Kampala, Uganda - the place

The sights, sounds, and smells of Kampala, Uganda were overwhelming.  So much to see and so little time to take it all in.  Below are some of my favorite pictures from my trip.  I've been scrambling to find some that were copied to a disc that my friend took during our tour to Jinja, but it's apparently buried in a box somewhere.  I'm sure I'll find it in 2014!

 

Love the clothes and the balancing skills

This was across the street from the hospital

One of the markets.  I found out after my first trip to the market that the women are offended if you don't barter with them.  Everything was so inexpensive that I felt guilty talking them down.  I tried to change my ways for the rest of the trip.  I think that the amount of things that I bought negated any bargain that I scored!

It's hard to tell what they are doing from this distance (this was about the time that I realized my lens was broken... grrr!).  That is a tea field.  They are cutting the grass/tea.  With machetes.

It wasn't until I got home that I saw this picture.  I took quite a few photos from our vehicle, but this was the only the one a reflection of my "Live Alyssa Live" bracelet.  It took my breath away to see it in this photo of a church.

 

These boys were sliding down a hill on a piece of tree bark.  When they saw us they asked if they could sing a song for us!  Wish I'd had video!

The differences in so many of the homes and businesses was very interesting.

This was at the entrance to Jinja (the beginning of the Nile River).  Notice the difference in "A Ugandan adult"  and "The rest of the world"!

Monkeys all around

One of the sources of the Nile.  So cool that I got to put my feet in it!  It was very tame since they damned it a few years prior.

Construction site with sticks for support

Chicken anyone?  He delivers!

Some things are universal

The hotel pool

The hospital courtyard

The Ugandan nurses gave us tribal names.  Mine was "Birungi" which I was told meant "Beautiful" and "It's all good"

Touring the hospital this nurse told me she was from the Birungi tribe

Our favorites after a long day!

We promised the director that we would ride on a boda-boda, but I had to get my picture on one

The nursing team

Our last day we went to visit a chimpanzee sanctuary

Loved these birds and their nests

We toured during a feeding time

This guy was just ready to catch some fruit!

These are smart animals!

 

A few more buildings on our way to the airport

Necessities... Nile special and bug repellent

These holes were everywhere.  Made it a little scary walking at night.  I'm totally curious as to how many people fall into the "water" 6 feet below.

Action shot of Jen and I on the boat ride from the chimp sanctuary

 

 

Uganda - the kids

We haven't hit the one year anniversary of my time in Uganda, so I figured, why not go ahead and FINALLY  get some pictures up on the blog?!  I'm coming to accept that things will never be done in the time frame that I hope, so I'll just be happy that these things get done at all!  I was able to post a couple of time while I was in Uganda, here and here.  Following is a tiny portion of the pictures that were taken.  This post highlights the hospital and the adorable kiddos!

 

This is after we organized!

"Cheese!" The little girl in black was a HUGE ham for the camera.  Loved her!

Stickers

American and Ugandan teams meeting to discuss upcoming patients

The new operating room

"Clean" vs "Not clean"

We had to have one pair of shoes for the ICU and one for walking around.  The yellow lines were the boundaries for shoes.  Everyone was pretty liberal with their shoes, usually just putting on whatever fit.

The call room

Our first patient

My sweet camera ham.  She had the same procedure that Cadence had.

We did manage to get a smile!

He was a huge fan of the camera

Stickers, stickers everywhere

Our second patient

The pediatric ward before she went home.  They had mosquito netting for these beds.

Socks and sandals ARE cool!

This Kermit became our mascot, complete with a Facebook page dedicated to him!

Nothing like watching open heart surgery going on in the OR while we ate lunch.

Our first patient heading home

This sweet baby in the waiting room was 9 months old with a very sick heart

Innocent after surgery.  For anyone in health care, those grey bulbs are the 12 lead EKG.  Pretty wild!

Part of the UVA team.  Shortly after our mission Joel finished up his PICU fellowship.  He and his family moved to Kampala so he could continue the work at the hospital.  You can check out their blog here.  I'm a little envious!

Innocent played with my Ipad for hours the days before he went to surgery.  He  had a very rough operative day, but the first thing he said when I saw him the next morning was "I want to play game"!

Little Amaal was not a fan of her breathing treatment.  She was admitted before we arrived and diagnosed with pneumonia.  She ended up having a heart defect that we were able to repair while we were there.  Unfortunately she caught malaria before leaving the hospital but eventually recovered enough to go home.  We found out a couple of months ago that she passed away.

We all adored her

Part of the teams

Again with the Kermit

These were some siblings of a patient in another pediatric ward.  There was no place else for the family to stay except on the floor.

This angel's name was Immaculate.  She had been abandoned by her mother and was currently living with a "sponsor".

Innocent was still in pretty rough shape when we left.  A few members of our team stayed a little longer and my one request was for them to send me a picture of him smiling!

