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