Uganda Summer 2015!

Hi friends, family, random person who stumbled upon this,
I am currently in my apartment in the Bronx surrounded by luggage that may or may not include a uv water purifier and a personal mosquito head net. Yes that is the official term, I looked it up. In ~30 hours I will be leaving for 8 weeks in Uganda followed by one week in Ireland. Less than 48 hours ago I was preparing for my last final of the first year of medical school. Needless to say, it has been a hectic time. A quick note on MS1: I am SO glad I decided to go to Einstein, I cannot say enough positive things about my classmates. It is going to be so strange to be away from everyone for so long but I am sure there will be great stories come August when we all reunite. I think I will use this space to address some recently posed questions regarding my summer plans:
1. Why Africa?
2. What about ebola/boko haram/any other dangers?
3. What are you most looking forward to?
4. Are you nervous?

Answers:
1. I wish I had some eloquent and well thought out answer for this one. The truth is, I am on Humira (adalimumab for my med school friends who took pharm) and it requires refrigeration, so that limited my travel options. I am interested in learning more about global health and I attended a panel where the second years discussed their completed summer projects. Those who traveled with Dr. Paccione to Uganda seemed to have had a good learning experience and the program sounded very well organized. These factors guided me to pick this specific program.
2. Different coast/country/ I read the international SOS warnings. That last part was actually pretty comical because I am traveling to both Uganda and Ireland and International SOS/Einstein emailed me the travel warnings for both countries. The page on Uganda looked a bit like the warning label you see on a drug commercial (caution: may cause malaria, rabies, yellow fever etc.) There are no warnings for Ireland. I had a long chat with my GI doc about my summer plans and we reached the conclusion that obviously the safest thing to do would be to not go. Having acknowledged this point we then moved on to discuss how I could travel and do so in the safest way possible. So, I have prepared and packed and purchased as many things as are necessary for me to feel that I am undertaking this trip in a responsible manner.
3.GORILLAS. I am so excited to get to see how the clinic works there and to get to travel to the various villages to learn more about how people with chronic illnesses manage symptoms in this setting. I cannot wait for all of the hiking and it is amazing that I will get to explore one of the only places where you can find gorillas in the wild. I feel like a rebellious teenager because I get to ride a motorcycle to work some days and this has been forbidden here (Dad works in the ED...too many horror stories). Oh and did I mention the gorillas?!
4. Yup. I could lie to you and say that I only have positive feelings about going to Uganda for 2 months. But honestly, it is a bit terrifying. Full disclosure: my immune compromised self cannot get the yellow fever vaccine (I got a waiver) and so, warranted or not, this is something I will worry about. I am also not sure what I will encounter in the villages or at the hospital or in the Congo Refugee facility and, for someone who likes to be prepared, this uncertainty is not an easy thing to deal with.

Anyways, I have a very long to do list that I need to get started with if I plan to make it to Natalie's graduation party on time today. I will do my best to keep up with this, even if it is only for myself to look back on later.

Xoxo,
Hope