Spent Ugandan Independence Day with Janet who is also here with GHSP and Peace Corps as an RN Educator, she lives about 8 hours by bus and car from here and came over to help celebrate my birthday as well as spend the holiday with me.
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| Found this sign on the way back from Murchison, Got Demons? |
We had a good time just hanging out. She has worked in Africa in the past and has some amazing stories to share. I managed to get caught up on much of my paperwork for classes this week. I had to miss a day of lecture so had some written assignments from the students. The class is coming together and I can see where our needs are much more clearly now. In the past I was more or less guessing where our strengths were. I have students who are Clinical Officers who oftentimes are the only medical people at all in the Health Care Centres where they serve and Midwives as well as students who have just come out of passing A levels. It is an interesting and complicated mixture and at times I wonder just who I am teaching to. They have individual strengths and weaknesses that make for some interesting class time.
Can't believe how fast time is going and how much I still want to accomplish this semester. After Janet left today I got caught up on some lessons for this week. We are currently having a measles epidemic here in town and I put in some long hours at the hospital last week. Many scared moms coming in with babies who probably do not have the measles but do have mild rashes. Nice to see the mothers being pro-active. Many told me that they had been waiting for 2 to 3 days to see a doctor or clinical officer and that they have to come back and stand in line from the beginning each day, some had already been there since 6 in the morning when I saw them at 10. The fact that there is only one thermometer, a cheap small one, being used for several hundred people frustrates me. My students don't even have the basic supplies to do an assessment. No thermometer, no stethoscope, just nothing. I take along mine but that is a temporary solution at best.
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| They came right up to the car |
I took a brief and much needed vacation to Murchinson Falls last weekend. It was the best gift I could have given to myself. I've never been an endless fan of giraffes but to see them in the wild is inspiring.
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| view from my window |
The Rothschild Giraffe is endangered and as the tallest animal is huge and you don't quite grasp that until you get right up close and personal with them! They literally walked right up to my car. There thighs towered around us. The locals tell me that they might be cute but don't get around the kick of the bite. The Nile was so beautiful and so relaxing, it was a break when I needed it most. Ran into a Bengali couple raised not far from where we lived in Cal and had a great time talking with them.
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| Meeting Bengali's on the Nile :) |
