Emersion Week

Hospital Incinerator

Health Center 3

It is hard to believe that we have been in county for 5 weeks! It was great to have an emersion week. We traveled from Wakiso to Kampala to Gulu on 9/14. It was great being with other PCV's and see how they are handling everything. I have discovered alot from the volunteers. Just 3 of us trainees came to the North. The North is a less developed region in Uganda because of the War and the need for medical is so much more. They have alot of PTSD up here from war abducted children. Children in Uganda can be anywhere up to 28 years of age. I knew that it was bad, but I have heard some horrible war stories. Please keep the people affected by the war in your prayers.

While in Gulu I stayed in a hotel...with running water and was able to take a shower and wash my hair. This was my first shower! It was great! It took us 6 hours to get to Gulu from Kampala, not the 13 hours I thought. We met up with other PVC’s, Ugandan’s and went to an Ethiopian Restaurant that was pretty good.

NGO's are Non profit organizations that help Ugandan's rebuild and there are alot in the North. One of the volunteers that we were with works with an NGO and the other works with a former return and reintegration center called Christian Counseling Fellowship, which focuses on education, health and child protection for those impacted by the war with the LRA. Also, while in Gulu we visited Invisible Children. Invisible Children Uganda is a NGO that focuses on helping war-affected Ugandans by improving their access to education and innovative economic opportunities. The organization gives secondary and university scholarships to orphans and vulnerable children, builds and strengthens secondary schools, and helps adults start and maintain small businesses. They have 5 active programs: Legacy Scholarship gives scholarships and mentoring to roughly 800 secondary and university students from Northern Uganda. Students are chosen based on academic potential and need, giving special consideration to children who are orphans, head of household, formerly abducted returnees, students infected with HIV/AIDS and child mothers); Schools for Schools (Links more than 1600 schools worldwide with 11 secondary schools in Northern Uganda); Teacher exchange program (30-40 secondary school teachers from abroad to teach and interact with Ugandan teachers for 6 weeks each summer and in December 6 Ugandan teachers to to the US for similar reciprocal exchange); Village Savings and Loan Associations (20 groups of 20 members each participate in VSLA microfinance initiatives); and MEND (a tailoring program currently 13 former abductees and child mothers).

The next day we traveled to Pader in a matatu, it took us 4 hours to get there. The dirt road was really bad with many pot holes. Pader is less developed than Gulu. I am surprised that in Pader I could get internet with Orange, but no phone access with Warid. There are very few trees and hardly any cattle up in the North because the war. They mostly have goats and pigs. It is pretty flat land in Gulu and Pader.

In Pader, I visited the Health Center (HC)which was a HC 3. We were able to talk with some of the workers. They have no physician at the center, but they have a Clinical Health Nurse. Nursing here is rated a little different. The way they organize the functions of healthcare providers are: an MD, then NP, then Clinical Health Nurse, then Nurse, then health tech and then a midwife. The Clinical Health Nurse is the one who administers all the HIV/AIDS medication based on the lab work, sees patients and counsels them. There was one women in the hospital, then they have clinics. They incinerate all the used supplies in an old brick container outside, that they said may crumble at anytime. They have no ambulance to transport really sick people to a hospital in Kitgum.

At dinner we met up with a medical team that was here from Toronto, Canada. It was really good to talk with them. They were here for 3 weeks and they actually brought alot of medical supplies and medications. They went far into the bush to one of the villages, they said that they encountered things they had not seen before...even 2 cases of leprosy!

We went back to Kampala the next day. It took us 10 hours to go from Padre to Kampala. It is nothing to see people getting on the bus with 1 to 3 live chickens tied at the feet with wings flapping. It was like we were on a chicken farm with people mixed in on the bus! Then when we got a taxi from Kampala to Wakiso, the cab driver did something wrong???and we ended up at the Uganda police department. The street police actually got into the cab and made him drive to the Police station while all 13 of us was in the cab. I was surprised about that! Well I got back into Wakiso to my home stay about 7:30 PM on Saturday the 19th.

We are in Wakiso training for our 6 and 7th weeks. We are then given our sites and the 8th week we will travel to our actual sites. Then back to Wakiso the 9th and 10th week. At least that is the schedule so far. Lango is spoken around the Lira area, so it is looking like that is were I may be.

Hope everyone has a Great Day! Take care.

Love & Light,
Mari

Emersion trip

Yesterday, I received my emersion trip to Padra. The emersion trip is to get us familiar the region that we will be working in with a Peace Corp Volunteer already working in the region. I will leave Wakiso on Tuesday next week and traveling to Gulu to visit some of the NGO’s (Non Profit Government Organization). One of the NGO’s I will visit will be with Invisible Children. Then I will travel on to Pader, to see a less developed area of the North. The PVC I will be visiting works with an organization for girls’s secondary school, which I will see and participate in a life-skills class. She works at a former return and reintegration center called Christian Counseling Fellowship, which has now begun to focus on education, health and child protection for those impacted by the war with the LRA. I will also be able to visit the heath center in the area and observe procedures and classes. I heard that Pader is off the beaten path!

