Monkey Brain Musings

 Sunday, July 13, 2025 Hello! A lovely email from a dear family friend (Hi, Kathy!) reminded me that I wanted to check in when I returned home, sorry for the delay. 😉Except for being a long trip, my flights home were blissfully uneventful, with layovers in Amsterdam and London that were just long enough to allow me ample time to hobble through the airports and get some "normal" food.  I was pretty wiped out, getting home in the late afternoon of July 3rd, and definitely needed a few days to get my head on straight. Monday and Tuesday I ran some errands, had a pre-op appointment with my orthopedic surgeon, and had my bloodwork done. I worked a few shifts at the end of the week, as an applications consultant for a medical equipment company, which worked out well for a couple of reasons. I was hired by this company at the end of May but had yet to work there because of travel and my hospital schedule. The job is very flexible, but I was hoping to get the chance to try it out, t...

Wednesday, July 2nd Well, even the most seasoned travelers screw the pooch once in a while. In my anxiety about my previous flight debacles, I read my ticket wrong, and my flight leaves at 11:59 PM and not 11:59 AM. So, I am hanging out at the Entebbe airport for 14 hours. 🤦🏻‍♀️ I have ebooks and knitting and there's a cafe, so here I sit, completely annoyed with myself, expecting a not so delightful day at the airport...until Rachel came to my rescue! She called the guesthouse, and I was able to get a day rate for a room. I was also lucky enough to score a ride from the airport with a very nice gentleman who was dropping off his friends. I'll spend the day here and head back to the airport at 8pm tonight. I arrived in Entebbe Monday afternoon and checked into a very sweet guesthouse Rachel had booked for me. There is a rooftop lounge and restaurant, many cute tables in the garden areas, and it's easy to walk nearby. I walked to a local craft market, then to a nearby mall...

 Thursday, June 26, 2025 I have been writing notes on the past view days, without posting, because no power means no computer battery and usually no Wi-Fi. I am also writing in between scanning patients and working on other projects. I'm hoping to get this out to you by the end of the day! 😁 We lost power Tuesday night around 10:00 p.m., which was unfortunate because it was particularly still and warm. I always bring a small foldable rechargeable fan with me, thank goodness or it would have been difficult to get any sleep at all. Power has continued to be spotty over the past few days. Once again, the roosters woke me up Wednesday well before the Sun. I love the mornings here; cool temperatures and I can see the sun rising through one of my windows with a slight view of the mountains. Our little village starts to wake up and get to work, sweeping out their huts and often the areas around it, making breakfast, getting ready for the day. It's so comforting to wake up in this com...

June 23, 2025 Hello! It's early Monday morning and I'm pretty sure that every single rooster in Norhtern Uganda is crowing right outside my hut! The sun is not yet out, and the Wi-Fi is terrible this morning, but I will just keep writing and we will see what happens. 😁  Our Sonographer Mentor candidate, Max, had major delays using public transportation to get to us. The poor man arrived in Atiak at dinner time Thursday evening, found no suitable place to spend the night, returned to Gulu (1–2-hour drive), and came Friday morning instead. Dinah (a midwife from my first training group in 2024) and I had a couple of emergent patients needing ultrasounds Friday morning, which kept me busy until Max arrived. One of our patients arrived early, with cramping and spotting in early pregnancy. Using ultrasound, we were able to see a gestational sac, without a fetal pole. There was the possibility that the pregnancy needed more time to develop, however due to the size of the gestational ...