Week 9: Classes, Cantering, and the Circle of Life

Well with week 9 being over that means that ¾ of my time in Uganda is also over yet it still feels like I was only just planning this whole trip. I’m sorry if you’re all sick of reading my amazement with how fast time has passed but it is true and on the bright side you’ll only have to hear it a few more times!

Last Sunday, Kash and I met up with friends from our Murchison Falls Safari again at one of the fanciest places in Kampala, the Speke resort. This is a giant resort that was built back in 2007 for the commonwealth conference that was held in Uganda so the presidents and prime ministers had nice place to stay. It is located on the outskirts of Kampala at the shores of Lake Victoria. There they have a gorgeous olympic size outdoor pool where for a small fee you can spend the day. That is exactly what we did, if we weren’t in the pool we were soaking up the sun and either reading or just chatting. It was a lovely relaxing day getting to see another side of Kampala. All of us there decided that if you were to come to Uganda and stay in a place like that you would have a completely flawed sense of the country. When we were there it felt more like we were at a fancy beach resort in some developed country not in Uganda where a 10 min drive away will lead you to people living without running water or electricity. I am grateful that I have had such amazing opportunities while here to really see what life in Uganda is like since even staying at the university is far from what most Ugandan’s experience.

 

 

AHHHH not too bad for being on a co-op placement

Alice and Brianna enjoying the best of both worlds, tanning while enjoying the refreshing pool

Kash going for a swim

 On Monday, classes began for the ICMI diploma students. These are the same students that we went around and visited with Edward in May and June so it was very nice to see them all again and meet the few that we had not visited. These students are on their 3^rd semester of the program which has a total of 4 semester. Kash and I have been helping each morning with the class that Edward teaches, Organizational Development. The students also have Health Information Systems in the afternoon and Accounting in the evening taught by other Profs, but Edward recommended that it would be more worth our time to do other things in the afternoons/evenings. Helping Edward involves sitting in on his lecture which is from 8 until anytime between 10 & 11, and then helping the students with whatever work Edward has assigned them that day. Sometimes this is just answering some simple questions the students have or other times this means facilitating class discussions on case studies they have been looking at. Then by 1 or 2 it is lunch and after lunch we head off and do our own thing. It has been kind of nice being back in a classroom setting and taking things a little bit slower instead of long days going into Kampala. Monday, Tuesday, and Friday afternoon we just stayed around campus where I worked on my co-op project and studied for the MCAT and Kash worked on her med school applications. Although we were told there would be very little to no rain in July this week has had its fair share of rain, and it seems when it rains the Wi-Fi often stops working. It has particularly bad this week, often we will get one day a week where the Wi-Fi is down however two afternoons/evenings this week it shut off and then it shut off Friday afternoon and has not begun working yet (it is now Sunday evening). Luckily yesterday afternoon it began working around the classrooms and things and just isn’t working at our guesthouse so we have been able to get some work done but not as much as we would like.

Some of the students busy working 

 

The pesky rain that ruins our wireless

Wednesday afternoon, we went to Mukono hospital. We had been told that Wednesday afternoon/evening is a time they do surgeries so we were hoping there would be procedures to observe. We were in luck as there were 4 procedures done that afternoon/evening. First we observed a hernia removal although once the surgeon got a look at the hernia he decided not to remove it as it was right beside major vessels and was not worth the risk. Next was a simple removal of a liposarcoma, the patient had developed a growth on their side which was just a sac full of fat, this was a very basic procedure of cutting off the growth and stitching up the wound. The next two procedures were C-sections which both resulted in healthy little girls. It is still amazing to watch a tiny person be pulled out of another human being and knowing it grew from a tiny egg, man the human body is crazy!! Kash and I were taking great pride in the fact that our tanned skin is basically the same colour as an African baby that has been in fluid for 9 months, the nurses and surgeon just laughed at us and began calling the first baby Mzungu. It was a very successful afternoon and we hope to spend the remaining Wednesdays we have doing the same thing.

