Monkey Brain Musings

Tuesday 3/5/2024

It's late afternoon here and I have actually been fairly productive today but let me back up a bit. Unfortunately, I woke up very early on Monday with a belly ache, which I believe is the fault of the popcorn. I eat popcorn almost daily back home, but I use an air popper, no oil. I am not used to cooking with a lot of oil, and I definitely had a reaction to the excessive use of oil when I was in Kenya, so by process of elimination I can only blame the popcorn (and possibly my lack of control when eating popcorn), probably compounded by the almost completely fried menu of the hotel food last week. Who knew I was such a delicate flower?? 😁

Monday morning, I dragged myself out of bed to join a meeting with the ITW Team, Dr. Alphonse, Allan, Renny, and Picho. You can read their bios here...

ITW Team

Allan and I shared our experiences from the Surgical Camp last week and then I seized the chance to discuss what I might be able to do to help increase the visibility of ITW here in Uganda. Thanks to your generosity, I am hoping to finance some of these projects. Any of you who have been a volunteer, or had involvement with a non-profit, can understand that when money is tight it is often the little things that get eliminated or put on the back burner. So, back to visibility...Something that really impressed Allan and I about the surgical camp is that it was very obvious who the Bulamu employees were, all of them wearing a shirt or utility vest, with their logo clearly shown. Printing here in Uganda is incredibly affordable, so yesterday I met with a local printer whom they have used in the past, and he is going to give me an estimate on utility vests with our new logo on the front and our mission statement on the back.

(You should also take some time to check out their new website!) ITW

My goal is to buy 10 vests that can be worn by the team and trainers any time they are traveling or working under ITW. I am also hoping to purchase large logo magnets that can be placed on their personal vehicles, when they are not using the ITW van, and logo stickers that can be placed on the solar lamps that I have donated, computers, etc... I will be sure to take photos of the products when they are completed!

Another project that we had been discussing, was creating a brochure for the services we offer, so we can distribute them to individuals and organizations that we are hoping to work with. I will pay for the printing of the brochures, again thanks to you!

After the meeting concluded, Picho and I ran a few errands, then I took a rest while Allan went to pick up an ultrasound machine, we may be using at one of our training sites. We worked on the machine into the evening, then I went back to bed.

Let's talk about how soothing it is to be woken up at 3am by a rooster, seemingly hanging out directly under your bedroom window. It's not. At all. I did tell the guys that there is a good chance they will all have fresh rooster soup tomorrow.

I'm feeling a bit better today, but taking it easy, sticking with tea, crackers and rice. I spent the day making a brochure for ITW, coming up with 2 versions for the team to look over and edit and I have already received an extensive list of "suggestions" for revision. I have decided to write to you folks and tap out for the day, so I'll leave you all with some photos from my drive back to Kampala from the surgical camp.