Haley Garden

We spent a total of three weeks in Rugazi with the Ugandan students. We were split into two groups as we were 9 Canadian students and 11 Ugandan students. We were paired up with two medical students from the University of Saskatchewan. In the mornings we spent our time working in the clinic and the afternoons we worked on our community projects. We chose health education of UTIs and menstrual health for our two projects. Our interventions for the UTI project included health talks in a school with about 150 students present, a health talk in the community and also in the outpatient department. During these talks, we covered common signs and symptoms, causes, prevention, and complications. Every audience was very receptive and were eager to participate and ask questions. The students were very engaged and ... read more

Unfortunately, last week I was not feeling well. Both my Ugandan and Canadian friends were amazing at nursing me back to health from the lab, pharmacy, and nursing aspects. On Saturday, we went to King Fisher, which is a lodge nearby. We spent the day swimming and enjoying the sunshine. This pool overlooks Queen Elizabeth Park, which is a beautiful view. On Sunday, I spent most of the afternoon working in the clinic to make up for lost time. The clinic was very busy with many laboring women. I assisted in the delivery of a baby boy and spent the day assisting the midwives with various other tasks. It was great, I love working in the clinic. Today, I spent the morning doing rounds with the doctor then assisted in the theatre during a c-section. What ... read more

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to go Gorilla Trekking in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda to visit one of the five families of gorillas that are habituated to tourists visiting them in their natural habit. Trackers are in the jungle daily keeping tabs from a distance where each family travels throughout the day, they leave the National Park by roughly 3pm in hopes to relocate the gorillas tomorrow. The next day, the trackers will begin searching for the gorillas where they last saw them the previous day. Gorillas can move many kilometers daily in search of food or different lodging, or they may also move if they sense another family nearby. The family we visited consisted of 17 gorillas. Three of them are Silverbacks. A male gorilla becomes a silverback at the mature ... read more

After a full day of travel and four flights, I arrived in Uganda, Africa without any problems. During our first day in Entebbe, we visited the Botanical Gardens which was beautiful. After that, we checked out some local markets and had a traditional lunch. The food was pretty good, goat meat, rice, Matooke, and local sweet potato. The fresh fruit, especially mangoes have been delicious!! Our rooms are simple, but we have everything we need. Three of us girls are staying together with a small bathroom attached to our room. I am still adjusting to the time difference as 9 hours is quite a big change. The weather has been beautiful, warm during the day with a thunderstorm and heavy rain during the early mornings. We are heading to Ssese islands tomorrow for a three day ... read more