August 7th, 2016 by INMED

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. We have been traveling around Uganda for the past 9 days and Internet was very sparse. Two weeks ago was my last week at The Surgery. I worked through Thursday and then we started our touristy adventure. The last week at the Surgery was very different from the three before. It was fun and I really solidified my tropical medicine knowledge. Monday I worked with Dr. Stockley at The Surgery and then on Tuessay and Wednesday I rounded with the medicine team at the Kiruddu hospital. This is a branch from the national hospital and it is totally different from everything at the Surgery. The wards were all open air, and the rooms had about 20 patient beds in each room. (No one from home should ever complain about a double room again). And the family and friends of the patient do all of the caregiving such as bathing, feeding, etc. They keep all of their stuff under the patients bed and then sit on the tile floor on bamboo mats. It is a very sad place, but the people who are there are so helpful and friendly and just trying to give the patients the best care that they can.

Then on Thursday I also gave the CME talk over lunch. I presented on hypertension and how the guidelines have differentiated between different races and ages. I also wrote down the prices of all of the HTN drugs from the pharmacy so the doctors would have a quick handout with the guidelines and then also the prices of all the appropriate drugs. I think it went well and it was a good way to end the rotation.

Then Friday we started our adventure. We drove up to Murchison National Park and did game drives, a boat tour to Murchison falls, and we hiked up the path to the top of the falls. We saw so many giraffes, elephants, hippos, antelope, etc. it was amazing, and the falls were beautiful. We stayed in Murchison for 3 days and then on Sunday we drove to Fort Portal to stay the night. Then Monday we continued our drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park where we did a boat safari on the Kazinga channel, and two game drives. One in Queen Elizabeth and one in Ishasha sector of Queen Elizabeth. On our first game drive we saw lions just lazing in the sun and then In Ishasha we drove around for hours looking for the “tree climbing lions”. In Ishasha the lions climb the fig trees during the afternoons to sleep and escape the heat, and it also is a good vantage point to scope out dinner. Unfortunately we didn’t see any lions in the trees but that definitely wasn’t due to lack of trying.

After those game drives we drove to Bwindi National Park and stayed there for 4 nights. The first day we just relaxed all morning and thanked God we weren’t in a bouncing safari van any longer. Then in the afternoon we did a small hike to “Top of Heaven Hill” which was close to our lodge and really gave a good view of the surrounding community and of the hilly and beautiful geography. Thursday we went Gorilla trekking. It was 100% worth the money. We hiked out about 1.5 hours and then got to spend an hour with the mountain gorillas. There was a silverback named Rafiki and about 10 other smaller gorillas. At one point the gorilla even started grunting and raised up on his hind legs, beat his chest like they do in Tarzan and made one scary sound as he ran down the hill a little bit. Apparently they do that when someone in the family is doing something that he doesn’t like.

Friday we did a day trip to Rwanda. I knew the East African Visa would come in handy. We drove there in the morning and visited the Kigali Genocide Museum, the Belgium soldier memorial, and also the “Hotel Rwanda” which has now been renamed. It was a very sobering but educational day and I am really glad that we went. Then Saturday we just drove the 13 hours back to Kampala. Thank God most of the way was on Tarmac. But Today (Sunday) we are just running last minute errands and packing, because we go home TOMORROW. It’s definitely bitter sweet but I am ready to see the boyfriend again, and to be able to drive my own car around again. Plus sleep in a bed that isn’t made of foam.

Overall it has been a wonderful 5 weeks and I have enjoyed spending my time here. I will definitely miss Uganda, it is a very friendly and exciting place to live.