Week 5: Uganda Continues to Amuse Us

This week was another week spent volunteering at various places. Monday was a public holiday called Hero’s Day so we just hung around campus and did some data entry for ICMI. The power was out for most of the day so data entry was a good task as it didn’t require wireless and as long as our laptop batteries lasted long enough it didn’t require power. Tuesday was spent at Mukono hospital helping with the HIV clinic. We were again in the dispensary getting the patients medicine all organized. As Mukono hospital had been quite slow lately we asked Edward if we could be set up to volunteer in one of the larger hospitals in Kampala. Edward managed to pull some strings and we spent Wednesday and Thursday at Mengo hospital in the capital. Volunteering there means having to commute about 4 hrs round trip as the traffic in the city center is ridiculous, but the experience we get at this hospital is worth the journey. Going to the hospital we have to transfer taxi’s at the old taxi park in the city center which is a mess all of its own. It is a miracle the taxis are actually able to come and go from and maneuver around there. Being a muzungu adds to the experience as all the taxi drivers and people around feel the need to declare their love for you, sell you random things, or insist on helping you find the taxi you need even if there are already people escorting you around.  However the long commute isn’t all bad as we get to witness some truly Ugandan things such as a dozen live chickens all strapped to a taxi roof, children just casually popping a squat (going to the bathroom) on the side of the road right in front of the business stands, having the taxi drive away without realizing the conductor was not inside, cows standing on and eating burning piles of garbage, and every and anything that you can fit on a boda boda being transported on a boda from chopped down trees to coffins to families of 4. One of the best moments was when listening to the radio in one of the taxis. A commercial came on that was Uganda’s tips for success, basically the commercial was telling people that they shouldn’t be friends with losers, downers, or delinquents and that it is important to have good friends and people should pick their friends wisely. It was a very blunt and amusing commercial. Volunteering at the Mengo hospital is such a pleasure as the hospital just had to cut 30 staff members, which is a lot considering they were probably already understaffed, as they lost their government funding because they don’t support the country’s anti-gay laws. This really is a bold move for the hospital but so very respectable in our eyes. At Mengo we are in the counselling and home care department working with HIV and TB patients.  I spent Wednesday in the triage taking patients vitals and attempting to ask them general questions, I say attempting as 90% of the time the patients didn’t speak enough English so the nurse would have to take over. Thursday I was in the laboratory taking blood samples from the HIV patients for CD4 testing. It was very interesting learning how to take blood and by the end of the day I was a professional. However it is a little bit unnerving to be taking blood from HIV patients but all the more reason to be careful and take my time when dealing with the samples and needles.    

The Old Taxi Park in Kampala which is a zoo to navigate

Team selfie before going to navigate the taxi park, we weren't sure if we would make it out alive

Kash and Sarah, the nurse in the laboratory, organizing their blood samples from the day

 

This face pretty much sums up the experience of driving in a Ugandan taxi

Friday was spent at ACHERU where we did some arts and crafts and gave the kids their weekly test. It was slightly heart breaking to mark the kids tests as many of them couldn’t even successfully copy the questions down from the board let alone get the questions right. Some of this is because the children have poor English skills and the schooling at ACHERU is in English because the kids from different regions speak different dialects.However, a large part is also that these children have been viewed as trash and been neglected within their villages so they have little to no previous schooling. After the test we did some colouring and crafts with the children which was more uplifting. As we were walking up the road to ACHERU in the morning we were approached by some children who were so happy to show off their English skills by saying “hello, how are you? How it your mommy? Where are you going?” and then a older construction guy working on a house stood up and shouted at us saying “Hey white people, welcome to Africa” it was quite entertaining to say the least and gave Kash and I a good laugh.

Kash writing up the test for the older students

How can you not fall in love with those faces!

Working on more artwork for the classroom, all the staff just love the work we do and constantly praise us

Meet Catherine, she is one of my favourite kids at ACHERU. Every time she sees that we have come she gets the biggest smile on her face.

Working on crafts with some of the younger kids

Today (Saturday) we went into Kampala hoping to see The Fault in Our Stars as there is a theater there which shows new releases in English. We bought our ticket and everything but then when it was time to enter the theater the usher pointed us to the wrong theater. The preview’s were pretty typical and then one preview just kept going and going. At this point we realized we must be in the wrong theater but it was too late to change as we would have already missed the beginning of our movie. Needless to say instead of a heart wrenching romance drama we saw The Edge of Tomorrow. It was still quite good but not exactly what we had planned for. Looking back there were warning signs that we weren’t in the right theater, 3D glasses for what we thought was a 2D movie and a large number of men in the theater for a sappy romance movie but we ignored those as we are trusting Muzungus who thought the usher would have actually read our tickets.

Kash is all ready for her safari in August! I wouldn't let her buy the hat but the sleeping bag was too good to pass up on. 

Anyways that’s all for this week, nothing too much to report and not too many pictures so hopefully it didn't bore you all too much.

Jess