My Room in Tororo

I promised I would eventually post pictures of my room at in Tororo, so here they are! Be sure to read about my awesome weekend below!

My room

My room again

The bathroom

The shower

Mini Bus Taxi, Rafting on the Nile, and Jinja

Sorry I haven’t posted in a few days, but those have been quite busy and I was tired and catching up with everyone. On Friday we went to work in the morning as usual and I worked on entering consent forms for the supplement study to the main study in Tororo which deals with the siblings of the children in the main study. It was basically exactly the same as what I had been working on before. I wanted to make sure they all got entered before I left for the weekend, so I worked through the lunch hour and had a Luna Bar while I worked. I didn’t think I would actually finish, but by some miracle (and a lot of really focused and quick work) I got them done just before the lunch hour ended at 2pm.

Right after I finished Joan and I went back to the guest house and got our things together before heading to the Taxi Park to get a mini bus taxi to Jinja. We were really lucky that a taxi headed for Jinja was about to leave and had two open spots so we didn’t have to wait around for one to fill up. The taxis are basically 15 passenger vans that they cram people into. The back two rows usually luck out and only have three people, but the front two rows are easily accessible and are usually crowded with more than comfortable number of passengers. We stopped many times along the way to unload and pick up more passengers along the route so the ride to Jinja took around an hour longer than I anticipated, but luckily we made it before dark since we left Tororo earlier than we had originally planned.

Once we got to Jinja there was some confusion as to where we would get dropped off, but thank goodness for the data I bought for my iPhone on my Ugandan sim, because I was able to use the Google Maps app to figure out where we were in relation to where we needed to be! We made it to the main house of Nalubale Rafting and went to check in only to find out that we were actually staying at Nile River Camp about six miles away. Thankfully just as we were going to get an expensive special taxi Rashmi and Sarah pulled up and their friends drove all four of us to the new place.

Nile River Camp was really nice and had amazing views! On Friday night we slept in a six person dorm room but since the dorms were all booked on Saturday night we moved to the bandas for Saturday night, which were great permanent tents. Anyways, the Kampala crew took a while to arrive but they eventually did and all seven of us were together again for the first time in two weeks. I had a great chicken sandwich, which was so nice, and we just hung out and chatted before going to bed.

Saturday morning we got up quite early and moved our backpacks to the bandas and meet the driver to take us back to Nalubale headquarters to begin our Nile rafting adventure! We had rolex for breakfast, which is a chapatti rolled with a scrambled egg omelet and it was really good. It was my first time trying to Ugandan rolex and I was quite happy to enjoy it. At the main headquarters we got our lifejackets and helmets and had a safety talk before getting on the bus to the put in spot.

When we got to the put in spot we got our paddles and walked down to the rafts. My feet are clearly not callused enough for the path because it hurt so badly! I had to go quite slow, but I eventually made it down the hill. We got in our rafting groups (there were four boats of people) and our raft was the seven of us plus a public health student from Case Western who was our same age (well younger than me, but older than most of our group). We ended up with a raft guide named Billy, who we later learned had only been rafting the river around a month, but we had a good time.

We started the trip with a raft safety talk, learned the commands, practiced pulling people back in, practiced flipping and unflipping the boat, etc. When all that was done we headed to the first rapid. This river really starts you out big because the first rapid of the day is a class 5 rapid! Some of our friends had never been rafting before and were nervous that most of us wanted to go as big as possible, but they ended up having a great time and were glad we did. On the first rapid you can try to go over a small waterfall, but we missed it and I was so bummed. The second rapid comes right after the first and you can either go left and hit a class 5 or go right and hit a class 3. We tried to go left, but missed it and went class 3 instead. I was again super bummed that we had missed the first two biggest parts of the river, but then I fell out of the boat on the class 3 somehow. It was fun. The Nile is very different from the American River in that it is quite deep and doesn’t have too many rocks so it is much safer to fall out and your boat cant really wrap around big boulders like it can in California. The water is also really warm and nice! Nothing but schisto to worry about (and we found a snail in our boat at one point; commence by own personal freak out).

