From the Plains to the Rainforest

 

Over the weekend we went to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in an area called Nkuringo, which is the Southwest most corner of Uganda.  This was a BEAUTIFUL area, filled with luscious vegetation.  From our mountain-top camp you could see both Rwanda and Congo in the very close distance, in fact the active volcano you can see is in Rwanda.   

We then hiked about an hour and half down into the valley, until we got into pretty thick forest and we then came upon the gorillas.   

We hiked from the very top of the tree line to were this picture is taken, then we got into the thick stuff...

Mountain gorillas are endangered, there are only 700 remaining, none of which are in captivity.  The only two places they can be found are in Uganda and Congo.  There are about 300 in Bwindi, divided into families of about 10-20, and we saw one of those families.  We sat about 10 feet from eight of the gorillas for about an hour and took pictures.   

Here's Katie and Kelly taking a pic of the silverback

About halfway through, a ninth gorilla joined the party, and in walking by us his arm brushed my knee!  There was one silverback, a couple of smaller males, a few females, and two babies.  Unfortunately the pictures did not come out great, as there was thick canopy over us and we were strictly restricted from using flash!  But it was an amazing experience to watch them in their own habitat.  We then had to hike out of the forest which was a bit strenuous at 6,000 feet! 

A mom nursing a baby

That's the silverback right behind me

After going through all our pictures and reflecting on our time with the gorillas, we went for a walk through the village, where we found the most friendly people meet we’ve meet yet!   

View from the top of the village

The children in the village then performed some traditional dances for us which was really adorable. 

We then had this incredible hail storm.

It was by the way it was MUCH colder at that altitude and our camp was cabin-style so no electricity, but there were showers (water heated by fire, and flow was by gravity), beds, and toilets so we weren’t roughing it too bad.  The rain left some fog the next morning, which made for some nice pics.

Friday

Friday morning Kelly and I FINALLY had a chance to go on the mammogram van!! Unfortunately the van, which Yale and Johnson & Johnson donated, has not worked in over 6 months. There is also a second mammogram van at the Cancer Institute, which is also out of commission.  Mulago Hospital does have a working mammogram machine, but we’ve been told that mammograms are almost never ordered due to their cost, and that ultrasounds and fine need aspirations are done instead.  That being said, we are very confused as to why two mammograms vans have been donated, and furthermore why we were told we’d be traveling on the van as it operates two days a week throughout this rotation, and come to find out it hasn’t worked in six months! But either way, we’ve learned a ton at the Uganda Cancer Institute!  So what did we do on Friday on the van??  Well on Fridays they do screening breast exams, and since they aren’t enough exam rooms, they use the van for extra space.  This seems completely backwards to me, but we went with the flow.  So we performed several exams, and if there was anything suspicious, sure enough a breast ultrasound was ordered, no mammograms.  We also met Josephine, an eleven year survivor, and volunteer every Friday during this “screening” program.  She talks to woman as they wait for their appointment about the importance of self breast exams, she hands out pamphlets, and answers any questions they may have for her.  Meeting her was the highlight of our day :-)

Friday evening our group went to meet a tradition healer.  Traditional healers are very popular in East Africa, in fact many patients will go to one before going to a medical doctor.  This traditional healer explained to us that she is given remedies for her patients in her dreams from her ancestors.  She will then collect different plants to produce the remedies. She also explained that sickness is often due to a curse or a demon, and she can help relieve someone from such troubles.  However if it is a sickness she cannot heal, she says she refers her patients on to a medical doctor.  She has no training herself, other than the gifts she was given by her ancestors.  This was an enlightening session because so many of our patients bring up traditional healers.

Update for the week

So we haven't had internet all week, so here's a post for the whole week...
Monday afternoon we went to Sanyu Babies Home, an orphanage for abandoned babies up to 4 years old.  There were 47 children there, and they can take up to 50. The home attempts to have the children adopted, but in the meantime takes very good care of them with very little resources.  We brought some things to donate, but they need so much more!  Feel free to check out there website, it is http://www.sanyubabies.com/

Tuesday was a very eye-opening day at the Cancer Institute. Kelly and I were attending rounds as usual with our attending physician and about 5 Ugandan medical students when the women who we would have rounded on next, died.  Her two daughters that were with her started wailing.  I of course expected my attending to stop what he was doing, to say something to the family, to "pronounce" the woman as we would have in the states, but instead he and the Ugandan students just went on discussing the previous patient as if nothing was going on. Eventually a nurse came over and assisted the family, putting up a divider to give them a small amount of privacy.  Kelly and I both just stood with our jaws hanging open saying to each other, "did that just really happen?"  We've both lost patients, but we've certainly never seen anything handled like that.  We later wondered if the reactions of the other students was somehow due to the fact that death is so common here.  Life expectancy is 53 years old, more than 30 years less than the US, so are they just desensitized to it??

Tuesday evening we met Matt from Nairobi who was in Kampala for a few days, and he took us out for a wonderful meal at his beautiful hotel.  It really made our accommodations look less than favorable...

Wednesday the streets of Kampala were crazy!! We are still not quite sure what was going on... but we were told some famous evangelist was here, but either way the streets were out of control! You couldn't drive anywhere! People were blowing horns, blasting music through huge loud speakers, large buses or trucks carrying speakers would have someone proselytizing at top volume, and large pick-ups would have 30 people standing up in the back, crammed together, with hats and horns, dancing! At night there were fireworks. I attempted to take pictures or video, but it was so outrageous you had to be careful you didn't get trampled, so I didn't end up getting any. Things have quieted down a bit.

