they had Wifi there too. It was quite a place. Internet, satellite TV, cold beer, and good falafel - wonderful. Also, the British girls that we had met at Sipi Falls were there, so that was kind of cool too, and I ended up in a raft with one of them the next day.
Saturday was the white water rafting. Never having been rafting before I wasn't really sure what to expect, but when our group of 4 (Natalie didn't raft) had to split up I wound up in the "Hardcore" raft, with a girl who went to Georgetown (we actually sort of recognized/knew each other, she was class of 2010) and 3 of her friends all of whom are working over here, Megan, and Cat (one of the British girls, who really didn't want to be in the hardcore boat and sat out one of the rapids in the safety boat). Our guide was Bhupi, from India, and he was really cool and totally down with flipping over with us! There are 6 rapids that you go through, we flipped 4 times! I bought a DVD of the trip so I can show anyone interested when I get back, and there's also a picture with CDs (unfortunately, I cannot get the pictures on to my ipad so I can't share them here yet, but they'll be up when I'm back in the US). Our boat definitely had the sickest wipeouts and the most intense ride. On the third rapid, which is called "the hole" or the "grave", you have to get out and walk around the part where its a Grade 6 rapid since its too intense. Then you get in the boat, and basically go straight down into the whirlpool where you just get POUNDED. I was underwater for a pretty long time, and finally was able to come up, gasping for breath, and saw everyone else from my boat floating down the current - and I was stalled out and couldn't float downstream since I was just off the main current. One of the kayakers (they have these guys in support kayaks who come and rescue you if you get separated from the boats) came and got me and took me to the safety boat (where Cat was since she had opted to skip that rapid). We had some fresh pineapple for lunch and then it was on to the fourth rapid (where we flipped... TWICE). The last rapid was the coolest, since we did the "Flying Squirrel". Everyone sits in the back of the raft, except one girl (the girl from Gtown, Shannon) who sits on the very front of the raft. Then you go over one wave, and then there's a HUGE wave. You go up it... and there's a great chance you're going to flip. Of course we flipped, and lost Shannon! When we got to the end, she was already there, since one of the kayakers had picked her up. It started pouring rain just as we got to the end, where they had a barbeque lunch waiting for us (not a typical "barbeque" - like beef sandwiches and baked potatoes, haha, but it was good).
Went back to the Campsite, and since it was St. Patty's day it was a pretty big party. We were all tired (and the backs of my hands were super sunburned!) so we didn't stay up too late (especially since I knew I was going bungee jumping early Sunday morning). But it was fun, we had a cake for Rachel's birthday (which was yesterday), so that was fun. They also showed the video from the rafting trip up on the big screen, which was pretty ridiculous.
Sunday morning - I headed over to adrift, but I knew I was short of money for bungee. So I was going to pay with a credit card and just deal with the 5% surcharge, but the machine wasn't working. I took a Bodaboda into Jinja to get cash, and came back. By this time I was super nervous, but the guys on the tower were really awesome and helped reassure me a little. My boda driver took pictures, and another girl I found took a video - you can hear me screaming choice words throughout. Hopefully the school kids watching from the bank didn't hear me! (That's something you see - throughout the rafting, kids were watching us from the bank, same with the bungee. They're just like "wow look at all these crazy muzungu's trying to kill themselves for fun!). Anyway, I got out there, and they guy was like, hold the bar above your head and shimmy forward. I was like, can't I just go? He said yes, and I don't know how I made myself do it, but next thing I knew I was flying through the air! The first fall wasn't actually THAT scary, but once you bounce and go back up, the second fall is super scary since I didn't know exactly when I'd start falling again, so that is when I started screaming. By the time you're done, I just wanted it to be over, since my ankles hurt from the wraps they put around them, and my feet were like shaking. All I wanted was that thing OFF of me! But Here's the evidence:
After, I took a boda boda into Jinja, and met up with the girls at Flavours, the typical sort of muzungu internet cafe that they have in all the big towns/cities here. All the other expats hang out there, and sure enough the British girls arrived shortly after us for lunch, haha. Our trip home was fairly eventful - we trekked across Jinja with all our stuff and got a mutato, but it wasn't really the right once, since they have more like express ones that don't stop as much, but this wasn't one of those! We just kept stopping and right after Iganga we stopped for about half an hour! It was hot as hell in the mutatu and there was really nothing we could do about it except wait. It also rained on the way back and the windows on mutatus are notorious for leaking, so I got kind of wet sitting next to the window. However, sitting next to the window is always preferable to sitting in the middle (of a row of 4. The vehicles are Toyota Hiace if you want to Google Images that) since you can rest your head on the side, and you can control the amount of window/air that you get. We got to Mbale and decided to take a car back to the village (also probably practical since the mutatus don't really run after dark on Sundays, since you know, normal people are home then). I called Emma (the driver who picked me up at the airport when I first got here) and he came and drove us back up to the village. Plenty of space and AC along with some easy listening/boy bands - made for a relaxing and luxurious ride back to Matuwa.
We got up here, and had ANOTHER cake for Rachel's birthday. Mary had brought cake mix and icing, and Doug baked the cake (using stones in a pot to make a sort of convection oven, and the cake took about 6 hours to bake!), which was super awesome. I wish I had thought to do that for my birthday... bummer. No cake for me. Well that's sort of not true, the other girls probably won't eat the extra cake, so I probably can pretty much call it mine. I got on gamecast for the second half of the game. It sucked. My predictions about me being out of the country and us going far were wrong - well next year I'll be able to stalk the team to my heart's content so BRING IT ON.
I am tired now, and power is out, so I don't want to kill my iPad, and so I will write about today (Toms Shoes day #1 of 3 for me!) tomorrow.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Typical Days
Tuesday we had a CHE community outreach. This meant that the CHE's split up into teams of 4 and go around to houses in certain areas and talk about community health topics. My group of 4 was Joseph, both Jenifers, and Denis. After our first house that we went to (where the guy had 2 wives and 10 children), we split off into two groups of two. Jenifer was talking about oral health and Joseph was talking about TB. So we went to 3 more households (1 of them was a "hotel", which is really more like a restaurant. They lectured them about the sanitation there particularly, since there were a ton of flies inside and clearly that is not good for business!). It makes me wonder how much business these "restaurants" actually do - I mean, most of the people here can't really afford to eat meat even, they can barely afford to feed themselves and all their kids, let alone go out to eat.
The third home we went to, they had a kid who had some mental problems/learning difficulties. They only had three kids though, so I think some form of family planning may have been going on (at least, that is my hope).
After we were done - at a certain time they just decided we were done, I guess everyone else knew we were done too, because on our way down the mountain, we ran into other CHE's along the path - we went to Agnes' house (one of the CHE's) for lunch. She had made a crazy amount of posho, along with beans, and meat. It was a typical Ugandan affair, with lots of speeches and going around and introducing ourselves (even though by now, obviously everyone knows each other!), and a prayer before our meal. Patrick (one of the outreach coordinators, who helped train the CHE's) was asking about how we as volunteers can help get people WaterGuard (tablets that you drop in the water to clean it for drinking without having to spend time boiling it and waiting for it to cool) and mosquito nets - so it looks like I'll have to do some fundraising and stuff when I get back - so be prepared to be hit up for donations!
The rest of the afternoon, I went over my language project stuff (actually just finished it up today for the most part), and half-napped a bit, since I was super beat from being out in the sun. Last night's sunset was pretty spectacular, and Mary and I were both taking pictures:
Today was more of a project day than a clinic day for all of us. The girls were working on a game for the kids for the next school outreach on Monday, and I started off my morning by logging all of the grain sacks. They use grain sacks here to make posters on for all of our outreach and also for the PEP's (Patient Education Program - they give lectures and talks to the patients while they wait, taking every opportunity to educate people in the village about sanitation and basic health issues). There is a list of all the grain sacks we should have (basically all the ones they have at the FIMRC clinic, Dr. Lisa's old site), and of course we are missing a lot, so that will probably be a project for me in April.
