Sarah in Uganda

John got a new modem so now besides having Internet that is compatible with my Mac it is also fast enough to load my Tumblr blog. Looks like I’ll be staying with this blog for the rest of my time in Uganda. Yay!

The design team started to leave yesterday and it is really sad. Even though we only knew them two weeks we have all become very close from sharing a living, working, and eating space every day. It was definitely sad to see them go but hopefully some of them will return when construction begins in January.

Language lessons with Hudson end this week so now we will be on our own to figure out Luganda. Hudson gave us really important basics so I think we will be able to keep picking it up as we go. Hanging around the clinic I have definitely been able to pick up a phrase or two and hope that trend continues. Ideally, I’d love to be able to be proficient enough to dispense meds to patients but it’s not looking likely at the rate I’m learning. We’ll seeeee I guess. Elliot has it a lot worse than me since everyone expects him to be just like Tom, who according to everyone we meet (literally) was fluent in Luganda by the time he left. So I guess I owe Monica one for not becoming totally fluent in Luganda like Tom. ;)

Speaking of the Clinic, I’ve been spending a fair bit of time in there this week (and much, much more time come next week when the Medical Mission from Chicago will be here). I have finally learned my way around the pharmacy and although I still can’t “pack the bags” (read: fill prescriptions) as fast as Resty, the pharmacist, I am able to hold my own in there. Thankfully this week has been relatively slow, possibly because people are waiting to come until next week when they know doctors from Amerika will be here, so it gave me an opportunity to really learn where on all the shelves all the medicines are supposed to be, and if I’m lucky, actually are. The most exciting news around here is that the Clinic has now graduated from paper records! This past week, I created an electronic patient records form that we used to record the patient information. This will hopefully speed up prescription filling and increase the available time for Resty to spend on health education with the patients. The new electronic records will hopefully be especially useful as the number of patients each day will dramatically increase next week with the arrival of the medical mission (The computer we have doesn’t have a battery and the clinic gets all of it’s power from solar panels so as long as it is sunny we can run the computer. Keep your fingers crossed for some more beautiful weather the next two weeks!). So far it has definitely helped to speed things up and has also resulted in more space for Resty to put together all the medicines since there is no longer the book that used to hold all the patient information overtaking the whole table that is ideal for putting together prescriptions. So far the system is pretty basic, just an Excel form of all the same information they had been handwriting, but Elliot and I are looking into more complex options. As with everything there are both pros and cons to switching to a more high-tech EMR. The biggest obstacle I would see if getting the nurses and Resty acquainted with a new system. Resty has never really used a computer before so I think something much more complex than what we have going might scare her or she wouldn’t be able to make it work without extensive help and I want to make sure that anything we implement is sustainable past our time here. I was originally nervous that any type of computerized records would scare her away but thankfully she has been very eager to learn. Every time she brings me a patient’s book to type in she practically sits on my lap to see what I am doing and if it happens to be very slow she’ll push me over and jump up on the chair and start searching the keyboard for the correct letters. When she finishes putting all the information in correctly she looks at me with the biggest smile and the sense of achievement is written all over her face. It makes me so happy and so proud of her that she’s willing to try and learn something so foreign to her normal life and I am so grateful that I have such an eager student.

Today, Anny and I went with Francis, John’s youngest brother, to Kinoni to get food for the upcoming week. Kinoni is the nearest town/market and is where we typically go to get all the food. This was my first time going to help pick out food and I really can’t say that I did much. We left the ordering, price negotiation, and quality control of the food up to Francis since he clearly had the most expertise. All this resulted in a huge potato sack full of varying vegetables, pineapples, watermelons, and many, many potatoes. Anny and I kept looking back and forth at each other wondering how we were going to carry this monstrous sack back to the road—never mind adding the cooking oil, soap, bread, and curry powder we still had to buy to our load—when Francis saved the day by hiring a bike to carry it all to the road. Once at the road we unloaded the sack and Francis began walking away telling us to follow him. Mine and Anny’s American mentality automatically kicked in and we began doubting that our food would not be stolen in our absence. Francis laughed at our concerns and told us just to leave it. So we took a leap of faith and followed him across the street to a different market where we would get the rest of our supplies. And just like he said when we returned 30 minutes later from the rest of our errands, all our food was exactly where we had left it. We’ve seen this kind of security and honesty all around us in Uganda and it is really refreshing coming from a guarded American society. Besides being able to leave our food by the side of the road, it also means that I can go for a run by myself and feel perfectly safe. Or we can leave the door to the volunteer quarters open and unlocked all day while the Clinic is full of patients. It’s just the way life is here and that makes it so much easier to feel right at home.