After experiencing the beginning of life of Wednesday we saw the other side of the coin as a young boy at ACHERU lost his life Thursday morning. Kash and I left classes after the lecture as the students did not need any assistance so we had enough time to go out to ACHERU. As we arrived there was quite a commotion and they were loading the young boy into ACHERU’s truck to rush him off to the hospital. After asking some questions we learned that within less than 24 hours the boy had begun to feel unwell. The previous day he had been doing very well and was making great progress in his walking, they even figured he would be discharged very soon. Later that day he had barely any appetite and was beginning to look pale. The next morning he was doing better and had some breakfast however after breakfast things took a turn for the worse. We do not know the details but it was said the boy took a big deep last breath and then lost consciousness. This is when we arrived to the situation. The boy was then rushed off to the nearest hospital with his caregiver and a few staff members. Very slowly people began to return to their normal day’s work and we were helping teacher Juliet in the classroom. Not long after that a staff member arrived to alert us the boy had been declared dead upon arrival to the hospital. The truck then returned to ACHERU with the boy still there as the nearest hospital does not have any morgue facilities. It was heartbreaking to see the caregiver clutching the child’s body and then exiting the vehicle and collapsing on the ground where she remained crying out for quite some time. The child's body was brought into one of the examination rooms where the nurses worked to clean the boy up to prepare him to be transported elsewhere. This really shocked ACHERU as it was the first child they have ever lost and the whole facility was feeling it. The rest of the day, understandably, very little work was done and we returned to Mukono with some of the staff earlier than normal. It was unclear as to the cause of the child’s death but they believe it may have been a blood clot. It is my understanding that a post mortem was to be done to determine the actual cause but lots of the conversation was in Luganda and not English as that is more comfortable for them to speak. All in all it was a very tragic situation and the boy will be greatly missed, he was such a bright light in the world he always had a beaming smile and was one of the smartest children in the classroom.

RIP James, your smile will be missed

Saturday was a quiet day with a trip into Kampala to do some errands that are not possible to do in Mukono. Today (Sunday), we were off to a place near Jinja to do some horseback riding. Next weekend we are going on an overnight horseback trip where we will go through villages, plantations, and along the Nile. The company strongly suggested that we come the weekend before hand and do a half price hour long ride to stretch out the muscles and refresh ourselves in the saddle. It was a great ride going through the nearby village where we had opportunities to trot and canter with the horses. I have never done too much horseback riding so I was a little nervous at first but that quickly subsided as it began to come back to me. Kash had done quite a bit of horseback riding when she was younger so she was having a great time being back in the saddle as it had been a while since she rode as well. We are both very happy that we did the short ride today as already we are able to feel some slight muscle soreness and definite sits bones soreness. Next weekend we will be riding for 4-5 hours each day so hopefully we won’t get quite as sore then having got it out of the way this weekend. It also gave us a nice taste of what it to come next weekend so we are even more excited now.

Shameless horseback selfie

Going through one of the villages

My trusty companion domino

Kash thanking Sambuca for not killing her (he didn't really like the dogs in the villages)

 Hope all is well in your lives.

Jess

Week 8: Graduation and Ggaba Beach

Well it has been another busy week here in Uganda. This week was our last full week of volunteering for a little while as classes begin next week and run for 3 weeks. During that time we will be busy helping out with the classes instead of being in the hospitals and such.

On Wednesday we spent the day at ACHERU where the kids have become very comfortable with us. The young ones are now at the point where they will be climbing all over us and not letting go when it comes to the end of the day and we have to leave. It is awesome to feel so loved from the kids. There was also quite the drama at ACHERU on Wednesday, a bunch of the people from the north decided to go on a hunger strike. From my understanding, some people had missed dinner the night before and were quite upset about this. I’m not sure if they just missed being told to come for dinner or if they were at the market and there was no food when they returned or what. These people rallied others and decided they were not going to eat. The staff tried to reason with them and explain the situation and how it was not the facilities responsibility to make sure everyone has dinner, they serve at specific times and if you miss dinner that is your own fault. I guess this was not the first time the staff has seen such a thing occur so they were not too worried and figured the situation would sort itself out. They were right about that as by lunch it seemed everyone was eating again and the situation had settled.

