Updates

Good Afternoon!
I hope everyone is having a nice weekend. All is well in Uganda, and the sun has finally decided to come out. It had been thunder storming every afternoon for the first week or so that I was here but these days have been so nice.
Last week we decided to go back to Mutolere to watch the Dutch surgeon on Thursday. Since my last blog was mostly about procedures I will just quickly summarize what I saw this time. I saw a Casearian section where the placenta was not completely delivered (I have not taken repro or done an ob/gyn rotation so I am not sure what the specific cause of this was..Steph?) so rapid suturing was required to stop the internal bleeding . The other interesting procedure was seeing a transfemoral amputation on a man who had a gangrenous lower leg. I will refrain from providing too many details but it looked like a pretty physically demanding procedure without the use of electric tools. And they did it under spinal block so the patient was awake the entire time.

Yesterday, Saturday, we went to lake Chahafi. I had planned to go on safari at Queen Elizabeth national park but when we realized that this weekend is Andrew’s last weekend we decided to all do something together and I moved queen Elizabeth to the weekend of the 18th. Robert, a guide and friend of our group is also an avid birder so he led us on a nature walk. There were kites, crested cranes, raptors, herons, king fishers and many other birds at the lake. The cranes are still my favorite...they mate for life and if their partner dies they will not find a new mate. That seems such a unique behavior in nature. I also think they are pretty funny looking and seem so large and uncoordinated on land that it still amazes me that they can take off and fly.

Today we are having a bonfire and Katrina has invited over all of the Ugandans that the fourth years have befriended in their time here. We have tried to introduce as many people to s’mores as possible so this will be another opportunity to spread our American ways. Haha.

This week I am going back to the Congo refugee camp on Monday, psych outreach on Tuesday and will probably work on data related tasks for Wednesday and Thursday. Then, we have a three day weekend so I am going to see the gorillas on Friday and am trying to peer pressure Sarah Maddie and Katrina to hike Sabino with me on Saturday. Stay tuned for updates!

Xoxo,
Hope