The rest of the river was really fun and really beautiful. There were eight rapids in total with nothing less than a class 3 and only two or three were even class three. I love the big rapids! We never flipped, which was actually a little bit of a bummer, but it was still awesome. We even hit the dead center of a rapid called “Bad Place” and didn’t flip and all the guides thought it was nuts that we stayed upright. We also stopped for lunch and I was smart to tell them of my mayonnaise aversion in the morning so I had a delicious mayonnaise free wrap with pineapple and some kind of carrot cake-y thing. The trip down the river was amazing and I am so glad I did it. I got to swim a bunch in the Nile River, which seems surreal since we grew up only learning about it in history books and whatnot. Hopefully I don’t start getting schisto symptoms in 6-8 weeks. I make just take the curative dose of the meds when I get home just in case. We will see. I tried to be extra careful around the shore to not put my feet in etc.

When we finished rafting we got out and they had drinks for everyone. I had a delicious Fanta and wrung out my clothes so I didn’t feel like I was wearing a wet diaper instead of shorts. Somehow my thighs got sunburnt even though I wore a bunch of sunscreen, but I think my paddle rubbing on my thighs rubbed it off. Luckily I was wearing my shorts so it wasn’t all the way up my thigh! We rode back in an open-air truck and got to stand up on the bench and hold on if we wanted so it was an awesome ride back. The ride back took around an hour and we got brought back to the main office where we chilled for a bit until we got driven back to River Camp.

When we got back to River Camp we had one thing on our minds: SHOWER. We felt so gross from being damp all day so we rushed to get our shower stuff and got to the showers before anyone else. The shower felt amazing and was the first time in Uganda that I was kind of cold and really enjoyed just being in a hot shower. The shower and the water were amazing and I haven’t felt so clean in a while! After showering we ate dinner and then just chilled for a while because we were all so beat. I ended up getting the best night’s sleep I’ve had since leaving Ann Arbor and it was so wonderful!

This morning I woke up around 9am and got a fruit salad while overlooking part of the Nile. It was quite picturesque. When getting my things from the banda I even saw a ton of monkeys! They were so cute! We hung out at River Camp for a while and eventually took a special taxi (a taxi that isn’t a mini bus and is like our normal private cabs that take only you, but they are more expensive here than the mini buses and our only option since we can’t take the boda bodas which are motorcycle taxis) to Main Street in Jinja town. We shopped for some crafts and stuff for a while and I got some earrings and a bracelets, a hippo figurine thing (how could I not?!), a basket that I figure I’ll use as a fruit basket, and a small elephant painting on a piece of fabric. It all came to around $10 US, which I thought was pretty good. We also had lunch at an Indian restaurant because everyone else really loves Indian food. It’s not my favorite, but I had some really good naan.

After lunch we said goodbye again and Joan and I headed out to the Taxi Park to find a mini bus taxi back to Tororo. We got in one before the Taxi Park because we didn’t know where we were going exactly, but got out and eventually found the Taxi Park. We got into a mini-bus heading towards Tororo and Malaba and had to wait a while before it was full and we could leave. It was so hot while we were just sitting there, but I lived. I was sitting next to a mom and her two young kids (who were amazing by the way, not a peep) and some random guy who feel asleep on my shoulder twice by accident. I slept for the first 45 minutes or so and the ride back was much quicker since most passengers were going all the way to the Tororo and Malaba area and we didn’t have to stop to drop people of pick up people very much. It felt so nice to get back and now we are just having a relaxing night at the guest house.

Whew, that was a long post! Hope I didn’t forget anything. Enjoy!

The view from Nile River Camp. This picture in no way does the view justice!

Monkey in a tree!

Monkey on the roof!

Monkey in a eucalyptus tree

The first rapid of the day, class V

So much fun!

Woo hoo!

Party

Today was a pretty normal day at work. I worked on some of the GPS maps to get some spreadsheets set up and had lunch at TASO as usual. Nothing too out of the ordinary. After work we went back to the guest house and I warned the second half of the movie Anaconda. It was weird and I didn't know the point since I missed the entire beginning, but I watched anyways for some reason. 

Around 7pm Joan and I were pick up and we went to a hotel in Tororo for dinner with the GHU Tororo team. We played some games and had a cake to welcome Joan and I along with two new permanet employees here. It was a really good time! I really like the team here and I'm so happy to be working with such great people. 

When I got back to the guest house I found my bathroom had literally hundreds of ants. So gross. Too bad there's nothing I can do about them besides wait until they go away, which they will. The ants always go away, this is just by far the most I have seen here. Now it's time for bed! 