Once I finished with the grain sacks, I set about putting all the language terms from the manuals I've been going through into one summary list so that when volunteers arrive they can have a list of useful terms - as of right now its about 5 pages, so I probably need to cut that down a bit. I spent most of the afternoon planning my curriculum for the Girls' Community Health Group. Since I obviously won't be here forever, I'm planning out a yearlong curriculum for the CHE's who will be leading the group to follow, so that they can just continue what we're working on and know what they need to do. I'll need to make some grain sacks for visuals for some of the talks, and prepare some materials in advance for the activities. My plan is to do two meetings a month (Girls' Group meets on Saturdays), and have one of them be a lecture (slash discussion) and the other will be an activity day (where they do a game, role play, or other more "fun" project where they still learn!). I'm using information from a camp for girls that Peace Corps did as well as our Maternal Child Health (MHC) curriculum and our Primary Health Education (PHE) curriculum (which is what we work off of for the school outreaches with the CHE's). So my projects are all going pretty well.
This afternoon, we had a clinician meeting, and then the girls went over physical exams with the three clinicians (Sam - primarily station 2, Irene - our midwife, and Andrew - station 3). I got to be the patients. They went over heart and lung exam, abdominal, and neurological. It was kind of staggering how little the clinicians knew about all of these things, considering that most of what we went over I already knew and I haven't been to medical school yet, and these are fully trained Ugandan clinicians! Wow. Now we are just sitting on our back porch (of course the power just went out after being on all day - it makes no sense to me why it goes out at night, other than that whole Murphy's Law thing). I took some pictures tonight... here is Doug and Lisa and their "family" - two cats, Kaiya the dog, and the family of dogs they have recently adopted (they're already dewormed, and will be vaccinated fully on Friday):
And tonight's sunset:
Uhhhmazing. Tomorrow I think will be more project time and likely some shadowing (Lisa has also assigned me an article about international health NGOs that I'll be presenting, the girls have presentations they have to do for their residency, and she thought this would be good for me to do too, so I'll likely also be doing some reading over the next few days before I present!). Then Friday morning we are going to Mbale to go to CURE (more on this later), and a hospice that we were supposed to go to last Wednesday when we were in Mbale but didn't have enough time to go to. Then we'll head to Jinja for a weekend of rafting (and for me, bungee jumping!) in the afternoon. w00t. Pics to follow.
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The third home we went to, they had a kid who had some mental problems/learning difficulties. They only had three kids though, so I think some form of family planning may have been going on (at least, that is my hope).
After we were done - at a certain time they just decided we were done, I guess everyone else knew we were done too, because on our way down the mountain, we ran into other CHE's along the path - we went to Agnes' house (one of the CHE's) for lunch. She had made a crazy amount of posho, along with beans, and meat. It was a typical Ugandan affair, with lots of speeches and going around and introducing ourselves (even though by now, obviously everyone knows each other!), and a prayer before our meal. Patrick (one of the outreach coordinators, who helped train the CHE's) was asking about how we as volunteers can help get people WaterGuard (tablets that you drop in the water to clean it for drinking without having to spend time boiling it and waiting for it to cool) and mosquito nets - so it looks like I'll have to do some fundraising and stuff when I get back - so be prepared to be hit up for donations!
The rest of the afternoon, I went over my language project stuff (actually just finished it up today for the most part), and half-napped a bit, since I was super beat from being out in the sun. Last night's sunset was pretty spectacular, and Mary and I were both taking pictures:
Today was more of a project day than a clinic day for all of us. The girls were working on a game for the kids for the next school outreach on Monday, and I started off my morning by logging all of the grain sacks. They use grain sacks here to make posters on for all of our outreach and also for the PEP's (Patient Education Program - they give lectures and talks to the patients while they wait, taking every opportunity to educate people in the village about sanitation and basic health issues). There is a list of all the grain sacks we should have (basically all the ones they have at the FIMRC clinic, Dr. Lisa's old site), and of course we are missing a lot, so that will probably be a project for me in April.
Once I finished with the grain sacks, I set about putting all the language terms from the manuals I've been going through into one summary list so that when volunteers arrive they can have a list of useful terms - as of right now its about 5 pages, so I probably need to cut that down a bit. I spent most of the afternoon planning my curriculum for the Girls' Community Health Group. Since I obviously won't be here forever, I'm planning out a yearlong curriculum for the CHE's who will be leading the group to follow, so that they can just continue what we're working on and know what they need to do. I'll need to make some grain sacks for visuals for some of the talks, and prepare some materials in advance for the activities. My plan is to do two meetings a month (Girls' Group meets on Saturdays), and have one of them be a lecture (slash discussion) and the other will be an activity day (where they do a game, role play, or other more "fun" project where they still learn!). I'm using information from a camp for girls that Peace Corps did as well as our Maternal Child Health (MHC) curriculum and our Primary Health Education (PHE) curriculum (which is what we work off of for the school outreaches with the CHE's). So my projects are all going pretty well.
This afternoon, we had a clinician meeting, and then the girls went over physical exams with the three clinicians (Sam - primarily station 2, Irene - our midwife, and Andrew - station 3). I got to be the patients. They went over heart and lung exam, abdominal, and neurological. It was kind of staggering how little the clinicians knew about all of these things, considering that most of what we went over I already knew and I haven't been to medical school yet, and these are fully trained Ugandan clinicians! Wow. Now we are just sitting on our back porch (of course the power just went out after being on all day - it makes no sense to me why it goes out at night, other than that whole Murphy's Law thing). I took some pictures tonight... here is Doug and Lisa and their "family" - two cats, Kaiya the dog, and the family of dogs they have recently adopted (they're already dewormed, and will be vaccinated fully on Friday):
And tonight's sunset:
Uhhhmazing. Tomorrow I think will be more project time and likely some shadowing (Lisa has also assigned me an article about international health NGOs that I'll be presenting, the girls have presentations they have to do for their residency, and she thought this would be good for me to do too, so I'll likely also be doing some reading over the next few days before I present!). Then Friday morning we are going to Mbale to go to CURE (more on this later), and a hospice that we were supposed to go to last Wednesday when we were in Mbale but didn't have enough time to go to. Then we'll head to Jinja for a weekend of rafting (and for me, bungee jumping!) in the afternoon. w00t. Pics to follow.
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Monday, March 12, 2012
Nighttime excitement
I know I just posted but this was ridiculous. The girls and I were just reading and talking after dinner in the common room when we heard a knock on the door. Not knowing who it was I was hesitant to open it until I noticed the woman was VERY pregnant. Mary ran over to get Lisa, and Then we all helped the woman to the clinic. She really didn't speak any English, but her friend with her managed to communicate that she already has 10 kids! She had a Ugandan ministry of health booklet with her saying her DOB was in 1962! It also said she was due in early January, so who knows what (if any) of that info was correct.
Our clinic midwife is not around this week (Irene) so we couldn't just call her to come. Lisa called Anthony, a boda boda driver to come and take her to Migale (a health center IV, meaning it is an actual hospital, and can accommodate inpatient stays). Rachel put on gloves and checked the woman out, she wasn't dilated and her water hadn't broken yet. She was having some contractions and pain, however. Anthony arrived with his boda , and she was hesitant to go, since she had two friends with her and she could only take one of them with her on the boda. We convinced her to go, Lisa (aka the clinic) paid for the transport, and she was off. It was difficult for her to get on the bike, and she actually popped a squat and peed in our front yard before she got on the bike! Anthony just flashed Lisa (flashing is when a boda driver or someone calls you and hangs up, so you call them back and then you pay the airtime instead of them) and said they got to Migale all right, so she is at the hospital now, and hopefully everything goes ok!
Just a typical night in Uganda. And the power is back on... For now.
