Week 3 in Ruhija (June 13th - June 19th)

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June 13^th, 2016



Woke up at 7:45AM today, ate breakfast, and then headed out to the health centre. Got a call from Jim and dad as I was walking over. It was great to hear from them and listen to Jim’s experiences in Spain. It kept cutting out for no reason though, so our call ended abruptly. They’re sleeping now, so I’m sure we’ll figure it out and talk some more later.



Work at the health centre was not bad today. No drugs have been delivered to the health centre for over a month now, so the pharmacy is quite short-stocked. This often means that we can’t prepare all the prescriptions for the patients and have to send them away to purchase their own drugs. Whether or not they have the money to buy their own drugs is an entire different question. We did, however, manage to see all the patients in the waiting room, which is an achievement in and of itself! It feels good knowing that all the people waiting for medical attention were all examined. We finished seeing everyone and dispensing the drugs at 1PM and headed back home.



At home, lunch consisting of gnut sauce with tomatoes, rice, and matoke were waiting. I quickly gobbled my portion up and got ready to work on our community project stuff. However, Clement and Lynn decided they would head up to ITFC to charge their equipment and not do any work, even though we had established that work would be done after lunch. And we basically weren’t changing their minds. In their minds, they had decided to put things off until 7pm. So from now until 7pm, I’ve got time to kill. First, I decided that I’m going up to ITFC to write whatever I can of today’s blog entry, while also loading up some water. At the same time, I tried to hijack the internet access at ITFC through Ethernet, but unfortunately that didn’t work. I may have to ask Jim to pay some bills for me, otherwise I’ll need to incur some late fees.



At around 4pm, Silas reminded me that the 2016 Euros (European Soccer Tournament) had begun. He also shared the news that the warden’s office has a nice big TV with cable! So we walked to the warden’s office to watch some soccer and came back to our home around 5:00pm. We would have watched until later, but the power cut out. So we came home early, ate dinner (spaghetti, rice, and gnut sauce+tomatoes), I checked my email. At 7pm, we worked on our project (stakeholder analysis, priority actions, entire challenge model) in anticipation of our supervisor, Gad, coming tomorrow, and then I went to sleep.







June 14^th, 2016



Woke up at 7am, ate breakfast (posho and beans) and went to visit the warden. He very clearly restated that he doesn’t have the authority to grant permission to me to go gorilla tracking. He needs the ITFC director to seek approval from the executive director of UWA (Uganda Wildlife Association) for me to get approval. Which basically means gorilla tracking for free isn’t going to happen. I’ll talk to the ITFC director and see how far I get.



Walked back to camp and then soon after, the group left to go to the health centre. Lynn and Clement were still sleeping as we left and they’ve become our designated lunch cooks now. At the health centre, we started our day as usual, slow and steady. But by around 11am, Gad, Alex (another facilitator/supervisor), Lynn, and Clement showed up. We sat down nearby and started to discuss stuff. First, everyone introduced themselves and what they have learned/achieved. I said that I’ve learned 3 main, different things.



One, I’ve come to realize that change almost always has to start small and grow bigger. Initially, I had grandeur images of creating a lasting, impactful, and significant change in Ruhija. But I quickly realized that the realities of society and time required for change don’t occur in such short periods. If anything, short and sudden changes often are doomed in the long-run.



Second, as much as I have ideas in my own mind, I have to remember that I’m not always right or don’t always have the best ideas. “You can’t always rely on yourself”. I’m not a one-man machine and I’m going to be wrong at times. At times, I may know I’m wrong, while other times, I may not realize that I’m wrong. So one or several people need to be there to help and I need to be receptive. I need to open my mind during inter-professional or One Health collaborations to encourage and take in a variety of great, brilliant contributions. Anyone and everyone can and should contribute. But this also poses a double-edged sword. I realized that if I had a project in mind, I’d like to have more control so that I can still receive contributions from others, but veto or remove ideas which don’t necessarily align with my initial vision for the project. Because at times, contributions may not be very helpful. A variety of different opinions can hold back progress. So it’s important to find a balance. Where that balance exactly lies, however, is the hard part.



