Well well well, it looks like its finally time for me to write in this silly travel journal. I want to warn you all that this post is not exceptionally exciting or well written. Read at your own risk. I am not promising anything exciting or entertaining.
It’s been nearly 2 weeks since I left New York, so this post will be mostly a summary of what has happened thus far.
Nearly two full days after I left I arrived in Kampala, well actually outside of Kampala on Mulago Hill (aka mountain). The guest house where I’m staying is pretty amazing. There are three buildings, one of them is an ‘apartment’ to be used only by HVO (Health Volunteers Overseas) Volunteers, which I am. The apartment has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a dining room, screened porch, a kitchen with a stove, fridge and microwave! We also have a modem and running water! Well, we had running water, it has been off for the past 5 days, which has made things interesting to say the least. This is a vast improvement over the drop toilets, no electricity and hand drawn well water that I had in Kenya, but I feel a little to spoiled staying here.
Across the street is the Hospital. It is the biggest hospital in Uganda and is the main teaching hospital as well; it is associated with Makere University. It’s hard to describe the hospital. (you should really just come over and see it for yourself). It’s huge, and there are patients everywhere. Its all open air, all 6 stories, the walkways are mostly open air, and there is not glass on the windows. There are patients everywhere. There are no private rooms, and in the pediatric ward there can be 2-3 people per bed.
Everybody comes with an ‘attendant’ a family member or friend that will stay with them, usually sleeping in the hallway or under the patient’s bed. The attendets have to basically take care of the patient, clean them, bring them food and everything that a nurse would do in the US. They even are responsible for getting the medication from the pharmacy whether it is pills or injectable drugs and IV bags. And if you don’t have an attendant, you better start praying. Mulgao is a government run hospital, which means that medication and seeing a doctor is free, but all tests are not. Most people can’t afford the lab tests and end up not being properly diagnosed. The pharmacy is never fully stocked, they are always out of something. If they are out of the medication you need, it is up to you to find it in town (but you probably can’t afford it so you will just go without). Last week the hospital was out of syringes, they had the stuff to inject but no syringes. So if a patient was to get an injection they had to go into Kampala and by the syringes themselves. Not so easy to do when you’re very sick. We brought a bunch of syringes with us, but not nearly enough for even a few hours of demand.
The worst part is the waiting. Locals say that Mulgao is the place people go to die, and it seems like they might be right. Patients might wait days to see a doctor, and once they see a doctor they might wait another day or two before anything is actually done. It is amazing that some people actually get better. The hardest part of adjusting to Africa for most westerners is waiting, Africa Time. Its annoying for me, but potentially deadly for the sick. If someone says they’ll be there at 8, its quite likely that they won’t show up until 11, or call at 11 and say they can’t make it until tomorrow. That’s when you have to laugh and say T.I.A. This Is Africa, things aren’t supposed to make sense. Ok, enough about that.
So the second day I was here I went to Bugiri, about three hours east of Kampala. I went with another person from Albert Einstien and Dr. Nambuya, the head of Endocrinology at Mulago. Dr. Nambuya has set up 20 diabetes clinics in rural hospitals all over the country to educate both healthcare workers and the public about diabetes. The clinics are open once a week and have up to 300 patients come for treatment and to get their medication. However as always there is a shortage of insulin and the other medicine.
The main purpose of me being here is to set up a symposium for the people working at the diabetes clinics and people from the hospital. And then to set up a research symposium in February. (Which is almost done, what….) Besides that I am working in the central pharmacy, looking into their management structure and interviewing AIDS NGOs around town, fact finding and putting together a preliminary strategy for starting the Diabetes Initiative in Uganda.
Now on to the fun stuff, the food. The staple here is Matoke, which is cooked mashed bananas. It isn’t so bad, but it is very very bland. Everything else is a starch as well, millet, rice, chapatti and mashed yams and potatoes (not like mom used to make). Then there’s cooked cabbage of course. Delicious samosas are also popular here. Surprisingly I’ve only had traditional food a few times, in the villages. In Kampala I’ve had western food for almost every meal. There are Thai, Chinese, Indian, Mexican and American restaurants all within walking distance of the guest house. And there’s also the pasta and PB and J’s from my kitchen. And most importantly there are plenty of bars around here including Bubbles O’Leary’s (and Irish pub with Trivia Night!), Fat Boyz (warm beer, lousy food is there tag line) and many other open air places with no limit on the number of American rap and pop songs played.
So last Friday was definitely my favorite day here so far. Me and Margaret, a med student from Minnesota, met up with this guy called Deo. He is in his early twenties and has started the Good Hope Initiative (www.goodhopeinitiative.org). Deo now lives in Kampala, but he is from the Mubende district, 2.5 hours west of Kampala. He grew up there as an orphan and was raised by the village. After he graduated from college he set up the Good Hope Initiative which cares for 130 village children (I’m trying to post pictures of my day there to facebook but it is unbearably slow.) The actual center is a brick/cement structure with two rooms. 6 children currently live there and the rest live with guardians spread out throughout the village. We went to visit about 10 different guardians. Most are elderly, whose children have gone off to the cities and they live in these rural RURAL areas with up to ten children. It was incredible how self-sufficient most of these homes are. Most were made of mud, with thatched roofs, but they had everything they needed. They had chickens, goats and pigs. Mango, avocado, jack fruit papaya, and pineapple trees. They grew chili peppers, vanilla, tomatoes, sugar cane and corn, all on their little section of land. Deo doesn’t have to worry too much about feeding the children, but he works mostly on making sure they have a place to sleep, have medical care and can go to school. He has raised enough money thus far to put all of the kids in school for at least this semester. (although we visited some of the schools, they are not exactly educational hot spots) We went to one school that had walls made out of dried reeds, not exactly sturdy and the others were made out of mud. The plus side is you can use the dried mud as a chalk board.
After we visited a number of houses and schools we went back to the center where about 100 kids were waiting for us. The put on a little song and dance show then we handed out candy, chocolate, pencils, pens and note books. They were so cute! (See FB pictures) We also gave out some much needed mosquito nets (of which they are in desperate need of before malaria season hits). The women made us a traditional meal (with food all grown right there) which was delicious. This is definitely an organization that is worth helping out….
We finished up in Mubende and had to race back to Kampala because……..
We had to make it on time to the taping of the “Stand Up Uganda” finale! It’s Africa’s answer to Last Comic Standing. Some of the local pharmacy interns I am working with at Mulgao were able to get tickets. And boy was it amazing. The actual comedians weren’t funny at all, but just being there was hilarious. It was quite a shock to go to that immediately after visiting Mubende, but hey, I’ve never been to a reality show taping before.
Holy Toledo that’s a long entry. Sorry about that, and congratulations if you made it to the end. I will try to write more frequently, thereby having shorter (more interesting) entries in the future. Hope all is well in the US!
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