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Our clinic midwife is not around this week (Irene) so we couldn't just call her to come. Lisa called Anthony, a boda boda driver to come and take her to Migale (a health center IV, meaning it is an actual hospital, and can accommodate inpatient stays). Rachel put on gloves and checked the woman out, she wasn't dilated and her water hadn't broken yet. She was having some contractions and pain, however. Anthony arrived with his boda , and she was hesitant to go, since she had two friends with her and she could only take one of them with her on the boda. We convinced her to go, Lisa (aka the clinic) paid for the transport, and she was off. It was difficult for her to get on the bike, and she actually popped a squat and peed in our front yard before she got on the bike! Anthony just flashed Lisa (flashing is when a boda driver or someone calls you and hangs up, so you call them back and then you pay the airtime instead of them) and said they got to Migale all right, so she is at the hospital now, and hopefully everything goes ok!
Just a typical night in Uganda. And the power is back on... For now.
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End of Homestay
Saturday of my homestay, Peter set up a hike with a guide he knew from FIMRC, Michael. We left the Zaale compound a little before 9 and took a boda boda to the FIMRC guesthouse where we met Michael. Turns out, it was Mike who had guided the girls and myself around Mbale to the various health centers. The hike was hot and quite strenuous. We hiked up to a waterfall (that doesn't have a name!) that took about 2.5 hours to get to. The waterfall:
Naturally, a little kid joined us on our walk. Pretty much anywhere you go here as a muzungo (white person) little kids will stare and or follow you, laughing the whole time at the ridiculous things you inevitably do, say, or wear.
This is me, Mike, and the kid (whose name I unfortunately didn't catch).
It was a very enjoyable hike, but super long and tiring (about 5 hours in total). After the hike, Peter and I got a soda and chapatti with Mike in Khololo (colddd soda mmmm). Then we headed back to the Zaale's, where we spent most of the afternoon relaxing, reading, and eating pineapple. Peter learned how to make the G-nut sauce that is made with bamboo shoots. I stayed far away!
Dinner as always at the Zaale's was amazing. Just so much food! The spread:
That is David, my host dad, showing off the food (which of course he didn't help prepare, that is women's work!). It included Matoke, posho, rice, avocado, chicken, chapattis, cabbage, the bamboo shoots, and a sort of gravy/sauce for the chicken. We just ate ourselves silly and then hung out with David and Elizabeth for a while before bed. Here is me and my host parents:
Then Sunday morning, we woke up for church, which was going to be at 9. Well Peter and I were ready to go by 8:50, but no one made any move to go anywhere. Typical Ugandan time schedule. We finally headed out at about 5 of 10, and walked about 5 minutes to get to the church. They showed us where about 10 years ago they started to build a new church, but stopped once the foundation was completed due to lack of money. We entered the church where they were saying the rosary, then some singing. The actual service seemed to begin around 10, so really we were right on time, and more people even came in after us. It was pretty much a typical Catholic service, except in Lugasa, so Peter and I didn't understand it! They did have 3 separate times for donations (we gave 1000 USh each), so that part we understood. Church lasted about 2 hours, then we went back to the house.
Then I headed back up to Matuwa, Julius (their son) drove to Bunaporo, where I caught the Matatu, and then a boda boda from Bubulo back up to Matuwa. Finally got home, made some lunch (scrambled eggs with peppers and onions), did some laundry, and just generally cleaned up my stuff/room/life.
The girls arrived back from Nairobi, having loved their safari yet having had some travel snafus, particularly on the way back when they discovered they had purchased the wrong visa upon entering Kenya. I'm excited for my trip, but now I know what not to do as well!
Today was just a typical clinic day, I spent most of the day shadowing Rachel who was seeing patients. Mary and Natalie were seeing patients in the next room, so everyone was pretty busy.
After clinic, I went for a run and my Nike Plus that tracks my runs died. So now I guess I'm just running without knowing how far/fast. Whatever. I'll have to get a new one when I get home.
The next thing to plan is our trip to Jinja. White water rafting on class V rapids on the Nile. The girls do not intend to bungee jump, but I think I am going to!
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Naturally, a little kid joined us on our walk. Pretty much anywhere you go here as a muzungo (white person) little kids will stare and or follow you, laughing the whole time at the ridiculous things you inevitably do, say, or wear.
This is me, Mike, and the kid (whose name I unfortunately didn't catch).
It was a very enjoyable hike, but super long and tiring (about 5 hours in total). After the hike, Peter and I got a soda and chapatti with Mike in Khololo (colddd soda mmmm). Then we headed back to the Zaale's, where we spent most of the afternoon relaxing, reading, and eating pineapple. Peter learned how to make the G-nut sauce that is made with bamboo shoots. I stayed far away!
Dinner as always at the Zaale's was amazing. Just so much food! The spread:
That is David, my host dad, showing off the food (which of course he didn't help prepare, that is women's work!). It included Matoke, posho, rice, avocado, chicken, chapattis, cabbage, the bamboo shoots, and a sort of gravy/sauce for the chicken. We just ate ourselves silly and then hung out with David and Elizabeth for a while before bed. Here is me and my host parents:
Then Sunday morning, we woke up for church, which was going to be at 9. Well Peter and I were ready to go by 8:50, but no one made any move to go anywhere. Typical Ugandan time schedule. We finally headed out at about 5 of 10, and walked about 5 minutes to get to the church. They showed us where about 10 years ago they started to build a new church, but stopped once the foundation was completed due to lack of money. We entered the church where they were saying the rosary, then some singing. The actual service seemed to begin around 10, so really we were right on time, and more people even came in after us. It was pretty much a typical Catholic service, except in Lugasa, so Peter and I didn't understand it! They did have 3 separate times for donations (we gave 1000 USh each), so that part we understood. Church lasted about 2 hours, then we went back to the house.
Then I headed back up to Matuwa, Julius (their son) drove to Bunaporo, where I caught the Matatu, and then a boda boda from Bubulo back up to Matuwa. Finally got home, made some lunch (scrambled eggs with peppers and onions), did some laundry, and just generally cleaned up my stuff/room/life.
The girls arrived back from Nairobi, having loved their safari yet having had some travel snafus, particularly on the way back when they discovered they had purchased the wrong visa upon entering Kenya. I'm excited for my trip, but now I know what not to do as well!
Today was just a typical clinic day, I spent most of the day shadowing Rachel who was seeing patients. Mary and Natalie were seeing patients in the next room, so everyone was pretty busy.
After clinic, I went for a run and my Nike Plus that tracks my runs died. So now I guess I'm just running without knowing how far/fast. Whatever. I'll have to get a new one when I get home.
The next thing to plan is our trip to Jinja. White water rafting on class V rapids on the Nile. The girls do not intend to bungee jump, but I think I am going to!
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Friday, March 9, 2012
FIMRC clinic day
So today I woke up at the Zalle's guesthouse and went across to the main house for breakfast. Chapattis and tea. I had to ask for my tea plain since they make it with lots of milk here and I'm not such a fan, but they made me some plain, no problem. After breakfast, I went with Peter to the FIMRC clinic. Peter is a pediatrician/family practice doc from Yorkshire in the UK. He's retired and is here for about 5 weeks. He is super nice and I had a really great day with him.
We rode a boda to Khololo, where the clinic is (pronounced cho-lo-lo). Once there, Ryan (a girl, from DC actually) who is the clinic manager (she replaced Lisa when Lisa went to Matuwa) gave me a tour. They have the station system there just like we have at our clinic. Then, once we got an interpreter, Peter started seeing patients while I observed. After a while, he let me take their histories, listen to their hearts and chests, and even give my opinion on what they may have had wrong with them. It was really awesome. After seeing a bunch of patients you start to see patterns and get an idea of what is going on. We tested about half of the patients for malaria, but they all came back negative.
