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!