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.

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