Mulago Hospital Experience: A Letter from Africa

A newsletter from Sean and Glenna Sunday, March 1, 2009
Kampala, Uganda

Sean and Glenna in front of Mulago Hospital

Introduction

Glenna and I wanted to find a way to share our experience in Uganda with our friends and family back home. We have started sending emails and posting photos on facebook, but are hoping that this blogger website may provide for a better user experience. If you need to get a hold of us, our families have our African mobile numbers.

Our journey to Uganda

After a 28 hour flight with an 11 hour lay-over in London, England, we are finally in Uganda. We made good use of our time in England by hopping the Underground to head downtown. We had contemplated sleeping, but what the heck – needed to be tourists! We made a mad dash about the downtown area surrounding the Thames.

We arrived to a PLUS 27 degree beautiful day in Uganda (even Glenna wasn't cold). A friend of a friend, Emmanuel, had arranged for a car to fetch us from the airport. This was Sean's first time having his name on a card being held by a driver at the arrivals area. After settling-in to the apartment and catching some much needed sleep, Emmanuel took us out for what he thought would be an African meal. Unfortunately, the restaurant he picked only served international food - so we had BBQ chicken and Indian curry! We did, however, have our first (second, third, and fourth for Sean) Ugandan beer - Bell. Although there was much food at dinner, we felt compelled to finish our plates as there truly are people starving in Africa. In fact, Emmanuel shared how his mother would tell him, "finish your meal as their are children on the streets of Kampala with nothing to eat"! Mom's are all the same.

Kampala, Uganda

Uganda is located in Eastern Africa, just south of Sudan. Check google maps (internet too slow here to provide you a link). Kampala with a population of approximately 2 million is the capital and is located on the northern tip of Lake Victoria. We are staying in an Ex-Pat apartment complex in a well-to-do area of Kampala. That said, the poor areas (slums) are less than a 10 minute walk. Our apartment is a one-bedroom with running (and hot) water, electricity (which has yet to go off), and a few bugs (we are being fumigated on Tuesday).

We went for a few walks to the city centre over the past few days. On our first journey, our first stop was ... THE MALL! Yep, needed to get supplies for the apartment. We went shopping for groceries and quickly realized that things were going to be a little different here. The peaches that Glenna picked out cost $10 for 4! Luckily we found a pineapple for less than a $1 as it was grown locally. Sean was keen to maintain his carnivorous habits and selected the finest of chicken breasts despite Glenna's forewarning. Over the next day we both started to wonder why the fridge was growing in stench! Well, Sean went to prepare the chicken for dinner and ... found the chicken a little green and a little smelly, after just ONE day! Needless to say Sean has come to agree with Glenna's idea of being vegetarian - so we had BEANS AND RICE! Anyone know what vegetables we need to have complete proteins?

Mulago Hospital

As many of you know, we have recently traveled to Kampala Uganda to spend the month of March working at the capitol city’s main referral hospital, called Mulago Hospital. We are planning to provide assistance in the Casualty Unit, the equivalent to our Emerg, and in their "ICU". We will be starting tomorrow morning (btw, we are 8 hours ahead from Eastern time) and don't yet know what to expect! More to come ...