Entry 10 – Josh

Leaving Mbarara was difficult. We had to say goodbye to two different groups: all the community members and leaders, who we just had gotten to know so well over the past nine weeks, and all of our partners, who we had grown so close to over the course of the project. Goodbyes are never easy, and this one was hardly any different. But I took comfort from the fact that this is a long-term project, and although we were saying goodbye, I knew that we (some of us or other Duke people) would be returning in some capacity.  But why should we have to leave? I wonder what the community members thought. After we had spent the past two months talking to them about their problems, talking about implementing potential new programs, and, truly, making a great deal of progress, what were they thinking when we told them we were leaving? Why wouldn’t or couldn’t we continue the momentum?

I think we were curious objects to the community members. We had taken a community-based approach that I don’t believe many other NGOs in the area had taken — an approach that actually listened to and responded to the thoughts and feelings of community members. And I think they appreciated this. But it was then odd, after trying to show our commitment to the work over the project’s time (which, at nine weeks, I believe is too short to prove one’s commitment to the community members anyhow), when we told them we would be leaving. They understood that we were students and I explained to them that we would be working extremely hard over the next nine months to build and find funding for the project for next year, which I think they trusted. But as I write right now, I realize just how long a time it is to tell someone to wait for one year. Wait for a year so a small portion of the community can get better water, perhaps? They were used to it, however.

As we left Kashongi, I looked out of the car’s window pensively for one last time. I felt satisfied but not content. That is, satisfied with the work we had done over the past nine weeks — a safe motherhood intervention, a baseline survey, focus group discussions, and a short-term home-to-home assessment of the intervention. But not content with the state of affairs on the ground as it remained.

It wasn’t an abandonment to leave. Like I said, I think people understood, and in many ways the project was only a beginning. But I couldn’t help but think about how I would be returning to a place out of reach from virtually everyone we worked with. I would be returning to a certain place essentially to shield myself from the problems they faced. This was a place where they all yearned to come to but couldn’t, a place where for many people all of these other problems went away, or perhaps never even appeared. My parents asked me if I loved it in Uganda. I didn’t. While I don’t love life there (such as the roads or the food), I do love the people and am fully committed to helping them. Now, will I go back to enjoying all the amenities of the rich world?  I certainly will — but I think this enjoyment will now and forever leave a bitter taste. I think Paul Farmer has called it ambivalence.

I figured it would be difficult to return home and to experience this bitter taste. But as far as I’m concerned, we left Uganda the day we arrived in Kampala. There, we stayed in a beautiful, Western-style hotel and could hang out in the elite sections of the city — which truly looked no different from the streets of many US cities. When we first arrived here from Mbarara and stopped at a fast food restaurant that looked exactly like what we have in the US, it was tough. How could we drive just four or five hours away and end up in a completely different world? (And I say “completely different” all the while part of me believes that we didn’t truly see all the facets of Ugandan life, such as all aspects of the health care system.) Was the plight of the first world not connected to the opulence of the second?

Within Kampala, I could just as easily move from the slums to the city’s district of wealth and see a stark contrast. Or I could do the same in any U.S. city within probably 20 minutes. Or I could fly just 8 hours and end up in a completely different world. And that is what I am doing now — on the airplane, off to a place so strangely unlike the place where I came from.

Entry 9 – Jesse St. Clair

So today is our day of packing and saying our final good-byes. Tomorrow we are heading to Kampala and then home. It’s heard to believe that the nine weeks are almost over and I (as well as others) will be staring my last year as a Dukie.

Looking back, I feel we have made a good start for this new program. After all, we were able to hand out over 1700 ITN (insecticide treated bed nets) to expecting mothers in the surrounding villages. Unfortunately, I can’t help believe that this is only a band-aid covering a mortal flesh wound. However, we have established a wonderful partnership that will last for years to come. MMHF and Duke’s partnership has the potential to make great changes to this area. Looking ahead, we (Duke) feel that we should concentrate on health education, community health workers, and safe water project. Personally community health workers are a good option.

Paul Farmer with PIH has extensively used them on his line of work so why not try to use them in Mbarara. Furthermore, I believe the hunger project is too expensive to try and establish in this stage of the game.

Unlike most Duke Students on this trip, this is not my first time in Uganda. In fact, I’ve now spent almost 4 months of my life in Uganda. However, that does not make me a seasoned veteran. I am only slightly more experienced. Mbarara is a town (almost city) that serves as a hub between Rwanda, DRC, and Uganda. It has steadily grown over the years. To me, Mbarara is a town that you can virtually find anything you would want as an American. From my own experience, that is a wonderful blessing. If you want Nutella, you should go to the supermarket close to the popcorn lady. Furthermore, if you want Tabasco sauce, supermarkets that are run by Indians are your best bet. Jekn is a “fast food” restaurant by the roundabout. It serves hamburgers, chips, and various American foods. Hotel Classic has really good chicken, but it can literally take 3 hours to get your food. City Top has really good Indian food (but is expensive by Ugandan standards). That means about $10. Crane restaurant has cheap Ugandan food. Books are hard to come by or at least ones worth reading. Therefore, you should bring your own.

