The Clinic

I only wish I had taken some more pictures of the clinic! I was just too busy to take pictures! And when I had a free moment, there were usually patients around. Although Uganda does not have HIPPA laws, I would never take photos of patients. And I especially would not take them and post them. So unfortunately, I will have to just describe the clinic to you for the most part.


There are two locations of the clinic in Uganda. There is a large building that is two stories called MCH (Mother/Child Health). It was meant to be the main clinic, with a labor department upstairs! Sadly, the non-profit that built the clinic for our non-profit did so using "bad bricks". Therefore, it is currently not able to be used until it is rebuilt. It's actually super sad. It's a beautiful building!

There are a few sections that are stable and able for patient use. There is a room used for all mother/child visits. This consists of prenatal, antenatal. and postnatal care. (which means before, during, and after having a baby!). Family planning is also discussed and birth control options are available. This really has given the women in this community so much independence and autonomy over their lives and bodies. Instead of having baby after baby, a women can now protect herself from unwanted pregnancies and the unwanted complications that are associated with them, especially in this region. Well-child visits are also done in this room and vaccinations are given to the babies.

This is that room!

While there are generators at the other clinic, electricity is scare at MCH. We are grateful to YOU for donating these headlamps. They are used in the labor and delivery room next door. It is perfect to have an exam light and be able to see everything very clearly.

I was able to "catch" a baby while in Uganda. We had many laboring moms. In September, there were 31 deliveries! Not sure exactly how many there were in August, but I can tell you that this was well used and loved.

This is an outside patio of MCH. Most likely to be used at the waiting area once MCH is fully operational again. It truly is a beautiful building. 

The hallway of MCH. The rooms directly behind are the Labor and delivery room and the mother/child visit room. 

These are the MCH midwives, outreach team members, and other clinic staff. We love these ladies!!!!

The rest of the clinic is currently being held about a 5 minute walk from MCH. We are currently renting this building until MCH is rebuilt. At this clinic, there is an outdoor area filled with wooden pews. This is the waiting area. During the patient's wait, educators are in the waiting area providing everyone with health information. I kind of wish we did this in the US.

From there, the patient will go to the vitals area. There are two work stations in this area. The clinic staff with obtain all the patient's vitals and a height and weight. They also get an arm circumference of their patients here. I thought that was interesting, as we do not do that in the US. All the blood pressure were taken manually while I was there, as well as pulses and respiratory rates. You lovely people provided the clinic with two automatic blood pressure machines. We trained the staff on how to use them! Now the vitals station will be even more efficient!

 My dear friend holding the new blood pressure machine in the vitals area.

From the vitals area, the patients will come out to this patio. There are benches along the walls and in the middle. Patients will sit in front of the room they are waiting for. There are 6 rooms here, 3 on each side. The door you can just see on the left is the farthest door. That is the vitals station where people come out of to this area. South of that is a treatment area. This is where minor surgeries occur, IV treatments are given, and other important procedures that need their own room. Just down from there is the lab (see later pictures). 

To the right is the pharmacy where patients can get their prescriptions. The final two rooms are assessment rooms, where patients will meet with their provider, get assessed and then come back for the results of their lab testing. 

(Both people pictured are staff members. Clinic as closed at this time). The green container is safe water for washing hands. 

Me at in the lab, working on malaria testing.

Above is me working on testing a malaria sample. Below is the set-up.

This is the lab station. In the lab, we are able to test blood glucose (sugar), pregnancy testing, UTI (Urine infection) testing, HIV testing, syphilis testing, and malaria testing.

To test for malaria, the patient's finger is pricked and a blood drop is smeared onto a glass slide. We then heat the blood until dry and stain the slides with two different dyes (pictured above). Once dry, the slides are then put under the microscope where we visually inspect them for malaria.

A little bit bigger picture of the lab room. It is a smaller room, as most are. The table behind is where the microscope is and the computer records the patient's results. We are blessed to have electronic medical charting at this clinic site. It is so helpful to look at a patient's entire medical record.

