Blogs from Western Region, Uganda, Africa - page 14

Well, good news....I haven't poked myself with any more contaminated needles and don't seem to be showing any clinical signs of brucella! We've been pretty busy this last week and a half. We have done brucella testing and clostridia vaccinations in many of the communities and have attended almost all of the group meetings. We also had the pioneer training for the goat farmers from QE (Queen Elizabeth National Park). The training went much better than we expected and we were all quite proud of ourselves. We were teaching them the basic principles behind the goat project, the requirements to receive goats and also some basic goat husbandry. The pioneers seem very enthusiastic and we think they have the potential to be very successful with the project. The field days are long and all three of ... read more

Alright, well I’ve been in Uganda for over a month now so I figure it’s time I actually spend some time writing about the work I’ve been doing - I swear I have been working here! Because I don’t like to spend my downtime blogging, I will continue to be behind on entries the entire time I’m here. I intended this to be a quick run-down of how the first month has gone, but like all my entries it’ll probably be a long one. Like I said in my first blog entry, I was accepted for an internship with Vets without Borders to work on their Goat Pass-On Project. In a nutshell, the Goat Pass-On Project strives to help the most impoverished people of rural Uganda - mainly widows and orphans - and we help them ... read more

Single handedly one of the most amazing experiences of my life. It’s really expensive for the permit but the money goes directly to the national park and into conservation efforts, and the experience is priceless, irreplaceable and can’t be done anywhere else (Congo, Uganda and Rwanda are the only countries with Gorillas) so I stroooongly encourage anyone who’s in the area, who enjoys hiking, nature and wildlife and who gets the chance, to do this with no hesitation! We drove up to Bwindi national park which was about 3 and a half hours from Mbarara. An hour of it was just going up the mountain! If it were me or any of us Muzungus driving it would have taken 5 hours to get up that mountain, but our driver Sylus was insane (safe I guess, but ... read more

After a 25 hour-long journey, 5 movies, 1 book, a couple of hours of sleep, I made it to Africa! I’m arriving on a Tuesday but I can only get a lift to Mbarara (where our project is based) on Saturday or Sunday when the nursing students from University of Saskatchewan arrive, they are part of a different program, the LCP (Leadership in Community Placement) program. It’s too expensive to get a private hire and the bus is apparently really hectic and crazy and I was strongly advised not to take it alone. So I’ll be spending the next couple of days in Entebbe. I slept pretty early the first day and for over 12 hours, needed that! Had the company of my friend the gecko who chilled on my wall to protect me from malaria ... read more

Two months away is the most I’ve ever done and I wanted a way to document it. Especially now, embarking in this project, I want to monitor everything from the progress and challenges of the project, the beauty and wonders that Africa has to offer, the people I meet, the families and women I interact with, what I see, what I learn, what I am able to change, and who I become from all of this… after all, our experiences shape us. While pictures are great, I feel like there is always so many stories behind them and even when getting back from somewhere and showing them to family and friends, they often need explaining. So I’m trying out this blog mostly for me but also to share my experience with loved ones and all of ... read more