This Is Africa

I am writing this post from an internet cafe in Masaka, having arrived in this town last night. Where to start...it seems that the days are so full and that so much has happened since we've arrived. It's somewhat inconceivable that we've only been in Uganda for 5 days. It feels as though weeks have passed, as though I've been exploring this country, meeting people here, adventuring in the countryside, for weeks, not days.

Anne-Marie, Brynne, and I spent half a day at Mulago Hospital on Saturday morning before leaving Kampala. It was a busy morning. Brynne attended one birth somewhat unexpectedly - walking into the assessment room to find a woman pushing her baby out with one of the Ugandan midwives in attendance. Anne-Marie and I managed another birth - my first catch here in Uganda. The babe was born in the caul and I had to break the bag of waters once her head was born. Anne-Marie gave the oxytocin and tied off the cord with glove cuffs and cut the cord. I serendipitously caught another baby that morning, walking into the assessment room only to have a midwife tell me to get my gloves on because the baby was coming. I looked over to see a head emerging, so quickly jumped to the bedside and caught the babe. It seems that midwives generally handle babies quite a bit differently, perhaps more roughly, than we do in Canada. This is hard to see and I look forward to the time when we're managing births more independently so that some babes have a gentler welcome into the world. It has been so interesting chatting with midwives about the differences in maternity care between Canada and Uganda - men almost never attend deliveries here in Uganda and they think it's very strange that most husbands/fathers/partners attend their babies' births in Canada. One midwife asked me if Canadian women feel pain in labour. She had heard that women in North America don't feel pain because they have medicine to take the pain away. So we had an interesting discussion about epidurals, the benefits, the risks.

After leaving Kampala on Saturday afternoon, we headed to Mpango Forest Reserve, about 40 km southwest of Kampala. We had a bus full of 10 people - Brynne and her family, Anne-Marie and her friend Nat, Lindsay (Cathy's daughter-in-law) and her friend Andrea, and myself. Plus ALL our luggage which includes masses of supplies. It was a cozy trip. Mpango was a wonderful oasis, away from the busy chaos of Kampala. We walked in the jungle, admired huge fig and mahogany trees, glimpsed monkeys, shook nasty biting ants off our pants and ankles, ate dinner around a campfire, played frisbee with some local kids, admired birds and termite mounds. It was quiet and green and lush and I loved it.

Today we had a tour of the Masaka hospital where we'll be working. The grounds of the hospital are beautiful and I'm looking forward to working in the maternity ward. We will also have the opportunity to work in the antenatal and family planning clinics. We're not yet sure how many births there will be daily, perhaps not as many as last year when Aisia and Chloe were here, but I'm sure there will be so many learning opportunities - we're not really concerned. We presented the administrator and senior doctor of the hospital with two of the eight birth kits that we are donating to the hospital. They are very pleased and are looking forward to receiving the rest of our donations, which include medications, IV needles, syringes, and many other things. Thanks again to everyone who contributed to these supplies - we can see how very appreciated they will be here. Tomorrow we head to the hospital for a full day on the ward - I'm excited to meet all the midwives and women and integrate into the system here.

I'm quickly running out of time. There is so much to say and never enough time. I hope that either Brynne or Anne-Marie will write the next post so that you'll have another perspective. We'll also try to get some pictures up soon.

Sending greetings to you all from Masaka.