Day 15

12/31/08

I did laundry again this morning! I find that I do a better job if I do small amounts at a time so I think tomorrow morning’s washing should allow me to reach the end of my trip with “clean” clothing. I came to BCC at 8:30am, took a boda motorcycle from Anne’s house for only 3000 UGX. Usually I take a bicycle into town first for 300 UGX, then a motorcycle for 2500 UGX from town to BCC. I figured the extra 200 UGX was a worthwhile investment, and the driver was safe and talkative. Mom and dad, I know this won’t make you happy, but at some point in my life I will likely own a motorcycle. There is just this un-matched art involved with finding the perfect spot for your two aligned wheels, avoiding potholes and feeling fast a powerful when you ride a motorcycle that I think I will be too tempted to avoid for my whole life. We went on rounds when I got here and saw nothing which seemed too unusual to me at this point. Ah, just lost power. Computer is dying. I’ll finish later.

Sorry about that. Welcome to Uganda. So the ward was packed today, with three of the beds housing two people each. The extremely malnourished child is as sick today as he was yesterday but is being transferred (that means carried by his mother on the back of a motorcycle) to Mbale Main Hospital. Hopefully they can save his life there. It looks like he has a long road ahead of him in order to regain a healthy life. There were the numerous more patients with malaria, babies, adolescents, and adults. The woman with the jiggers seems a bit better but, now that she has more energy, she walking around outside naked scratching her body. The isolation ward, which was just being used as an overflow area today, smelled like urine, due to the lack of ventilation and the overcrowding of infant patients inside. After rounds, I went to the lab and observed a MPS malaria blood test. Thomas, the lab technician, has a manual centrifuge (I have a picture), a microscope, a few reagents, a sink, and a makeshift drying rack, constructed of two wooden planks on top of which lies a metal box with a light bulb inside. Place the slide under the light bulb, allow the air inside the box to heat up, and wait for the blood to dry. Desperate, ridiculous, but efficient. He showed me a positive and negative TB test; I saw the red-dyed bacilli sitting there in the patient’s blue-dyed sputum. This TB patient has + + + TB, with between 400-4,000 bacilli in at least 50 microscopic regions of sputum. The only worse condition is + + + +, which is much more difficult to treat, the victim having 4,000-40,000 bacilli in at least 20 microscopic regions of sputum. He showed me an HIV quick-test, a pregnancy test (not the disposable at-home ones here), and the rest of the 12 lab tests that they have the most primitive equipment to conduct here (urine pH, stool). Fascinating but frustrating at the same time. Then I did some work on the Assurance Scheme and grants, went on rounds again when Dr. Wafula arrived (stayed out of the isolation ward this time), and finally met Paul Tiboti, a good friend of Maital, who invited me to his home tomorrow afternoon for a new year’s celebration. I ate lunch with Julliet, something called posho, a mash of maize and water. Tasteless but the topping was meat and I just ate the dry grain plain. I confirmed my flight for next week and then left early because we lost power again and hadn’t gained it back, meaning all the work I was doing on the desktop computer at the clinic had to wait. So I took a boda home, Americanized (changed into shorts and a t-shirt), and took my computer to the resort hotel to work here. On my way (I walked!), I met an officer of the UWA, the Ugandan Wildlife Agency, who patrols the Mount Elgon National Park, the home of that gorgeous mountain I see everyday. He was excited to meet an American and we spoke for a while, somehow reaching the topic of circumcision. I got to whip out the word Yudaya to tell him I was Jewish which was on the exciting side. The internet was down at the resort so I sat by the pool for an hour, met some Swiss people, then walked back home. I took a nap (accidentally), had dinner which was rice, cabbage, beans, and homemade fries, and then watched a movie. New Year’s is more of a religious event than a party scene here so everyone goes to church. There are apparently candleworks (fireworks) over Mt. Elgon that are best seen from the back of the hotel next door so I might head over there around midnight with Matthew. Tomorrow morning I will probably head to the market to buy some food-gift for Paul and his family. Then work hard, as my time here is almost up! HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! Wish I could be home to celebrate!