Day 10 - July 15

I got to spend another lovely morning with Gloria at a different HIV clinic. This one was much more rural than the first. We picked up John, a counselor on the way. We had to drive much further on some unpaved roads. It was amazing how much dust there was! There were many times when we had to roll up the windows to avoid a huge dust cloud coming into the car! All you see is a cloud of red coming at you! There were men working on the roads that were wearing masks. It’s the first time I’ve actually seem somebody here protecting themselves against the dust, so I knew it must be bad! There was a truck going down parts of the road that was watering down some of the dust. I’m sure it was a fix that would last half a day, but by the afternoon I’m sure the sun would have dried up all the water and the dust would be back.

The clinic is in a rural area that I would consider a village, with cows grazing and chickens running around. At one point, a rooster stuck its head into the patient room just to see what was going on. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned before, but the rooster’s here are really not so bright. I assumed that they crow in the morning to signal the sun coming up. These roosters crow at all times of day. The sun could be at its highest point and they crow. The sun could be setting and they crow. It doesn’t seem like it fits the job description when they are calling the sun out when it’s already out or its setting for the day. Silly roosters.

The people here at the clinic were much the same as at the other one, only there were fewer of them. It was sad to hear some of the stories again of girls who had boyfriends who they think gave them HIV, but they aren’t sure and the boyfriends are no longer around. Two of the girls were under 20 years old. One of them is in school to be an engineer, which is a program you have to be very smart to get into. She is a brilliant student, but was either too in love or not informed enough about HIV to practice safe sex. We had one patient who sent her husband because she was too sick. She had some x-rays done at a private hospital because she was having difficulty swallowing. The problem was that she didn’t go to the hospital that the program endorses so none of the records were done right and the center can’t follow up on her. She now needs to go back to the right hospital to get the tests done again. Even though the program is a good one, it still has some of the technical and logistic problems that we often see with insurance companies and health care in the U.S.

On the way home, we had a huge detour to get back to the main city of Kampala. They were working on the road so they just randomly diverted us to a country road. It was much worse than the dust with all of the bumps! I don’t think Gloria has been driving that long, and the bumps are not easy to go over! They are so high that unless you are able to hit them perfectly, your car will scrap against the top of them. By the end of the half hour ride, I think we had gotten the hang of it. You have to go at an angle and then slowly turn to the opposite direction. If you hit it straight on, you are bound to hear that awful scraping noise as you know something is being damaged underneath the car! These need a more dramatic name than speed bumps because you have to basically stop and go 2 miles an hour to get over them without damage!

On the way home, we had to stop at the hospital to pick up something on the wards. I assumed it was something for the clinic. As we were walking, I heard Gloria say something about eggs. I was a bit confused. Then she explained that we were picking them up from another doctor who raises chickens. We had to walk past all of the patients and sit in a room where the patients wait to be seen. They get interviewed by nurses at tables. I’m pretty sure there were at least 5 patients at a time. Clearly HIPPA is not a concern here. There was one patient that Gloria pointed out as a prisoner. He was dressed in bright yellow matching shirt and shorts with stripes that looked like they were drawn on. If I didn’t know, I would have thought he was a guy going to play soccer. I sat and watched him and tried to figure out why he was in prison. He seemed to be so gentle and shy. It’s possible that he was with a guard of some sort or maybe he was just really sick so he was quiet, but I couldn’t picture him doing anything really bad. It got me wondering why people go to prison here. Do they steal things, damage property, or something as bad as murder? I really don’t have a clue, but I do know I probably don’t want to end up in a prison here. The conditions are clearly not as good as there are at home!

When the doctor was finally free, she escorted us out the building and across a few parking lots to her car. She reached into the front seat and filled two plastic bags with at least 2 dozen each! I don’t know how Susan managed to drive them home once I was out of the car without breaking them, but she did! When we saw her later that night, she informed me that all of the eggs made it home completely intact!

One thing I found extremely fun about today was trying to park a car! Gloria found a place to park on the sidewalk, which meant we had to go up on the curb. We probably spent 5 minutes just trying to get on. A security guard came up to us. I thought he was going to instruct us to get off the curb, but instead he just helped us park! On the way out another security guard talked to Gloria in Luganda. At first I thought we were in trouble, the she described that her license plate number was the same as his wife’s initials. I love that it was a conversation starter! TIA!

We finished off the night with dinner at Krua Thai with Troy. It’s tradition that the last night is at a good restaurant, and we talk about the trip. This time is different because we will be remaining after he leaves. I will have to continue the work for Medicine for Sick Children and just communicate with him through email and phone messages for the rest of the time!

At dinner, we also got to meet a doctor from Duke University who is doing some work in nutrition. She is starting some research at Mulago and has a few months to set things up. It’s amazing how long the process can be. She needs 3 months to set up the study and then some medical student will come for a whole year to gather data. I know it takes a lot of work, but I don’t think it will take a year! He’s going to have to find some other work to keep himself busy!!

We got a ride home but since Gloria’s car is low to the ground, she dropped us off at the top of our really big hill! It was amazing that my mom was not upset. She was prepared this time with socks to protect her feet from the dust and a flashlight to see where we were going. I think it was just because Angella was with us. She was much more upset when it was just her and I. Either she is more comfortable after some time or she trusts Angella more than me.