Thanks for coming! Be sure to check out my final reflection video about my overall experience in Uganda!
This video is a little bit more about my personal experience, why I enjoyed the trip, what I got out of it, what I liked, what I didn’t, etc.
I ramble a lot, so again, please forgive me. I’m a bit of a jumbled mess!
P.S. When I say quick gratitude, I actually mean instant gratification.
These are just a few tips if you are thinking about going on the trip, and if you are thinking about it you should definitely go. JUST DO IT, YOU WON’T REGRET IT, I PROMISE 🙂
P.S. I unintentionally roll my eyes after like every other sentence I say, it’s a habit. I know it’s annoying and I apologize! I am not being sarcastic by any means, I promise! I’m just not very good at making videos!
We had been doing good at keeping our emotions under wraps….until today.
Simply put, today was a hard day and the next two days will only get more difficult. Today the Ndejje faculty held a send off ceremony for us. A lot of the people we have met, students from our field work groups, and also some of our friends were there. People spoke about how valuable this experience and partnership between our two universities has been. We thanked the students and staff for being so kind, accepting, and accommodating to us. We shared lessons learned and hopes for the future trips with other students. It was so nice to have everyone together there to see us off and wish us well.
I never thought I would see the day that Dr. Cathorall cried, but there’s a first time for everything and this trip has been filled with many firsts. I’ll tell you, when it happened, we were not prepared for it! It’s like she set off a chain reaction, once people saw her crying the flood gates opened up. I myself am usually an emotional wreck when it comes to theses kinds of things, but for whatever reason, even though I was sad that our time at the university was nearing its end, my body would not allow me to cry, not yet at least. I felt that my happiness for having had this experience, meeting all the people I met, seeing all the things that I saw, sharing good times, smiles and laughter, having unforgettable conversations and spending time with one another, all outweighed any sadness I was feeling. I knew the rest of my day would be spent well with all of them and I couldn’t break down just yet! Things lightened up again once Dr. Brady and Dr. Cathorall were presented with the traditional dress. They even got to try it on (don’t worry we took pictures). We shared some food an conversation to conclude the ceremony.
After the ceremony concluded, and tears were all dried, we had lunch and then headed to the pool (we had been really trying to go to the pool for at least a week by this point). It couldn’t have been a better day for the pool too, not a cloud in the sky, nice and warm, literally perfect. I tried and failed to learn how to float, but the water felt nice and it was a great way to relax and kick back with our friends.
Today I was still feeling a little anxious about yesterday’s group meetings as we tried to continue on with the planning process. We went as a group with Dr. Cathorall to the library on campus to start doing some research and just explore the available resources at their disposal. I’m not sure how much work actually got done at the library because Haley and I did not have access to the internet on our laptops, and none of our team was registered with the library to be able to access the databases, so a lot of the time was used to get them situated with that. Also, there was a brief power outage while we were at the library which set us back a bit as well because of course the computers shut down. These last few days have got me in a bit of a rut, but I’m trying to work through it. After leaving the library, Haley went to ICT to do some work, but I seriously was just out of it. Some of the other SIUE students had promised to go watch the volleyball practice and soccer game so I decided to tag along. Cheyenne got on the court and convinced ArnĂ©, Kayla, and Bri to join in on the volleyball practice as well. They were out there bumping, setting, and spiking with Ndejje’s best! It was a treat to see and really helped to lighten my mood. I would have joined in, but next to wood ball, volleyball is literally my worst sport ever. I would’ve gotten throw off the court for sure.
I realized something that being here at Ndejje has taught me. The little fun and silly moments in life are what you remember, even when you have a rough go at things, it is the joy that you feel that stands out against all else. In this last few days I have felt a bit defeated in my work, but I have also made a good handful of new friends that I wish I could have met 3 weeks ago instead of 3 days ago. I really want to just spend my last couple of days here treasuring the friendships that have been created with the people here and with the other SIUE students. In fact, that is what I plan on doing.
Today we met with our group this morning to go over the feedback from yesterday that Dr. Cathorall gave on our program ideas. I didn’t mention them in yesterday’s blog, but we basically decided on an HIV program, similar to what we had previously planned with some some additional steps, and a sanitation/personal hygiene education/demonstration program as well. When we spoke with the group about this idea previously everyone was on board….or so we thought. Today when we were discussing it again the team was having a lot of side conversations and it seemed like they weren’t so sure anymore. When we asked they expressed that they felt only one program was needed and out of the two, they wanted to focus on sanitation. We tried to explain that in the time they had left only doing one program wouldn’t be enough. In addition, the Ndejje field work paper calls for a focus on two issues, so regardless of completing two programs or one, they would still have to focus on two issues in the assignment. This is when I started to get the feeling I often get when we discuss plans in the group. On one hand, Haley and I never want to make the team feel like they automatically have to go with our ideas, or feel like they need to do what we want and how we want it. On the other hand, the team sometimes isn’t very actively participating in the discussions we have and when we ask for feedback or opinions, everyone just kind of sits in silence. Then we end up doing research, constructing questions, or planning activities based on everyone agreeing, and by the next day, no one is even on the same page anymore. It’s very frustrating to feel like maybe they just aren’t being very open with us about what they might be thinking on how they would like to approach things. I would really like more active interaction and contribution from the team, but sometimes it feels like we are literally trying to force them to talk. At this point we really have no time left, the clock is winding down and in this moment I feel like we are standing stagnant. We spoke with Dr. Cathorall again to let her know that things had changed, and then as a group had a meeting with her. She expressed to the group the same things that we had told them earlier and they agreed to include the HIV program, but without the focus in schools, just with the community members. One might see this as a success, but I still feel that feeling of the group agreeing with this plan only because it’s like it’s being enforced for them to do so. I really don’t feel good about it, but I’m not sure what else to do.
