Life with MK: 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!