First Day of "Work" 7/1

Jordan, Cari, and I got ready for our first day of volunteering in the hospital. We were taken to the hospital byJuliet. We didn't (and still don't) know a lot about her and what her role is. But the walk to the hospital was...interesting. We passed lots of children who kept shouting "mazunga" or white girl at Jordan and Cari. Nobody seemed to notice or care that I was walking with them. We also saw lots of goats and chickens just roaming around. Once we got to the hospital, we were given a brief orientation before deciding to spend the rest of the morning in the pediatric ward. The hospital is set up like open corridors. It has wards for pediatrics, males, females, and maternity patients. There is also a main operating theater and a smaller theater. A few of the other buildings house clinics for ART (anti retroviral therapy), family planning and things of that sort.

Our morning in pediatrics was pretty uneventful. The physician wasn't there so we spent most of our time reading the patient charts and interacting with the nursing students. School here is pretty different from back home. Students spend two and a half years studying nursing. Then if they want to complete a medical degree, it requires an additional 2 years after that. 

I also was able to spend part of my morning talking to the nutritionist. He told me about the high number of cases of kwashiorkor (shout out to the biochemistry lectures from school) and the difficulties in getting parents to adhere to recommended diets. Interesting to know adherence problems aren't just a US thing.

After a long lunch at home (over an hour), we headed back to the hospital. At least for me, I enjoyed the afternoon much better than the morning. I met one of the nursing students, Yosmas, who was extremely helpful. Well that was after he "stole" my water out of my pocket. It was all in good fun I suppose because he made up for it by personally walking me around and touring me through the hospital. He took me to the lab and pharmacy and made it his point to introduce me to his friends. He, like most people, was interested in how/why I was black but not from Uganda. It made for an interesting and brief history lesson. I didn't mind though. 

I'd say the first day there was ok. One of the big things that bothered me was how relaxed everybody was. Nobody seemed to work on a tight schedule. People (students and family) were pretty much allowed to wander as they pleased. Not that any of this is a bad thing, it's just going to take a little while to get used to. Another thing that I noticed was the lack of physicians, especially on some of the wards. It seemed like the nurses were mostly running the show and the docs would be there when they could. Since Iganga is one of the more rural hospitals, this doesn't seem that unexpected.

Overall the first day in the hospital was a good one, and I'm excited to see what all we can learn while we are here.