Like at our clinic, they stop for tea, but unlike at Matuwa, it wasn't like a mass exodus of staffers. We sort of (unspokenly) took tea a few at a time (obviously, they also had chapattis, my fave!). After tea, we saw more patients. It was really cool to talk to patients and get some more patient interaction. Peter was also really good at explaining stuff to me, and including how the treatments/advice he was dispensing was at times different from how we would do it at home. Lunch was posho, beans, and cabbage. Proud to say I am actually borderline enjoying beans now. Greens are another story, since the smell alone repulsed me!
After lunch it was a lot slower but we saw three or four more patients, including one young girl with a raging ear infection that was literally oozing pus. Peter had Rogers at station 4 clean it out, prescribed an antibiotic, and told her to come back in 4 weeks. He said the eardrum could have partially ruptured and that's how long it would take to heal to see if that was the issue. A lot of kids (like at home) seemed to have just a virus. However, there has apparently been a cholera outbreak in the area, so we were sure to be on the lookout for that, too. None of the patients seemed to show the signs (dehydration, lots of watery diarrhea), so that was fortunate.
Around 3:30, there were no more patients, so Peter and I walked down into Khololo to get a cold soda. We found a fridge, and sat and enjoyed COLD fanta! Awesome. A matatu came and we hopped on (in the front seat, which I find much preferable to being cramped in the back, also you can see your approaching death as they swerve back and forth across he road to avoid stones and potholes!)
Got off at Bunaporo, and walked back to the Zalle's. I just had a nice bucket bath, the kids are banging on stuff, the Senator brand beer (a new brand for me to try! I had the Pilsner Lager last night. Selection here is much more extensive than in Matuwa!) is chilling in a not-too-warm bucket of water, so it's time to just read a book and relax until dinner (which will probably be served after 8, like last night so I'm sure I'll be hungry by then). I'm reading Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom in preparation for the South Africa trip.
Alsoooo yesterday I booked my plane tickets for my Kenya/Rwanda trip and mom wired money to Rwanda for my gorilla tracking safari! Update on the trip is as follows:
March 29: overnight bus to Nairobi at 5 PM out of Mbale
March 30: arrive in Nairobi at 4:30 am (!) meet up with Alix (Erin from poastbac's sis who is working in Nairobi. Hang with Alix
March 31: more of touring/hiking Nairobi with Alix
April 1-3: safari on the Masai Mara, Kenya
April 4: fly to Kigali, Rwanda, 10:55 am. Check out genocide memorials/Kigali city in the afternoon.
April 5: SAM HALEBIAN arrives and meets me in Kigali!
April 6-7: gorilla tracking excursion and possible trip to lake Kivu
April 8: fly to Entebbe, Uganda at 3 PM.
April 9: Ngamba island chimp reserve In Lake Victoria, aero beach (beach on Lake Victoria where they randomly have old airplanes, like 747's that you can go on/in
April 10: ride back to Matuwa village with the next volunteer who arrives at entebbe late the night of the 9th
I am super stoked.
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We rode a boda to Khololo, where the clinic is (pronounced cho-lo-lo). Once there, Ryan (a girl, from DC actually) who is the clinic manager (she replaced Lisa when Lisa went to Matuwa) gave me a tour. They have the station system there just like we have at our clinic. Then, once we got an interpreter, Peter started seeing patients while I observed. After a while, he let me take their histories, listen to their hearts and chests, and even give my opinion on what they may have had wrong with them. It was really awesome. After seeing a bunch of patients you start to see patterns and get an idea of what is going on. We tested about half of the patients for malaria, but they all came back negative.
Like at our clinic, they stop for tea, but unlike at Matuwa, it wasn't like a mass exodus of staffers. We sort of (unspokenly) took tea a few at a time (obviously, they also had chapattis, my fave!). After tea, we saw more patients. It was really cool to talk to patients and get some more patient interaction. Peter was also really good at explaining stuff to me, and including how the treatments/advice he was dispensing was at times different from how we would do it at home. Lunch was posho, beans, and cabbage. Proud to say I am actually borderline enjoying beans now. Greens are another story, since the smell alone repulsed me!
After lunch it was a lot slower but we saw three or four more patients, including one young girl with a raging ear infection that was literally oozing pus. Peter had Rogers at station 4 clean it out, prescribed an antibiotic, and told her to come back in 4 weeks. He said the eardrum could have partially ruptured and that's how long it would take to heal to see if that was the issue. A lot of kids (like at home) seemed to have just a virus. However, there has apparently been a cholera outbreak in the area, so we were sure to be on the lookout for that, too. None of the patients seemed to show the signs (dehydration, lots of watery diarrhea), so that was fortunate.
Around 3:30, there were no more patients, so Peter and I walked down into Khololo to get a cold soda. We found a fridge, and sat and enjoyed COLD fanta! Awesome. A matatu came and we hopped on (in the front seat, which I find much preferable to being cramped in the back, also you can see your approaching death as they swerve back and forth across he road to avoid stones and potholes!)
Got off at Bunaporo, and walked back to the Zalle's. I just had a nice bucket bath, the kids are banging on stuff, the Senator brand beer (a new brand for me to try! I had the Pilsner Lager last night. Selection here is much more extensive than in Matuwa!) is chilling in a not-too-warm bucket of water, so it's time to just read a book and relax until dinner (which will probably be served after 8, like last night so I'm sure I'll be hungry by then). I'm reading Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom in preparation for the South Africa trip.
Alsoooo yesterday I booked my plane tickets for my Kenya/Rwanda trip and mom wired money to Rwanda for my gorilla tracking safari! Update on the trip is as follows:
March 29: overnight bus to Nairobi at 5 PM out of Mbale
March 30: arrive in Nairobi at 4:30 am (!) meet up with Alix (Erin from poastbac's sis who is working in Nairobi. Hang with Alix
March 31: more of touring/hiking Nairobi with Alix
April 1-3: safari on the Masai Mara, Kenya
April 4: fly to Kigali, Rwanda, 10:55 am. Check out genocide memorials/Kigali city in the afternoon.
April 5: SAM HALEBIAN arrives and meets me in Kigali!
April 6-7: gorilla tracking excursion and possible trip to lake Kivu
April 8: fly to Entebbe, Uganda at 3 PM.
April 9: Ngamba island chimp reserve In Lake Victoria, aero beach (beach on Lake Victoria where they randomly have old airplanes, like 747's that you can go on/in
April 10: ride back to Matuwa village with the next volunteer who arrives at entebbe late the night of the 9th
I am super stoked.
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Clinical stuff... And cooking and piglets!
So just to finish up the first part of this week.
Tuesday, Mary and Natalie went to a clinic run by this woman Jan, from the UK. Rachel and I stayed at the Beatrice tierney clinic, and I started off the day working on my language project, and also reading some of the peace corps material From their GLOW (Girls Leading Our World, a camp for education and empowerment of girls) which I am planning to incorporate into our curriculum for Girls' Group. Then after tea, Rachel was seeing patients that we had seen on the school outreach Monday and had referred to the clinic. The first one we saw was a man whose feet were just swollen beyond recognition and had crystal like deposits all over them. You can't even see the toenails. It could be elephantitis or Kaposi's Sarcoma. Jury is still out. You wouldn't believe the size of his feet. He said it had started in 1998. There is no way one visit to a clinic could fix this, definitely needs so e kind of surgery. The other patient I shadowed her on was a boy who had fallen off a bridge in his village last June and had stayed in a hospital for about a month after due to a huge laceration on his right foot/leg. well, now it's all infected and swollen and still open. Just pretty shocking to see. Both of these patients are due back to the clinic on Monday so hopefully more to come.
Wednesday was a trip to Mbale. After arriving very late (due to yet a other wonderful experience to the MTN store to get a mobile for the girls), we finally got to Mbale hospital around 11:30. A friend of Lisa's named mike was showing us around and he too, us to Dr.Peter Olupot, their research director. He was very informative, taking us through the acute and longer term pediatric wards, as well as ortho and ENT. Pictures to come later, with more description...
