Week 3: More volunteering and visiting a rural community

This week has just flown by and I can’t believe I have been in Uganda for three weeks already! I’ve been finding at times I completely forget that I’m in a totally different country half way around the world from my home. I guess that’s a good thing though as it means I am feeling comfortable in this strange new world.

This week Kash and I spent our time volunteering at the Mukono hospital and ACHERU (the children’s rehabilitation center). At the hospital we spent Monday preparing for Tuesday’s HIV clinic which is a busy day for the hospital. Preparation included counting and packaging pills as well as labelling pill bottles with directions for use. The room we were in while counting and bagging the pills was in the section of the hospital currently under renovation. This lead to the feeling that we were part of a large drug operation in some sketchy backroom/abandoned building that you would see in TV and movies. Tuesday the HIV clinic was in full swing and we were positioned at the dispensary getting various drug together for the patients. We were told that the HIV clinic is supposed to be a very busy day for the hospital however that did not seem the case this week. This week the HIV clinic was fairly quiet and was all wrapped up by midday. Upon completion of the HIV clinic we ran into the hospitals surgeon who was off to perform an ectopic abortion and welcomed us to observe. We of course were not going to pass up that opportunity so we got our scrubs on and joined him. After the surgery we spent the rest of the day in the imaging department looking at X-rays and observing ultrasounds. The radiographer, Paul, was very welcoming and very good at explaining what was going on and teaching/quizzing us as he went. We also spent Friday at the hospital however we only stay for half the day as there were very few patients. It was explained to us that since school has just recently resumed for the children, most of the families put all their money towards school fees so they cannot afford to come to the hospital. Instead they will suffer with their ailments until they have more money or will only come if it is an absolute emergency. This is unfortunate for us as it means there is less for us to do and there is lots of sitting around waiting.

 

Counting and packaging the pills, if one dropped on the dirty ground it was considered still good

All ready to watch surgery!

In the dispensary prepping the patients medications 

As would be expected, our days spent at ACHERU were amazing, it is such a fun and welcoming atmosphere there! The classroom area had just been moved so they are in the process of decorating the new room and tasked us with helping. This meant that most of our two days there were spent doing arts and crafts. For me this is pretty much a dream come true, getting to spend an entire day colouring!!! We were colouring pictures of animals to then paste on to cardboard, we were then to write a few facts about the animal such as what it eats, where it lives, what a young one is called etc. on the board and paint the reverse side as they were going to be hung from the ceiling. Doing this led Kash and I to realize without Google we are pretty useless when it comes to animal facts. Uhh what do you call a baby monkey? Where to ostriches actually live and what do they eat? These questions and many others were what we were struggling with. Eventually we decided that we were functioning just fine without that knowledge so the kids would probably be okay if they never learnt what sound a giraffe makes. The afternoons at ACHERU were spent playing games with the kids outside. On June 7^th in the capital city there is a sports day for children with disabilities and many of the children from ACHERU are going. This means that they need to practise the games that they will be playing there so they have some idea how best to manage based on their particular disability. The ACHERU staff have asked Kash and me to join them on June 7^th, we are beyond excited as it should be such an amazing and inspirational day!

Today (Saturday), we spent the day doing community outreach with one of the doctors from the hospital. We drove to a rural community outside Iganga in eastern Uganda. There we were toured around being shown their closest water source and the various houses people live in. It was a very eye opening experience as we had not yet been fully immersed in that level of poverty. The water source was about a 15 min walk from the village and it was part of a swamp right next to some operational train tracks. We were told that the families will use that water as is, as it uses up too many precious resources to boil all their water before use. When touring the houses we would talk to the heads of the household and learn about some of their largest struggles. For most these were the lack of clean water, lack of close by health facilities, and lack of money to buy needed items. It was shocking to see only a few of the households actually had functional mosquito nets so the majority of the community is not protected against malaria while they sleep. This means that many people in the village are suffering from malaria and are unable to get treatment because the closest health center is 50km away. The closest school for this village is 20km away so only a handful of the children actually go to school. Even if there was a closer school many of the families would not be able to pay the school fees so the children would still be uneducated. It is so sad to look at all the children and know most of them will never be able to achieve a better quality of life. In the afternoon, many members of the community gathered at the church and we held a discussion to sensitize them about HIV and hygiene. Going into the talk Kash and I assumed that they would all have heard what we were telling them before and that they would not be learning anything new. This was not the case, even though they live in a country where HIV is prevalent and talked a lot about only a few people knew how HIV is passed on and how to prevent it. The members of the community that attended this discussion were all very grateful for us coming to teach them. They were also very curious as to how they are supposed to help themselves when they cannot access clean water or health facilities. We unfortunately did not have an answer for them, except that the doctor we were with is trying to plan a way to make things better for this village. This visit was very interesting and I feel like we truly did help the community in a small way.

