Day 24 - July 29

I’m trying to keep the next couple of writing short because frankly I haven’t had much time to keep us since Pamela and Nick have gotten here. We’ve had much more work to do and lots of traveling. It’s more complicated when there are more people. Plus, I’d rather spend free time hanging out with people that I haven’t seen than I would writing about everything we do.

We woke up early to go to Mulago. We had arranged with Jozeph to pick us up at 7:45 so that we could be sure to be on time, even with Jam. It was normal morning traffic, but it does take a lot of time to get there when the traffic is heavy. However, I don’t think it took long enough. We were early to Susan’s office by 20 minutes. I don’t like to be late and I actually prefer to be at least 10 minutes early for any work appointment. That’s just not how it works here. People kept wondering why we were waiting and asking if they could help us. We were perfectly content just sitting outside and waiting, but apparently that makes people uncomfortable. When Susan finally arrived, she said we made her nervous because we were early. When she asked if we were on Mzungu time, Pamela replied that it was Margaret time. I’d rather be known for being early than late! Susan brought us down to the Infectious Disease Unit to follow the doctors there. She made us promise that tomorrow we will be on Africa time. I told her I couldn’t make any promises! I have to plan for Jam and if it’s not there than I’ll just have to be early!

The Infectious Disease wards were totally full with patients. Most of the infectious disease problems are because of HIV/AIDS. The doctor that we were told to follow was trying to do some punch biopsies to confirm Kaposi sarcoma in some of the patients. If that is the case, the patient is in the fourth and highest stage of the disease progression. I was a bit apprehensive about being in on the biopsies. The last time I was observing one, my mind told me I was fine, but my body was trying to stop my from watching by putting me in panic mode, forcing me to sit down and try to keep myself from passing out. Since it was early, I was hot, and hadn’t eaten much, I knew it might be a problem. I started leaning just in case. I’m glad I did because I was feeling a bit clammy even though all that had been done was insertion of the needed to administer the numbing medication. Clearly I need to get over this issue if I’m going to be a doctor! Once the first procedure was done, Pamela and I walked to get more water and I had some of a Cliff bar. I felt much better afterwards. It’s amazing what can happen if your body isn’t getting all the nutrients it needs!

I was expecting to have the next procedure right away, but since the nurses were nowhere to be found, we decided to go through the ward and round on the patients. The doctor we were with tried to explain as much as she could to us. I don’t think she was having an easy time with her patients because she didn’t appear to speak Luganda. She had to keep requesting people to come over and talk to the patients. I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to be trying to take care of that many patients but not be able to speak directly with most of them. She has a hard enough time getting patients to tell the truth and when you add the language barrier, it becomes nearly impossible to get all the necessary information.
After we saw most of the patients, the doctor decided to try the biopsies. The nurse had disappeared and I don’t think she was planning on coming back anytime soon. The doctor asked if we could assister her instead. I’m glad we were at least useful today! She took us on without any warning which I’m sure is a bit uncomfortable and burdensome to have 3 extra people to explain everything to!

The first patient we did, Pamela helped out with. It seemed to go smoothly for everybody and I was ecstatic that I never got light-headed or even close to feeling like I would pass out! Yay! There is still hope for me yet! The third and final biopsy was something I think I’ll never see again in my life. Immune compromised people can end up with some pretty intense infections because their body just doesn’t fight off fungus, virus, or bacteria very well. This man had feet covered in a fungus and they had swelled to at least 3 times the normal size. I can picture them in my head, but I don’t even know how to describe them. I didn’t think it was appropriate to take a picture of his feet, so we never asked. Part of me wishes we could have just to remember what it was. This was the biopsy that I had the pleasure of taking part in. I made it through with not much problem and was able to help out a lot more since his condition was much worse than the first two. I think if I could do that without a problem, I must be getting better. Only time will tell. I’m sure there will be many more things that throw me over the edge, but I’m just going to have to keep trying to push through them!

When we finished, we were supposed to meet up with the sister of a friend from back home named Joyce. She is just starting her third year of medical school here. It was very sweet of her to want to meet us and take us around if we wanted. She was still in class when we finished so we sat in Susan’s office. I’m sure we made her nervous! After a while, I recognized the guy who had come late to the meeting on Tuesday walk in. We talked for a bit. He is a resident from Cornell who is going to start a fellowship in Infectious Disease. It was great of him to take time and talk with us. We ended up waiting for Joyce outside and he was waiting for a cab. He offered to give us a ride on his way since Garden City is easy to get to. It was so great of him. I love when you meet down to earth doctors who are willing to help out those of us at the bottom of the totem pole, aka 10th class citizens as we were once told. Maybe I’ve moved up to 9th class since I finished one year, but still, I think there are way more people in front of us than there are behind. Just before we were ready, Joyce walked up and asked if I was Margaret Perko. I thought maybe it was one of Angella’s friends, but then she introduced herself as Joyce. We thanked Ben for the offer, but ended up getting our own cab to Garden City with Joyce.

Lunch was fun. I think it’s always better to spend time with real people and just not experience the country from the outside. We got to get the perspective of a student in a similar position as us and learn about how she got to be where she is. Even though she’s all the way across the ocean, we seem to have a lot of the same frustrations and struggles.

After lunch, we went back home to meet my mom. She had been with Jozeph all morning visiting a school that her cousin back home has been supporting for many years. When I got home, she was very excited to tell me about the school that takes hundreds of kids and teaches them not only the necessary educational subjects, but also teaches life skills and jobs for those that can’t or don’t want to go to university. Afterwards, Jozeph invited her over to his house to have lunch with his wife and kids! He’s such a great cab driver and just an all around good guy!

It had been an exhausting morning, so we all took naps to get ready for Katanga. We knew we had to get in and out quick at her house because it we had to start later in the afternoon when all of the kids were around and we didn’t want to be there past dark. Luckily, Angella brought Gloria with her to help with translation and explanations. It was mass chaos and the mess was hard to bear. It doesn’t seem to bad when you see all the garbage, but then we you think that this is where they cook, eat, sleep, and where some of the children use the bathroom every day all day long, it’s really overwhelming. I have a hard time sitting there for an hour or two. I don’t know what I would do if I had to stay there for days at a time.

We’re still a little unsure of exactly what JaJa’s relationship to the children is. It doesn’t seem that we know everything about all of the kids. Some of the ones form last year are now gone because a family member decided to take them in. Some of them may be her real grandchildren and there are still quite a few that have no background information and were just dropped off at her house.

Luckily, while we were there, a man named Peter showed up. He explained that he is in a cell group at Watoto church and they have been trying to help JaJa since 2008. They were responsible for the news article that brought the orphanage to Susan’s attention which led to us visiting. They are currently supplying food and helping try to keep things clean. They are also working on projects to help find her land to live on in a bigger space. It was great to know that somebody was working on helping her out. Both Angella and Gloria were worried about the situation and want to do more than just bring the medicine, but they weren’t sure how to help. What are the chances that Peter happened to come at the same time as us? I think God for sure had a plan for us to meet Peter so that we could learn about JaJa and make a contact with somebody who is also trying to help them out. We’re going to try and help out as much as we can and keep in contact with Peter and his friends as they work on improving the situation.

For dinner, we went to Fang Fang hotel and restaurant. It’s pretty much the most expensive place we ever eat, but the good Chinese food is totally worth it. It’s a great outdoor setting with giant red lanterns hanging in the courtyard and wood carvings on all of the walls. I think we deserved a good meal after the long couple of days we just had! Tomorrow may be even busier, with another day at the hospital, shopping, another orphanage, and bowling to end the night!