Third, I’m reminded of something about culture. I’m in a very fortunate position to have traveled a fair bit. And the places I’ve traveled have offered a very wide variety of cultures. This vast experience has opened my eyes towards the many different ways of life and attitudes and biases, and has created a unique sense of worldliness in me. I’m easily frustrated when I’m around others who are not as worldly or culturally diverse as I am, particularly when they’re not willing to learn or embrace the different culture or try to imprint too much of their own culture or set of biases onto the local area. But I should remember not to be so judgemental. Why? Because the truth is, there’s no “right or wrong” when it comes to cultures. A culture is not subjected to a scale of “correct or incorrect”. It is what it is. So be happy that you’re so well traveled and that you’ve experienced so many different cultures. Be happy that you can embrace different cultures more easily than others, but leave your judgement aside when comparing yourself to others.



So coming back to introductions, after everyone introduced themselves and shared their lessons learned, Gad and Alex started to discuss a little philosophy and then talked about our community project. Gad mentioned one thing that really struck a tone with me. He considers himself a man of the community, meaning he really cares about his contributions to the community and how he can make a difference for communities (not 100%!s(MISSING)ure if he means rural communities or just society in general). But, through his talk about contributing to the community, he reminded me of this question: “how will I contribute to humanity?” At times, I’ve gotten so caught up with myself and thinking how degenerate society has become that I’ve forgotten to plan towards “leaving a mark”. I don’t mean having a family. And it doesn’t have to be Nobel Prize winning, but it should be something that people or society remembers you for.



Finally, we came home, ate a really late lunch (4pm) of matoke, posho, and beans, and rested/chilled for the late afternoon and evening. During that time, I helped James cut his hair and wrote this blog. Jim and dad also called so I talked with them and we all shared some updates. Love you guys!



Before lunch, I also ran into Dez, the ITFC accountant, and had a short conversation with him about the water running low at our house, still needing internet for doing research towards our community project, and when the director of ITFC would be arriving. Dez seems to have some unspoken ill-will against me or us community placement students because he’s, simply put, an asshole or douchebag towards me/us. He won’t give me a straight answer, he’ll say one thing and then go 180 and be the complete opposite (water situation), and overall has an extremely poor attitude towards me/us. I think there has to be some underlying bad past experience that has led to him having this poor attitude (“not my problem”, not willing to be helpful, pushing off responsibility, saying one thing but not actually holding up on it, and being a dick in conversation). It’s hard exactly for me to put it into words because I’m not exactly sure how to describe it. It’s a bit like arrogance, a bit like not being willing to help, a bit like indifference, a bit like being two-faced. I plan on talking to him sometime close to when we’re leaving to hopefully “clear the air”. Not confrontational in any way, but in a positive manner. After our talk earlier, my initial thought was to retaliate through doing something spiteful, but I remembered mom handling a situation with an ophthalmologist in Taiwan before. This ophthalmologist lashed out and shouted at mom when she asked several questions after I had LASIK surgery. He clearly wasn’t having a good day because mom wasn’t acting out of the normal or asking for anything unreasonable. But at the moment this doctor lashed out, mom handled the situation extremely calmly and in a very soothing tone, addressed the situation with so much finesse and pose that the moment still stands out in my mind today. After the situation, as mom and I were back in the car, I remember mom using this opportunity as a wonderful life lesson. She told me that she could have easily lashed back at the doctor, or held a very negative attitude, but she instead cooled the situation, handled it calmly, and left it without harboring any ill-will. She understood that the doctor was probably having a bad day. She knew that the doctor was the one being out of line. But she also knew that handling fire with fire would only make the situation worse. So mom, if you’re reading this, remember that anytime that a bad, explosive situation happens to me, I try to remember your actions that day with the doctor, and through you, I have the power to be the “greater person”. Love you lots mom.



As of right now, I’m going to watch an episode of a tv series called “the blacklist” and then I’ll update the blog later with anything else I did later in the night.



Edit from later in the night: went out with Silas to watch the Portugal vs Iceland Euro match. Game started at 10pm local time and the result was a 1:1 tie. I got home a bit past 12am and went straight to sleep.







June 15^th, 2016



Woke up at 8:30am, ate posho and beans for breakfast with some tea, and watched a bit of blacklist. Gideon, the yellow Arsenal shirt, came over and brought a bamboo mat which James had bought from the local traditional healer. It cost him 10,000UGX, which translates to around $4CAD. Interestingly, Gideon asked to talk to me in private. I really had no idea what he wanted to talk to me about. So I was pleasantly surprised when he asked me if I was married! I told him no and then he told me that the local teacher called Happy at the orphanage (who had seen me at orphanage and church) had asked to get my email and phone number. I personally believe that seeing me at church was probably a big deal because in Uganda, the number 1 factor that women want in men is “God fearing”. Next would be “rich”. So I’m guessing I fall really well into those categories. Plus, I’m obviously very good looking so all the female interest doesn’t come as a surprise. 😉 (There’s also a girl back in Entebbe, our guesthouse receptionist, who’s texted me quite a bit since we left and if I’m picking up her signals correctly… she definitely has a thing for me.)