What comes as a surprise to me is how nice the local people are. The last time I was in Uganda, I felt much more like an outsider. This year, everyone has been so welcoming and happy to help out. So don’t worry about feeling isolated or unwanted. I don’t think it will happen.

Cheers, Jesse

Entry 7 – Eddie Zhang

A week prior to my departure from Uganda, my friend Catherine and I had lunch at the Agip Motel, a clean, well-lit establishment reminiscent of a roadside restaurant along a state highway in central Florida. Amidst the high quality black folding chairs and the plethora of green shrubbery surrounding the premises were small clusters of rare Ugandan wildlife – mzungus, more commonly known as “white people.” It was an amazing sight to behold; after spending eight weeks in southwestern Uganda, where I would jump at the sight of a foreigner on High Street, seeing twenty to thirty of them in ridiculous safari outfits was quite surreal, to say the least. Watching them interact with one another – their mannerisms, their animated speech, their reactions to the traditional Ugandan cuisine at the buffet – was absolutely fascinating. I watched cautiously with a distant sense of familiarity. Only eight weeks earlier had I been in their ridiculously large British shoes – getting out of a late night flight at Entebbe and wandering into the utter chaos that is Uganda. I also felt a curious sense of what could only be characterized as disdain, watching these muzungus with their tacky, yet slightly endearing t-shirts – “Uganda Gorilla Trip 2009: Jackie, John, Amanda, Steve, Barbara, Robert, Michael, Emma, Alexander, Joshua, Rupert, Harrison, Nancy, Rebecca, David, George, Anthony, Maxwell, Jollette, Sarah, Matthew, Daniel, and Joseph” emblazoned boldly upon their sleeves. It felt as if outsiders had encroached upon my territory – Mbarara, my surrogate home. After all, eight weeks is a long time-long enough to experience the nuances and specific character of a place. For example, the best samosas in town can be obtained at the bakery on High Street that begins with a T (the name escapes me) for Ush 600 a piece; however, a worthy alternative can be found a few hundred yards away at the Hot Loaf Bakery for 100 shillings less. When walking in the central market, it would behoove you to keep your hands in your pockets and stay away from small children, as well as the oddly well-dressed beggar between the market and the cloth shops. Mostly anything can be obtained if one just stops to ask – this may occur in unconventional ways and may include an epic journey with multiple individuals and countless phone numbers exchanged, but one can get what he wants as long as he takes the time to do so. In this travelogue Dark Star Safari, Paul Theroux writes: “Travel is transition, and at its best it is a journey from home, a setting forth. I hated parachuting into a place. I needed to be able to link one place to another. One of the problems I had with travel in general was the ease and speed with which a person could be transported from the familiar to the strange, the room shot whereby the New York office worker, say, is insinuated overnight into the middle of Africa to gape gorillas. That was just one way of feeling foreign.” Perhaps this is why I felt such animosity for the ridiculously dressed Canadian lion seekers at Agip. Travel seems so simple – so fleeting. I’ll admit to being slightly hypocritical – after all, who doesn’t like to travel – but those eight weeks taught me the value of being a part of a community, a simple concept that can manifest in many ways, whether it be through a boda driver who knows exactly where you want to go even though you’ve only ridden his boda once or the waiter at a much-frequented restaurant that smiles at you on the way in.

Entry 6 – David Chou

Oh crap, I’ve had this journal in my room for almost two weeks, and only now am I starting my entry…2 minutes before we are going to Lakeview Hotel to chill…WML.

So I’m in the van waiting…I was the 1^st one in! OMG. This is turning into Twitter.

Anyways, everyone’s already described what goes on in our day-to-day, so I’ll write about something else.

(How many people in the world are biting other people’s mosquito bites at this very moment?)

(Would you rather be a snake that runs into itself or runs into a wall?)

(Should I own Jacques this weekend with a drop step or a killer crossover?)

Random events:

Ruining my chicken wings at Hotel Classic by Marquise sharing that they had feathers

Taking notes/falling asleep for 51/2 hrs during Monday’s focus group and follow-ups

Hump Day!

Entry 5 – Catherine

For the sake of my own amusement, I have chosen to write in cursive. Usually I opt for this style when I write important notes and letters (like a 10 page letter I wrote to Morgan one day which was later destroyed by sunscreen).