Pics will come later since I'm not in Matuwa (my village) now (and the pics are on my pocket camera, and I only have my SLR here with me). I'm in Bududa at a home stay with a family that was previously Lisa's host family, the Zalle's. They are great! Their home is really nice (by Ugandan standards, obviously). I have my own room with a DOUBLE BED in the guesthouse section. I got here around 1, and spent my afternoon first talking with David, the husband. We talked about uganda's history, particularly the Amin (I may be spelling that wrong) reign and all that went along with it. David is turning 68, so he has lived through it all. I also learned how to make chapattis with Elizabeth, David's wife.
I also helped cook cabbage and pork that we later had for dinner. I played some banana grams with David, then Peter, a doctor from the UK who is volunteering at FIMRC and staying here for a few days got back. He's super nice and is going to take me to FIMRC clinic for the day tomorrow with him. FIMRC. Is the foundation for international medical relief of children, and this s the clinic that Lisa used to run, and the one by the Arlington school (where most volunteers go). We were sitting with David on the porch watching the sun set, when David's son Julius (his 4th child of 7, who lives here win his son, also called David) said hat one of the outs was delivering. This I had to see:
I got out there just as she gave birth to the second piglet, the. Edited over an hour for her to deliver the third! When the piglets are born, Julius takes then and outs them in a bucket with leaves to keep the, arm, so they are safe and out of the way. The mother was quite agitated trying to get comfortable, and was getting up and moving around. Julius said there would probably be 8-10 piglets!
Finally she gave birth to the piglet we were waiting for:
Pretty amazing. Then dinner time! This included pork, matoke, potatoes, cabbage, chapattis, and bamboo shoots (made with nuts, so I skip this!). Uhhhhmazing. What a day. When I have my keyboard back in in Matuwa, I'll write more but just wanted t get the bare bones version in. Also, the generator is on, so hard to fall asleep right now!
(written night of march 8, posted on the 9)
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Tuesday, Mary and Natalie went to a clinic run by this woman Jan, from the UK. Rachel and I stayed at the Beatrice tierney clinic, and I started off the day working on my language project, and also reading some of the peace corps material From their GLOW (Girls Leading Our World, a camp for education and empowerment of girls) which I am planning to incorporate into our curriculum for Girls' Group. Then after tea, Rachel was seeing patients that we had seen on the school outreach Monday and had referred to the clinic. The first one we saw was a man whose feet were just swollen beyond recognition and had crystal like deposits all over them. You can't even see the toenails. It could be elephantitis or Kaposi's Sarcoma. Jury is still out. You wouldn't believe the size of his feet. He said it had started in 1998. There is no way one visit to a clinic could fix this, definitely needs so e kind of surgery. The other patient I shadowed her on was a boy who had fallen off a bridge in his village last June and had stayed in a hospital for about a month after due to a huge laceration on his right foot/leg. well, now it's all infected and swollen and still open. Just pretty shocking to see. Both of these patients are due back to the clinic on Monday so hopefully more to come.
Wednesday was a trip to Mbale. After arriving very late (due to yet a other wonderful experience to the MTN store to get a mobile for the girls), we finally got to Mbale hospital around 11:30. A friend of Lisa's named mike was showing us around and he too, us to Dr.Peter Olupot, their research director. He was very informative, taking us through the acute and longer term pediatric wards, as well as ortho and ENT. Pictures to come later, with more description...
Pics will come later since I'm not in Matuwa (my village) now (and the pics are on my pocket camera, and I only have my SLR here with me). I'm in Bududa at a home stay with a family that was previously Lisa's host family, the Zalle's. They are great! Their home is really nice (by Ugandan standards, obviously). I have my own room with a DOUBLE BED in the guesthouse section. I got here around 1, and spent my afternoon first talking with David, the husband. We talked about uganda's history, particularly the Amin (I may be spelling that wrong) reign and all that went along with it. David is turning 68, so he has lived through it all. I also learned how to make chapattis with Elizabeth, David's wife.
I also helped cook cabbage and pork that we later had for dinner. I played some banana grams with David, then Peter, a doctor from the UK who is volunteering at FIMRC and staying here for a few days got back. He's super nice and is going to take me to FIMRC clinic for the day tomorrow with him. FIMRC. Is the foundation for international medical relief of children, and this s the clinic that Lisa used to run, and the one by the Arlington school (where most volunteers go). We were sitting with David on the porch watching the sun set, when David's son Julius (his 4th child of 7, who lives here win his son, also called David) said hat one of the outs was delivering. This I had to see:
I got out there just as she gave birth to the second piglet, the. Edited over an hour for her to deliver the third! When the piglets are born, Julius takes then and outs them in a bucket with leaves to keep the, arm, so they are safe and out of the way. The mother was quite agitated trying to get comfortable, and was getting up and moving around. Julius said there would probably be 8-10 piglets!
Finally she gave birth to the piglet we were waiting for:
Pretty amazing. Then dinner time! This included pork, matoke, potatoes, cabbage, chapattis, and bamboo shoots (made with nuts, so I skip this!). Uhhhhmazing. What a day. When I have my keyboard back in in Matuwa, I'll write more but just wanted t get the bare bones version in. Also, the generator is on, so hard to fall asleep right now!
(written night of march 8, posted on the 9)
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Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Sipi Falls
Sooo I last posted on Thursday. Let's see what i have done.
Thursday Night: the three residents (Natalie, Mary, and Rachel) from Wisconsin arrived LATE Thursday night in a PACKED car. Doug had to pick them up since something happened with their driver, and he had a million errands to run in Kampala, so in addition to all of their stuff and lots of donations they brought, they had a ton of other stuff and were all smushed in like a clown car. Stuff literally kept coming out of the car when they arrived. Ridiculous.
Friday: The girls started their day by doing orientations of the stations at the clinic. I spent some time in the morning beginning to go through the Peace Corps language manuals (of Lumasaaba, the local language),so that we can make a brief language guide to provide to future volunteers that come here. At 11 the last part of the CHE training started. Doug and I mostly split it up, I honestly don't really remember what we talked about. I had made up manuals for them from the last part of the information that Doug had copied in Kampala, so it was that stuff. I think like more women's health and stuff. Anyway, that took up most of the afternoon. The girls got to see me in action (teaching!) and get a feel for the Ugandan style of teaching. Patrick introduced the CHE's to them about a million times in typical Ugandan fashion, so they definitely got a feel for Ugandans love of ceremony and formality of occasion. Friday night... we as usual did nothing, but I sat around with the girls and talked. They are super keen on doing a TON of traveling (except one, who I think is concerned with costs, understandably), which I hope they can fit in considering they are only here for three weeks.
Saturday: We went to Sipi Falls on Saturday. What an adventure. So we took the boda-bodas to Bubulo (town a bit less than halfway to Mbale where you catch the Mutato, or small taxi bus to Mbale). They were pretty skeptical of the bodas, particularly the lack of helmets. I find them pretty exciting, but then again, I am planning to bungee jump in Jinja and Sam and I already scheduled our cage diving with Great White Sharks for South Africa, so I guess I'm more of an adrenaline junkie :) We got to Bubulo and couldn't get a mutato for the life of me.. I pretty much was the navigator since, you know, I had gotten via public transport to Mbale ONCE. So we just took another Boda into Mbale, and arrived totally covered in dirt. Then the girls had to change money, which was a nightmare since the banks mostly all close at 12 on Saturday, and we got there a little after 1 (we had to wait for Lisa to get up to give us specifics on how to get there and where to stay, and I felt bad waking up her early on a Saturday, so we didn't get on the road until after 11). Anyway, I found a bank where they could change money, I hit the ATM (surcharge free, thank you upgraded TD Bank account!). Mary and I went to the MTN store next while the other girls waited in a LONGASS line to change money. Well at the MTN store it turned out that they had changed their policies since two weeks ago when I got my internet plan. To get a USB internet stick for their laptop, Mary had to get a copy of her license and get passport photos taken, then we had to go back and try to get it. Turned out to be more expensive that we thought, so we just got 1 for them to share on their two laptops. Mary had an iPad, but they didn't have any microsim cards at the MTN store in Mbale. All of this made me VERY glad that Emma took me to the store in Kampala to set up my internet. VERY GLAD.
