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Published: July 12th 2016
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This past week and a half has been a complete whirlwind! And I have loved every minute of it!
Last week some of us were fortunate enough to be invited with the other Nutrition and Dietitic students working here to host a nutrition camp at Ruharo Mission Hospital. This is a fairly swanky hospital within Mbarara that has one of the top optometry clinics in the country and hosts children with disabilities in a specific facility dedicated to just them. Originally the camp was to be just one day but due to Eid (the end of Ramadan) we were asked to make it two days and it was so worth it! We had such amazing support for the Ruharo staff. Basically every staff member came in, got registered, allowed us to to anthropometric measurements on them, assess their overall health, and then give them nutrition counselling! They also helped us assess clients from the general public as well! All of the clients we had were so eager to learn which was wonderful to see. The second day we had a lot of new mom's come in which made us all happy. I met some amazing people, including some
Public Health students that laughed at how our lives back in Canada are. They are shocked that my parents do not know where I go out at night, they do not know what I wear on a daily basis, and that they would allow me to put pins and tattoos on my body! I also had the lovely conversation of why my partner let me come to Uganda unmarried. It clearly means he is not serious about me and I should find a husband while here. Although it seems like a lovely idea I still declined his help of finding myself a man.
All of us Canadians decided to take the weekend off and head to Lake Bunyonyi which is an AMAZING place! It was way up in the mountains and was so lush and beautiful. It was incredibly Western which actually made me feel quite uncomfortable I was not used to seeing that many white people or seeing that sort of lifestyle where money just flows. I had a wonderful time, went swimming in the lake, and jumped off a sketchy diving board that reminded me of summer in Ontario. We got to do a boat
tour of the lake which was awesome. I got to see water buck, zebras, and impalas. We also toured around punishment island which is more like a cluster of swamp grass they would send unwed pregnant women to as a punishment for getting into that position. They would typically drown, or die of starvation but the lucky few would be rescued by men who could not afford any other bride. Thankfully the practice of using this island died out in around the 30's. We also rented out canoes which was awesome!! I miss paddling and using a hollowed out log as a boat always makes for an interesting time. I also managed to convince some of the crew to hike up the mountain to Acadia Cottages which overlook Lake Bunyonyi. It was only a 30 minute hike but all straight uphill so we were very tired by the time we made it up but it was so worth it! Such a beautiful view point. Our lodges here were canvas tents on raised platforms. Waking up to the beautiful view every morning is definitely something I could get used to.
This week promises to be another busy one
with work at the hospital and doing extra activities two days of the week. Today we headed to Kahenda which has a relationship with those traveling from Saskatoon. It is a very rural village that is home to an older population who are widowed. Cervical cancer and nutritional issues are common problems facing this community so we went in to try and help as best as we could! We had a wonderful session on nutrition and then one on cervical cancer and then sat with the women in a more intimate setting to try and answer some of their questions. None of their questions were geared towards nutrition and we got word that some of the secondary school females wanted to ask us some female problem questions. I volunteered to go and talk to them and it was so worth it! It took awhile for them to open up to us as they had a belief that everything about us was different. I explained with the help of others that just the colour of our skin is different. We also have underarm hair, hairy legs, pubic hair, the same vagina, and bleed the same as them. They did not really
believe us until we started talking to them about more mundane life things. When they discovered our life was very similar to ours then they finally believed us that we are the same. Seeing them open up to us was so incredibly wonderful and beautiful. The women and girls started asking us more intimate questions and getting comfortable with touching us, and joking around with us. I felt like I was a part of a powerful tribe of women who were just coming into the, sometimes scary, world of womanhood. The girls admitted to being scared of us as we "looked like those in the movies and made of money" but were very happy we came to talk to them and sat with them. They also loved my tattoos, taking photos with us, dancing with us, and touching our skin that was so smooth to them. It was overall just such a touching experience, seeing this community open up to us, and accept us. I was the only one left sitting with the women and I did not want to leave! We had a mob style goodbye of hundreds of children chasing us through the matooke plantations on our way
to the chairpersons house for a late lunch. Sitting with everyone in a circle and joking and talking made me so incredibly happy to be right there in that moment. I have really loved this place from the beginning but today I felt really accepted and a part of the community. It really is such a beautiful place here in so many different ways. I am looking forward to the pads training day on Thursday!!
Sending love from Africa
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