Week 4: Travel to the North and Sports Gala for Disabled Children

Monday to Wednesday this week was spent travelling with Edward to the north.

We visited both Arua and Gulu, where we toured their hospitals which were quite larger as they are regional referral hospital. The north was very interesting to see and VERY warm! The region we were in was where Joseph Kony had been so there was still a culture a fear in the people but they are slowly healing. The students at the hospital said that they have had a large increase in patients with PTSD from the war. We also drove through another game park on the journey where we saw another elephant, more kobe, and many baboons that were on the side of the road. Both nights we were away we were in hotels with WiFi which was quite a nice treat. Uganda is a bit behind on catering to tourists compared to Kenya and Tanzania so only newer hotels or ones in touristy areas will have Wifi. One of the highlights of the trip was stopping at the various fruit stands along the road and getting super cheap and super delicious food. We bought 8 mangoes for 1$ and 5 pineapples for 2$!! The worst part of the trip was when we were stuck driving behind a very drunk driver in a military truck. This guy was swerving all over the road only managing to stay in his lane when there was oncoming traffic, every car that passed without there being a head on collision was a miracle. On one stretch of the road there were some cows slowly encroaching into the oncoming lane, the driver managed to see them and get in his lane but then totally over corrected and ended up mowing down a poor cow. We were behind him at this point so we got to see it all play out and see the poor cow as the truck ran right out its neck. The driver didn’t even slow down or seem to notice what had occurred. Luckily at the next major town the driver pulled over so the large line of cars too scared to try and pass him were able to get away. At the next place we saw traffic officers Edward got out and explained to the officer what had happened so that if the truck continued along the road the traffic officer could stop him before he killed himself or others.

The signs at the nursing school we visited near Arua were great.

At one of the big road side markets near Gulu, the people here got quite angry when we were taking pictures

Edward working with his students from Gulu

So many delicious and cheap mangoes

More great Ugandan signs. 1) Apparently only men drink beer 2) What exactly makes one an "extra" man

These are the incubators used for the preemies at the hospital in Arua, apparently they still function perfectly well despite their age

 

Edward picking a mango from one of the trees at the hospital

 

Baboons in Murchison Falls National Park

 

 I  got to give a baboon a mango (don't worry Edward said it was okay) The baboons were very interesting to observe they are very human like

I believe these are female kobe

 

A lovely traffic jam due to construction being done where a road with one lane in each direction became a road with 4 lanes in one direction and if you were lucky a lane in the other direction. The Ugandan solution to traffic jams is to make them even worse

 On Thursday we decided to finally venture into the capital city of Kampala as we had a few things that needed to be done there. We were using the public transport to get around so we weren’t quite sure what to expect when we set off. Luckily there was a very nice lady in the taxi from Mukono who helped navigate the city center to find the taxi park so that we could then get another taxi to go where we needed to go. The capital is very large with lots of people so short distances to travel take quite some time. While in the capital we rode on Boda Bodas for the first time. These are motorcycles that many people use for transport all over the place which sounds awesome but they are also very hazardous. Few drivers have or wear helmets and many of the drivers are quite reckless and will weaving in and out of traffic cutting the cars off. The majority of hospital emergencies here are due to Boda Boda accidents. Our Boda Boda journey was very safe though as we told the drivers to go slow and be careful. Now that we have survived going into Kampala once on our own we feel comfortable going back and exploring more and checking out what the city has to offer, apparently there are a fair number of Muzungu hangouts. We didn't take any pictures Thursday as we were on a mission. On Friday we went for a walk up the hill near campus and there are some pictures from that.

The view from the top of the hill behind campus. That is Lake Victoria and the outskirts of Kampala in the distance

 

Jack fruit, or as we call them saggy tree boobs

A tree on the road outside campus which is full of birds nest

One of these things is not like the other ones. Hint: the bottom left

 Today (Saturday) was the sports gala for disabled children that I mentioned in a previous post. It was a very fun day with hundreds of children of all ages and a whole range of disabilities. The ACHERU kids that we went with were so excited they were singing the entire car ride there. The games were lots of fun and the ACHERU kids did really well even winning a few of their heats. However the emphasis of the day was “not competing but completing” as just having the opportunity to try is amazing for many of the children as they do not have the opportunity to participate is sports and games at most other places. It was a really uplifting day full of music, dancing, face painting, and fun but I think the pictures show it better than I can explain.

Warming up with the kids, because just standing in the hot sun doesn't make me sweat enough

Kash was a master at painting the kids faces

 

A game called planting and harvesting where the kids either put on or remove a tennis ball from a cone one at a time. This girl is very interesting to watch, she is missing most of her right femur so her knee is near her hip yet she can run so fast.

 

Another game where they had to run with a ball in bucket on their head and not have the ball fall out. This boy has pins in his leg as they are trying to regrow the bone after parts rotted away

Who doesn't love playing with a parachute

This little guy was not loving the loud music, I could relate

He was very intrigued by my camera and want to give it a try

Group photo at the end of an amazing day. Kids here don't quite understand the concept of smile when there is a camera taking your picture but I swear they were happy!

 Hope everyone reading is doing well,

Jess