Wednesday=hospital days

So much has been going on. I can hardly believe that I have been here for a month already. Last weekend, I had the opportunity to go into the nile. We went to the source of the nile. This is the point where Lake Victoria turns into the river. It was pretty cool. We saw cute little White African Monkeys. It takes 4 months for the water to get from this point to the mediterranean sea. So Sophie, in about three months the water that I was standing in will be passing by you. It was a fun day and we got chocolate milkshakes. It wasn't anything close to what we have in america but it was better than nothing. We all crave american food so badly. Matoka, rice, and beans every night for dinner just doesn't cut it anymore.
Last week, we went on an outreach to Buikwe with chairman Livingstone. He is the equivilent of a senetor. We went to rural villages and taught about HIV/AIDS, tested for HIV, performed Physical Therapy, and gave out perscription drugs. These people live so far away from Kawolo hospital here in Lugazi that they do not have access to any treatment. They can't even afford the 6,000 shillings for travel. That is the equivalent of 3 dollars. We were excited to do this work, but also a little disappointed that the chairman was using us as part of his campaign. Each village we went to he gave a little speech and then left volunteers to work while he went on to the next village to give another speech.
This last wednesday, I had the opportunity to work in the hospital all day. I seperated from the rest of the group so I could get more hands on learning. I was placed into the antenatal unit. I was examining pregnant mothers. Josephine, the public health nurse, showed me how to do it on one patient and then let me go. I was a little overwhelmed because I did not have any of the equipment that doctors have in the United States, nor did I have the proper medical training to be examining these patients on my own. Although, I do have to say that I am now a pro. I would check their eyelids for proper color, eyes for jaundice, neck lymph nodes for swelling, feet for edema, breast for cancer, and then I would check the baby. I could tell them exactly how far along they were just by examining their stomach. By this, I told them when their next check-up is and what their due date is. I had to feel around their stomach to find the babies head and back. I had to make sure that the head wasn't engaged into the mother's pelvis prematurely. By finding the back of the baby, I could determine it's position and use that to find the babies haertbeat. I did not have a stethoscope for this. I used a funnel looking device to listen. I compared the babies heartbeat to the mother's radial pulse. It was such a rush to hear my first little baby's heart racing away. They do not do ultrasounds here unless there are complications because the ultrasounds cost too much. About 1/3 of the mothers that I examined were HIV positive. I dispensed their Anti-retro virals (ARVs) to them and counseled them on the disease and how to keep their baby from being affected. Most of these mothers were younger than me. There was one who was 19 or 20 who didn't want to take the FREE drug because she was afraid of some of the side effects. Her main concern was that she might get rashes on her body. I feel like this is a small price to pay for having a health non-infected baby. This absolutely broke my heart. Hopefully, I was able to get through to her. Once I finished with my patients, I was able to observe two surgeries. I got all scrubbed up and dressed in my surgery scrubs, cap, and face mask. I was able to just wander around the Main Theatre (Operating Room) as I pleased. The The first surgery was on a 16 year old boy, Abraham. He had gang green in his left foot pointer toe. The surgeon, Dr. Joshua, was chit chatting with me the whole time. He was able to keep the toe and not amputate it. As he took out the dead bone, he held it up in my face to see. Gee thanks. But it was really cool. He asked me if I had medical training; I think that he wanted me to close the cut up. I told him no even though I wanted to so badly. The next surgery was cleaning out an abcess on an elderly man. I asked Dr. Joshua if it would smell. He said no. He lied. Nicole, the girl who was with me in the Main Theatre had to leave before she passed out. It was quite disgusting but also fascinating. At least a gallon, but probably more, of puss came gushing out of the incision. I gagged a little bit but I could look away. The man's thigh was half as big as it was before after the surgery. The next surgeon, Dr. Julius, invited us to the vesectomy that he was doing next. He said that it is very rare for a man to do this. Usually, they make their wives come in to get their tubes tied. Unfortunately, it was our curfew so we had to go home. It was such a great opportunity. I look forward to wednesdays at the hospital. I would never be able to do this kind of stuff in America. I love the hospital here even though it is not the cleanest. While we were scrubbing in for the surgery, there were geckos climbing along the walls and in the sink. It is definitely a third world hospital, but I guess it is better than nothing.
On Thursday, all of our appointments were canceled because of Martyr's day. It is a huge country wide celebration. People walk on foot from all over central Africa to a small town outside of Kampala to celebrate this day. Being mzungus, we drove. The holiday comes from the late 1880s. The first mzungu came to Uganda and introduced christianity. The king endorsed this and petitioned the Queen of England to send missionaries. This King's son came into power after his death and didn't like the fact that the people praised and worshipped God instead of him. He gathered up all the believers in his court which were 12 catholics and 13 angelicans and tortured them until they denied Christ. They didn't give in, so he made them march 37 miles in chains to the small village outside of Kampala to be tortured more. The man in charge of the torturing was the uncle of one of the captives. He killed his nephew without even blinking. When they remained true to the faith, they were forced to gather their own firewood to be burned alive with. As they were burning, they sung hymns. To this day, every June 3rd martyrs day is celebrated. To celebrate we first went to the Catholic church. They had priests there from all over Africa and the Vatican to lead the services. It was really neat. I shook their hands as they walked to the front stage. There were millions of Catholics there. We had to link arms and push our way through the crowd to leave, but it was easy to find the group if we got unlinked because we were the only white ones. Next, we went to the Angelican church which was the actual site of martyrdom. The gathering was still quite big but not as big as the Catholic church. Being white, we are celebrities here. They invited us to sit up front on the stage with all of the church officials. We politely declined. This was such a great experience. It is hard to imagine the kind of faith that these individuals had. I hope that I can develop this kind of faith in my life.
We have some really big projects coming up. We are going to introduce our awesome hands free hand washing station into the rural villages this week. Also, we are teaching an HIV lesson to our first school this week. We are starting a HIV/AIDS research project this next week as well. We have so much going on and it will be great!