Pakwach and the crazy long journey

The past two days have been crazy and exhausting, but a cool adventure. Yesterday morning began with a super fun 3am wake up in order to get on the road to Pakwach, a town in the northwest of Uganda. The roads for the first few hours of the drive were awful. It was dark and bumpy and eight of us were in a Toyota Prado, which i kind of like a land cruiser. I slept a bit, but the bumps made it a little hard to actually fall asleep. Once we got to the town of Soroti the roads improved drastically and life was a lot better. We saw the only flight school in Eastern Africa in Soroti and then continued on our journey. We stopped in Lira for a quick bite to eat around 10am and then hit the road once again. On the last part of the drive you are on the northern edge of Murchinson Falls National Park (the one we went to our first week in Uganda) and we saw a bunch of Kobs, which are antelope, and two huge elephants under a palm tree. Since we were driving pretty fast, and not on the journey to see animals I didn't get a picture, but they were really big and fairly close. Finally at noon, yes NOON, we arrived in Pakwach. 

The reason we made the journey was kind of a sad one. The account for GHU who does all of the different office's book passed away last week. I think I may have met him briefly when we went to the GHU office in Kampala, but from what everyone said about him he was quite a remarkable man. Everyone said how kind, smart, genuine, etc. he was and it really makes wish I had the opportunity to know him. From what I gather he died of complications of a pulmonary embolism and was only in his forties. He also left behind his wife and three children, which makes me so sad. The women really don't have any rights to the belongings of their husbands here, including the land and home, which only the man's name is on. We were having a conversation about women's rights here on Monday while out of the field and basically if the husbands parents/aunts/uncles want to they can take the home away from the window and she is left with nothing and no where to go. Many women here don't work, so it can be a real problem. I don't know how often it happens, but it sounds awful. I don't think it will happen with his family from what everyone was saying, but I just find it interesting.

The service was quite nice, and very long. There were so many people there it was crazy! He really was a loved man. The whole ceremony lasted around four hours and was filled with many long speeches, a viewing (my first ever, it was really strange), and the lowering of the casket into the ground. The whole thing took place at his parents' village and he was buried in a grassy area in front of the homes. After the casket was lowered into the ground, traditional food was served and everyone ate. I'm not a huge fan of the beef here, and I don't really like beans that much so I mostly had rice and some cabbage, but it was really nice.

After the ceremony we waited around for a while since Phidelis had to literally drive like 200km each way to go fill up at the right gas station for which GHU gave him a gas card. It took him hours and we had to wait around for a long time. In the meantime Joan and I acquired an audience of I think every child in the village. They were so funny. We were just sitting there chatting with Joshua, a trainer for the MISC study, and they just watched us and would giggle and whatnot when we acknowledge them. A few eventually got the courage to shake our hands, but apparently we are kind of scary. Some even tried out some of their english, and they love to try to mimic our "accents."  Their parents would inevitably shoo them away at some point because they though the kids were bothering us, but I was sadder when they got shooed away since they weren't bothering us at all. We showed them our iPhone and took some pictures and showed them some games which was fun since they don't see cameras and iPhones often at all.

Finally a little after 7pm Phidelis got back and we were able to leave Pakwach. The way back we decided to take a route through Kampala instead of going to way we came so we could avoid the bumpy roads. By the time we were on the road it was already getting dark so we didn't get to see any animals and the large waterfall on the Nile that we passed over was too dark to see (we could hear it at least). We made a few stops along the way to grab a water or use the toilet, but we mostly just headed straight back. The journey home took 10 hours, which was so so long, especially since we drove for 8 hours on the way there on the same day! Luckily I had my iPad with me so I watched around four episodes of Friends, watched Enchanted, and played some games to keep myself occupied when I was too uncomfortable to sleep (I was crammed in the middle seat all ten of those hours home). Just before we got to Kampala around 1:30am we switched drivers since Phidelis had been driving for 22 and a half straight hours at that point. Caesar, one of the trainers, drove the last four hours and we arrived back in Tororo at 5:30am this morning! It was nuts!

When we got back we were locked out of the guest house since the lock it up at night (at least we know were safe!), but we eventually honked enough that the night guard let us in. I got ready for bed super fast and went to sleep for four hours before getting up for work today.

