Posts

Image
 Wednesday, Oct 16, 2024 Good afternoon (for me)! I hope everyone is doing well as I approach the end of my 2 nd week here. Let’s play catch-up…Late Sunday morning, a box arrived at the birth center from a boda currier. The 2 nd half of my bound lecture notes arrived from the printer! I went through each of the 10 copies, one page at a time, to find everything done correctly. Imagine that. I had already given a lecture on Friday that was in the 2 nd notebook, and I was worried that I would have to continue lectures on Monday without the rest. WHEW! Usually, I wake sometime between 5 and 6am, with the sun rising around 6:30. The lovely kitchen staff usually have the hot water and tea set-up ready by 7am, breakfast is usually served by 9am. I make myself oatmeal for breakfast, along with a large mug of tea, and am settled in the classroom by 7:30am. Class typically starts at 9:30am, giving the trainees time for breakfast, before joining me. As much as I prepare my curriculum and
1 comment
Read more
Image
 Saturday morning, October 11, 2024 Good morning! (Brenda, Monika, Beatrice, Me, Coletta) What a first week it's been! I'll start from Tuesday, the first official day of class. My trainees arrived early, unusual, but welcome. We started class in the typical Ugandan fashion, without power for the first 3 hours. 😁This made the overhead projector obsolete and made for a challenging morning, reading through the lectures and looking at photos on my computer. The first day of class is when I teach Ultrasound Physics and the principles and concepts of ultrasound. It's a brain buster, especially for anyone who has never had a physics class, so I try to balance the day with some hands-on practice with the machine. Along with a curriculum of 19 lectures, I have also created a user manual for the Ultrasound machines that were donated. Edan machines are very common here, mostly due to their affordability and durability, and my manual is complete with photos to make it clear for anyone
Post a Comment
Read more
Image
 Monday, October 7, 2024 Greetings from the Birth Center in Atiak! Whew! I made it! 😁 I left Kampala Sunday morning at 10:30am. Frank and his sister, Irene, picked me up at the hotel and away we went. Traffic in Kampala was packed, as usual, so it took us an hour just to get out of the city. We had a few light rain showers along the way, but not enough to alter our trip. It was wonderful to see how lush and green the countryside had become since I left, thanks to the rainy season.  This is the route we drove; however, Google maps has clearly never driven in Uganda. We drove for 8.5 hours yesterday and another 3 hours this morning. The entire road is a 2 lane "highway", most of it paved but often riddled with large potholes. The roughest roads are north of the park. Between the towns and villages, the speed is faster (around 65 mph), slowing down to around 30mph in the towns. Once within the National Park, the speed limit is 40kph/25mph, taking approximately 1.5 hours to driv
1 comment
Read more
Image
 Sunday October 5, 2024 Good morning from Kampala! I am only halfway through my journey to Atiak. I left Seattle early Thursday evening, arriving in Dubai Friday evening. As I may have mentioned in the past, I am unable to sleep on airplanes, so I arrived exhausted, stumbling out of the Dubai airport into heat and humidity that instantly fogged up my glasses. I tried to stay awake as long as possible but was unsuccessful and collapsed into bed much too early. I woke up at 1:30 am 😕. I was back at the airport by 8am and arrived in Entebbe around 2pm. 4 flights arrived in Entebbe at the same time, so the lines at immigration were quite long, but that meant the luggage was waiting when I got to the baggage carousel. I am happy to say, that although I did get called out at security, there was no shake down like my last trip, just a quick look into one of my suitcases and I was released. Allan was waiting for me outside and had picked up my personal items and blue towels from the ITW offic
1 comment
Read more
Image
 Hello and let the countdown begin! This Thursday I will be back on a plane, heading towards Uganda. Yikes! I have lists and notes to myself all over the place and I will start the packing process as soon as I finish here. I am feeling incredibly grateful and lucky to have Rachel and MHI (Mother Health International) taking care of all of the transportation details, especially since the main bridge over the Nile River is closed down for repairs. Planning an alternative route will add hours to the drive, which they are figuring out for me.  In the meantime, I have finished the new curriculum, made another visit to the Travel Clinic to update my Typhoid vaccine, picked up my Malaria meds, applied for and received my travel Visa, and started piling supplies on my dining room table. Thanks to the incredible generosity of friends and family (Kathy & Jim, Arnold, and Steven), on top of the medical expenses, I was also able to order more rain ponchos for the midwives and will pack an extr
4 comments
Read more