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Published: August 19th 2018
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Hey everyone, it's Cydnee coming to you with our last blog post of the summer and what an amazing 3 months this adventure in Uganda has been. I am so grateful to have been able to experience the things I have here with this amazing group of people. From freezing our butts off in the mountains of Ruhija to burning like the white mzungu's we are in the Savannah and eating all the Rolex Uganda has to offer. This has allowed us the opportunity to experience a completely new culture, meet and work with amazing people and create memories and life skills we will never forget.
Before I get to the last half of our Safari adventure I will sum up my experiences throughout the summer. Starting with the community placement in Ruhija, none of us new what to expect and it was defiantly a challenge at times especially living without power, learning to adapt to peeing in a latrine and living with 15 other individuals. I also found it very challenging working in the Health Centre in Ruhija because most days it lacked the basic resources that our hospitals and walk-in clinics in Canada are stocked with, such as
blood pressure cuffs, thermometers, and prescription drugs. Even some days taking height and weight, the scale lacked batteries so when it came to prescribing medications we had to estimate the right amount. The hardest part for myself was knowing that majority of the people coming to this clinic had to be referred to other hospitals with more resources but due to either the high cost of travel or treatment they needed to receive, I was told most just go home and hope for the best. Although the clinic was frustrating at times, it was a wake up call to daily struggles that these people in Ruhija have to live through that in Canada we take for granted, basic access to quality healthcare services.
Back in Umbarara hospital I was able to shadow the doctors and nurses through my different ward rotations and it still had its challenges but I was happy to be observing more than the services in health centre 3 of Ruhija were able to provide. Some of these ward rotations provided me with experiences that as a Kinesiology student only just applying into medicine were brand new. In the maternity ward I was able to observe
a live birth of a baby and I was amazed when just minutes after giving birth the mothers were dressed, handed their babies and walking into the post-natal ward where the rest of the new mothers were resting, some on the floor and those that had c-sections on the beds. My next ward rotation was in pediatric surgery where I was again shocked by the differences in our healthcare system. When it came to patient care the families were put in charge of feeding, changing the bandages and providing their own bedding for the child, in Canada this is assumed to be part of patient care by the hospital and doctors/nurses. But looking beyond these differences I am grateful for the amount I was able to learn during my time spent in the hospital. From observing hand amputations to reverse colostomy's and tumor removals it has providing me with a great new perspective on medicine I hope to carry on with me in the future.
As for the last five days of our safari, they were jam packed and flew by but our tour guide Silas made sure we experienced everything to it's fullest. This included a few surprise
guests of elephants walking through our campground during supper, which to us seemed very abnormal but it turned out they were frequent visitors. On day 6 of our Safari we passed through the Uganda Equator into Kibale where we did a community walk and were shown how they make fresh coffee followed by a freshly brewed banana beer and gin. It was a little bit too strong for most of us but was defiantly something very interesting to try. Followed by the community walk we did what was one of my personnel favorite activities, chimp trekking. Ruhija monkey's scarred me from when they would jump on the shower shed while I was in it, but the chimps were a lot more enjoyable and we had a great guide that anything we asked about the chimps or other animals and vegetation in the forest, he was sure to know the answer....did you know we are 98.7% related to chimps? We finished the day in Fort Portal where were stayed in a hotel for the night and had a one of the best meals of the trip that was an amazing family style home cooked meal I think we all very much
appreciated. On day 7 we traveled to Murchison falls where we saw some unbelievable views and defiantly got our workout in walking up and down the stairs to the falls. The rest of the day was spent doing game drives where we saw giraffes, elephants and our personnel favorite, Pumba the warthog (lets just say we probably rehearsed and sang over song and scene from the lion king one too many times). Day 8 of our safari we continued with game drives through the Savannah where we spotted our first leopard. In the afternoon we took a boat ride on the Nile river where we got a little bit to close for my comfort with a crocodile and also saw some more hippos even an albino one. However, getting off the boat we were greeted by some baboons that would charge at you if you had food in your hand and at this point you tossed it, unless you wanted it to be taken by force. In the evening we went on our first night game drive where we were able to see a pride of lions and followed two male lions.On day 9 we did our last trek of
the safari which was Rhino trekking before we headed to Jinja for our last night on Safari. Our last day on Safari, we participated in what was probably a little bit more extreme white water rafting then most of us knew what we were getting into but it was defiantly worth the experience even though before lunch we probably spent more time in the water then in the raft from being flipped. Finally, 10 days later we headed back to Entebbe where this whole adventure began and its defiantly a bittersweet moment as members of our group begin to fly out. Overall, this whole trip has been an experience of a life time and I couldn't imagine doing it with a better group of people.
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