This is the closest water source for the village

Demonstrating how they gather their water trying to avoid the oil slicks and swamp matter

A typical bedroom in the village. In this room 5 people sleep, the parents get the papyrus mat and the children are just on the dirt.

Sensitizing members of the community on HIV

This is how they get the beans out of their shells once dried, they just whack them endlessly and the beans end up in a nice pile on the ground.

This little boy had a toy constructed out of sticks, rubber bands, and cut up flip flops that he would drive around everywhere.

Kash and I had quite the fan club of children following us around as we toured their village.

Thanks for taking the time to read my update,

Jess

Week 2: Travel to Western Uganda

This week has been spent travelling with Edward to visit students at their places of work. The map below shows roughly where we have been. Mukono-Mityana-Fort Portal-Kasese-Kabale-Masaka-Mukono

 

The days have included long drives to get to the students, some of the roads are typical of those in Canada but many are considered roads where “only the drunk drive straight”. There are so many potholes, many large enough to be bathtubs, that drivers are constantly swerving all over the road to try and avoid as many as possible. It is a little unnerving at first to see drivers barreling toward you zigzagging in and out of their lane. Other roads are not even paved so they are dusty, or muddy if it has been raining, and have been worn down by vehicles making them a very bumpy ride!

Here is a road we took to visit a Rural health center near Masaka after it had been raining so the road was very muddy

This is what a typical main road in a small town will look like, this is in Mityana

 

The scenery on the drives has been amazing, Uganda has such fertile land that there is just green everywhere. On Tuesday we drove through Queen Elizabeth National Park which a large national park where many safaris operate. Upon entering the park we crossed over the equator, being the tourist that we are we stopped to take picture of the signs marking the border. When we got out of the car Edward heard rustling and noise from the bushes on the other side of the road, this turned out to be a small elephant. We decided to abandon the equator sign as we would have another opportunity later and instead look pictures of the elephant from the safety of the car. Driving through the rest of the park we got to see some buffalo, a large pack of elephants, and kob. These were all a ways in the distance so we did not stop to try and take pictures.

Gorgeous landscape outside of Fort Portal towards the Congo border

 

Elephant near the Equator in Queen Elizabeth National Park

Classic tourist picture that is a requirement if travelling to Uganda

View of the Rift Valley which is where Queen Elizabeth National Park is located 

When we actually visit the students we meet with their supervisors if they are present and get a tour of the facility. Edward is very good at talking with the other workers of the facility to learn what struggles they face and what they are excelling at. This gives Edward an idea of the conditions in which the students work. Once toured around Edward meets with the student to go over their projects to see how they are coming along and to offer assistance.  Seeing all the various facilities has really opened by eyes to the reality of health care in this country. We visited various district hospitals which are main hospitals for the region, referral hospitals where patients from other facilities will be brought, and health clinics which serve smaller regions and are much more basic. At all of the facilities there was one prominent problem, they are overwhelmingly understaffed and the staff that are present are being over worked. One hospital has a recommended ratio of 1 nurse to 5 patients in a typical ward however the nurses told us it was consistently a ratio of 1 nurse to 20 or 30 patients. Another facility is designed to optimally run with 37 doctors but there are only a mere 7 at the hospital, one of which doesn’t even see patients as they are the head administrator. The health clinic we visited considered themselves fortunate because they actually had a doctor, even though he is not there on a regular basis. At this health center they had nurse assistants independently treating and diagnosing patients when in reality they lack the training to do so. Edward has explained that these problem are due to the low salary for health professionals in Uganda, many people once completing their training look for work in neighbouring countries where the pay can be up to 10x higher or they look to relocate to Europe and North America.

The Staff "toilet" at the Mityana District Hospital

The hospital outside Fort Portal had its roof blown off so patients have been staying in these UNICEF tents since November

Facilities at the health clinic outside of Masaka

Edward, his student, and I outside of the health clinic near Masaka 

One of the best things while travelling around has been to see is the happiness on the children’s face’s when we drive past and they realize a “Muzungu” or white person is in the car. They all wave frantically yelling Hi or Bye Muzungu and are just so excited to see white people. It is amazing the difference in culture with children here vs. North America. The children here are what looks to be 4 or 5 years old and they are walking independently on the side of the road to their schools or to collect water. Once school is over the children are out playing or helping their families until it is dark instead of sitting in front of televisions and computer screen. It really is refreshing to see.

After a busy week we are taking the weekend to relax a little bit as we now have working Wi-Fi in our guesthouse!! It is pathetic how happy this has made us, but it means we no longer need to walk down to the library to get Internet access.

