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