Finally we had everything we need (and after the great Diet Coke hunt of 2012, which I told them there was no diet coke to be had in Mbale, but they did find some Coke Zero. Me, I am loving the sugar of regular good ol' RED COKE - Gary will get that reference). So it was time to find our ride to Kapchorwa, which is the closest city to Sipi Falls, and they drop you off at Sipi on the way there. I had the number of Moses, who is one of the guides out at the Crows Nest, the hostel where we ended up staying, so he sent someone to find us and drive us up there. So after all of this, at about 3:30 we made it up to the Crows' Nest.
View of Sipi Falls (the lower falls) from our room at the Crows' Nest. We hiked to the lower falls with Moses that afternoon.
Then that night we had dinner at the lodge, met some really cool travelers while we were there. This one couple from the UK had DRIVEN all the way down here. You can check out their blog (actually really cool) at overlandbirds.com
Sunday: Sunday we got up early and hiked the upper and middle falls with Moses. Just amazing views, pretty steep hiking though.
This one is of the middle falls. From left to right: Me (DUH), rachel, mary, and natalie. It was really awesome. This part behind the waterfall was man made, and there are man made caves there too, that Moses told us all about. Moses was a very informative and awesome guide, he really knew his stuff, and his English was great so we really lucked out to have him as our guide for the whole time. We then took a mutato back to Mbale, and then had lunch at a sort of Indian restaurant that I hadn't been to before. Chat n' Chino was closed which sort of bummed the girls out since they couldn't get on the wireless internet then. I ate myself silly at the restaurant on "Spaghetti bolognese with garlic bread". This was like rice noodles with beef and some cheese on top in a kind of indian sauce. it was really good but not italian AT ALL. Garlic bread was white bread with chunks of garlic on it. Interesting as well. The mutato back to Bubulo was a typical level of crowdedness so the girls got their first taste of that and then a boda ride back up here to Matuwa where it started to rain en route. OH PERFECT. Just kind of chilled out, and attempted to watch Superbad, but no one paid attention as we all ended up using computers and reading books.
Monday: Monday was the CHE school outreach. We left a little after 11 and hiked about 4 km (it certainly felt longer!) up to the school at Bunumuntsu. It was like straight up the hill out my front door (I think I've posted pics of this), and then across and around this mountain and some others that are attached to it, I guess. The path we were walking on was way too treacherous for a boda even. It reminded me of a skiing traverse, like when you ski horizontally across the mountain to get to another area of the ski area... Dad will understand this one. At the school, we split up the 4 of us, and each went with a CHE and into a classroom where we gave a talk about general health, sanitation, personal hygiene etc. Part of my work here is supposed to be further organization of this program, since each CHE kind of went into his classroom by the seat of their pants and just winged it. A more cohesive, organized curriculum will ensure that the kids learn everything we want, and that they don't get double info or anything left out. It was just a very long day. We also went over to this other village that isn't within the CHE's jurisdiction but it is one of the villages that we are hoping to add to the program. There were a few patients there that definitely needed to be referred to the clinic - 3 of the 4 showed up today. I'll write more about the patients we saw today later (hopefully tomorrow!). I'm just tired of writing right now (I actually went for a run tonight!) and Lisa just made passion fruit cocktails (fresh passion fruit with sprite and vodka), so its time to stop for now!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Thursday Night: the three residents (Natalie, Mary, and Rachel) from Wisconsin arrived LATE Thursday night in a PACKED car. Doug had to pick them up since something happened with their driver, and he had a million errands to run in Kampala, so in addition to all of their stuff and lots of donations they brought, they had a ton of other stuff and were all smushed in like a clown car. Stuff literally kept coming out of the car when they arrived. Ridiculous.
Friday: The girls started their day by doing orientations of the stations at the clinic. I spent some time in the morning beginning to go through the Peace Corps language manuals (of Lumasaaba, the local language),so that we can make a brief language guide to provide to future volunteers that come here. At 11 the last part of the CHE training started. Doug and I mostly split it up, I honestly don't really remember what we talked about. I had made up manuals for them from the last part of the information that Doug had copied in Kampala, so it was that stuff. I think like more women's health and stuff. Anyway, that took up most of the afternoon. The girls got to see me in action (teaching!) and get a feel for the Ugandan style of teaching. Patrick introduced the CHE's to them about a million times in typical Ugandan fashion, so they definitely got a feel for Ugandans love of ceremony and formality of occasion. Friday night... we as usual did nothing, but I sat around with the girls and talked. They are super keen on doing a TON of traveling (except one, who I think is concerned with costs, understandably), which I hope they can fit in considering they are only here for three weeks.
Saturday: We went to Sipi Falls on Saturday. What an adventure. So we took the boda-bodas to Bubulo (town a bit less than halfway to Mbale where you catch the Mutato, or small taxi bus to Mbale). They were pretty skeptical of the bodas, particularly the lack of helmets. I find them pretty exciting, but then again, I am planning to bungee jump in Jinja and Sam and I already scheduled our cage diving with Great White Sharks for South Africa, so I guess I'm more of an adrenaline junkie :) We got to Bubulo and couldn't get a mutato for the life of me.. I pretty much was the navigator since, you know, I had gotten via public transport to Mbale ONCE. So we just took another Boda into Mbale, and arrived totally covered in dirt. Then the girls had to change money, which was a nightmare since the banks mostly all close at 12 on Saturday, and we got there a little after 1 (we had to wait for Lisa to get up to give us specifics on how to get there and where to stay, and I felt bad waking up her early on a Saturday, so we didn't get on the road until after 11). Anyway, I found a bank where they could change money, I hit the ATM (surcharge free, thank you upgraded TD Bank account!). Mary and I went to the MTN store next while the other girls waited in a LONGASS line to change money. Well at the MTN store it turned out that they had changed their policies since two weeks ago when I got my internet plan. To get a USB internet stick for their laptop, Mary had to get a copy of her license and get passport photos taken, then we had to go back and try to get it. Turned out to be more expensive that we thought, so we just got 1 for them to share on their two laptops. Mary had an iPad, but they didn't have any microsim cards at the MTN store in Mbale. All of this made me VERY glad that Emma took me to the store in Kampala to set up my internet. VERY GLAD.
Finally we had everything we need (and after the great Diet Coke hunt of 2012, which I told them there was no diet coke to be had in Mbale, but they did find some Coke Zero. Me, I am loving the sugar of regular good ol' RED COKE - Gary will get that reference). So it was time to find our ride to Kapchorwa, which is the closest city to Sipi Falls, and they drop you off at Sipi on the way there. I had the number of Moses, who is one of the guides out at the Crows Nest, the hostel where we ended up staying, so he sent someone to find us and drive us up there. So after all of this, at about 3:30 we made it up to the Crows' Nest.
View of Sipi Falls (the lower falls) from our room at the Crows' Nest. We hiked to the lower falls with Moses that afternoon.
Then that night we had dinner at the lodge, met some really cool travelers while we were there. This one couple from the UK had DRIVEN all the way down here. You can check out their blog (actually really cool) at overlandbirds.com
Sunday: Sunday we got up early and hiked the upper and middle falls with Moses. Just amazing views, pretty steep hiking though.
This one is of the middle falls. From left to right: Me (DUH), rachel, mary, and natalie. It was really awesome. This part behind the waterfall was man made, and there are man made caves there too, that Moses told us all about. Moses was a very informative and awesome guide, he really knew his stuff, and his English was great so we really lucked out to have him as our guide for the whole time. We then took a mutato back to Mbale, and then had lunch at a sort of Indian restaurant that I hadn't been to before. Chat n' Chino was closed which sort of bummed the girls out since they couldn't get on the wireless internet then. I ate myself silly at the restaurant on "Spaghetti bolognese with garlic bread". This was like rice noodles with beef and some cheese on top in a kind of indian sauce. it was really good but not italian AT ALL. Garlic bread was white bread with chunks of garlic on it. Interesting as well. The mutato back to Bubulo was a typical level of crowdedness so the girls got their first taste of that and then a boda ride back up here to Matuwa where it started to rain en route. OH PERFECT. Just kind of chilled out, and attempted to watch Superbad, but no one paid attention as we all ended up using computers and reading books.