This picture shows Emma (gentleman taking the other clinic worker's temperature). He is the lab director. He is super amazing!!! I was just teaching them how to use their new thermometers in this picture.

Clinic is a really great place, filled with people that sincerely care about others. Patients will walk miles and miles to get here. Barefoot. On dirt roads and through dense forests. Someone that walks for two days to come seek medical treatment, man. Those people are downright incredible. These people are stronger than anything. It's a blessing to serve them.

The Beauty of Uganda

There is a reason Winston Churchill named Uganda the Pearl of Africa. As he stated, "For magnificence, for variety of form and color, for profusion of brilliant life -- bird, insects, reptile, beast--- for vast scale --- Uganda is truly "the Pearl of Africa". And he is not wrong! Boasting the largest lake in all of Africa (Lake Victoria), the Victoria Nile River, and the world's most powerful waterfall (Murchison Falls)... Uganda is a water-lover's dream. In the local villages where I lived, the bright green plants contrasting against the red mud looked like something straight out of a movie. Everywhere you looked it was endless beauty-- like Hawaii, but way less developed (in the best way). So many amazing sights in Uganda and so many beautiful animals that call this place home! It's worth the visit. 

The Victoria Nile River is behind us. I think that's prettttttty cool.

Daily walk to the clinic. Majestic and beautiful.

Sipi Falls. One of the four waterfalls we would later hike to the next day! 

Although you can't see it, there is about a 2 mile drop off at this cliff. It was a gorgeous view. Nothing but green, luscious areas and farms for as far as you could see.  Farms here were cane sugar, veggies, coffee, and plantains.

(If you look really close like Where's Waldo, you'll spot a waterfall!)

Honestly, this iguana made me think of The Magic Schoolbus. I could have hung out with this cute little dude all day! They love to hang out in the plantain trees.

Just the local area :) I think we were in Kikholo when this picture was taken, after walking for the Post-Test Club.

The road to and from the clinic. Our home was just about 5 minutes from the spot this was taken.

Local "bridges"

Yes, this is me jumping off a "cliff". 

Yes, it's actually much higher than it looks.

Yes, the water was freezing.

10/10 would recommend. 

As Disney Jungle Cruise Skippers would say... "The eighth wonder of the world! The backside of water!"

Murchison Falls. The world's most powerful waterfall. I really could not even begin to explain how turbid and strong that thing was. I've been to Niagara Falls.... It's got nothing on Murchison in terms of brute power. 

Grateful for our fun loving friends that guided the three white people around some really cool spots in Uganda!

Accomodations

 Home Sweet Home

Our courtyard/front entry area. As soon as we open the gate here we are!

The door to the left is the kitchen where Alice has a propane stove. The food is kept here.

The second door further on to the left is the laundry/storage area. Buckets for doing wash are stored here and towels. 

Directly ahead are both guest sleeping areas. Casey slept in the room to the left, Michael to the right!

On the right side of the house (the white painted area) is the door to the main house. This is where Sarah and I slept. It has three rooms, and the common area. The common area has couches/chairs, books and games. There is also a dining area for us :)

The place is massive, especially for Ugandan standards. We were so, so blessed. Many of the surrounding homes have minimal furniture and the floors are dirt. We legitimately lived in a Ugandan mansion. 

No running water, but man we were so spoiled!

Our side yard area. The pit latrine/bathroom area is just beyond the wall, as well as our shower area. We used buckets to bathe. But we were so fortunate to be able to have a designated shower area, with poured concrete! Many families are not able to have those kind of accomodations. 

We also all had wood bunkbeds with mattresses and mosquito nets above our beds. We were told that many adults and children sleep on the dirt floors of them homes. It really made us appreciate all of the luxuries we have been afforded. 

