Heading South

Today Elizabeth, Leigh, Rachel (my MPH and travel buddies) and I leave Kampala and head south to the Rakai district, specifically the town of Kalisizo, where we will spend the next 9 weeks interning at the Rakai Health Sciences Program (RHSP).  It is about a 200 kilometer drive and we will be stopping at the Equator on the way down.  The district is predominantly rural and the pace of life there will be quite different from the hustle and bustle of Kampala.  This week we will meet our summer supervisors and visit the various HIV/AIDS research and treatment units of the RHSP.  Let the work begin!

My River Wild Moment

We ended last week with a bang by heading to Jinja early Friday morning to begin an epic white water rafting trip on the Nile.  I had heard about how crazy the rapids were, but nothing prepared me for actually being thrown from our raft and into class 5 rapid - this happened several times.  I pretty much referenced The River Wild the whole day - luckily our trip was not hijacked by a crazy Kevin Bacon and we made it out alive.  Our guide Nathan was an absolute rockstar as were the kayakers who followed each raft and were on hand to pluck us out of the water when we were unable to hold on to the boat when it tipped.  This outing ranks as one of the coolest and wildest things I've ever done.

Our boat consisted of our guide, me, Leigh, Rachel, another public health student we met while in Kampala, and two German brothers.  We went over seven rapids, four were class 5 and the other three were class 4.  In the middle of the trip we had stop and walk around a class 6 rapid.  Below is a fun sampling of our day - I am wearing a striped shirt and looking exhilarated/terrified most of the time.  All photos by Nile River Explorers.

Oh, everyone should Netflix this movie, it holds up!

Week in Review #18

What a week!  More posts will come in the next few days about what we've been up to - including white water rafting and visiting the source of the Nile - but for now here are two little tidbits.

First, a video I took this afternoon at Bujagali Falls on the Nile, it is a class 6+ rapid, and no we didn't raft down it, but check out the guy who just floats on down.  The Ugandan government is in the process of building a dam and when it's done, these falls will not exist anymore.  Second, the most amazing shower with a view at the Explorers River Camp in Jinja - we weren't even there for 24 hours and I took two showers (albiet cold ones) just because of how beautiful it was.  We are back in Kampala until Tuesday morning when we head to Rakai and our internships formally begin.

Something for Everyone

Is there not a Tumblr for e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g?  Seriously, I love it.  Here are two that came to my attention today.

Awesome People Hanging Out Together - via A Cup of Jo

Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Barbra Streisand, and Sidney Poitier, 1972 © Bettmann/Corbis.

Polaroids of Hot Guys Reading - Thanks Sheila!

Book, James Dean, milk, cookies.

Day 2 - Public Health!

Since we are in the city this week I get to post two days in a row!  We'll see what it's like the rest of the summer.

Anyway ... after a fantastic introduction to the city of Kampala yesterday, today we focused on health and public health in Uganda.  Our first order of business was a meeting on personal health and safety issues to keep in mind during our visit (i.e. how not to get malaria, Ebola, bilharzia, or avian flu).  The bottom line: use common sense, take your malaria medicine, don't touch dead bodies or people who are bleeding from the eyes (the way you get Ebola), and don't swim in fresh water lakes.  We then proceeded to the Makerere University School of Public Health for a tour and a meeting with the Dean, Dr. William Bazeyo, followed by a tour of Mulago Public Hospital.

View of the suburbs of Kampala from Kololo Hill.

The School of Public Health sits on the  Makerere University Health Sciences campus which also houses the medical school, nursing school, infectious disease research unit, and Mulago Hospital.

Chart of various forms of antiretroviral therapy.

View of Kampala from the School of Public Health.

At Mulago Hospital we received a comprehensive tour from Senior Nurse Christine Namukasa who as worked there for over 30 years.  This is a public hospital that serves as a referral point for several district health centers.  Anything that a local health center cannot treat is referred here - this includes obstetric complications, cancer treatments, and surgeries.  The facility also has an emergency unit where trauma victims are bought.  No patients are turned away - in certain wards hospital beds filled the hallways.  On another note, this is where they filmed the hospital scenes from The Last King of Scotland.

Here we are with Nurse Christine.  She is absolutely fantastic and spared nothing as she took us around the hospital - we even went right up to the labor suite where 70 babies are born each day.  She asked us if we "feared blood" before she led us into the emergency room, luckily we weren't faced with any.

Photo courtesy of Leigh Bernstein

From the hospital we proceeded to the School of Public Health's Kasangati Annex on the outskirts of Kampala.

The annex is adjacent to the District 4 Health Center where local residents receive primary care including family planning, routine pediatrics, and non-complicated obstetric cases.  The center is theoretically equipped with an ambulance in case any patients need to be transported to Mulago Hospital, but the vehicle was currently at another center.

Following our tour guide Simon to the maternity ward at the District 4 Health Center.

I was surprised by this sign at the maternity ward, but Elizabeth told me that new research shows if the mother is receiving antiretroviral therapy, the nutritional benefits of breast feeding outweigh the risk of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

It was truly a fantastic day that gave us a great look at the health system in and around Kampala.  Tomorrow we head to Jinja!

Day 1 - Kampala

We made it!  After 24 hours of traveling, we arrived at our hotel in Kampla, Uganda last night at almost midnight.  Our route was a 7.5-hour flight from NYC to Amsterdam where we had a 4-hour layover, then a 9.5 hour flight to Kigali, Rwanda where we waited on the plane for an hour, then a 30 minute flight to Entebbe, Uganda where we picked up our baggage and went through customs, then finally we drove an hour to Kampala.  The nice thing about arriving at night is that you can go right to sleep and beat the jetlag.


Today we had the morning free to settle in and then went over to the Makerere University School of Public Health annex which is right across the street from our hotel.  We were introduced to the staff member of the Rakai Health Sciences Program who works to coordinate our internships and given an overview of the orientation week here in Kampala.  Then we set off on a tour of the city with our local tour guide Ronald.  Photos and initial impressions follow.


Kamapla, which means hill of the impala, is a beautiful and hilly city.  Like Rome, it was initially founded to encompass 7 hills.  Too bad there are no longer any impalas here.

We stopped by a urban market place to check out the fruits and veggies - we saw lots of papayas and bananas and encountered lots of shopkeepers who were eager to sell us their goods.

Below is the Kampala Taxi Park - shared taxis converge here to drop off and pick up passengers.

There are motorbikes or boda bodas everywhere.  It makes crossing the street quite an experience.

 Here we are with our fantastic tour guide Ronald.

Uganda gained independence from Great Britain on October 9, 1962.  Below is the statue that the British built to commemorate the occasion - can you tell?  The British are supposed to represent the full-sized person while the baby being uplifted signifies Uganda.  Ah, colonialism.

All photos by Oh MG.