Monday: Monday was the CHE school outreach. We left a little after 11 and hiked about 4 km (it certainly felt longer!) up to the school at Bunumuntsu. It was like straight up the hill out my front door (I think I've posted pics of this), and then across and around this mountain and some others that are attached to it, I guess. The path we were walking on was way too treacherous for a boda even. It reminded me of a skiing traverse, like when you ski horizontally across the mountain to get to another area of the ski area... Dad will understand this one. At the school, we split up the 4 of us, and each went with a CHE and into a classroom where we gave a talk about general health, sanitation, personal hygiene etc. Part of my work here is supposed to be further organization of this program, since each CHE kind of went into his classroom by the seat of their pants and just winged it. A more cohesive, organized curriculum will ensure that the kids learn everything we want, and that they don't get double info or anything left out. It was just a very long day. We also went over to this other village that isn't within the CHE's jurisdiction but it is one of the villages that we are hoping to add to the program. There were a few patients there that definitely needed to be referred to the clinic - 3 of the 4 showed up today. I'll write more about the patients we saw today later (hopefully tomorrow!). I'm just tired of writing right now (I actually went for a run tonight!) and Lisa just made passion fruit cocktails (fresh passion fruit with sprite and vodka), so its time to stop for now!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Thursday, March 1, 2012
A few more pics
figured i'd try to throw up a few more pictures:
Prisca in the lab:
Malaria, as seen from the microscope:
HIV Tests (you spot the blood on at the lower end of a strip. it travels along the strip. If a line shows up in the first window, they are HIV positive. The line in the second window is a control line, if it doesn't show up the test needs to be done again. There are 3 tests that are performed depending on the results to make sure someone isn't given a false positive!)
The full wall of handprints!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Prisca in the lab:
Malaria, as seen from the microscope:
HIV Tests (you spot the blood on at the lower end of a strip. it travels along the strip. If a line shows up in the first window, they are HIV positive. The line in the second window is a control line, if it doesn't show up the test needs to be done again. There are 3 tests that are performed depending on the results to make sure someone isn't given a false positive!)
The full wall of handprints!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Week 2 (so far)
So this week, the VHT (Village Health Team, they are also called CHE's (Community Health Educators), the terms are pretty interchangeable - the main difference is that the Ugandan Ministry of Health recognizes VHT's, while CHE's are something that the clinic administrates - the people in Bupoto who are one, are the other as well) training (jeez that was a LONG parenthesis) has been only in the afternoons, so I've been getting some work done on my other projects.
Monday, I started my day by making name tags for all the staff members for the board in the Community room. There are spots on the board each of the 5 stations, the lab, and then "off duty", so now we can hang the name tags and know who is working where. I also finished making the MUAC strips (mid-upper arm circumference strips - they are the creation of Doctors without Borders and are used to determine the malnutrition of children by wrapping this strip around their mid-upper arm - if the strip shows green, they're ok, yellow is risk of malnutrition, orange is moderate malnutrition, and red is severe malnutrition) for all of the CHE's. I also spent time with Andrew at Station 3 - which is like a typical examination room situation, like at a regular doctor's office. Andrew sees patients, and prescribes drugs or sends them to the lab for test, or prescribes other treatments (there are signs all over the clinic reminding patients that the goal is to give the best treatment possible - and sometimes that means NO treatment. A lot of people come in and feel cheated if they don't leave with pills but that's not always the best thing for them, obviously). I also spent some time in the lab with Prisca. She showed me how to do the malaria and HIV tests, and I got to look at malaria under the microscope (which most people in the US will never get to see, since no one there has malaria!). It was pretty cool.
Our afternoon workshop with the CHE's was given by Stacy, a Peace Corps Volunteer who is nearing the end of her service here. She talked about RUMPS (re-usable menstrual pads). I know now everyone is thinking GROSS! But most women here can't afford to buy disposable pads or tampons, because they are very expensive here and they make less money than the average American anyway. In fact, a lot of girls miss a lot of school if they can't get pads, because they are embarrassed (understandably) about bleeding at school and having it show - so they miss about a week every month. The RUMPS program teaches you how to make reusable menstrual pads. Basically, you sew a strip of cloth into a little pouch, then put a piece of towel inside to absorb. There are little "wings" that button under the knickers (underwear) so it stays in place. Both parts can then be washed, the towel and the sleeve, so most girls would need about 3 4 so they can wear one while the others are being washed. Actually a pretty cool program. Stacy had brought all the materials to make them, so we did. She also talked about the menstrual cycle and how it works.
Most Ugandans don't have a very good idea about sexual health and stuff like that. They are like a bunch of fourth graders who laugh when you use the correct terminology for people's genitals. Imagine talking about a pregnant woman's vaginal bleeding to a roomful of adults and they all start giggling - this happened to me last week. So Stacy went over the menstrual cycle and when you are most likely to get pregnant, but emphasized that since people are different, birth control methods like Moonbeads (essentially a string of beads that you use to count the days of your cycle - the rhythm method on a necklace) are just unreliable.
Tuesday I got working on the map project Lisa wanted me to do. This is a map of Manawfa district, the district our clinic is in. There are 23 Health Centers II, III, or IV in the district. Then I included on the map an inset of the Bupoto sub county, where our village is. So, I am living in the village Matuwa, in the sub-county Bupoto, in the county Bupoto, in the Manawfa district, in the Eastern region of Uganda. That's the full breakdown. I had to figure out the right distances to enlarge each map I was given and re-draw it. It took a while (I finally am almost done today).
Tuesday afternoon was the vital signs lecture for the CHE's. We went over temperature (they laughed when we said rectally is the best way, typical!), heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood pressure, and taught them how to take each measurement. Honestly, I'm not sure they could measure them on their own just yet (I still have a hard time with blood pressure, to be honest!) but the idea is for them to recognize DANGER SIGNS, so we keep coming back to things like fever and irregular breathing.
Got the MCAT scores Tuesday night - don't get excited I'm not posting them. It wasn't as good as my practices, but I still did well, and so I am not planning to retake or anything like that! Its over, I'm happy, and I'm just trying to make the most of my experience here, and write a kickass personal statement. Lisa and I were talking last night about the essay, and she said she'd be happy to read it for me and give feedback. I already mentioned that she's writing me a letter, and she said she was impressed with my score, and with my work here and being here and everything, so that should be a good letter.
Wednesday, Doug and Lisa went to Mbale (and then Doug continued on to Kampala to pick up the volunteers who will arrive in the village tonight at the airport, they got into Entebbe last night), so I was really "on my own" for the first time here, with just the Ugandans! It was pretty cool. I worked on my map during the morning and talked with Anthony about his ideas for the Girls' Group. This might actually be the hardest group ever to get going, compounded by the fact that the next several Saturdays I won't be here (in order by Saturday I will be at Sipi Falls, Jinja, homestay in Bududa, Bududa with Cait, Kenya, Rwanda. Then I might have 2 or 3 Saturdays in April here in Matuwa). So I need to have a sit down with Lisa about it... its just kind of a frustrating project, but its one of Joyce Wanda's pet projects (Joyce and John Wanda are the couple from Uganda that started AAH, so we like to keep them happy), so we need to give it our best shot.
In Mbale they got a lot of good stuff, like little hand mirrors for each bed room, new floor mats, and a bigger mirror for the common room. Now I can see how the sun reaction on my face is going away! w00t. Also got tape, so I put up some posters Lisa had in the rooms for the new volunteers and one in my room too. She also got a blanket for the extra bed in my room so it gives it a little more color now.
