A day in the life...

There is only one week left of my medical mission here in Uganda, and I thought I would share with you what a typical day is like...

I wake up around 6:30 AM and it is still mostly dark outside. Here on the equator there is equal amount of daylight and night time. The sun is up by 7AM. I crawl out from under my mosquito net and slip on my flip flops to go and shower. Most of the times it is a cold, brisk shower, but if I am lucky I might get a little warm water. I dress and head down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. This has become a tedious excercise as the options are scrambled eggs, frieds eggs, or their idea of omlette, which is just egg that has been scrambled and allowed to cook flat, no cheese. There is always a small glass of fresh passion fruit juice, a slice of fresh pineapple and two pieces of dry white bread/toast.

We get picked up by the Northwest Medical Teams van at 8:30 AM to head to the office. When we arrive all of the equipment is loaded into boths vans, and about 26 people pile into two small Toyota vans. A prayer is said for the day and we are generally on the road by 9:30 AM. The drive through Lira is interesting swerving around multiple pot holes, bicycles, wheelbarrows, large lorries, pedestrians, goats, cattle, and chickens. Once on the outskirts of town the paved (loosely speaking) road turns into very rutted and dusty, red roads. Most drives take at least an hour of bumping around past different camps, with all of the little naked and half naked children with big pot bellies running to the edge of the road, all of them jumping up and down waving at us. They are usually screaming, "Mono, Mono, Mono!" Which means white person. They always make me laugh!

Once we arrive at our destination, usually under the shade of some large trees, we start unloading all the gear. Everyone has a duty, and the tents begin to go up, while tables are put together and the pharmacy gets organized. There are two people registering patients, another couple of people throw a rope over a low branch and attach a scale to it. Babies are then placed into a sling and hung on the scale to be weighed, similar to weighing a fish! Low wooden benches are placed in front of each tent space that will have healthcare staff seeing patients. The tents we have are large family sized camping tents with three equal sections. I have been designated the center of one tent with my interpreter, David. We have a small plastic table, a stool for each of us, and one close to the door for our patients to sit on.

We greet each person as they come in and they hand us their registration cards with their basic stats: name, age (if they know it), what tribe they are from, and occupation. Occupation is generally filled in with soldier, student, or peasant farmer. Not a lot of choices in the camps. I mostly listen to lungs, palpate spleens (you can feel some very large ones here!), and look at tons of rashes and sores. There are always at least 15-20 pairs of eyes watching us, and only occasionally do we need to zip the door closed for a private exam. I write a brief assesment on the back of the registration card, diagnoses, and medications they need. The patients are then instructed to go to the pharmacy tent, where they wait again.

We generally are told to come and take lunch around 1PM. We stand, stretch, and walk away from a line of about 20 people waiting to see us. We go to the pharmacy van, where we are handed, one chapati, two boiled eggs, and four or five small bananas. After taking about 15 minutes to eat we head back to the tents. We usually try and finish seeing whatever patients we can by 4 PM and then begin tearing down clinic. Packing everything into the vans and frequently squeezing in 2 or 3 patients to be brought into the hospital.

The ride home is usually more dusty as there are more large trucks on the road, billowing of thick, black exhaust and a cloud of dust. On arrival at the office things are unloaded and locked into the office. We try and get a ride home soon after that. I hit the shower right away and this time the cold water feels great. I then immediately hit the internet cafe so that I can make it back to join the others for supper by 7 PM.

Supper tends to have a little more variety and I am quite content with the rice and beans, or rice with avocado and tomatoes. They make pretty good chips (french fries), and the tilapia (fish) has been quite tasty. I have only eaten chicken a couple of times, but these are free range birds so they are quite tough. We have discovered several other restaurants within walking distance, and our favorite is the Mango Tree. They serve a nice and spicy Bryanni, and Masala. We walk home in almost pitch black as there are no street lights, the biggest hazard being bicycles with no lights.

I get back to my room by 9 PM, swallow my antimalarial. and tuck my mosquito net around my bed, with the fan blowing right on me. If power is on I will get to watch the BBC news and see what it happening in the world. I love watching the world weather forecast, and for some reason, they never show North America. When I turn off the TV and the lights I can see the stars twinkling brightly in the sky and my thoughts always turn to home and those I love.