Uganda Kenya Spring 2010

2 May 2010
Greetings from Soroti, Uganda! It is Sunday morning as I write, realizing I left Boulder just a week ago. Seems like a lifetime.

Brief History: In 2005, 3 Canadian nurses and I founded a primary health clinic in eastern Uganda to serve the “Internally Displaced Persons” who were sheltering in camps around Soroti. There were about 20,000 people in the camps then and little health care available. Since those lean days, we have gratefully turned over the funding and the oversight to the International Midwife Assistance (IMA) and our clinic has organized themselves as an Uganda Non-governmental organization Teso Safe Motherhood Project(see their website: www.TesoSMP.org )

It’s been 2 years since I was in Uganda. I was thrilled to combine several projects in this trip. First, though, a bit about the trip here. I had been scheduled to fly through London, but a miraculous travel agent helped me land a reservation on Emirates – Denver-Houston-Dubai (13 hours)-Addis Ababa-Entebbe (42 hours!) My flights all went incredibly smoothly – no hassle from Emirates Airline for big bags AND all bags arrived in Entebbe with me. This was my first time to fly through Dubai and I spent the night in the Arab Courtyard hotel in a historic section of this incredibly friendly and modern (and clean) city. The flight from Houston to Dubai was 15 hours and it turned out that we flew over Britain, Belgium, the Black Sea, Turkey, Iraq to get there (guess the ash had dispersed). I sneaked peaks out the window as we moved into daylight – I loved seeing the differences in agriculture, the city layouts and the mountains turning to desert.

As part of the clinic program planning, we had conducted a Community Needs/Resource Assessment in the camps and community in 2006. My first order of business in Kampala was to give a presentation to the International Health Sciences University class. One of our very first employees at the clinic is now enrolled in a Health Administration degree program there and I was invited to speak at his Health Research Class. I presented to about 100 students and faculty, including the Dean of the Public Health School. It was thrilling, to say the least! Martin (the clinic’s Finance Officer and also an original employee) was also able to be there for the talk. How far we have come from those early days! Martin and Patrick and I found it very emotional, remembering what we have all been through, especially in those early years.

Now, after a 6-hour car ride with Martin and the 2-month supply of medications for the clinic and the driver, I am back in Soroti, a quiet town of about 15,000 people. I feel like I’m coming home. This trip, 5 years after we first opened the doors of the clinic to serve IDPs around Soroti, has been so full! I’m so taken with the maturing of the staff, their dedication and great attitudes. Arriving Thursday evening, we found that 2 babies had been born at the clinic that very day! The TSMP is in full operation, providing primary health care, antenatal, births (for low-risk moms), family planning (including IUDs!), vaccinations and HIV/AIDS counseling and testing. One day a week, they do an outreach clinic. Most of the IDPs have been sent away from the camps and are in a bit of “limbo”. I’ll be going with them on Thursday and am extremely eager to observe the conditions.

Friday, the clinic began with everyone gathering and Dr. Nathan greeting me warmly on behalf of the staff. He talked about their appreciation for the original nurses who came to Soroti to open, of all things – a clinic for IDPs! I felt so lucky to be here and I sooooo wished that Gail, Thea and Marie could have been sitting there with me (The 4 of us basically co-founded the clinic in 2005, but there were others – Adam & Shawna!). All the staff talked about how much they love being able to work at the clinic and how grateful they are for the original 4 nurses, as well as International Midwife Assistance to now support and fund the work. These 5 years have seen some drama and we are all so incredibly amazed that we weathered it and continue! (We need to keep the funding rolling into IMA!!)

I spent Friday putting away the drugs that we had brought back from Kampala. Martin and Esther and I had a great time thinking about the early days when the drug order was 2 boxes! This time it filled an 8-passenger van! The clinicians were also seeing patients – plenty of chaos with the boxes filling the main entrance room, Dr. Nathan on the front porch checking in the drugs in the proper notebook as Martin and Leonard opened and counted box after box after box! Yikes!

We had a young man come who had a leg wound from being hit by a rock while making gravel. People make money by chipping big rocks by hand into gravel. His wound had been treated a couple of months ago, got better, but now was really having a problem. He has an open wound, about the size of a quarter and about a centimeter deep. The leg is swollen around it and down to his foot. I sent him with an interpreter to a private clinic for a culture and when he returned, I had him lay with the foot elevated (on a comfortable bed in the clinic) for about an hour. He said it gave the pain some relief. Then we soaked it in warm water for about 20 minutes. I dressed it and sent him back to his camp on a boda (bicycle taxi). He went back to the doctor Saturday morning and Martin and I found that they actually did the culture then and will have the results back on Tuesday morning. Martin and I are going to try to find him this afternoon and do another dressing change and give him some vitamin C. The clinic gave him some emergency food, as he has no way to make any money now and there is NO way that wound will heal without some protein getting into him. This guy would be in the hospital with IVs, high protein diet and maybe a wound vac or eventually skin graft. And he’d be dry, well rested and not stressed. The overlay of malaria is always hovering and his immune system does not need any more stressing. I pray he does not get malaria.

My time in Soroti is short (10 days), and I am scurrying about to greet old friends and catch up on life, even for just a small bit of time. Our Lab Tech, Leo Odiit and his wife Helen have a 2-week old baby boy and a son that is just about 2 years old. Yesterday we spent about 3 hours together and I got to give her hand-me-downs from by good friends in Boulder, Marie and Chris, whose twin boys turn 3 in August! It was so much fun! Helen put the baby in a white “onesy” and white sox and he looked like he was going out for soccer! I read a sweet book to Helen and the baby that Marie gave me – “I love you this much”. It was soooo sweet!

This week will be spent at the clinic, finishing putting the drug order away and then working with the nurses in the dispensary. They are moving into the electronic age and I will work with them on using a spread sheet to keep records of their daily, weekly and monthly drug usage. You can take a look at their web site: www.tesosmp.org.

The 3rd leg of my journey will take me to Kenya. For the first time (this is my 7th trip to Uganda), I’m going to take an incredible opportunity to do some hiking and relaxing (I hope)! I will be meeting up with a friend who is teaching at a School of Nursing in Eldoret. She’s helping them move to PhD quality curriculum. She and I will spend some days exploring the area around Eldoret and I’ll get to meet the faculty with whom she’s been working. We plan to spend a few days hiking around Mt. Kenya before I have to come home! Probably won’t attempt to summit this trip as it’s the rainy season.

Well, Martin is coming back soon and he tells me there are 2 women in labor in the clinic and we still need to look for our patient with the leg wound!

I look forward to hearing from you! Take care & asodo ber (bye for now)!
Beverly