We will be coming back to Wakiso that Saturday, so it should be a fast trip. The pictures you see above are of Wakiso where I have been staying. As you can see, it is totally like I expected. I am still in training from 8 AM to 5:30 PM everyday, still working on Lango! We learned yesterday about the Emergency Action Plan. They really do have and extensive plan and I feel that it is very good! Last year they used the plan 3 times, so they do have experience with it. I am not sure if you have heard about the PCV that was murdered, but from what I understand he was out after dark. That put him at high risk for violence. Please pray for his family.

We have been told that we will be sworn in on October 21st at the Ambassadors home. That should be exciting! Hope all is well with everyone.

Love & Light,

Mari

Uganda Culture

Let me tell you a few cross cultural things about Uganda that I have learned.

President of Uganda is Yoweri Kaguta Musaveni. Elections for the Presidency will be March 6, 2011. It is best not to visit between February to April 2011. The population of Uganda is 33 million. Activities are coffee, lumber, minerals, tourism, agriculture is 80% Milet, Rice, Potatoes, Beans, Peanuts, vegetables and fruits. Exports are coffee, cotton, fish, hides and skins, tobacco and flowers. The average life expectancy is 53; males 52 years of age and females is 54 years of age.

Climate is 70-80 all year with 2 raining seasons; mid August to December and April to July. Political Organizations is the Local Council (LC) System. They have LC 1 (Village), LC 2 (Parish), LC 3 (Sub county which is 10 Parishes), LC 4 (County) and LC 5 (District level). There are 111 Districts in Uganda.

The official language is English, Luganda is next and Sweheii is the next language. However, there are 56 different languages in Uganda. I will be stationed in a region in the North that speaks Leb Lango. I don’t know yet where I will go, but I am thinking it is either in Lira, Guru, Padra or Kitgum. I have been informed that there are no Peace Corps Health Care workers in the North. Myself and another nurse are going up there, so I guess it will be part of our job to develop and implement the Healthcare program in the north.

The Health Care System in Uganda is ranked by Level of Care provided, i.e. HC 1, HC 2 (at parish level), HC 3 (Sub county level), and HC 4 (Sub-district Health Service), HC 5 (District Health Service, Regional referral Hospitals). We went to visit the Wakiso Health Care and we were told it was a HC 4. We were also told that they had 1, yes 1 doctor on duty with other healthcare workers. They see approximately 100 patients per day, they have 4 to 5 births per day. Now that is a working doctor! Major illnesses that they see daily: Malaria is number 1, then pneumonia, then HIV/AIDS and opportunistic diseases. They have a Lab, Clinical section (Diabetes, Maternal Health), Dental, OB, a small Mental Health clinic. Medications are only brought in every 3 months. They see approximately 330,000 patients/year.

I think that I have had every vaccine imaginable. We have had training in the most common illnesses that plague the people of Uganda, which is not just HIV/AIDs, but Malaria (everywhere), TB (High percentage in the North), Schistosomiasis, food borne illnesses, Skin problems i.e. fungal infections, ringworm, bacterial infections, nairobi eye, Mango-Worm Tumbu Fly, Scabies, and Rabies.

We heard that 50% of PCV’s get Schisto, a worm that lays eggs in the liver, spine, abdomen or somewhere in the body and causes many problems...no fear you can get treatment that will get rid of them and PC follows you when you finish service to make sure you are A Okay!) Schisto is in all water in Uganda, so we have been advised not to get in any lakes, rivers, streams, etc.

We not only studied about a Permagarden, we created one! Wow, we planted so many things.

The culture here is more verbal than the US, everyone talks to everyone. It is a relationship culture. If your neighbor has something you need, you give it to him and you are expected to give it to him, but mostly they Love sharing. Families, friends and neighbors share everything. When you come over to visit and/or for advise, the family fixes you a plate of food. They have breakfast; tea with food; lunch; tea with food again then dinner. I have eaten alot here. Depending on your Religious beliefs, men can have 1, 2 , 3, 4, or 6 wives. Men are expected to produce as many and more children than their fathers. I met one man the other day that had 31 siblings! It seems that women do all the chores (which is alot!) and care for the children; while men go to work. However, the unemployment rate is high in Uganda. Also, it is not unusual for women to greet their men by kneeing in front of them and/or the children kneeing to give their father something to eat. There is so much Respect for parents here and children really appreciate their parent and what they have been given. I also learned that when someone dies that the body is left in the house and everyone comes over and stays the night, even if they need to sleep outside on the grass if there are so many people. They do not leave the family or the body.

Anyway, we went to a PCV conference luncheon today and hear from the Director that we will have our swearing in at the US Ambassador’s home on October 21st. So keep praying that I learn the language!

Take care of yourselves.

Love & Light,
Mari