Blogs from Western Region, Uganda, Africa - page 16

Rugazi week 4 Day 34- Went on the pediatric unit with Mike and in the afternoon prepped for our health presentation at Saint Michael’s High school. The topic was about latrine and hand hygiene and I presented on hand hygiene. The students and staff were very receptive and asked lots of questions. In the evening Lindsey and I watched football. Day 35- Went to Out Patient Department (OPD) with Brian (clinical officers), were we assessed many different health issues. Afternoon Rugazi Group B went to Nyakatunga village to evaluate our research project. Our project was very successful the community members were very engaged; many had cleaned their latrines, created toilet covers, tissue baskets and brooms, and even started building new pit latrines. Day 36- In the morning I worked on the research report with the group ... read more

24 June: Queen Elizabeth National Park Our day started off early as we decided to do the trekking for the chimpanzees in Kailnzu forest. Once we arrived to find our guides for the trek, we had to split in two groups. Our group was Michael, Lionus, Samantha, Charlotte, Sophie, Dave, Tamara, Nichole, and myself. We started a long hike downwards through the forest. It was slippery along he way but an enjoyable hike. After about an hour and a half we were able to spot the chimpanzees. They were up in the trees right above us, about four or five of them. Samantha got some great photos of them and I had a few. Was amazing to see. We then did a nice hike out of the forest where we emerged from the edge of the ... read more

This post covers our second week at Kihefo, which was a lot more interesting than the first week, as we finally were able to get to the rural communities and make some progress on our group project. I started the week off spending some time with Alphonse and learning more about the rabbit-breeding project. In the morning, Alphonse came to Kihefo, picked me up on his boda boda and off we went to visit the farms of people who either had already started breeding rabbits or were just getting prepared to do so. I need to stop for a moment. I was so pumped to finally ride a boda boda here, aka a motorcycle! It had been years since I was on a bike, and I so badly wanted to try cruising around on one in ... read more

This is going to be nice and short, to balance out the last few longer ones! (. . . also the power is out and my battery is going to die.) It's finally time for Leandra and I to have our first free weekend since leaving home, so we decided to take off to beautiful Lake Bunyonyi! Lake Bunyonyi is a short distance away from Kabale and is known for its beauty and having many small islands scattered within the lake (29, I believe). We checked into our oh-so-simple $10 per night room – simple as in it only had beds, and about half a light bulb – and decided to have some lunch and a beer on the patio over looking the lake. My friends know how much I can't resist a chance to have ... read more

Day 18- Saturday June 7th-Breakfast we had homemade somosas (yummy!!). Early in the morning we had a fairly bad rain/hail storm and then for the rest of the day it was sunny out. Lounged around the health centre and played volleyball with a homemade ball (made out of plastic bags and yarn) and made new friends. Had a group meeting in the evening about our community project. It was a fairly quiet day. Day 19- had chapattis for breakfast and chicken for lunch!!!! Another quiet day and a late group meeting. Day 20- Mike and I changed up our "ward rounds" and went to General ward for the week. Mariam a Ugandan student nurse also joined us. This day was quite jumbled since the clinical officers were following Mike, so I kind of bounced between pediatrics ... read more