Motorcycle Diaries

It has been a few days but there had not been much to report. We are familiarizing ourselves with the charting method here so that we can attempt to create a computerized database so that has taken up most of the time (this is the main project and is my job for the summer). After work yesterday Sarah and I climbed crater hill. We are all trying to get in shape so that we can climb the tallest volcano here (>8 hour hike). I don’t think I am quite there yet.

MORE EXCITING THINGS
Today was my favorite day so far. I was assigned to do community outreach with Jerome. This program involves visiting the more rural villages and checking in on patients who were discharged from the hospital but did not show up for follow-up appointments.
The trip took us along the mountainside and above lake Mutanda so the views were spectacular. We stopped first on the near side of the river to speak with a woman who had been seen for hypertension. I learned through the interview that she did not go to clinic as often as she was told because it was expensive to get a ride in from the villages. There had been times where she had managed to make the 2 hour trip down from the mountains to clinic and the clinic had already run out of her pills. When this was the case, she had been told to purchase them on her own. This was not something that she could afford. When asked about what she believed to be the cause of her hypertension she said “I lost many children.” This is something that I really struggle with here. On the one hand, if you have been following my Facebook photo uploads, you will see that everything is BEAUTIFUL. But that is really just one side of the story here. From an outsider’s perspective, it looks like life can be very difficult here. Children die and this is not a rare occurrence. In the more rural areas I see people walking around without shoes. Jerome told me that he got his first pair of shoes when he was 11 and he said that without shoes his feet would freeze in the morning and burn during the dry season. I also learned that the best schools here cost a lot of money and that these students do the best and then receive government scholarships to college. In the rural area that I was in today there was only one school between 12 villages. If education is the key to a better life, it seems like there is very little opportunity for social mobility here (ie. Wealthy parents send their kids to the best schools, these kids get to go to college on government scholarships and get better paying jobs).

Our second stop required us to park the bike on the side of the road and scale a mountain to reach a small hut. Jerome had asked around for directions and actually met a family member of the patient we were trying to see. So this elderly woman (I am guessing 80-90 years old) led us up a steep slope. Jerome kept turning around to see how I was doing with all of the hiking and I felt pretty winded but there was no way I was stopping. That elderly woman kicked my butt and did it without shoes on. So we met with the patient and his wife promised to bring him to the hospital this week. We then headed on our way, hiked around a bit, got lost a bit more and eventually we had to skip the last two patients and just head home. After such a long day (6 hours on that motorcycle!) I asked Jerome if he would have dinner with me. I was very grateful for his help with translating and for making sure that I felt safe on some pretty rough terrain. I really love when I have the opportunity to talk with the local Kisoro clinic workers, they always have very interesting life stories and introduce me to new ideas. Hopefully I will have the chance to get to know more of them with these outreach trips.
But yes today was my favorite day. Any time I get to be outside is the best and I spent all of today hiking and motorcycling around some spectacular settings. Please do check out the photos, they don’t do it justice but I really tried.