Monkey Brain Musings

 Hello, friends! How's everyone doing? I thought I would jump on here and give a quick update on everything. I want to start by saying THANK YOU to everyone who donated to rebuild the collapsed dining area. As a reminder, this was the result of a 10-year attack from local termites... Construction started during my last trip in June, but I have just received a photo of the finished enclosure and I couldn't wait to share it with you all! The base is now a concrete slab, with high brick walls making the dining area usable during the rowdy rainy season, and electricity for evening meals. They are so grateful!  My next trip to Uganda is on, and I will be flying out on October 14th, returning on the 27th.  A much shorter trip than usual, but the travel time will be longer, almost 30 hours of travel each way. 😫 I will fly into Entebbe as usual, then travel to Lira, where I will teach 15 midwives for 1 week. Rachel and I are hoping to figure out a way for me to see everyone at t...

 HELLOOOOOO!  I'm still here! 😁 Dozens of times I have sat down to catch you up and then something distracts me, or a meeting gets scheduled and I think "I should wait in case this turns into news", and then my aunt came to stay with me...and here we are. Weeks later. Better late than never?  We are just on the cusp of fall here in the PNW and its Sunflower Season! I love this time of year. Now on to business... Unfortunately, Rachel has yet to receive more machines or funding from DAK, although they have told her that they plan to. So, the October training has been cancelled. In the meantime,  Seed Global Health reached out to Rachel about her midwifery program, and more specifically POCUS training. Rachel is very optimistic that there is potential for partnership for both of us, so I sat in on a meeting with them last week. It was...interesting. They want training for 15 midwives, they want training to take place at LIRA University, and they are not at all intere...

 Hi Folks! I'm home, safe and sound. Sorry I didn't check in sooner, gotta love the mind-numbing time zone adjustment! I got home Sunday late afternoon, and I have spent the past few days slowly unpacking, squeezing in a few appointments, and trying to get organized before I am back to work on Friday. I almost wept with joy when I climbed into my bed, but that was after I took an incredibly long, hot shower and deep conditioned my hair. I have washed the Ugandan dust off of all of my clothes, washed the beautiful fabric I brought home, and the luggage is back in the garage. I still have a pile of stuff on my dining room table that needs to find a home, but I will work on that when I am finished here.  Rachel and I are still waiting to see if DAK will donate more machines and offer some funding for the October training. Worst case scenario, we don't get the machines, training is suspended, and I work like a rented mule and start saving to go back next year. We are both hopef...

 Hello, folks! I am currently in Kisumu, Kenya, and I have a lot to catch up on! I was hoping to write to you from Atiak, but storms and power outages made that a pipe dream, so I figured I would catch you up when I was in Nairobi, but that didn't work either! I was staying at a budget hotel near the conference, which technically had internet, but it was so painfully slow that I could never get anything to load on my computer, so I abandoned all hope. I am now sitting at the dining room table of the Governor's home in Kisumu, trying to catch you all up before I take off to work a mobile clinic for the day. Whew! So, let's back up... The final week of training went very well, with only a small hitch. It was me; I was the hitch. The first day of class, during my introduction, I acknowledge the cultural differences between Uganda and US, especially regarding time. I am very clear that I can be very flexible about many things during training (loss of power, too many or too few ...