Accidental voyeurism

Living in an apartment lends itself to this accidental voyeurism that happens on a daily basis.  The non-sexual kind, of course. (Although the people that lived above me in my first apartment would have been a true voyeur's dream!  I mean, really, who has sex at 4am on a Tuesday night?)  Existing in such close proximity to others can give you a glimpse into their lives that makes them feel like less than a stranger... for better or worse.  Simply walking out of my apartment I can hear who is having a good laugh, a loud discussion, or who's losing their s#* because their kids aren't ready on time.  My olfactory sense tells me who is eating Italian or Indian or who just burned something.  Then there is the mail room.  The days when a ton of packages are in there waiting to be picked up.  While you may not know what is inside, it's interesting to see who is buying from where.  Ok, so that may not be "accidental" when I check those out.  In my defense, as I was walking to my door the other day I saw a neighbor down the hall who informed me that I had a package waiting for me downstairs, so I'm not the only one!  What a difference, though, from our lives a few months ago. Back in August I could have been dancing around a bonfire naked and no one would have know.  Now, everyone is well aware when I've burnt breakfast or my kids are running late!

Gift of time

The move has been as good as one would expect. For some reason I really miss the chickens. I was not too attached to them but I liked their chicken sounds and I really loved having fresh eggs as well as something to give all of our food scraps to. We all miss playing in the pool and on trampoline. We miss our friends. A lot. We just keep reminding ourselves that they aren't too far away.

Laurel has a great group of girls in her class and around our street that she loves to get together. She has been taking a fashion class and dance at school that are both right up her alley! Cadence is really enjoying her preschool class and loves taking walks down the street to see the progress on our house. Sierra? Well, it's middle school. She has had her ups and downs, but definitely more ups lately. Sierra is just trying to find her happy place and I think she is getting there. She comes home from school most days pretty content and is enjoying the open art studio time and writing club that she recently discovered. Both of the older girls are becoming involved in the church youth groups too. They love having the independence to go down to the coffee shop or ride bikes around the neighborhood.

From 2007 until 2010 Brad was in grad school. He lived apart from us for almost a year total. When he was home he was studying. Constantly. He was home, but not present. I would watch my friends go hiking and to festival on the weekends with their whole families in tow. Swim meets were a family event. Not for us. I felt like a single parent for those three years. When he graduated I had hoped that things would change. But, we bought the farm. Soon, our lives were filled with projects. Not small ones either. Barn building, garden assembling, wooded path creating. Most of the days that Brad and I had off together consisted of him working outside while I covered the kids activities. It was still not the vision that I had wanted but we still had a little more family time than when he was in grad school.

Our decision to move wasn't easy. There have been some tears but there are a lot of things that we have loved about moving out here. These ease of having schools, libraries, hiking trails, and restaurants so close by has been awesome! Going to the school twice in one day is no problem. Running to the library to grab a book on hold is a breeze. The people around here are so friendly and inviting and the sidewalks make visiting friends and going for walks much easier than any place else that we have lived. But one of the best things about moving out here is that we have time. There aren't barns to build or trees to be cut down. We have spent more "family time" together over the past two months than we have in many years put together. It's not even "big" family outings.  Simply taking Cadence to the university to walk around and have lunch.  Taking the girls on short walks and hikes.  Just spending time together.  I can see a difference in the way that the girls interact with Brad. It's a wonderful feeling to assume that if I plan to do something with the kids that Brad will be part of it. For the past 5 or 6 years I generally assumed that it would be just the girls and I, that Brad would be busy with something else. It feels like this is the way that our life is supposed to be. The way our family is supposed to be. The chickens and the pool have got nothing on this gift of time that we have been given. For that I am grateful.

Wine vs. Whine

It's interesting how two words that sounds exactly alike can conjure completely different feelings when I think about them. For example:

Wine - relaxing, enjoyable, letting go
Whine - tension, frustration, rocking in a corner (maybe with a glass of wine!)

Cadence was on a big whining kick for quite a while, probably in response to the chaos and stress of packing, moving, etc.  She had gotten much better, until Brad and I made a horrible mistake.  We talked about how much "better" she had been and how she had been whining a lot less.  Note to self: don't jinx a good thing by discussing it!  I hate these phases because it makes me incredibly sad when I'm not enjoying my time with the girls.  I know I'm not going to relish every single day, but I don't like when I am counting down the minutes to bedtime day after day.  I decided to talk to Cadence about it.

Me: Do you like to spend time with Mommy?
C: Yes.
Me: Do you like to spend time with me when I am happy and silly and we have lots of fun?
C:  Yes.
Me:  Do you like to spend time with me when I'm grumpy and frustrated and yell?

(Here is where Cadence didn't follow my intended text!)
She is supposed to say "no" and then we'd talk about how much more fun it is to be with someone who is happy, not whining, etc.  Instead she said:

C:  Yes.
Me: You do?  Why?
C:  Because I like to make you happy.

Wow.  I kind of suck right now.  I think I need some wine!