10:15am Saturday 11/2
Yesterday was a very productive day. I spent most of the day working on lectures, while we waited for Dr. Alphonsus and Shallon (Sonographer and Trainer) to arrive for a meeting. There were very heavy rains most of the morning, which made road travel difficult and delayed. Once they arrived, we all had a meeting, along with the rest of the Uganda Office staff to discuss changed made to my itinerary (there were quite a few) and training plans. I was also able to get more detail about who I would be training, what I would be offering, etc... I was also able to share my training and communication style with the team, which seemed to go over very well. It is so important that the people that I am working for feel comfortable giving me feedback and constructive criticism, which allows me to make rapid changes and improvements to my training. Often, there is a cultural hesitancy to give negative feedback for fear of causing insult, so it is so important that the people I work with can be honest with me. The end result was that we were all very excited about me being here, and hopeful about the progress we can all make in the following 5 weeks. I cannot express enough how wonderful the Ugandan staff is, they are so helpful and approach everything with grace and humor, which creates such a wonderful working environment. After a long day, I realized that approximately 4 hours of my work did not autosave and was lost, most likely due to intermittent loss of Wi-Fi. I decided to put my work away, have a much needed shower, and pack up for today's trip to Gulu. I woke at 3am, said "Nope", and went back to bed until 5am. I was able to finish the lecture this morning, and now the team is arriving to pack up the van for our 4 hour ride to Gulu. Oh, I cannot forget about the walk to the market, for produce and snacks. Uganda is a very lush area and perfect for agriculture. None of the farmers use pesticides, so everything is organic, fresh, and beautiful! I also had the immense pleasure of having one of Uganda's most popular street food, Rolex. Eggs are quickly fried and rolled up with tomato, onion and sometimes cabbage, inside a chapatti. It's delicious and reminds me of the food I would eat when I lived in the Caribbean. Back to work for me, I'm off to Gulu!
oxox MB












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