Wednesday afternoon, I spent time at Station 4 with Jackline. Station 4 is like the pharmacy station - she dispenses drugs and gives injections. I got to help count the pills and label the envelopes we put them in. Then later in the afternoon, I pretty much taught the CHE training on my own. I talked about blood donation (we are planning tentatively to have a blood drive up here in late March), adolescent issues, and oral health. It went pretty well, I guess I have adapted to/learned the Ugandan teaching methods.
Today I finished up my map. It actually looks pretty good, I'm surprised at how well it came out. I will post a picture tomorrow when its completely done. My desk for now (when we get a manager here, it will be theirs but for now I can use it) is in the lab, where Prisca and David work, so its nice to have people to chat with. At lunch time, a man came by selling Avocados. They were HUGE. He was selling them for 200 shillings - that is about 10 cents US. Imagine how wonderful it would be to have avocados at that price back home! wow.
Afternoon, the CHE's came for a session, but Doug had the papers they needed and was still on his way back from Kampala with the volunteers. So we had a quick session, and then I showed them all how to put their handprints on the staff wall in the clinic. So we all put our handprints up, it was kind of chaotic, but a really cool thing for them to do.
Today was the first day it really was dark and rainy for most of the day. March is when the rainy season starts, so I guess I need to get used to more of it. I just hope it doesn't interfere with our various excursions that we have planned!
Sipi falls this weekend!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Monday, I started my day by making name tags for all the staff members for the board in the Community room. There are spots on the board each of the 5 stations, the lab, and then "off duty", so now we can hang the name tags and know who is working where. I also finished making the MUAC strips (mid-upper arm circumference strips - they are the creation of Doctors without Borders and are used to determine the malnutrition of children by wrapping this strip around their mid-upper arm - if the strip shows green, they're ok, yellow is risk of malnutrition, orange is moderate malnutrition, and red is severe malnutrition) for all of the CHE's. I also spent time with Andrew at Station 3 - which is like a typical examination room situation, like at a regular doctor's office. Andrew sees patients, and prescribes drugs or sends them to the lab for test, or prescribes other treatments (there are signs all over the clinic reminding patients that the goal is to give the best treatment possible - and sometimes that means NO treatment. A lot of people come in and feel cheated if they don't leave with pills but that's not always the best thing for them, obviously). I also spent some time in the lab with Prisca. She showed me how to do the malaria and HIV tests, and I got to look at malaria under the microscope (which most people in the US will never get to see, since no one there has malaria!). It was pretty cool.
Our afternoon workshop with the CHE's was given by Stacy, a Peace Corps Volunteer who is nearing the end of her service here. She talked about RUMPS (re-usable menstrual pads). I know now everyone is thinking GROSS! But most women here can't afford to buy disposable pads or tampons, because they are very expensive here and they make less money than the average American anyway. In fact, a lot of girls miss a lot of school if they can't get pads, because they are embarrassed (understandably) about bleeding at school and having it show - so they miss about a week every month. The RUMPS program teaches you how to make reusable menstrual pads. Basically, you sew a strip of cloth into a little pouch, then put a piece of towel inside to absorb. There are little "wings" that button under the knickers (underwear) so it stays in place. Both parts can then be washed, the towel and the sleeve, so most girls would need about 3 4 so they can wear one while the others are being washed. Actually a pretty cool program. Stacy had brought all the materials to make them, so we did. She also talked about the menstrual cycle and how it works.
Most Ugandans don't have a very good idea about sexual health and stuff like that. They are like a bunch of fourth graders who laugh when you use the correct terminology for people's genitals. Imagine talking about a pregnant woman's vaginal bleeding to a roomful of adults and they all start giggling - this happened to me last week. So Stacy went over the menstrual cycle and when you are most likely to get pregnant, but emphasized that since people are different, birth control methods like Moonbeads (essentially a string of beads that you use to count the days of your cycle - the rhythm method on a necklace) are just unreliable.
Tuesday I got working on the map project Lisa wanted me to do. This is a map of Manawfa district, the district our clinic is in. There are 23 Health Centers II, III, or IV in the district. Then I included on the map an inset of the Bupoto sub county, where our village is. So, I am living in the village Matuwa, in the sub-county Bupoto, in the county Bupoto, in the Manawfa district, in the Eastern region of Uganda. That's the full breakdown. I had to figure out the right distances to enlarge each map I was given and re-draw it. It took a while (I finally am almost done today).
Tuesday afternoon was the vital signs lecture for the CHE's. We went over temperature (they laughed when we said rectally is the best way, typical!), heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood pressure, and taught them how to take each measurement. Honestly, I'm not sure they could measure them on their own just yet (I still have a hard time with blood pressure, to be honest!) but the idea is for them to recognize DANGER SIGNS, so we keep coming back to things like fever and irregular breathing.
Got the MCAT scores Tuesday night - don't get excited I'm not posting them. It wasn't as good as my practices, but I still did well, and so I am not planning to retake or anything like that! Its over, I'm happy, and I'm just trying to make the most of my experience here, and write a kickass personal statement. Lisa and I were talking last night about the essay, and she said she'd be happy to read it for me and give feedback. I already mentioned that she's writing me a letter, and she said she was impressed with my score, and with my work here and being here and everything, so that should be a good letter.
Wednesday, Doug and Lisa went to Mbale (and then Doug continued on to Kampala to pick up the volunteers who will arrive in the village tonight at the airport, they got into Entebbe last night), so I was really "on my own" for the first time here, with just the Ugandans! It was pretty cool. I worked on my map during the morning and talked with Anthony about his ideas for the Girls' Group. This might actually be the hardest group ever to get going, compounded by the fact that the next several Saturdays I won't be here (in order by Saturday I will be at Sipi Falls, Jinja, homestay in Bududa, Bududa with Cait, Kenya, Rwanda. Then I might have 2 or 3 Saturdays in April here in Matuwa). So I need to have a sit down with Lisa about it... its just kind of a frustrating project, but its one of Joyce Wanda's pet projects (Joyce and John Wanda are the couple from Uganda that started AAH, so we like to keep them happy), so we need to give it our best shot.
In Mbale they got a lot of good stuff, like little hand mirrors for each bed room, new floor mats, and a bigger mirror for the common room. Now I can see how the sun reaction on my face is going away! w00t. Also got tape, so I put up some posters Lisa had in the rooms for the new volunteers and one in my room too. She also got a blanket for the extra bed in my room so it gives it a little more color now.
Wednesday afternoon, I spent time at Station 4 with Jackline. Station 4 is like the pharmacy station - she dispenses drugs and gives injections. I got to help count the pills and label the envelopes we put them in. Then later in the afternoon, I pretty much taught the CHE training on my own. I talked about blood donation (we are planning tentatively to have a blood drive up here in late March), adolescent issues, and oral health. It went pretty well, I guess I have adapted to/learned the Ugandan teaching methods.
Today I finished up my map. It actually looks pretty good, I'm surprised at how well it came out. I will post a picture tomorrow when its completely done. My desk for now (when we get a manager here, it will be theirs but for now I can use it) is in the lab, where Prisca and David work, so its nice to have people to chat with. At lunch time, a man came by selling Avocados. They were HUGE. He was selling them for 200 shillings - that is about 10 cents US. Imagine how wonderful it would be to have avocados at that price back home! wow.
Afternoon, the CHE's came for a session, but Doug had the papers they needed and was still on his way back from Kampala with the volunteers. So we had a quick session, and then I showed them all how to put their handprints on the staff wall in the clinic. So we all put our handprints up, it was kind of chaotic, but a really cool thing for them to do.
Today was the first day it really was dark and rainy for most of the day. March is when the rainy season starts, so I guess I need to get used to more of it. I just hope it doesn't interfere with our various excursions that we have planned!
Sipi falls this weekend!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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