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