Hi Folks!

Well, I am back in Entebbe and its catch-up time. Honestly, there were so many frustrating moments for the rest of the week, that it's hard to remember them all. At one point on Thursday evening, when Max, Georgina and I were talking to one of the coordinators (after we had put in an 11-hour day), I got so angry with the conversation that I had to walk away to cool off, as I kept reminding myself how badly Rachel wants this to work out. I knew Rachel would be arriving on Friday, so I messaged her about everything, blew it off, and decided that I would let her handle the whole mess. So, let's talk about the good stuff, and maybe a little of the bad stuff that I can laugh at. The students...most of them were awesome! They really embraced my teaching style, and it brought out the best in many of them. Typical of Ugandans, they were warm, welcoming, and funny, and so eager to learn. 

Because the Director of the hospital decided to allow random people to "audit" the class, it was difficult for us to determine who was really enrolled in the class. They were supposed to have given us a class list of the participants, and also give the participants name tags, but that happened sometime in the middle of the course. There was at least one guy who rarely showed up for class but still expected to get hands-on training and a certificate. On the flip side, there were two Radiologists from Congo, here for their residency, that showed up almost every day, eager to learn as much as possible. When I was asked to speak at the end of the week, I was not lying or exaggerating when I told them all how much I enjoyed teaching them and how much I would love to work with them again. 

On Wednesday, one of the participants took Sister Georgina and I to the wholesale fabric shops in town. We went to her fabric shop, where she negotiated a great deal for us. I got out of there with ONLY 6 different fabrics. 😂 It could have been so much worse! Here's a few samples...

On the last day of class, we had our last review session in the morning, then were supposed to spend the rest of the day scanning starting at 10am. The models were not ready as requested, so we started scanning about 45 minutes later. Our hope was that everyone would have a chance to scan one more time, but we had to break for lunch, then various officials arrived, and they spent the rest of the afternoon giving long winded speeches, finally wrapping up around 5pm. Before leaving for a group photo, they asked one of the participants to give a demo of what she had learned. As I watched over her shoulder, I could see some serious issues with the pregnancy. While everyone went for the group photo, I stayed behind with Georgina and scanned the mother. She was around 28 weeks pregnant, with oligohydramnios (not enough amniotic fluid) and cervical funneling (her cervix was opening and she was leaking fluid). She had been admitted to the hospital for leaking fluid, but no one had imaged her, so they didn't realize how dire her situation was. I was able to write up a report, and someone took her back to the ward, with clear instructions to tell her caregivers about her condition. 

When everyone returned from the group photo, Rachel had to sit everyone down and make a definitive schedule for the next three weeks of hands-on training. This was what had pissed me off so much. They had agreed to have all of this organized before we arrived, and they kept trying to come up with ridiculous, unorganized suggested plans for the training. I found out that Max and Georgina were just as angry as I was, they were just better at hiding it. After everything was finally resolved, Harriet and Max drove back to Gulu, while Rachel stayed behind with Georgina and I. We found a place to have some dinner, then returned to student housing for the night. Georgina and I warned Rachel to stay away from the kitchen, due to a large residing rodent and her phobia of mice and rats, and also to keep an eye out for the insanely huge cockroaches in our rooms! 😳😂 

Saturday morning (yesterday), Frank arrived to drive us south to Entebbe. We dropped off Georgina to spend the weekend with some fellow sisters, then we started the long drive, which ended up being much longer than usual. My drive up took about 6 hours, but our drive back was almost 9! Saturday was a National Visitors Day for families to visit their children who attend boarding schools. There was so much traffic everywhere, and police were stationed all along the roads, taking the opportunity to pull over as many people as possible. They would harass the drivers, us included, threatening to write tickets for whatever, until they were offered an acceptable bribe and allowed us to continue on. Rachel had a 7pm flight to Kenya that evening, and we ended up having to drive straight to the airport instead of our original plan of stopping in Kampala. I was finally dropped off at my guesthouse around 6:00pm, showering off the dust of the day, and getting back to work.

The two Radiologists who attended the training spoke to both Max and I about the potential of getting training in Congo. We discussed the numerous barriers, such as the continued closed borders due to Ebola, etc..., but I gladly shared a number of older lectures I had made for my work in Haiti and Honduras. I also agreed to put together a POCUS Abdomen lecture and present it to a small group, which I did this evening. This morning, Sunday, I slept in a bit, had a delicious breakfast, and spent the entire day putting together the POCUS lecture. I barely finished it in time, and at 6 o'clock held a zoom lecture for 8 Radiologists. We wrapped up a little after 8pm, I had a snack dinner here in the room and wanted to get this out to you all before I crash for the night. Tomorrow, I will go to Grace's shop to pick up the remaining bags she was able to finish and possibly go into Kampala for a bit. I need to repack and reorganize my bags, then I will head to the airport around 8:30pm for a midnight flight. Who knows if I will make all of my connections, but it will definitely be a long 30 hours of travel. I'll check in when I get home, unless I get stranded somewhere! 😁

Thanks for listening!

Much love, Jo/MB