Final Post Before My Return

Today was my last day at the clinic. Now, I am officially done with my project for the summer. I met with Lucy today, something I needed to do before I leave. The Weston teachers and students donated their extra first aid supplies, sanitary napkins, hand sanitizer, soap, and medicine, which I brought over to the clinic. Some of the supplies will stay at the clinic and some will be distributed amongst the schools. I also brought Lucy all my project supplies that I have left: documents, posters with information, folders, coloring sheets, word searches, word scrambles, scissors, tape, crayons, and blank poster board. I hope that Lucy can use all the supplies to carry out a successful health education program in the schools on her outreach days. I also left her with first aid sheets and activities for the teachers and administrators. We both thought it would be good for her to do basic first aid training with them, so that they know how to use the supplies that I supplied each school with. After we went through all the supplies, Lucy and I went through the folder I put together for her that contains a bunch of important documents. We also discussed what Lucy needs to do next. I had talked to Alice, who is working with the peer education project here, about whether or not she thought it would be good for Denis, the male nurse, to discuss sex and respecting woman with the boys, since Lucy and the peer educators will be working with the girls. I also ran this by Lucy, who thought it was a great idea.

Just as we were ending our meeting, a little girl arrived. She had little skin bumps (almost like warts) all over her feet and ankles. I asked Lucy if she thought they were gejjers, which are a type of insect that lay their eggs under a person’s skin. Apparently two of them were. They had already been removed, but improperly, so they had gotten infected. Lucy sent me to get a safety pin from the supplies the teachers donated and I disinfected it with an alcohol wipe. The poor girl, who was only three years old, was so terrified she was shaking and then when she saw the safety pin she started screaming bloody murder. I tried comforting her, but it was hard because of the language barrier. Lucy stuck the tip of the safety pin into the two bumps and pus was released. The girl’s father had to hold her down. I was so sad for her because she was so upset, but then she saw the needle for the other bumps, which was a bacterial skin infection, and her reaction was even worse. Her dad really had to hold her down. All I could think was that if that had been me I would have been screaming just as loud. The needles here are remarkably long and appear to be quite thick. She was given the injection on her back side, right above her right butt cheek. I wouldn’t be surprised if the needle went through to the bone. Lucy said that she has to come for five days for injections and take an oral antibiotic for five days as well and the skin injection will clear up. As sad as it was, I thought it was a good experience to end with.

Tomorrow, we are going on a small hike around a bunch of crater lakes and on a tour of a vanilla plantation. We end the day with dinner at Ndali Lodge, a wonderful lodge that overlooks the lakes. Sunday, we leave for Entebbe at about 9. The plan is to spend the afternoon at the Lake Victoria Hotel, where we will also eat an early dinner. We head to the airport at around 6:30 and our flight leaves at 10:20. I will be home Monday morning. We are set to land at Logan at 10:20 AM. As sad as I am to be leaving, I am really looking forward to finally being home.

I have plans to make my health education project a more sustainable project. Lucy will be carrying out the health education in the schools, and although I plan on collecting supplies over the next year to ship here, my ultimate goal is to hand the project over to the locals. Alice helped me come up with the idea of a soap making club. The idea would be that the school children make soap with local products. They could try to sell the soap to locals or they could use it. Either way, it would be something the children could really benefit from. When I get back to the States, I need to look into different soap making methods. I hope that the materials are accessible and relatively cheap (if not free).

Please feel free to contact me via email with any questions about my project or future plans in regards to Uganda. I would be happy to discuss it.