Bukasakya – Peace, Love, and Uganda

Just a pretty field. Oh! But there’s actually a stream hidden somewhere here! Can you find it?

September 1-7, 2019

Well, the weekend did not go as planned. I don’t have my mini-fridge, my fan, or my bicycle. This was due to an unexpectedly copious amount of rainfall, and ATM services being completely down. But this is Uganda. And in Uganda – like anywhere else in the world – things happen. Which is why the mentality here is along the lines of “the work will get done… eventually.” I’ll get what I need and what I’d like to have eventually, but not necessarily when planned. So, in the meantime, you just have to greet these changes with a positive attitude, and find other work and activities to occupy your time.

And Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were… an experience. Monday and Tuesday with more than 150 patients each, and Wednesday with around 75 patients… to put it very mildly. While it was an extremely informative three days at the health center, there’s clearly a very large amount of work to be done. When we have an influx of patients (sometimes as many as fifty in an hour), the center devolves into absolutely chaos. Somehow every patient is seen, and somehow the nurses make it work, but there are opportunities for space maximization, resource allocation, time management, and more. I’ve already started planning a nearly complete restructuring of the floorplan, and we’ll be working on putting that into practice moving forward. I’m also going to need to practice my Lumasaaba, but with twenty-one possible languages spoken in all of the villages served, there are many more language barriers that need to be traversed. It was also a fine three days getting to know new co-workers and healthcare professionals.

Quite a small space for such a large population, isn’t it?

Thursday and Friday were slow days in the office. I spent the time drawing up an outline of the individual subjects for the health promotors’ curriculum expansion, and researching the first topic. I’ve been preparing a draft, one that should be ready for adjustment, critique, and improvement by the end of next week. We can then work on moving forward with all of the topics, as well as what is next on our leadership training for the month’s coming CHP leaders meeting.

September 8-14, 2019

This weekend was the right – and the wrong – time to buy a bicycle. The shop owner is a wonderful man, who sells used bikes at very reasonable prices. They are sturdy, strong, and solid. So, I bought mine, and began to ride it home on Sunday. I made it further than three-fourths of the way back to my house… when the rear tire exploded. Literally, it sounded like a loud rifle blast, and it was most likely due to over inflation, which I was told is a common problem for bicycles, motorcycles, and cars in this country. Regardless, I have a bike, and it will be repaired for free, but it is currently out of commission.

Generalized Topographical Map of the area we serve at the health center.

This week, during my days at the health center, Monday was completely madness once more – seeing more than one hundred and fifty patients come through. But Tuesday and Wednesday were much slower. As it turns out, word can travel very fast when a clinic is out of medication for particular – highly recurring – illnesses in the community. When it comes to diarrhea, malaria, flu, and the like, we’ve run out of medication for treating them, and so the number of patients coming through dropped to less than fifty patients a day. If anything, this speaks to the clear and present need for better prevention strategies and interventions in the community. Like in America, people have become too reliant on medications, instead of focusing on keeping themselves healthy before they become sick with something that is preventable.

Wednesday was also the day when I caught a cold working at the Health Center. Not all that surprising, considering every other patient presents with cold, flu, and coughing symptoms. Which they then cough and sneeze in our general direction all day long. But I don’t have malaria, and I feel strong enough to continue working, while resting earlier and longer while home.

Thursday, I felt stronger, so I spent the day at the office, as was the plan. I met with Joseph, a member of the Peace Corps staff here in Uganda, and he was very excited about the work that I’ve been doing and the work I will be doing here at Spotlight. He is also considering me for a position on a new regional committee of volunteers that the Peace Corps is building, so that’s pretty exciting. Joseph is also a gosh dang superhero! That’s very important for you all to know…

See? That single red line means you’re Malaria-free!

I took a malaria test, to prove that my sickness wasn’t malaria, and I was right!

But that didn’t stop me being more or less completely bedridden for all of Friday… Only cold showers could really break my fever and there was a lot of resting and recovery. Everyone in this country (exaggeration for the win!) seems to have this cold, so even my neighbors were sick, and we were all miserable together.

I felt strong enough to make my way into town on Saturday to buy food, because I need food and food is important. But as soon as I got home, my fever had spiked back up and it was time to stand under cold water for a while!

It’s been an interesting week… We feel so proud when we go for a such a long time without getting sick (five years!) but then when we do, it hits us like a an unpredictably moving car. Oh well, another week, another experience…

September 15-21, 2019

Something interesting that I’ve noticed, I’ve been in this town long enough now, and I’ve met and have gotten to know enough people, that I find myself running into friends, acquaintances, and co-workers every time I go into town. I know there’s not a whole lot of people in this city, but it’s still a nice feeling to have, and a nice realization to make.

The Maternity and Post-Natal half of the Health Center.

This week was relatively uneventful; spent much of the time recovering from my cold. I did go to work, however, just not at the health center. I refused to stay in my house as I recovered. Just not the kind of guy I am. But it is the smarter option not to risk re-infection, or catching something entirely new with a compromised immune system. So, my week was spent in the office, and even there it was a mad scramble for much of the week.

There is something very big – several somethings, actually – that will be taking place next week. And since I’m feeling puckishly cheeky, what with being healthy and strong again, I’ll be leaving you on a cliffhanger to find out what happens when I release the next post.

Once again, thank you all for your time and coming with me on this journey! It means the world that so many of you find enjoyment and education from this: our shared experience. So, until next time, dear readers: be well, be wise, and be good to one another!

No real story here, just the gorgeous mountain within walking distance of my office.

Week of: August 12-17, 2019

Hello Readers!