Today we were in the outpatient cancer clinic.  Between patients I decided to look something up on my Iphone, and the other med students were so amazed at my phone and what it could do! They had a good time looking things up in the medical dictionaries I have downloaded to it. It's funny, things we take for granted, they were amazed by.  Tonight we had a group dinner with our MUYU family here, which has become a nice tradition. We went to an Italian restaurant and it was really good.

Tomorrow after the hospital we are going to a traditional healer, which is very popular here in Uganda. Then this weekend (our last weekend here) we are headed to Bwindi National Park, a rainforest, to track a family of mountain gorillas :-)

3-Day Weekend in Kenya

Early Friday morning the three of us flew to Nairobi (a 45-minute flight) and spent the day doing some of the tourist attractions there including the Giraffe Center where we fed giraffes, the Kazuri Factory, and saw the home from the "Out of Africa" movie.  We then went to Ramesh and Matt's home, which is beautiful, and had a lovely time meeting their daughter Shireen. We all went to a delicious Italian restaurant and had real cheese which is something we've all missed!!  We had a very relaxing evening and a fun time with the Cohens!!

Little Miss Shireen and daddy Matt in their front entrance way

Ramesh and I... friends since undergrad orientation over 10 years ago!!

Saturday morning we were picked up by our safari guide Duncan and we drove out to the Masai Mara which was about a 5-hour drive.  The Mara is a game reserve in South-West Kenya that covers over 580 square miles and crosses over into Tanzania.  On the ride there, we saw the Great Rift Valley, which spans from Israel to Mozambique, and overall the ride wasn't bad, but the last couple hours were quite bumpy!! But once we got there it was just amazing.... On our very short 2-day safari we saw, and I mean were REALLY close to, giraffes, gazelles, water buffalo, lions, elephants, mongoose, zebras, tortoises, wildebeest, jackals, antelopes, hyenas, warthogs, cheetahs, ostriches, and several exotic birds including the bird on the Uganda flag, the grey crowned crane.  Here are just a few a of the hundreds of pictures I took....

A herd of elephants on the mountain

A much closer elephant

An elephant herd walking right in front of the van

Wildebeest

A whole group of giraffes

This giraffe was totally checking us out

A water buffalo, which is the most dangerous of THE BIG FIVE

A female lion sunning herself

Momma lion looking after the cubs

Silly zebra

We felt very lucky to find these cheetahs, as there are only 3 living in this whole side of the Mara

A family of warthogs

Sunset

At our lodge, which was a really nice place if anyone is considering a safari in the near future, they feed hyenas off the back porch at night... the eerie laugh they make was really unnerving! Luckily, they are also guards that walk you to your villas after dark because the wildlife is so close!

The feeding of the hyenas... the video is gross!!

On the second day we visited a Masai Village where we learned a lot about their culture. The Masai wear red cloth and bright beads in order to appear threatening to animals that might be after their herds.  They have cattle and goats, and spend all day protecting the grazing cattle. Their diet consists only of meat, cow's blood, and milk because the land is too dry for them to grow crops.  The older generations also have the "stretched out" earlobes, but they younger generations are not continuing this tradition as it "gets in the way of playing soccer and other sports."  Their huts are made of sticks and cow dung, and you can't believe the flies that are around there!!

Masai teenager showing us how they make fire

The "older generation" Masai

We had an amazing time on the safari!! I would love to go again, and for longer!!
And as an added bonus, on our way back to the airport a baboon crossed the street right in font of us... certainly not something you see everyday!!

Whitewater Rafting Pics

So here are some of the whitewater rafting pics... I decided to put them up, even though we don't have them all yet....

Just before flipping...

That's me in the pink in the back, and Katie and Kelly are the front two

This wave totally smashes us in the face

Preparing to hit a big rapid

This weekend we are headed to Kenya... We are flying to Nairobi early Friday morning and spending a day and the night with my college roommate and close friend Ramesh, her husband Matt, and their baby Shireen who have been living in Nairobi  since, I believe, July 2010.  We are then headed on a 2-day safari to Maasai Mara, and returning to Uganda late Sunday evening. So lots of pics and updates after that!!

Wednesday at Mulago Hospital

Today was I guess "just another day" at the Cancer Institute.  I took some pictures in order to give you an idea of what the cancer institute looks like... the wards are very cramped, there's a mouse living in it, the screens are ripped, and most patients have mosquito nets over their beds. 

After the cancer wards today, Kelly and I decided to stop into the malnutrition unit, which of course feels like a little bit of an oxymoron here where you see so many children on the street that you feel are probably malnutritioned, you sort of wonder how all kids don't end up there.  In this unit, as kids are nursed back to a healthy weight, parents are taught how to add protein and other nutrients to matoke (the banana staple that most kids are fed three meals a day) because it has very little nutritional value.  While we were there, we held and help feed a couple of crying babies who were very small and underdeveloped for their ages.  We then saw a five year old who was no taller than my 2.5 year old niece Hannah, with arms like sticks, no hair, and she couldn't speak, she only made cat-like cries. It was heartbreaking. She had been abandoned, so once she is well, will end up at an orphanage.  She has some serious heart problems considering the amount of wasting, but it seems she was found in time.  Our group is headed to an orphanage next week. We bought a bunch of donations to bring, and are looking forward to spending some time with the kids there.

In the evening, we had a group dinner with all of the Americans that are here, we went for Pizza. It's been good to have the whole group here to talk to and discuss what we see in the hospital and sort of reflect on things.