This morning I forced myself to get up around 10am so I could fall asleep at a normal hour tonight and I showered which felt amazing after feeling so gross all day yesterday. I got to work by 11:30am and I was the only one from the Pakwach group there! No one else who went on the journey even got there before 3pm and only three of us came in at all. People in the office were actually kind of shocked I was there. I got a good bit of work done today though and I enjoy the people I'm around here, so I was happy to be there today. At the end of the day we had a little birthday celebration for the June babies of the office, one of whom had here birthday today, and there was a cake (much dryer than our cakes, and less sweet, but still good)!

After work Joan and I went to the movie store and I bought The Lucky One and Admission to watch sometime. We also went to the bank and to the supermarket because we decided we wanted to attempt to make a funfetti cake from scratch, though it will have to be minus the sprinkles since they don't have them here, so really it's just yellow cake. Oh, and I forgot to write this before, but the eggs here are so different than the eggs at home. They taste the same, but the yokes of the eggs here are white! So every preparation of the egg looks like you are eating egg whites, haha. Seeing a hard boiled egg with a white yoke is so weird, but so cool. Anyways, we got the ingredients to the best of our ability and we will hopefully make the cake next week. We also decided we were craving pizza, so we went to the Crystal and got some and met a lady named Phibby (pronounced Phoebe) who was really cool and will be an awesome person to know here. She is the executive director of a program that is helping to offer cervical cancer screenings and stuff for women here in Uganda. She does other stuff too, but this is long and I'm getting sick of typing, haha. 

So now it is bedtime, and I am definitely tired. Tomorrow will be a normal day and then Friday it's off to Jinja too meet up with our other five classmates for the weekend!

Joan showing a few kids an iPhone game

Home Visits

Today was a pretty cool day! In the morning I went to work and started pulling consent forms as usual, but then it was decided that I would go with one of the MISC trainers out into the field for home trainings of the caregivers! It was awesome to be able to go out into the villages surrounding Tororo and watch the mothers be trained. Luckily I went on a day where the trainer needed to use a translator since she doesn’t speak the particular language todays families speak, so she spoke everything in English and I knew what she was telling the mother. Only two of the children were afraid of me, and during those two trainings I took a little bit of a walk with our driver. I got to see a lot of children and meet some village adults. The village children are usually excited to see a mzungo (white person) and it’s so funny to watch them. The usually creep up behind you and when you turn around and wave they run away giggling. They are really cute. Some cry when they see us, but luckily not too many. Some are brave and come say hello (in their local language, today’s was easy because hello is ‘yoga’), and some want to shake our hands. The adults generally come shake my hand and its custom to kneel when greeting someone, which I find strange that someone much older than me is getting on their knees to say hello to me.

Besides observing the trainings, the day was also particularly awesome because I saw a ton of animals out in the villages, and more importantly BABY ANIMALS! There are tons of cows, goats, pigs, and chickens along with a few sheep here and there, and I saw baby goats, baby pigs, baby cows, baby chickens, and a super small and adorable kitten! Yay! I even got to hold the baby goat who was two weeks old and it was so ridiculously cute and soft and amazing. Sometimes I wonder why I never considered vet school until I remember that I love animals when they are cute and cuddly, but I hate seeing them sick and have a horrid time seeing them die. I would be the worst vet ever. At least humans can understand when things are going poorly. Its still really sad, but easier to communicate with the patient and their families.

After getting back from the villages work was done for the day so I tried to go home. Phidelis (our driver while we were with the Michigan group still) offered to drive us back and drop me off downtown to find something, but that turned into and hour and a half of driving all over Tororo. We went to the gas station, his friend’s house, back to GHU, to drop off the study coordinator, and eventually I just asked to go back to the guest house. I still had a good evening, but did not get anything done I wanted to tonight. Luckily it was not urgent at all. The rest of tonight I am just going to eat something and go to bed. Tomorrow is an early and long day.

Also, I think I am currently hearing Call Me Maybe for the 100th time. No joke. This is the 4th time I've heard it just tonight. It's always on. Along with a medley of Celine Dion songs, which, don't worry, includes the theme song from Titanic. There are some other songs too, like Chris Martin 'If you can't love me now, don't love me later." It's quite the mix. Occasionally we get the mix with BSB, N*Sync, and Britney, but we've only been so lucky twice. That mix is my jams!