So, we’re going to try a new format for the blog. Instead of going day-by-day – since there’s not going to be much in the way of new beyond the happenings of the job – we’ll go in a week-by-week style. If it’s not ideal, or we want to change it back, I will. Just something to keep in mind as we go forward on this adventure.

And to start off: this week was amazing! I wanted a job where I could just dive right in, start working right away, and just be cooped up inside my house for the first three months of service, and I got it! I got what I wanted! And, I Love It!

First off, I know Monday will be a bit of a recap, but here we go! Monday, I started off by reading more about the work done here at Spotlight on Africa – Uganda Foundation, and then we journeyed to a different Health Center III to take a look at their new maternity ward, open to the public less than two years ago. The combine an ingenious design to maximize airflow and cooling the interior with traditional Ugandan architecture. We’re planning to use elements of that in our new maternity ward in Bukasakya sub-county. Which, by the way, we’re breaking ground on next month, and will be completed and open to the public before I am finished with my service here in Uganda! I am so excited!

Tuesday, was a rather slow day at the office. We went over budget reports, and planning for the future of the organization and the institutions we support. Afterwards, we had a meeting on adding the cooling architecture to the maternity ward once construction begins and it was very well received.

Wednesday, we had an impromptu meeting at the Mbale District Health Office concerning the planning and implementation of a currently District wide Community Health Promoter (or Volunteer Health Teacher/Trainer) database, that could potentially be adopted by the whole of Uganda in the future. This will help with tracking, continued training, and sending the best to where they are needed most, to name a few. I also had the chance to meet many of my peers, also working for NGOs in the Mbale District. After the meeting, I also started researching Public-Private Partnerships, at the request of my supervisor, for a presentation to the District Health Officer on Friday.

Thursday, was a day at the office. I worked on the handout, the presentation, and the follow-up participant questionnaire all day, getting that ready for the meeting tomorrow.

Friday, we had the meeting at the Bukasakya Health Center that we sponsor. Naturally, with Ugandan time, we started significantly later than planned, and we didn’t have as many participants as we invited, and we ended well into the start of the night, but it was still a very successful event. The representatives from the district were very receptive to our discussions and goals for the future of our partnership. Far from using empty words, talks of immediate action were taken, and I am excited to see where the future takes us for the citizens of Bukasakya sub-county.

Saturday, I spent much the morning shopping for more supplies for my house, and planning for what else I’ll need to buy over the coming months. At the moment, my kitchen and bathroom are more or less completed and stocked, and for the rest of my house, there’s really only the larger sized purchases – furniture, appliances, etc. – to worry about. Afterwards, my fellow Lumasaaba volunteers and I met for an afternoon at (where else?) Mt. Elgon Hotel. It was nice to see everyone and learn more about what we’ve been doing the past week. And, at my friend’s insistence, I was able to find a very scenic, nature-filled alternative path back to Mbale for my walk home.

Week of: August 18-24, 2019

This week was spent working, almost exclusive, at the Bukasakya Health Center. All day, every day this week, I was there, working with the Senior Clinical Officer (she’s in charge of the whole facility) on designing an annual work plan for the Health Center III. We focused on designing annual and quarterly goals, compiling population data relating to health trends and concerns, rules and roles of key stakeholders and funding sources, staffing needs, referral behaviors for the past year, budgeting, achievements and challenges, and finally, we planned how to address the District’s health objectives for the year.

There was a lot to do, obviously. But we managed to get that done in a week, so I’m pretty proud of myself. And my co-workers are rather impressed as well.

The weekend was a rather lazy weekend. Got my chores and errands done, cleaned my house, washed my clothes, got some writing done, and just relaxed. It was a good way to prepare for my next – very big – project with Spotlight that could take several months to complete. And I’m going to need those several months, to say the least, because I’ve never designed a district-wide standardized health education curriculum before…

Week of: August 25-31, 2019

This week was a rather slow one, spent almost exclusively in the office. I was given my first two large-scale assignments, and I’ll be officially starting both next week. For the first half of each week, for the rest of the calendar year, I’ll be working at the Bukasakya Health Center in an administrative role. As an active team member, I’ll be able to use my skills as an applied anthropologist as well as a healthcare professional in order to observe and participate. The goal will be to improve and build upon the capacity of the staff as well as the operations of the facility as a whole. We will work to improve technological ability, patient care and safety, and expanding our resources to account for the growing status of the community as well as the center itself.

The later half of the week will be spent in the office. I’ve been assigned the task of designing a Community Health Promoters curriculum meant to improve upon the knowledge and skills of the volunteers we have in the surrounding villages. I have a whole list of topics. I have a whole list of expectations. I have the rest of the year to produce a product worth ushering into the new year. It’s daunting, exciting, and carries a suitable amount of pressure. I’ve already started the research and gathering some materials, so I’ve made an appropriate start.

We did have one big event this week. On Wednesday, Spotlight met with a majority of their Community Health Promotion Leaders. This happens once a week, and we will be working on building their leadership and mentoring skills to bring to their teams in the villages. The meeting went well; they were all very engaged and a wonderful group of people. I’m excited to meet them all in a more personal capacity as we all work to better ourselves and the work that we do.

“The Best Things in the World are Felt with the Heart.”

And while I am posting this on a Friday, I’ll share the plan for tomorrow as well. My supervisor will be helping me with the first round of larger item shopping. I’ll be paying for my mini-fridge, a large fan, and my bicycle this weekend. It’s a wonderful thing: having a supervisor with transportation to help lug these bigger pieces back to the house. So, until next time my lovely readers: be well, be wise, and be good to one another. I hope you’ve all had a great close to your month of August. Have a wonderful start to September!

Tag: Bukasakya

September 1 – 21, 2019

August 12 – 31, 2019