Cathy thought it was hilarious to steal Kash's glasses and wear them herself

All the kids wanted to help do Kash's hair, she had a lovely knot by the end of it

It seems everywhere we go we have a herd of children following us

Friday we were invited to attend the graduation ceremony for the university. There were more than 1200 graduates but only 290 attended the ceremony, of those present about 10 were from ICMI. One of the graduates is also the administrator at ACHERU that we know and love so she invited us to lunch at her house after the ceremony. The ceremony was pretty typical of any convocation and they did a good job of making it so fairly fast considering the number of graduates. The families of the graduates were quite entertaining to watch as they would get so happy standing up cheering and dancing when their relatives name was called. The excitement is understandable as for many of these families it was quite a struggle to produce the fees needed to send their kids to university so seeing them accomplish what the families worked so hard to make happen must be very exciting…or they are so happy they no longer have to pay the school fees. After the ceremony we went with Joyce, the ACHERU administrator, to pick up her kids from school so they could all go to a photo studio and get their pictures taken to commemorate the day. Once the pictures were all done we went to Joyce’s house where we met her extended family and close friends and joined them for lunch. Calling the meal lunch isn’t quite appropriate as by the time we were eating it was more like 5pm which for us is more considered an early dinner. It was a lovely meal however and very kind of her to welcome us into her home and allow us to join the celebration.

Joyce with her parents before the ceremony

A bunch of the ICMI graduates from the Bachelors program

Joyce with her husband and sons cutting her graduation cake

Joyce's daughter Esther and I, she loved playing with my hair and having thumb wars

 Today (Saturday) we met up with some of the people that had been on our Murchison Falls trip to go to Ggaba beach on the outskirts of Kampala. The Ggaba beach definition of beach and our definition of beach must be very different as there was not really much of a beach at all. There was a little bit of dirt between the grass and Lake Victoria but it was sectioned off and not accessible. We still had a lovely time sitting out in the sun having some freshly caught tilapia. In the later afternoon, we went to a hotel up on a hill top near where some of them stay which had a gorgeous view out over the lake. It was the perfect ending to the day having a drink looking out over the lake as the sun went down. As the sun was setting, Kash and I decided we should be on our way as it is a bit of a commute back to Mukono and we didn’t want to have to navigate the taxi park in the pitch black. Our timing was perfect and we were in the proper taxi heading back to Mukono just as things were starting to get really dark. That’s one of the downside to being right on the equator, there are no long summer days, the sun sets around 7-7:30 all year long.

The view of Lake Victoria from Ggaba Beach

 

The lunch menu had three things big fish, large fish, and extra large fish

Looking out over Lake Victoria from Cassia lodge up on the hill top

 

I can’t believe how quickly each week passes, before I know it my family will be joining me here and we will be off on safari. It is bittersweet thinking of my time here coming to an end. Part of me is very excited to get home and enjoy Victoria with food that is not rice and beans, but on the other hand it will be hard to say goodbye to Uganda and all the amazing people we have met. Luckily I still have another month before I have to face that!

Hope you are all enjoying your summer!

Jess

Week 7: Murchison Falls Safari

Well week 7 sure was a fun one! Kash and I went on a tour up to Murchison Falls National Park which is up in the northern part of Uganda. We went with a company called Red Chilli Hideaway which was recommended by many people. They offer budget tours so you often get fun young crowds to travel with. The tour itself was 3 days but we took advantage of the complimentary night of accommodation in Kampala the night before leaving to have an extra day of being in tourist mode.  We went to their compound in Kampala on Saturday and enjoyed an afternoon by the pool reading and soaking up some sun. The compound has a wood burning pizza oven, so that night we enjoyed delicious pizza as we watched some world cup. We even managed to meet a bunch more Canadians who were just ending their time in Uganda. It was a lot of fun to hang around with people from back home, truly from back home as there were even a few people from the Victoria and Vancouver area, what a small world! Sunday morning we loaded into the 11 seater pop up top van and began the drive up to Murchison. It was a good crowd on our tour, loaded with health professionals. There were 2 Russian girls who kept to themselves, a young doctor from Scotland, a girl in nursing school from Scotland, a just graduated doctor from Ireland, and 2 first year medical students from the states. Once we reached the national park, we proceeded to the falls where we went for a short walk around the area. The amount of water that was rushing through there was astonishing!