Piglets! There were 4 more of them sleeping the the bush on the right. So small and so cute!

One of the homes we visited

Me and my new best friend baby goat

Some village kids

More village kids

This little one didn't want us to go and wanted to come with us. So cute!

Lazy Sunday

Today I let myself have a thoroughly lazy Sunday. I slept in until around nine and then had a nice breakfast out on the porch. I then basically spent the entirety of the day reading Safe Haven and ended up finishing it. My iPad almost died, so I had to read the very end in my room so I could plug in, but I couldn't  stop just short of the finale! It was really good, so now I need to see if I can find the movie to watch here. I should have downloaded more of Nicholas Sparks's books, because I always enjoy them no matter how little I want to start initially. His writing always gets me to get lost in the story, and it's an added bonus that I can usually watch the story in movie form afterwards. The books are always better, but it's nice fun. 

I also showered and cleaned today. I hung up skirts and pants, and laid my shirts over the little couch in my room so I can find things easier and I don't look like a slob. I'm going to ask for my room to be tidied tomorrow so when my bed is made I will take and post some pictures. I also hand washed all ,y underwear and dirty socks, so when they dry I will have clean ones yay! Basically my day wasn't too exciting, but it was relaxing and nice. Tomorrow it's back to work, but at least I will feel more refreshed and I have next weekend to look forward to when all seven of us will meet up in Jinja! 

(The pic is our lovely porch where I spent my day!)

Day off!

 Today I finally had a day. To just relax and do whatever I felt like. It was so nice since I have literally been going for three plus straight weeks without a day. To just unwind (outside of a moving vehicle at least). I slept in, which was really necessary after hearing people singing quite loudly with loud speakers at 3:30a, which kept me up for almost an hour. So bizarre. It was definitely crack music because I heard a lot of hallelujahs. Anyways, I had a delicious breakfast that was the same as every other morning: eggs, toast, and a banana. I smothered the toast in Nutella and dipped the banana in it too. So delicious. 

Joan decided to go to the Rock Classic Hotel, which is about two miles away, for the day but I wanted to hang out around here and run some errands. I first sat and finished reading Tina Fey's book Bossypants, which was pretty good. After reading I went to the bank to get some cash, got some water, juice, ramen, and a cup to use my steripen with at the "supermarket", and got a mango and an avocado at the market. The two prices of fruit were a combined 35 cents! They are also really fresh and the avocados and mangos here are so delicious. I can't wait to eat them.

On my way back from the market I ran into Fidelis, one of the GHU Tororo drivers who was my driver with the Michigan group until we got here so I know him quite well. I wait with him while her got his hair cut and had a Fanta and then we went to the Crystal Hotel to watch the news and have some chips. I showed him a bunch of pictures and when my phone died w walked back to my guest house and watched the end of the Nigeria-Portugal soccer match while looking at all my Uganda pictures so far. I eventually got tired and went to my room to rest, but instead of taking a nap like I intended I uploaded a bunch of photos to this blog! So enjoy photos dating back all the way to when I left the USA to travel here. It took a bunch of data, but at least they are up for you all to enjoy. 

The rest of the evening I pretty much just spent reading and eating dinner. I started a new Nicholas Sparks book, so in a few days I will have to be ready to cry a ton as I read the ending as they are always sad in one way or another. I ate my mango and half my avocado with a beef burger (that was actually three mini patties with no bun) and chips. My mango was so amazing. I was in heaven. Anyways, that's about all for today! It's dark and nice out and I'm ready for bed :) he's a pic of a cool flower I saw today. 

First week of work in the books

Today was the completion of our first week in Tororo, Uganda! The work day was the same as every other, except for the general staff meeting that started off the day. I was a little lost since I am still learning what everyone does, but in general I thought it went well. Other than the meeting I worked on the same thing I've been working on all week. My computer gave me fewer troubles with the server, and I think I figured how how to fix some of the issues without having to restart my computer.

After work I read for bit and talked to my mom and sister on the phone. It was also pouring out, which apparently means that the town of Tororo shuts down their power system to avoid any kind of short. My phone died mid conversation, and because the power was off I couldn't recharge so I went back to reading. Joan and I also decided to go to the Crystal Hotel for dinner and I got tomato soup and the closest thing to a grilled cheese I've seen here. Not as delicious as I would make at home, but still good. I also got a chapati to take home and smothered it in Nutella for dessert. So yummy! I will definitely be doing that more often. We watched a little bit of some Japanese ninja warrior competition show at the hotel before heading back. It was nuts and so funny. 

