Day 1: Travelling from US to Rwanda 07/13-07/14
Nine of our fifteen team members met up at JFK airport to start our journey on 07/13 at 9am. After a 12-hour flight, we were over halfway there. Another 6-hour flight, and we were in Nairobi. In Nairobi, we had to switch airlines and waited six hours for our 1-hour flight to Kigali. Upon arrival in Kigali, we found that 10/12 bags that were checked in JFK were left in Nairobi, one of which was my personal bag with all of my medical equipment, clothes, and bathroom supplies. We left the airport for our hostel and arrived at midnight. Exhausted from travelling, we all went right to sleep.
Day 2: Arriving in Uganda 07/15
We woke up on Saturday morning and headed to the airport hoping that our bags had arrived in Kigali. Pleasantly surprised, we found our bags at the airport picked them up and headed to Uganda. At the Rwanda/Uganda border, we all filed out of the van, had our passports stamped, and walked across the border. We all got back in the bus and travelled 45 minutes more to Lake Bunyonyi. We then rode in a boat to our home for the week Entussi. It's so hard to describe the beauty of this country. Seeing the beautiful sunrise each morning on the lake and the amazing mountains that these Ugandans climb each day. I love this country so much, and it made me really see the beauty of God's creation. At Entusi, we met our Ugandan translators for the week. These people came to be our family for the week. They helped us so much. We then spent some time packing up some medicine to give to our patients throughout the week. The time took here helped us not take time later in the week doing this but letting us serve our patients and develop wonderful friendships. We all had a wonderful dinner and headed to bed to get all rested for our first day of clinic.
Day 3: Clinic Day #1
We left for our first day of clinic around 6:30am on Sunday morning. After a 30-minute boat ride and a 20-minute walk to clinic, we arrived and set up for our first day. I was on registration, so I spent the whole day writing names and learning a little bit of the local language. We signed in 442 patients that first day, and we were almost halfway to Dr. Monique's goal for the week of 1,000 patients. (Let's just say we far exceeded her expectations). That first day, our very first patient was a pregnant woman in labor. One of our team members headed to the local hospital and assisted the patient during delivery. I also got to experience a Ugandan woman being able to hear well after her ear had been irrigated. Though I didn't get to see all of what was going on throughout the day, I enjoyed being able to help in my own way. I did get to play with many village children while waiting on the pharmacy team to finish up.
The village children on Clinic Day #1
Day 4: Clinic Day #2
Clinic Day #2 was spent at the market. This day was much more organized than the first day, and patient traffic flowed much easier than the day before. I was charged with taking vitals on this day. Before this day, I had taken about twenty blood pressures in my life. At the end of the day, I had taken about 150-200 blood pressures easily. I did get to listen to a 1-month old little boy's heart. He had a ventricular septal defect, and he was transported to the local hospital. The little child needed a heart surgery soon, and hopefully he receives that life-saving surgery. At the beginning of the day, one of our very first patients was a little girl named Rosette. She came back that afternoon all by herself. One of our team members, Sarah and I got to love on her. We danced with her and just enjoyed playing. The team joked the entire week that Sarah was going to kidnap little Rosette. We finished in enough time to get back to Entussi and hike up to this beautiful point. It was a wonderful day, and we got a little down time to prepare for the next day.
Little Rosette on Clinic Day #2
Our hike up the mountain behind Entussi. Such a beautiful country.
Day #5: Clinic Day #3
We all had thought Clinic Day #1's hike had been exhausting, but little did we know about Clinic Day #3. The Ugandan translators described this as a "moderate hike"...but we'd all describe this as a "tough hike". After about 40 minutes of hiking up the mountain, we arrived at the village for the day. After set-up, we started the clinic. I was in charge of Community Education for the day. I taught the patients about cleaning their water, brushing their teeth, and washing their hands. There was some down time with this role, so one of the translators had me go give the school children stickers. You can barely see me in this picture as the children surrounded me all wanting the stickers. I had such a wonderful time this day getting to play with the children.
The Ugandan children love stickers
Day #6: Clinic Day #4
The hike this day wasn't quite as treacherous as the day before. This day was our longest day. It began with an hour boat ride, and we say over 450 patients on this day. Many of the patients this day had more serious problems than the previous days. I was on the glasses station this day, so I got to see much more medical issues than I had any previous day. I saw a patient who presented with ascites and swollen legs, which was indicative of liver failure. We couldn't do much for this sweet patient. I also saw lots of little ones with impetigo and scabies this day. There were three or four young pregnant women who presented with pre-eclampsia, and NP Jessica begged them all to head to the hospital. I saw a young woman with what Dr. Monique thought was leprosy. Again, we couldn't do much for this sweet patient. This day was the hardest for all of us because we saw many problems that were too serious for us to fix. We finally arrived back at Entussi at 9:00pm...definitely our most exhausting day.
A little one we saw at Clinic Day #4
Day #7: Clinic Day #5
No walk to clinic could have prepared us for this day. Here's a picture about halfway up the mountain we climbed on this day.
This doesn't do the hike justice...I promise you
It's so hard to believe that the villagers run up and down these mountains every day. We only spent half-a-day in clinic on this day. I was in pharmacy so I got to learn lots about different medications.
After saying goodbye to our last villagers, we headed back to Entussi for a free afternoon. We said goodbye to our translators (so sad)...and then we went swimming in one of the deepest lakes in Africa. I got turned around swimming back to the dock and somehow ended up swimming further in the lake...just for a few seconds though. We had a wonderful dinner that evening with our favorite foods from the week which included fried cauliflower and Ugandan pizza. We spent the evening packing up our bags for our trip back to Rwanda the next day, and I spent some time sitting under the stars.
Day #8: Our Safari
Waking up at 4:30am on Friday morning, we said goodbye to our wonderful hosts and headed back to Rwanda. We had some hiccups crossing the border back into Uganda, but our translator, Jason was a great help. After a 6-hour drive, we arrived at Akagera National Park around 1:00pm. We got to see quite a few animals on our short safari in the Southern part of the park. We saw lots of zebras, some giraffes, many baboons, a hippo, water bucks, and warthogs. In the middle of our Safari, our van had a flat tire and some of our team members got to help change it. After a very long day in the van, we headed back to Kigali...another three hours. We stopped for dinner in Kigali took some quite cold showers and headed to bed to rest for our last day.
Day #9: Kigali Genocide Memorial, the Craft Market, and our travels home
We got to sleep in on Saturday morning, and then headed to spend a couple hours at the Kigali Genocide Memorial. Not knowing much about the Genocide of 1994, we got a good history lesson. It was very eye-opening, and I pray that never happens anywhere in the world again. After eating lunch at the Memorial, we went to the Craft Market and spent money on some little trinkets to take home with us. We then headed to the airport for our travels home. The nine of us that began our trip together at JFK all said goodbye in Doha, Qatar as we headed our own ways. I arrived back in NYC at 3:15pm on Sunday evening and slept for about 11 hours.
This trip was the trip of a lifetime, and I am so thankful for the opportunity that I was given. I cannot wait to go back and be able to do more for these wonderful friends that I've made. Africa definitely has a piece of my heart, and I'll never forget the last two weeks.
