Happy Birthday, Brennan!

We went back and forth about what to do for Brennan on his birthday. On one hand, we were itching to try out our new snorkel gear. On the other hand, Brennan really wanted to spend his birthday with the Kelly family and their fun fantastic boys! We took day trip to Placencia and snorkeled from shore.

Brennan requested Cocoa Pebbles for breakfast on the beach.

Deirdre and Brennan snorkeling their little hearts out

Hammocks on the beach - does it get much better?

A wonderfully Belizean birthday gift: a rasta cap with some dreads from the Kellys!

The birthday boy in all his rasta glory - Happy Birthday, mon!

Playing in the dirt

After a morning on the wards, we head back to the guest house (our home) for lunch. The afternoons are spent in the village - working on public health projects.
We partner with 2 local NGOs, actually. The 52 Kids Foundation as I previously mentioned KAPIDA - Kamuli Area People's Integrated Development Association. The second group identifies the villages we will work in and the community members decide on the projects. The village we went to this year was one that we had gone to the first year I came to Uganda. Word had traveled and many more community members were involved with our projects this year. It was great to see the people I had worked with a few years ago - the kids were bigger, people had more children, and I got to see the fruits of our labor from previously. We had built "fuel saving stoves" (the health benefits of this? Women cook in the hut over an open flame...not ideal for smoke inhalation and burns. The stoves we build have a chimney and enclosed flame - they save fuel and lives!). The stoves were still in use and one woman was even able to open a small store because she had more time now that she had a stove! Pretty cool!
We do the same public health interventions from year to year, but they just don't stop being useful:

Fuel saving stove

Plate stand in progress - keeping dishes off the ground (and away from chickens, pigs, goats, small children)

Digging a drainage area for the plate stand

One of the kids from the 52 Kids Foundation lent me his bike so that I could travel from site to site and check up on my students and their projects - thank you Karim!

Digging composting pits - then we taught the kids how to use them! They had fun throwing their jack fruit rinds into the pit

We also build handwashing stations, or tip-tops, but I couldn't easily locate a picture of one. We stay in the villages until early evening when we head back "home" for dinner and much needed rest. Busy days!

Red Dirt and Little Humidity

Welcome back to Uganda!
For the past 5 years I have either been the teaching assistant or the faculty for a senior undergraduate public health nursing course at the University of Vermont. This was my fourth trip to Uganda and my second as the faculty. It was a bit strange for me this time: I had not met any of the students or my teaching assistant in person before I met them all at JFK waiting for our first flight. Then again, each year is different - there are different students, different projects, different personalities. Sometimes they blend smoothly; sometimes they do not. This year was exceptional. The students were fantastic - all of them engaged, dedicated, compassionate, driven, and just kind humans. They were kind to one another, kind to our partners, kind to their patients. It seems like this would just make sense, but it is not always the case. I felt truly blessed.
So what were we up to?
Long days, for one. The typical day started at around 7 with breakfast. Then I taught class for a couple of hours. I won't bore you with the details of that.
After class, the students went in to the 2 hospitals in the town: Kamuli Mission Hospital and the District Hospital. They spent a couple of hours on the wards to see how health care functions in a different environment with different resources. The medications they use are different, the illnesses they see are different, the role of the nurse is different. We have so much to learn in our short time there!
Here are some pictures of the Kamuli Mission Hospital:

Labor and Delivery Ward

Learning what a Mentor Mother is - she mentors HIV+ moms on how to prevent maternal to child transmission of HIV: an incredible program!

Vaccine box

Walkway between wards - they are covered this year!

Mosquito nets above each bed on the wards (odd angle to protect patient privacy)

Maternity courtyard

Lab

This is an eye-opening experience - seeing how things are done elsewhere. It's also always emotional. We bear witness to amazing incredible miracles and to tragedy. We grow and learn every moment of every day.