The walk back from dinner was kind of weird because all the street lights were out even though the power was back on. Luckily we had our head lights, but I don't think I'll be going out after dark when the power is out again anytime soon. For now I am just excited to sleep in and rest for the first time in a while over the weekend! 

Just workin'

Noting too exciting to post about tonight. Breakfast was mostly on time and we did more of the same at work. One of the study women went into labor while at the office and had a baby today at the hospital. She named her baby after one of the staff members on the study team. I saw some pictures and she was very cute. Other than that not too much happened. There were avocado slices at lunch and I saw four puppies on the walk back from lunch. I also really enjoyed seeing pictures of my apartment that my mom was sending me. My fan still isn't fixed, so I'm likely in for another restless night. I hope it's fixed before tomorrow night because I really need some good sleep that does not involve waking up sweating. Tomorrow morning we actually have to be at the office by 8am for the general staff meeting so that means waking up earlier. Hope I'm not too tired!

The lovely porch :)

Getting used to living in Africa

Last night was easily my worst night since I arrived in Africa, not because of where I am, but because of my stupid illnesses. The fan in my room is broken, so I was kind of hot, but luckily it's not super humid in Tororo so the heat is slightly more tolerable than up in Murchinson where I was really dying. I got to bed at a pretty good our, but I woke myself up with the worst coughing spell I have had yet. It was awful. So uncomfortable and it wouldn't stop for quite some time. It didn't help that my nose was so congested I couldn't breathe through it at all. I'm tying so hard to not use Afrin too much, so I didn't take it last night, but I really need to get some sleep so I'm not a zombie all morning! 

I did finally get to sleep, but waking up this morning was a struggle. I got myself up early so I could order breakfast and get to the GHU office. I ordered the eggs that come with our room, but a scrambled egg took 45-50 minutes this morning for some reason and I never got my toast or banana. Oh well. After giving up I finally got my eggs and scarfed them on the way out the door. 

When we got to the office this morning we finished reading the standard operating procedures for the study and then I got to work on some data entry while Joan worked on creating a database and entering different data. We pretty much did that for the rest of the work day and I had to deal with a lot of server issues. I wanted to download the program I need since I have a Mac and every other computer is a PC, but it was going to take days, literally, so I worked on Joan's computer for a bit until I figured out how to access the server from my web browser. Using the Internet here is really a lesson in patience. We went to TASO for lunch again and this time it was less than a dollar. I'm glad I brought so many bars because I think I'm going to get sick of lunch here pretty quick. I kind of wish I had brought more, oh well. At least I can get some crackers and stuff at the super market. I have some Nutella that I can eat at breakfast and maybe I'll make a Nutella banana sandwich someday to eat for lunch. They do have amazing fresh passion fruit juice at lunch for 600 shilling (like 20 cents) which I will never tire of! Like I said earlier, after lunch we worked on the same data entry until around 4:30 when I finished getting through the top file cabinet. I learned how to use this huge GPS for making maps in rural areas for the last thirty minutes and I think I'm really going to like using that. It's a really amazing and cool gadget! 

After work we went back to the guest house and I took care of seem things like my credit card bill, which I had to call my parents to figure out. So stressful. It was really nice to talk to them though and hear about everything happening at home (well in Ann Arbor since they are all there, so my home I guess). Molly is moving into my condo as we speak, so I no longer live alone in Ann Arbor. Should be an interesting transition when I get home, but I'm excited to get to hang out with my sister more for the next three years. And now my parents only have one place to go to visit us, yay! Back to what I'm doing here, I took a nice shower that had warm water, yay, and now I'm just siting on the front porch of the guest house waiting for dinner that should hopefully be ready in the next ten minutes since we ordered an hour and a half ago and asked to eat at 7:30pm. I got tilapia and chips so I hope it's good! Here's to hoping tomorrow is a good day. Adjusting to actually living here and not being on vacation like we were last week is tougher than I thought it might be, but hopefully it will all get more comfortable soon. I really like Tororo and I'm glad I am here, but I just need to figure everything out still. It's weird that I literally can't get anything I'm used to getting, can't goto a store to go shopping, can't cook for myself since I have no kitchen, etc. I'm going to have to find my own little routine, but I'm excited to see what is to come! 

