Thursday Evening:
Met up with the Gulu group yesterday and made the trip back down here to Kampala. The less said about the ride the better. Hot, dusty and crowded sums it up. The only thing I wanted to do was to take a shower but ended up going outside to sit with Jennifer and heard about her trip to Embale (phonetic). Her experience was similar to mine except the hospital she is in seems to be a joint venture with Korea and has all kinds of equipment, which isn't used or useful, at this point it seems. She didn't exactly say that but it was my summary of events. We were joined by others who shared their experiences and in all we seemed to have a similar feeling of the scope of the challenge. I left Lira happy and hopeful and after a few hours was beginning to feel as though nothing would ever change. I finally made it back to the room. Steven and helped me get some plugs so that my cords are a bit more organised and I can charge more than one thing at a time.......progress.
In all it was good to share my experiences and to hear from people that the poor kid I was worried about back in Lira probably just laid there and died which I suspected but didn't know all along. Transfer him to where? we were in the best place they had. No blood? no blood.
I woke up with one thought, that is to remain focused. I came her to train nurses and that is really all that I can do. I can work with a group of nurses and do my best to make sure that they know the best technique and that they can take care of patients with dignity. As Dan always tells me, "lead by example"......other than that I can't re-write this chapter of the Ugandan Health System. I can only do what I can do or would quickly run out of steam, sharing experiences is great but there experiences are what they are. I can't get into group think or begin to think of this as impossible. I just have to do what I can do.
Friday afternoon:
We actually had a very productive round table discussion today with Bonny and I felt some powerful issues were raised. I was also able to have a private chat with him this afternoon and to lay out more of my feelings I actually feel a bit more upbeat. David the GHSP volunteer is turing into a powerful ally for us and is able to assist us in being a bit more direct. You know how American's are, always evasive. Which is sarcasm, we keep hearing that Ugandan's do not like to be confrontational, neither do most Amreican's.
Met up with the Gulu group yesterday and made the trip back down here to Kampala. The less said about the ride the better. Hot, dusty and crowded sums it up. The only thing I wanted to do was to take a shower but ended up going outside to sit with Jennifer and heard about her trip to Embale (phonetic). Her experience was similar to mine except the hospital she is in seems to be a joint venture with Korea and has all kinds of equipment, which isn't used or useful, at this point it seems. She didn't exactly say that but it was my summary of events. We were joined by others who shared their experiences and in all we seemed to have a similar feeling of the scope of the challenge. I left Lira happy and hopeful and after a few hours was beginning to feel as though nothing would ever change. I finally made it back to the room. Steven and helped me get some plugs so that my cords are a bit more organised and I can charge more than one thing at a time.......progress.
In all it was good to share my experiences and to hear from people that the poor kid I was worried about back in Lira probably just laid there and died which I suspected but didn't know all along. Transfer him to where? we were in the best place they had. No blood? no blood.
I woke up with one thought, that is to remain focused. I came her to train nurses and that is really all that I can do. I can work with a group of nurses and do my best to make sure that they know the best technique and that they can take care of patients with dignity. As Dan always tells me, "lead by example"......other than that I can't re-write this chapter of the Ugandan Health System. I can only do what I can do or would quickly run out of steam, sharing experiences is great but there experiences are what they are. I can't get into group think or begin to think of this as impossible. I just have to do what I can do.
Friday afternoon:
We actually had a very productive round table discussion today with Bonny and I felt some powerful issues were raised. I was also able to have a private chat with him this afternoon and to lay out more of my feelings I actually feel a bit more upbeat. David the GHSP volunteer is turing into a powerful ally for us and is able to assist us in being a bit more direct. You know how American's are, always evasive. Which is sarcasm, we keep hearing that Ugandan's do not like to be confrontational, neither do most Amreican's.
