Africa

I have arrived. What a different world it is. Here are my random thoughts:
Host family is very nice. Cold showers that I am still getting used to. They have wonderful tea here. The roads are very bumpy. People carry the most interesting things on their heads, backs, and motor bikes or "bode bode" as they call them here...caskets, huge piles of something way larger than the person carrying it, fruit etc...
The clinic is very very sad. I find it very difficult to be there. It is so incredibly busy and understaffed. No sterile technique, no running water, very small amount of supplies. Patients have to buy their own needles and charts for the doctors to write in. No toilet either. I saw a mouse the other day and there are cows roaming all over and cow poop everywhere. The maternity ward is very sad too. Beds without sheets. I helped a women walk up there the other day that was so sweet and she was so so sick. If I could have carried her I would have. She had HIV and TB, so sweet but so so sick. All they could do for her was put her on IV fluids...she never complained. The patients come in and tell there complaints and the doctors just treat them by what they think it is...mostly malaria and HIV. They do blood tests but have a poor microscope for malaria so I don't know how accurate it is.
My home is nice, very simple. Power goes out a lot and sometimes the water does too.
I went downtown Kampala the other day. You ride in a "taxi" which means you ride with about 20 other people in a small van. Kampala is crazy. Very busy and very hot. I went to a huge mall that was very nice. When you want to catch a taxi back home you go to an enormous parking lot with hundreds of taxis...I went with Grace who is the son of James and Sarah Nadiope. I don't know how we found the correct taxi but we did. Sorry for the randomness. I don't know if I will be able to post pictures but I will try. Thanks for reading.

Kristina