Today was MUST day for Eddie and I and today, Jacques came along as well. It was very interesting to spend the day in the surgical theatre where we observed two C-sections and another a rare reconstructive surgery where a 9 year old girl had scar tissue from a serious burn she got from scolding hot milk which has affected the area between her legs and above her privates. I told Jacques that while I can handle watch such surgeries and I can in fact also find them very medically and scientifically fascinating, I have an instinctive empathy which prevent me from being able to co lately separate the patient from the procedure. But, I am also very sure that I am glad I can’t-ultimately, I think it will make me a better doctor in the future.

Apart from observing and at times unexpectedly participating at MUST, I have noticed a trend in a feeling both in the field and at hospitals-it is really easy to identify problems-its probably one of the most unique talents we have to offer as foreigners walking into a whole other part of the world-but it is so hard to think of good solutions. And depending on the scope and size of the problem, even if you are lucky enough to think of a plausible solution, there can be so many obstacles, many of which are so complex that they are completely out of one’s control that impede the solution from being carried out. Looking back at what I just wrote, it seems like I just made a statement that is kind of vague and perhaps obvious, but the main point I’m trying to get at is that while I feel we have a lot of ideas for what can be improved, it seems pretty hard to figure out how to do so. What is cool, however, is that I do see that we can contribute small solutions-and while progress many be slow, at least it is not inexistent.

One more thing to add-I feel that this trip has taught me a lot about relationships-and as Jacques and I discussed, I do feel like that part has helped me grow a lot, and taught me more about myself and what I can do to have more successful and happy ones in the future. I’ve also learned more about how much control one can really have in their life without controlling others or relying on them to accommodate your individual standards.

Peacing Out, Catherine Castillo

Entry 4 – Alex

So far this summer, I’ve taken ice-cold showers every morning with swarms of bees, duct-taped hundreds of ants, eaten rice and beans for most meals, and managed to fit 9 people into a compact car. I live in Uganda. MLIA

We’ve been in Uganda for a month now, and it’s been a really amazing experience. We’ve been conducting a Safe Motherhood campaign along with Mayanja Memorial HOspital in 4 villages in the region during the workweek, and then taking trips to various places during the weekends. Last weekend, we went to Mgahinga National Park in Kisoro, which we heard had lots of animals, hiking, and caving opportunities. We got up and left our hostel at 6:30 am, and rode an extremely bumpy ride to Kabale, and then began the even more bumpy road through th emountains. After almost running over a few children and me getting a bloody nose from slamming into the seat in front of me, we finally arrived at the park. Over the course of two days, we went caving and climbed to the gorge and saw the waterfall that didn’t actually have water. We also saw five animals total: two bats, two Rwenzori turacos, and an antelope skeleton. The trip was fun nevertheless and the views were amazing.

This past week, we also started sending two students every day to the Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital, which is a ten minute walk from our hostel. Today I was there, and got to see two C-sections. The firs tlady we first met in the labor ward, when therew as a foot sticking out of her vagina (breech), and so she was rushed to the theater. The second lady needed a C-section because of her contracted pelvis. It was pretty cool seeing the babies though.

In the villages, we’re still continuing with everything as before, and there are some concerns that our work’s getting monotonous. I guess we just need to remember that every woman deserves the same experience from our intervention. To keep things interesting, David and Marquise have begun to guess gestational ages based on femur length… David’s surprisingly accurate…

We’ve also begun to implement follow-up assessments this past week. Aka we’re visiting the homes of women who had come to our intervention one to two weeks prior. Out of 11 homes we visited, only 3 had put their mosquito nets up. There was even one family that contracted malaria after receiving their ITN from us, yet they still didn’t put up the net. Maybe malaria just isn’t the most pressing issue in the lives of most Ugandans?

In other news, Naima has two suitors pursuing her, once from MMH (some of the people there are pretty sketch, one asked me how he could go about “grabbing” one of the girls on our team), and one from Kabale.

Anyways, I’m off to yet another meeting, and yet again, everyone’s late. Leaving for Queen Elizabeth in 3 hours!

-Alex

Entry 3 – Paul

What’s up DukeEngagers! Mbarara has been pretty awesome so far. Now that we’ve had a chance to settle in I feel I’ve gained a much better understanding of the culture here. Hopefully, there will be more to learn. Today I had a chance to participate in my first focus group discussion. The women of Kikyenkye were surprisingly helpful with many of the responses they gave. We learned of the reasons why many husbands choose not to accompany their wives to the Antenatal Healthcare facilities, for example. Aside from a few miscommunication issues, the entire process went forward smoothly. With all of the information we continue to gather from these mothers throughout the next 6 weeks, hopefully we will be able to learn which areas we should concentrate most on. As focus group comes to a close each day, much of our work in the Health Centers is complete. This is when we break out the soccer ball. Today we played a short football game with the local children. They’re insanely fast and agile. They also love to make fun of the muzungus when they screw up. Anyway, I’ll have to continute practicing my game so that I don’t get destroyed the next time I play with children half my height and age.

