What a long journey that was, but I finally made it from Bremerton, WA to Kiwoko, Uganda. I took my first steps in Africa around midnight and immediately enjoyed the warm, humid air after some frustratingly long cold stretches in the Pacific Northwest. I showed my proof of a negative COVID test, yellow fever vaccine card, e-visa and passport to the customs officer and was on my way to staying at a hotel in Entebbe overnight, then waiting for a private ride to Kiwoko that following morning.
In a jet-lagged sleep, I got around 3 hours and was ready to experience my first morning in Uganda. After what seemed to be a nice sunny, blue-skied day, seemingly out of nowhere it began pouring and I was rudely greeted by the first thunderstorm in three years when I lived in the Midwest. When it struck, I admit I was startled and spilled a little bit of the coffee at their complimentary breakfast, but I think it played it off cool. My ride came, and my driver, Davie, greeted me and we stopped at an AirTel cell phone service store where I purchased a data bundle – an absolute must – and checked my social media and played my daily NYT Wordle game to stave off withdrawals. Motorcycles (boda-bodas) were everywhere, traffic was messy, odd-looking birds overlooking the city, and pedestrians doing their best impressions of Frogger – it was a great change of scenery from the calm monotony I had been accustomed to in the States. After a couple turns and several stretches of some asphalt-paved roads we left the city and transitioned to these orange-brown, dusty, bumpy roads. Local kids greeted me with waves and big smiles as I drove past with the window down – I only had 260 instagram followers and was a bit surprised to receive the reception I did – but I played along and returned the greetings. There were stalls everywhere with neatly stacked tomatoes, avocadoes, potatoes, mangoes, watermelons, bananas and pineapples. Davie expertly turned left and right dodging goats, chickens, kids, and potholes and we eventually arrived early afternoon at our final destination at Kiwoko Hospital. I unpacked my things and moved into “The Guest House” that was on campus. I met Anne, the only other occupant of the house who was a medical student from Jena, Germany and met the house’s two housekeepers, Rose and Winnie who both warmly greeted me.
Laureen, the hospital’s business manager, gave me a tour of the campus and we walked through the male and female wards, maternity, pediatrics, NICU, outpatient departments, HIV clinic and behavioral health clinic. My quick impression of the facilities was simply that “this is different”. The inpatient wards were essentially two large rooms with metal-framed beds that were lined up nearly side to side, separated between communicable and non-communicable illnesses. A special wooden door was in the back with “T.B. ISOLATION, staff only, do not enter” painted in blue. The maternity ward was separated in three large rooms by communicable illnesses, antepartum, and postpartum complications. A separate area for labor and delivery was in the back with a single room with one bed for “high risk obstetrics”. The unit gave a very unusual calm presence and I think it was partly due to the lack of the annoying beeps from IV pumps and the loud thumping doppler sounds that would echo throughout the L&D unit back in Bremerton. The NICU was impressive and absolutely packed with patients. Some infants were reported as being born 500g, some receiving ART therapy for HIV. There were maybe 40 newborn warmers and it was immediately apparent that this department had the most technologically advanced equipment, which nearly all were donated by the German and Irish governments. I walked to the other outpatient departments but it was a quick glance and didn’t really notice much out of the ordinary except that their was a single inpatient psychiatric bed was in an isolated building that looked like an outhouse with a padlocked door. We passed by some other administrative buildings and that was the end of our tour.
I walked around town and bumped into Anne again who invited me to a game of volleyball with locals. I only observed today as the court was full, but the competitiveness, energy, and athleticism was great. Nearby were small kids recovering stray volleyballs and a group of teenage girls playing basketball. The game eventually stopped after sunset around 7:30 PM and I introduced myself to them. The players were all so welcoming, not to mention the hospital staff, the driver, all those kids that I drove by on my way to Kiwoko and it cemented my first impression of Uganda that Ugandans were as nice as advertised. I walked back to the Guest House, resting for a bit before calling it a night and feeling optimistic about the next four weeks that I would spend here.