First day at GHU Tororo (6/18/2013)

This morning we got up and had breakfast, hung out for a little tot with the rest of the group and then went off to our first day at GHU Tororo. The other five people walked us to the hospital and then we said our goodbyes. It's weird that we are all split up now, but we will get together soon.

At work we met a bunch of people and the went to get our laptops from our rooms. When we got back we got the study Dropbox all set up on our computers and then went to TASO (The AIDS Support Organization) for lunch with two people who work at GHU. The lunch was very traditional and very cheap. It was pretty good. After lunch we went back to the office and basically just read the study protocol for the rest of the work day.

After work was done Ethan from the office showed us around Tororo. It was the first time we have actually walked around anywhere in Uganda since we got here, which is weird to think about. We found some super markets (more like small stores where you can find some goods), pharmacies, the fresh food market, the clothing markets, the post office, etc. We should be able to find basic things now. After walking around we went back to the guest house. For dinner, which took a long time, but was good because I was starving. Then we pretty much just got situated a bit more and now I'm going to sleep! 

Tororo town

Tororo Town

Beautiful sunset

Finally arrived in Tororo! (6/17/2013)

This morning we got up and hike up the mountain to the top of Sisiye Falls. Since I am a little sic, I had a really hard time hiking on the way up, but it was beautiful. I just went really slow and took some extra rests. The views from the hike and from e top were amazing! You could see pretty far out and it was so green. There was a village at the top too and they had we cute animals (one little cat was especially adorable). There were also some kids that followed us for a bit and they were pretty cute.

The way down was nice and easy luckily and we arrived back at the place we were staying for breakfast with no problems. Breakfast was delicious as usual, and the view was impeccable. After breakfast we packed up our stuff again and hit the road to Kanjinima.

The drive to Kanjinima was long and on pretty bad roads. I thought it was close to where we were already, but I was very wrong. It was a nice drive though. Dr. Patrick Mutono works in Kanjinima and is a friend of Bruno. He used to work in the US but is from the district Kanjinima is in and decided to move back at least ten years ago. We toured his hospital which was small, but less chaotic than Mulago, and then saw the nice house he has built nearby. It's a huge unsure you would expect to see at home, but not finished yet, so doesn't look too homey inside (we only saw it through the windows since he wasn't home). We didn't get to meet Patrick since he was recently elected to parliament and was away, but I hear he is very nice. 

After Kanjinima we finally made the drive to Tororo, my new home base for the next six-ish weeks. We got a short tour of the hospital, which reminds me of if Las Lomas was much older and converted into a hospital with all the classrooms in a building becoming on long room. There are no screens on the windows, not even in the OR. It's similar to the other hospitals we've seen. W also got a quick tour of the GHU office we will be working in.

After the hospital we went to where we are staying and it will be nice. There is a fan so I am happy! We didn't hang out there too long before heading out to the longest dinner ever. We ate at the Prime Hotel and it took over an hour (maybe an hour and a half) to get our food. Mix in a couple power outages and it was a long and tiring evening. My nose was getting really congested too which made things worse. After dinner we went back to the guest house/hotel and pretty much went straight to sleep. Starting work tomorrow and everyone else is leaving.

At the top of Sisiye Falls

Some children from the village

At the top of the falls

Eating breakfast with an amazing view

Leaving Kampala (6/16/2013)

Today we got up, had our last breakfast at Mama Riba's and then headed out of Kampala. We drove to Mbale which is on the east side of the country. The drive was really nice and there was lots to look at.

We arrived in Mbale and had lunch at a really nice hotel with a pool and beautiful facilities (through not quite as nice as Pranaa at Murchinson). I had some pasta and the helping was enormous. After lunch we got back on the road and headed to Sisiye Falls. We had to drive through a small village to get there and tons of children and even adults waved to us as we passed by. We even learned Mulembe, which means "hi" or "how are you" in the local language, so we said that as we passed. The falls we really pretty and we stayed at the bottom for the night in these two little huts there. 

Because of the driving the day wasn't that full, but it was really nice!

The Falls

Amazing view!

The crew at Sisiye Falls

The girls