The group from our tour minus 2 people



The rather powerful Murchison Falls

 

Being a rebel at the top of the falls and going out past the spray painted dotted line

The rest camp at Murchison Falls



 

On Monday we were up with the sun to go on a game drive in the park before it got too hot out and the animals went into hiding. We were very fortunate and got to see many different animals in great quantity. There were all sorts of deer/antelope type things, various birds, buffalo, giraffe, elephants, and lions. That afternoon we went on a Nile river cruise up to the bottom of the falls where we then saw more elephants, more birds, more buffalo, crocodiles, and hippos.  It truly was a fantastic experience getting to see all those creature out in their natural habitat and not in a zoo. The animals were so captivating we all would have sat there all day and watched them if it wasn’t for the driver moving us along to see as much as possible. Viewing animals wasn’t limited to those activities, back at the rest camp where we stayed there were lots of warthogs that would come around and scavenge for scraps. In the evening there was even a hippo at the camp site, the hippos leave the water to graze during the night and what better spot that a large grassy clearing full of tourists.

I believe this is called a dik-dik, it was pretty darn cute

 

Buffalo which are kind of snooty, looking at they raise their noses up to you

 

 a female waterbuck

 

A juvenile lion that was eyeing some delicious Kob



Two lions that were surveying the land and scaring all the Kob and Hartebeest away

Hartebeest, which are an awkward looking mix between a horse and an antelope

I loved seeing all the giraffe, they are so mesmerizing and gentle looking creatures



 

One of the resident warthogs at the rest camp

 

On the river cruise to the bottom of the falls

The view of the falls from the water

Tuesday we packed up and were on the road back to Kampala. Along the way we stopped at a rhino sanctuary where they are trying to rebuild the white rhino population in Uganda after all rhinos were poached to extinction some years back. There we walked around in search of rhinos which wasn’t too hard because there are park rangers that hang around the rhinos all day so a simple radio call and you know exactly where they are. Unfortunately since it was the middle of the day the rhinos were hidden under trees and resting. We first saw a group of 3 siblings but they were fairly hidden. The guide then told us that there were more we could see but it would require walking through a swampy area. Most of us didn’t mind getting our shoes all wet so we went for it and it was definitely worth it. We found a mother rhino with its baby that was just born at the beginning of April. Since the mother was protective she awoke when we arrived, this meant we got to see the entire body and take some good pictures. After a few minutes the guide started getting nervous that the rhino would charge as he could tell she was irritated so we slowly left her alone and went on our way. The rhinos were not as interesting to see as some of the other animals but they were cool to see and slightly terrifying. That night we returned to Kampala where we stayed the night at the compound and enjoyed more delicious pizza!  

 



 

 

One last group photo before leaving the rest camp

Baby Luna who is only 3 months old

 

The protective momma rhino eyeing us ready to charge!

 

 

Wednesday we had a relaxing day returning to Mukono and beginning the process of going through the hundreds of photos we had taken, yay for digital cameras! Thursday we were at Mengo hospital, where I was taking blood from patients again. After the hospital we decided to check out the craft market in Kampala where we did a little souvenir shopping. They have the most amazingly comfortable pants there for so cheap which Kash and I have practically been living in the past few days. They are a good substitute for sweatpants which I have been regretting not bringing with me. Friday I was at ACHERU helping out in the classroom as usual and introducing some of the younger kids to peek-a-boo who thought it was just hilarious! Or they may have just been laughing at the funny Mzungu either are quite possible…

That’s all for now, hope you enjoyed all the pictures it was hard to choose from the hundreds!

Jess