Hope everyone reading this is doing well and having exciting adventures of their own!

Jess

P.S. If you guys have any suggestions of how to make this blog better (more post, more pictures, less words etc.) let me know in the comments!

General Info and Week 1 Recap

Hey guys so I’ve decided to make a blog for my time here in Uganda to try and keep whoever is interested up to date. The key word there is try, I will attempt to post once a week or so but no guarantees. First off excuse the cheesy name it’s the best I could come up with but it is pretty accurate as this will act as a way for me to report to various people back home that I am still alive and well. To start this off let me explain why I’m here. I have come to Uganda to volunteer for 12 weeks with the International Christian Medical Institute (ICMI) as a co-op (work placement) for school. ICMI works in conjunction with the Uganda Christian University (UCU) to offer a bachelor program in health administration. This program is primarily intended for health professionals who want to further their careers by learning about health administration. More about ICMI can be found at icmicanada.com. UCU is located about 22km outside of the capital city of Kampala in a town called Mukono. In Mukono I will be staying in guest houses built by ICMI on the university grounds. These guest houses are fairly new so they are quite luxurious by Africa standard (read: Queen sized bed, on suite bathroom with running hot water, refrigerator in room, kitchen facilities). My primary role while here is to help ICMI in whatever capacity they require which when the student are at the school will be to assist with teaching. However currently the students are doing their field work semester and will not return for class until July. For May and June the president of ICMI, Dr. Edward Mukooza, performs field trips to visit the students in their home towns/villages and check in on them and see how their projects are going. I will have the opportunity to accompany Edward on these trips helping him out and seeing more of Uganda. The other thing I will be doing in my spare time while here is volunteering at various health clinics and hospitals near Mukono to receive some amazing hands on experience that would not be possible in North America. Oh I should also mention that I am here with another student from UVIC, Kasia (Kash), we will be working on things together throughout the time here.

Now that you all know why I’m here, here are the highlights of the first week:

This evening will mark having been in Uganda one week, it was been an exciting week with ups and downs. The ups of this week were volunteering at Afaayo Child Health Education and Rehabilitation Unit (ACHERU) and volunteering at the local hospital in Mukono. As the name suggests ACHERU is a rehabilitation center for children this physical and mental disabilities. The center will take in children with various ailments the most common being Osteomyelitis and Club Foot. These kids are then treated and the families are education to ensure similar problems can be prevented in the future. The families have to contribute to the costs of the treatment but much of the cost is covered by organizations in the UK. For the two days we spent there, everyone at ACHERU was very friendly and welcoming and the kids were a delight to work with even if communication was limited. Two other days this week were spent at the local public hospital in Mukono. The first day mainly consisted of being toured around and meeting with various people to come up with a plan for what we can do while there. The next day we were helping out in the Theatre where we got the opportunity to observe a C-section. It was very interesting to see the procedure but at the same time strange to see a baby boy being pulled out of a mother rather forcefully, no wonder a mother can be in so much pain after a C-section.

Now for the downs of the week. Wednesday we were at ACHERU and for the first time we used the public transportation by ourselves. This meant it was a fairly long journey with lots of walking to get taxi’s (overcrowded 15 passenger vans) in the hot sun. Once at ACHERU we joined the orthopedic doctor and two nurses to do rounds. The doctors explained each child’s ailment and checked in on how the children were doing. Mid-way through rounds Kash felt quite light headed and her vision was all blurry so she went to rest while we continued on. About 15 minutes later, I very suddenly felt light headed so I turned to one of the nurses and said I felt faint. The next thing I remember was being carried by the doctor and two nurses down the pathway toward a bed in an examination room. We believe it was a combination of dehydration, not enough breakfast, the heat, and malaria pills with dizziness as side effects causing us both to feel unwell. We both recovered quickly and were feeling well the rest of the day, however I have been on edge since it occurred slightly worried it will occur again. Another less than glorious moment this week was when we went to make dinner Sunday night only to realize there was no gas for the oven/stove and there were no pots or pans to cook with. This resulted in us having a meal that was one step above edible consisting of microwaved pasta and eggplant with a chicken masala seasoning we had found. I will be very happy if I never have to eat that again! Luckily by Wednesday quest services had managed to get us a gas cylinder as well as pots and pans so we can now cook for ourselves which is a task all in its own as many of the things we both regularly enjoy are not available here or we have not yet found them in a supermarket.

All in all it has been an adventurous week adjusting to this new world, managing home sickness, and getting used to being awoken between 5-6am by the various birds and monkeys outside my room!

Hope all is well in your lives and I have not bored you to death with this post.

 

Jess

P.S. Here are a couple pictures of the resident monkeys on the campus