My Four-Day Getaway

(Actually a 3.5 day getaway but that just didn't sound as good)

Last week was a pretty uneventful week around the hospital. I attended a teaching round where Nori was giving a lesson on examining a patient for elevated JVP. The first patient we looked at was intended to demonstrate a normal finding. In healthy individuals, it can be pretty difficult to visualize the internal jugular vein because it runs in a bundle with the carotid artery and in general, seeing venous pulsations is not an easy task. Then we looked at a second patient who had visibly dilated jugular veins and they could be seen beyond her ear. Then I did a heart exam and felt a rocking motion (there is a displaced PMI and an off tempo atrial kick) and I could hear an irregularity.

After a week of charting and lots of work hours I was ready to get out of Kisoro. On Saturday morning, our guide picked up Maddie and me at 7am. We drove 6 hours, with minimal pit stops, and arrived at Queen Elizabeth park with just time to grab a chapati before our boat tour left at 2pm. While we were waiting for the waitress to bring our food out to us, I looked up and saw a HUGE elephant wandering over to try to grab scraps from the dumpster. Off to a good start. Then, we boarded a tour boat and made our way across the Kazinga channel. The channel acts as a watering hole for most of the large animals so when we reached the other side we were greeted by a large herd of more than 20 elephants, plus a herd of buffalo and several groups (schools?) of hippos. Every once in a while I saw a crocodile lurking in the shallow water by the beach and was worried I would have to witness some animal planet action (buh bye baby buffalo). Fortunately everyone kept their teeth/tusks to themselves so I didn’t have to see anything like that. The tour lasted two hours and we were able to see more of all of the above plus a wide array of birds and several different deer-like animals. Once we made it back to land, we headed on an evening game drive in our SUV. We drove along the grassland part of the park and saw warthogs, more deer things, and a male lion made a brief guest appearance. He was only standing for 15 seconds and spent the rest of the time hiding in the tall grass but it was still very exciting!

When the sun had set and we were losing daylight, we made our way to our accommodations for the night. We had arranged to stay in a large tent in the park. There was a briefing before we could head to bed…something along the lines of: Hippos will be grazing at night, they are aggressive, if you must leave your tent bring a flashlight and do not go near them or they will charge. So of course, at 3am my bladder had had enough and I had to grab my headlamp and bolt for the toilets. Fortunately, there were no hippo encounters. Then we got up at 5:45 for 6am breakfast so that we could meet our guide at 6:30 for another game drive. More of the same but we were lucky enough to see a large male lion just hanging out by a rock. He seemed pretty uninterested in us but I was still nervous having my window down to take pictures.

After a few hours of driving around it was time to hit the road. Off to my next stop…
LAKE BUNYONYI! I had asked other members of my group if they wanted to come, but since this is our last full week, they preferred to stay around Kisoro. I am not one to miss out on seeing/doing things that I want so I had no problems going myself. And thanks to my parents, I had a reservation at the beautiful Birds Nest Hotel. My guide dropped me off at the entrance and then I was on my own. I checked in, dropped my bags in my room, grabbed a book and headed for the hammock. I was walking through the sitting area and I heard someone call out “HOPE!” What the heck? I don’t know people in Uganda. But I turned around and there was Annette, the Australian psychologist that I had done psych outreach with (she and Immaculate are the psych workers here at the moment, Immaculate is here always and Annette is leaving on Sunday). I learned that she and her husband Dr. John (pediatrician) had spent a night at a nearby hotel and were waiting for my friend/driver/tour guide Emma to pick them up. I spoke with her for a bit, and was so happy to see Emma. He was surprised I was alone and actually texted me later that night to make sure I was enjoying myself. Once I was alone again I spent a lot of time outside reading my book on the Rwandan genocide. I would actually HIGHLY recommend it, it is very well written non-fiction and is called “We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families” by Philip Gourevitch. Living in Africa for the summer, I felt very ignorant about the governments and histories of surrounding areas so this allowed me to better understand the recent events in Rwanda/Uganda/Zaire now the Congo. So anyways I had my book and my hammock and a beautiful lake view. Then dinnertime rolled around and I tried the highly recommend garlic crayfish and they did not disappoint. Crayfish can be found in the lake but are not indigenous to the area; a foreigner brought them so I learned that older locals will not eat this animal. Then it was time for bed.

When I got up the next day I grabbed breakfast and headed out on a 2 hour tour of the lake. I got to see many of the islands (one had zebras imported by the wealthy owner, another has a hospital and a school). The smallest island at the center of the lake is called “Punishment Island” and up until 80 years ago, community members would leave pregnant unmarried women on the island to die. If a poor man could not afford a wife he could come in the nighttime and take one off of the island but was then forced to move away from his village. Pretty harsh. After more reading, I took the hotel canoe for a spin around the immediate area but the giant dugout canoe proved pretty tricky to maneuver. I ate dinner and then sat by the fire where I began talking to two girls who looked my age. Their names were Emma and Jenny and they are from London. Jenny is a nurse who was working in the north and Emma had left her job and has an open-ended trip here in Africa. They had met in Jinja and decided after their programs ended to just travel around together. It was great to have people to talk to and we stayed up until 11 just exchanging stories about our time here (cue Diane Haddad saying "This one time, in Africa"). They were staying at a hostel just a short boat ride from my hotel and they actually came back this morning to hang out with me while I waited for Emma.

It was such a WONDERFUL weekend and I am so glad I had the opportunity to travel around. Now it seems that all that is left here on my Uganda itinerary is work this week and our presentation next week, broken up by my attempt to climb Muhavura (some sites spell it with a B not a V..who knows) on Saturday.

Thanks for following along on this crazy journey. I will update you guys either Sunday (to discuss the hike) or once I am in Kigali on Wednesday the 29th or Thursday.
PS I did my last Humira injection in Africa today (signals I have less than 2 weeks here, which we know since I actually have 1 week as of tomorrow)! Last one for my time abroad will be in Amsterdam.

Love you all,
Hope
Aka Hope (who is now comfortable going) Solo