Blogs from Western Region, Uganda, Africa - page 2

Uganda day 3 Black eye, lions and a boat safari in Uganda So I have a black eye. I was bending down to plug something in last night and banged it on the bed post. This is the story Claire has told me to tell you…. It bled for a short while last night and has gone purple this morning. Pretty standard stuff for me. I still managed to get up at 5:30 though as we were off on a morning game drive. We were due to leave at 7 and breakfast started at 6:30 but there was no sign of Zed by quarter to so the lodge guy went and knocked on his door. We set off a few minutes late and Claire managed to stay calm by saying it was Africa time. At home ... read more

Do I want to walk in the forest at night looking for snakes? And pay $40 for the experience? No. Absolutely not. But thanks for the offer guys! This was during our first night in Uganda, in a dark forest where our accommodation is at the end of a very long path, amongst the wildlife, making me nervous of every dark tree root and stem by torchlight on my way to bed. Even in my hiking boots, I did not want to step on a snake. After a 24 hour journey from home via Birmingham airport, Istanbul Airport and Kigali airport, we finally arrived at Entebbe, having had very little sleep - screaming children put a stop to that. It was warm and still dark and we soon found our guide, Didan, who Glyn had booked ... read more

Uganda day 2 Chimps, warthogs and a rabbit plus an unintentional night safari. You can’t beat an ice cold shower in the morning, especially when you’ve not had one for two days. Actually you can. With most things. Let’s just say we rinsed a bit and Claire made some interesting noises. The alarm had gone off at 5:40 so we lay in bed until the next one at 5:45. Breakfast was bananas, pineapple, bread and however you wanted your eggs. I said I didn’t eat eggs and filled up on bread and fruit. Then the chef very kindly rustled up some cooked carrot and cauliflower. I was full but ate and enjoyed it anyway. I mentioned yesterday about not getting wound up by people. Didn’t last long. After a short car ride we arrived at the ... read more

Hi All, I have spent the last two weeks in Mbarara volunteering in the emergency department at the government-run Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital. I was fortunate enough to experience such a breadth of cases in such a short time. I saw all kinds of emergencies and realized that, although tropical diseases can be so different from western ones, the types of cases that present in the emergency department are very similar. There was a lot of trauma (mostly from boda boda accidents or mob justice), overdose, burns, stroke, hypertensive crisis, and the like. I felt comfortable and useful in surgical emergency because it was highly procedure-based. While speaking very minimal Runyankole, I am able to perform procedures but taking a history or constructing a differential diagnosis with physicians proved difficult due to the language barrier. I ... read more

Agandi! Warning: extra long post ahead, to make up for the ever-growing gaps between posts. And Happy National Ice Cream Day! Technically it's an American thing, but I'm going to unofficially declare it as an international holiday as additional justification for my ice cream intake. ;) We've been all over the place these past couple of weeks--first to Kampala, then Gulu, then back to Kampala, and coming "home" to Mbarara last Monday. We got scooped up into some of the behind-the-scenes work that goes into our supervisors' research with adolescent nutrition and sexual/reproductive health and rights (SRHR). We sat in on some meetings with representatives from BRAC international (an organization that actively promotes and provides opportunities for the empowerment of women), and various universities and hospitals. It was very interesting to talk to the public health ... read more