Anyways, I was the chef for lunch today so I cooked rice, matoke, and cabbage. Everyone likes my cooking, which is great, but to be honest, the skill required to cook the Ugandan way isn’t hard… it’s simply time consuming. So after everyone ate lunch, I squeezed in a quick workout and we all sat down to refine our community project materials. We did some good work on our mission, health challenge, current situation, background, and questionnaire before the majority of us (Montana, Richele, Silas, Clement, and I) went up to ITFC to charge electronics and fill up water. While I was up at ITFC, I also met Dr. Robert Bitariho, the director of ITFC, for the first time. He said that I’ll have to pay the full price for gorilla tracking, but he was willing to write a reference and introduction letter for me! I drafted a letter for him and he said he’ll sign and date it for me.



Afterwards, we came down for dinner (gnut sauce, spaghetti, and irish potatoes) and worked a bit more on our project before going to bed. Last night, we were also offered the opportunity to stay some extra time in the rural placement. We’ll sleep on it tonight and decide tomorrow whether or not we’ll stay longer.







June 16^th, 2016



Woke up at 7:45am, ate breakfast, and went to the health centre to work. Today was a really quiet day at the health centre. Very few patients and a relatively new guy who is examining patients. He came yesterday and said he was coming back from a long leave. He’s much more efficient and according to Richele and Montana, also much more interactive, such as asking for Richele and Montana’s input on what they think the patients problem is. At around 10am, we were already done with all the patients. We finally left the health centre around 11:30am and on the way back, I bought a kilo of pork meat with some cabbage, tomatoes, matoke, and irish potatoes for everyone. Everyone, including myself, loved the pork! I have to go back for some more! After we ate lunch (matoke, posho, and beans), we sat down to do some work, which I must say is much more efficient now that Lynn is gone (btw, Lynn is gone because she has some kind of family emergency. She left during the night of june 15^th, at 5am). It’s amazing how the presence of one person can have such a big impact on the group. The group works more efficiently, seems happier (though it could be the influence of the pork), and feels more organized. Only time will tell if this will hold up.



Afterwards, I worked out for a short bit, then went up to ITFC to charge and get Dr. Bitariho’s letter. It was ready and waiting for me once I arrived at the office. I drafted most of it, but he made some nice revisions too! The letter should be very helpful! I also sent an email to Dr. Siefert who is a wildlife veterinarian who works in Queen Elizabeth National Park with lions and other big game. He said he should be getting back to me soon regarding whether or not I can join him in his work in July. Finally, I watched a couple episodes of blacklist before I came back down to eat dinner.



After coming down, I ate dinner, and played chess, which I borrowed from the community rest camp, with Silas and then went to sleep.







June 17^th, 2016



Woke up, bought rolex (chapatti+eggs+some veggies), and went to health centre. Worked until 1:30pm today! Not because there were a lot of patients, but because Julian, the person doing our examining today, was super thorough and thus, slow. I was definitely feeling a bit frustrated towards the end of the shift. I learned a couple things, or rather, I was reminded of a couple of things. First, I want some alone time here and there. Not necessarily because of others doing anything different, but because I can get frustrated for one reason or another (sometimes stupid or silly, sometimes legitimate) and just need some alone time. Secondly, I really felt a better understanding of how the life of a celebrity can be annoying. As a muzungu, I’m somewhat of a celebrity to people here. All the locals stare and they’re always saying “hello” and “how are you?” It may be fun at first, and nice to receive all that attention, but after a while, it can get old. Plus, if you’re not in a good mood, it can really set you up for a bad moment with the “fans”. This brings me to another thought, which is whether I want to live in a place where I’m the “odd one out” (e.g. kinda Saskatoon, definitely Africa, kinda Taiwan) or a place where “I’m another run of the mill, stereotypical guy” (e.g. Vancouver). At times, I want to be the standout guy in the group. I want to be the centre of attention. But at other times, I just want to be a bit in the shadows, not necessarily in the spotlight. I don’t have any particular path I’m going with this thought, but perhaps it can open up some more discussions with family or friends or myself in the future.