This week also marks the start of 2-person shift at Mayanja Memorial Hospital. My shift was awesome!!! Just kidding. We (the lab crew and myself) saw a total of 3 patients the entire day. I sat in a tiny room packed with 5 people just hoping that I would get a chance to see a Caesarian section, like the previous day’s group. Instead, I played Scrabble and lost because the lab crew added words to the Scrabble dictionary, which I’m fairly certain were not actually words. House Rules I guess. Perhaps the most interesting (and disturbing) part of my day at MMH was listening to Godfrey and Immanuel talk of their bad luck with relationships. Godfrey is convinvced that an American woman are the only type for him. With everything else aside, my time at MMH really gave me a chance to get to know some pretty interesting people and for that I am grateful.

Paul Hudson, signing off

Entry 2 – Naima

So quick update: Last weekend Marquise + I went to visit Becky’s (a Ugandan student) mother’s home in Kabale. It was a long, bumpy, dusty ride + we stopped every 10 minutes on the 3 hour journey to pick up people on the way.

The home was very humble with no running water but the family was very nice. We also went to Lake Bunyoni which was about a 20 minute boda-boda (motorcycle) ride. It is a gorgeous lake with beautiful forest and hill surroundings. Becky said our whole group is invited to go back. Later, we played cards with some of Becky’s friends and watched hip-hop videos until the power went out in all of Kabale. Becky had said it’s not safe at night so having no electricity did not make us feel better.

Finally, Marquise and I shared a bed and tried to sleep. The mosquitoes, however, were very persistent. It is interesting how we are making such an effort to distribute bednets, while Becky doesn’t even use one.

Back in Mbarara, we started visiting the villages this week. The first day I was surprised to see so many women already waiting for us. I was also sad that we had to turn away about 30 women at the end of the day.

Some of us went to the foundation the next day to work on the survey. Poor Bob spent so many hours translating all 100 questions.

In the next two villages, we did pretty much the same thing except on Thurs we piloted the surveys. Was interesting to note that the girl thought malaria was caused by unboiled water. Also thought one can prevent malaria by eating fruits. Now I wonder if she is confusing the word for fever with the word for malaria in Runyankole. Apparently, they are basically the same word.

We also walked through the refugee camp next to the clinic. Was pretty sad to see the conditions they live in. But we got a huge crowd of cute kids following us everywhere.

This weekend I was very sad we didn’t go to Vision Empire Night Club. I don’t know when we’ll get to go again, and I really wanted to dance!

Today was very relaxing. We went to Lake View Hotel, swam in the pool, ate, and some people got massages.

Oh yeah, yesterday we went to see a music lesson at a local school. They have cool drums and guitars that you sit on. Later I went to visit Becky’s home here in Mbarara. She lives in a single room and shares everything else (water, etc.) with other people.

We went down to the river and all the village people thought it was hilarious when I tried to speak Runyankole. I took lots of pics with a 72 year-old grandma and some kids. Then I tried to hold a whole bunch of plantains on my head the way the women here do, and everyone laughed.

Ok we are having an important meeting now. Till next time!

~Naima

Entry 1 – Marquise!

Agandi! We are entering our 2nd week in Mbarara and it feels like so much longer. We’ve been doing a lot, from working on the survey to recording ultrasound information in small remote villages. The trip so far has been tiring but interesting. Many of us have never been to Africa so our cultural knowledge is expanding as the days continue. I’ve been able to get good footage, video & photographs of everything here and I have no clue how I’ll sort through all the photos when I get back. Working with MMHF and MUST is fun because the people are really polite and willing to teach. I think some of us are still waiting to get a full vision of our future here but right now things are becoming…in the process of becoming routine and productive. The ride to Kikagati was one of the most memorable rides I’ve had, starting from when our van started smoking heavily before we left and then again on our way until it decided to finally break down. But it’s fixed for now and we arrived safely in Kikagati where we are now continuing to carry out the Safe Motherhood Intervention. There are many women today, as usual, but hopefully we’ll keep high energy and make it through seeing everyone –hopefully. Otherwise, everything is cool here and the people — DukeEngagers and locals alike –are great.

Hmmm… good ending? …
Well good luck D.E.’s, look like you’ve got a long road ahead and there’s no telling what could happen next.

Until next time,

xoxo M.E. (channeling Gossip Girl)