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Phew! Week one down here and so far so good! We traveled to Mbrara on Sunday and everyone made it safe and sound to the university for orientation day on Monday! On our travels here we got to stop at the equator which was a nice place to stop (those vans get hot here).
Since Monday we have been attending class at MUST and I have to say it is sort of bizarre being in a classroom in a foreign country. I know understand why exchange students can have such a hard time in our classrooms in Canada. Everything moves so slowly here, everything is repeated at least three times, and people will call you out on your mistake with no hesitation. An example of this is a third party country was hired on to help supply the funds for our community placements and during their presentation on Monday they changed our placements from 4 weeks until 10 weeks and the payment schedule was completely useless. The professors and doctors on faculty at MUST instantly jumped up at the end of their presentation and called them out! Us Canadians and Americans (we have 2 ladies from Harvard with
us) were completed shocked and sort of uncomfortable. We know that our professors back home stand up for us but it is all being done behind closed doors. It was quite interesting to see them fight for their students so publicly. The classes themselves have been great and not too different from content we cover back home during our schooling. I have also gotten to learn a lot about the culture of the country as the students are very happy to teach us about their country.
Speaking of placements I have been placed in Bugoye which is in the Kasese region! Also, our placements will only be 4 weeks and then we will come back and work at the hospital for several weeks. Bugoye is a smaller community in the mountains and I am quite excited to go but word is I will be placed in Kibale by the end of the week. Only two Canadians are traveling there and our wonderful instructor who came to meet us (Dr. Carol Henry) does not like this arrangement as much. I am excited to go anywhere really and am not too picky. I was excited to live in the
mountains but I am sure if I end up in Kibale that community will offer something else really exciting! Speaking of Dr. Henry she is a savior to us this week! She has been such a great mother hen, always looking out for her little clan of students. I will be sad to see her go tomorrow.
Everything else here has been great. I thought I would have trouble with the slow pace here or the lack of control I would have here but honestly none of it has bothered me. I just keep going with the flow and when I do find myself getting a bit irritated I just remind myself that I am a guest here and who am I to try and say my way is better than theirs? Embracing their culture and ways of doing things has been a great exercise of patience for me that has actually been pretty enjoyable. I wish I could say the rest of my group is feeling the same but it seems some are getting pretty tired of it and are restless to take charge and get the class discussions moving forward. I would say as a
group we are still doing well at keeping together and not being too aggressive to each other but we have had some snaps back and forth. I think splitting up come Saturday will be good for us. Keeping 12 people happy, on the same page, and on time is a taxing duty.
I am sure I have a lot more interesting things to talk about but I am still having a tough time keeping the days straight and staying up past 9. I keep waking up at 5AM here and by the time our days are done I am completely spent. Being a sweaty person from the moment you wake up to the moment you fall asleep is hella draining! Oh! We got to try truly local food for the first time this week! I must say it is pretty good despite the warnings I was given. I love me some ground nut sauce!
Anyways, it is almost my bedtime! Sending love from Africa!
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Mahasti Khakpour
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Glad you got there safe and sound. looking forward to red your stories from Africa :)