So after the health centre shift, I came back and ate lunch. The group worked on our community project and basically sent a draft for approval from our supervisor, Mr. Gad Ruzaaga. If he approves, then we’ll start all our big actions such as planning the venue, finding translators, asking for permission from officials, advertising, etc. Afterwards, I went up to the ITFC, charged electronics for a bit, watched some episodes of the blacklist, came back down for dinner, called a few people (Silas, Tenielle, and Happy), typed my blog entry, played a game of chess with Silas (taught him quite a lot), and then went to sleep. I also set up a time, 10:30am, to meet with Happy tomorrow because she wants to discuss something in private. I’ll blog about it tomorrow after I meet her.







June 18^th, 2016



So I woke up at around 9am, ate breakfast, and then went out to meet Happy, the orphanage director, at 10:30am. When I got there, I met a teacher who called Happy. We saw the orphans really quickly and then sat down at the orphanage office to start chatting. Very quickly, Happy asked if I was married or if I had a girlfriend. I said no, but I quickly gathered that she was looking for a relationship so I immediately diffused the situation by saying that I had a girlfriend who passed away and thus I wasn’t interested in anyone or dating at the moment. So instead, I told her that we could be friends and just chat and get to know each other without any other motives. So I stayed for the next 2 hours, chatting and getting to know each other. She’s actually a mother of a 3 year old son who’s very cute from the picture I saw. She’s also not married because the guy who fathered the child left her, as many Ugandan men do. In fact, most Ugandan men don’t do any part in child-rearing, nor do they do any work at home or make a living for the family. They literally just search for women, drink, and chill all their time away. So the pressure is really on women to do all the work, while men are literally useless. Poor Happy lost all her faith in Ugandan men as a result of this guy, and thus she’s only interested in finding men of other ethnicity or race or country. We talked a bit about our families, how she has 6 siblings, about how her father died about 3 months ago, about how her parents gave her the name Happy, about relationships, and about the work she’s doing at the orphanage. As I was her guest, she insisted that she prepare some food for me. I initially said no, but after remembering that it’s traidition for Ugandans to serve their guests, I caved and said yes to tea (chai in their local vernacular). I was surprised when her sister, Judith, the teacher who I met initially, served us tea, bananas, and a big plate of mashed irish potatoes, matoke, taro, and beans. It was really delicious and Happy and I shared and finished it all, but I also felt bad that for someone who’s much worse off than I am, Happy was still treating me. I’ll have to leave her with something or some stuff as a thank you. Anyways, after chatting and eating lunch, we said and hugged our good-byes, and then I went back to home, where the gang was curious to hear about what happened. I shared the story with them, and immediately blogged this event down.



Then, watched a couple episodes of blacklist, edited some articles for WCVM, went to play soccer with Eliab and his kids, and came home for dinner. After dinner, called several friends (Tenielle, Britany, Owani) and then introduced everyone to the IQ blox game that I brought with me. Finally, I went to sleep around 9pm.



June 19^th, 2016



Dad, if you’re reading today’s entry, HAPPY FATHER’S DAY! I wanted to call or send a text, but my phone is out of money so I hope this belated father’s day wish can make it up! I hope you had a great day! And thank you for everything you’ve done as my dad! I love you so very much!





Woke up at 8am to go visit warden on the possibility of getting a gorilla permit and whether or not I could go with researchers to see gorillas. Warden gave good news, saying I can get a gorilla permit at their office on the spot, and that I could go with the researchers to see the gorillas. Going with the researchers means I can spend anywhere from 4-5 hours with the gorillas rather than only an hour with a normal guide. Came back and then soon after left to go to church. We (Montana, Richele, and I) were there from 10:45am to 1pm and it was really similar to last weekend’s church service. We came back once the bidding began and ate lunch. I worked out for a bit, played a couple games of chess, and then cooked dinner (posho, spaghetti and cabbage) before we worked on our project and really nailed down the details for this week. At 8:30pm, after we finished our meeting, I met Happy for a quick bit. She’s leaving for Kampala for a few days so she wanted to see me before she left. I met her, talked for a little bit, she walked me home, I gave her some of the 科學麵 as a snack, and then I went to bed.

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