Blogs from Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Western Region, Uganda, Africa

Sorry, this blog post is long overdue. I’ve been here for almost 3 months now… time is just flying by! I’m still having my ups and downs about being here, but the ups totally outweigh the downs. I’ve learned so much about myself and just non-nursing things (like farming, business, and setting up a co-op, things that I would never have looked into myself but find very interesting.) I’ve learned about the nature of people, how I like to work, qualities needed in a good leader, and how to really work as a team. How I don’t need to rush to move on to doing the expected things in life, because they’ll come when they’re meant to. This knowledge has mostly come from the other volunteers, all of whom are absolutely amazing, smart, talented ... read more

1/14/12 I spend the day in the local health clinic today. As I write this, I am sitting on a cold concrete bench, where the patients usually wait hours to be seen by the nurse or the medical officer (a person with 3 years of medical training, I’d say roughly the equivalent of a PA in the US.) A doctor comes here roughly once every 4 months, and nurses here diagnose and prescribe medications. Today, the other health worker didn’t show up, so it was just me, the nurse, and her husband who is the dentist, owns the local pub, and taxis people at night. So we began our day alone. I weighed all the patients, and the nurse began to see them. After I was done, I joined her. We saw people with malaria, pneumonia, ... read more

Om 8 uur start de gorilla tracking, dit betekent vroeg uit de veren want het is 2 uur rijden. Er hangt een gezonde spanning in de auto. In het Travellers Rest Hotel in Kisoro hangen verschillende nationaliteiten rond, allen voor de gorilla,s. De wildste verhalen gaan rond, over zware trackings, een gorilla die naast een man gaat zitten en zijn arm er rond slaat tot een Australier die een stomp tegen zijn schouder kreeg en viel. Aangekomen dienen we ons paspoort te tonen om onze permit te verkrijgen. Allen hebben op voorhand een gorillagroep toegewezen gekregen, wij de Nshungo. Als ze merken dat de groep niet voldoende fit is, kan dit nog wijzigen. Om 8 uur is er eerst een briefing, onthou vooral dat je een gorilla niet in de ogen mag kijken. Tevens op 7 ... read more

Gorilla Trekking has been high on my to do list for a while now, so while choosing our Africa trip we made sure we picked a tour that included a visit to these magnificent animals. Before we arrived in Africa we were unsure whether we would trek in Uganda, Rwanda or The Congo, as it depends which of these countries we would be able to get a permit for as the gorillas move around between the national parks. On arrival in Nairobi we discovered we would be trekking in Bwinidi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda- that was fortunate, as we then didn't have to pay extra visa fees to go into Rwanda and back into Uganda. Our group based ourselves on the shores of Lake Bunyonyi, Uganda for four nights so we could split into small groups and ... read more