I took really shaky videos in Uganda... 

but if you want to feel like you're watching from a rollercoaster, feel free to check out my Guesthouse tour video!

https://youtu.be/WnociMYiFkA

This is Jinja. She was our ferocious house cat!! Just kidding. She was super mellow and cuddly and a tiny little thing. But she did eat mice and lizards and all the crawling things outside... which makes her even more loveable. Here is a picture of her out on the prowl early in the morning. She was adorable... and I'm not a cat person.

Rain buckets!

As I mentioned, the people of Bududa and the surrounding villages do not have running water. During the rainy season, which I was there during, those that are able to purchase large drums such as these will catch rainwater off of their tin roofing. Others will us the smaller yellow can (Jerry can) to get water from the rivers and streams, or the occasional well. Don't let those jerry cans deceive you... they weigh so much when they are filled! Yet, these amazing people will carry them for miles to their homes, up steep hills. They have mini-jerry cans which children starting around two years old will carry to get water. Talk about hard workers!!!

You're easily reminded of all the things you need water for! Cooking, washing dishes, washing yourself, washing clothes, brushing teeth, drinking, and on and on!

FOOD

The best things in life are free eaten.

A lot of people's first question when I got home was how was the food? What did they eat? Do they really eat (insert crazy thing) there? So here is a short blog some of the food we ate while we were there!

I'm the pickiest eater known to mankind... I literally took one suitcase of medical supplies, one suitcase of food, and carried all my clothes on my back lol. But I really didn't end up eating much of the food I packed because the food in Uganda was excellent! Even for a picky girl like me. 

Alice is the FIRMC Guesthouse manager and an angel of a person. She would make breakfast and dinner for the volunteers. Because she's the sweetest ever, she would try to tailor her menu to "white people food" while we were at home. So that meant every morning we started with an egg and a slice of bread for breakfast.

Dinners would be some type of starch, and then fruits and vegetables. I will go on record to say that Alice made, hands-down, the best rice I've ever had. Which is lovely because I loveeeeee rice. She would make eggplant, cabbage, or other veggies and then always had mango, watermelon, or avocado as well. 

True, we did not eat meat! But the people of Uganda do. 

"Irish Soup" our lovely Alice made regularly for the homesick Mzungos. It was delightful. It was a potato soup with carrots and peppers and magic mixed in. 

The FIMRC clinic provides lunch for it's staff and volunteers. We were able to eat the local food on many occasions. Here is some of the classic Ugandan food staples:

Chapati: a flatbread

If there was a baby between tortillas and pita bread, this would be it. 

Eaten durng tea time (aka breakfast) and with most meals, this is a pretty popular food item in Uganda. And it honestly tastes fantastic.

Posho and beans: maize flour cooked with water to a dough-like consistency. ( And you clearly know what beans are...)

Kind of looks like mashed potatoes, but WARNING DOES NOT TASTE LIKE THEM.

Starchy, filling. Served for lunch/dinner very, very often

Matoke: plantain cooked with other veggies like carrots and peppers to make a flavorful meal

Also extremely common lunch/dinner meal. 

Everyone knows how to cook these meals, and eats them interchangeably every day throughout the week.

There isn't great variety, but there is great flavour. And no one in Uganda complains about anything so... 

One of the fruits they eat here but we don't really eat is jackfruit. It is MASSIVE. Like way larger than a baby. It can feed a lot. The other girls described it something like banana mixed with grapefruit. They enjoyed it a lot!

Where's the meat?

Well like I said, the people in Uganda do eat meat! However, they will kill a goat/cow/chicken/etc, and then hang it by large butcher hooks in the street. People will come and purchase pieces and it will be cut off for them. It is cooked for a while! But there is no refrigeration in the villages. Sometimes the meat will sit out for days. So while the villagers are use to this diet, the white people can get really sick from eating meat there. So we just steer clear. More for them!

Welcome to the Behind the Scenes!

Thanks for checking out some extra information about my trip! I'll be updating this information very soon, so check back later on in the week to see all the fun pictures and information!