The title of this blog is a quote from The Crucible, which I read in high school. It describes my mood perfectly because today was a very blah “I’m not feeling it” kind of day. Oh how my patience was being tested! It is a Monday after all, so I guess it’s appropriate. Today was rather uneventful and frustrating all in the same instant. We met with our group this morning to assess the data from our community and pick the most prevalent issues we would like to focus on for our program. Unfortunately, my converter (which has shocked me on several occasions) finally pushed it to the edge. It fried my laptop charger and broke it, so my computer is dead and since I can’t charge it, I can’t use it. I felt completely useless without my computer while Haley pulled the information up on her laptop ( even though my computer is a slow difficult machine to work with as is, this was just the cherry on top!). Later in the afternoon, we met with Dr. Cathorall to discuss our plans before moving forward with the group. We had planned to meet on main campus. Haley couldn’t sleep the night before and was tired so I decided to go alone and let her get some rest. Once I got to main campus, I looked at my phone and saw that Dr. Cathorall had messaged me and said she was coming to the Lady Irene campus, this is where I had just come from. I literally wanted to kick myself! How did I not see this before! After walking back up the hill I had just come down (believe me I needed the exercise because I took a boda there) we met as planned, and Dr. Cathorall liked our ideas! We were excited to share the feedback with the group, and we had planned to meet with them soon after our meeting with her. Despite letting everyone know this beforehand much earlier in the day, no one came to the meeting. Haley and I sat and waited for 45 minutes and no one showed up. We accepted our defeat and moved on. I don’t know how she felt, but at that point I was ready to just throw the whole day away.
Everyone has an off day every once and a while, and today was DEFINITELY just one of those days for me.
A good night’s rest and all shall be forgotten!
Today we traveled to Ngamba Island a chimpanzee sanctuary. Originally we were set to paint at a health center today but there was a mix up and unfortunately we were unable to do that however, I am so happy we got the opportunity to do this instead. We were even able to bring along Hannah and some of the Ugandan students on our field work teams and it was really a great time. After driving to the place the island was just a boat ride away!
First off I want to say that I think it’s awesome that the caring people who work and volunteer here dedicate their time to such a great cause. We learned that 95% of the island is used solely for the chimps and the other 5% is what is inhabited by humans, tourists, etc. Before this was used as a sanctuary, people actually called this island home, but those same people were willing to relocate in order to provide this safe haven for the chimps. Those people create many of the crafts that are available in the gift shop and receive compensation for their contributions and sacrifice of their homes which I also think is really cool.
One of the most interesting things that we were able to do was feeding the chimps. There were buckets put out filled with fruits and veggies like watermelon, avocados, bananas, carrots, etc. and we would throw them to the chimps. Although many of us hoped with all our might, we were not able to bottle feed or hold baby chimps (I would’ve died of happiness if we could’ve done that though). It was funny to see how the chimps interacted with us at feeding time. One of the older chimps ( I called him grandpa because of his grey hair) would literally wave over to us and demand us to throw food to him. While we were all distracted, one of the chimps even tried to make an escape! Our tour guide explained to us what the chimps do when they are trying to get out. The fence is electric, but the chimps are so smart that they go into the forest and bring back dry sticks to pry an opening under the fence. Then they can slip through unharmed. One chimp was notorious for doing this and luckily some of us warned our tour guide of her plans before she was able to get out.
We spoke with the vet and learned more about how the chimps are cared for medically. They receive routine checkups, screenings, and vaccinations yearly. The females also have birth control implants just like the kind that I have! We talked with our tour guide about their diets, the process of integrating the chimps into the same environment, what happens when a baby chimp is born, and many other interesting things. Chimps are a lot more like humans than I knew before today. This makes me even more excited for our upcoming chimpanzee tracking!
I have entitled our blog with our wood ball chant because today was the tornament we have been training for over the last few weeks!
When we showed up and were standing outside the stadium it was a surreal moment. For me it was a bit intimidating because the stadium is huge and there were people everywhere. Given that some of these people, like our coach Ms. Lillian, had been perfecting their wood ball skills for years, I was not expecting to be anywhere near the top of the leaderboard, but I did have the expectation that I would have some fun and maybe even learn more about the sport. It took me by surprise when we were told our teams and we were all separated. I begun to panic a little just because I was depending on us playing together. We were all beginners so there was less pressure when we played together and I felt more comfortable. I should have known better though because the whole purpose of the trip is about getting comfortable with being uncomfortable! I remembered that in life you have to be flexible or you’ll be very unhappy. When we went off into our teams I felt I didn’t have much interaction with mine. For a good majority of the time my teammates spoke to one another in another language and so I felt left out. Instead of speaking up and making myself more present, I stayed mostly to myself which wasn’t very smart on my part. I participated in shaping my own experience during the tournament and therefore I could’ve done more to make it more interactive and enjoyable for myself. When Mr. Mathias called us for lunch I was so excited to get a break from playing and though some of the other SIUE students felt that same way, others had been having a good time and were very into their games and would rather have kept playing than being interrupted just to go eat. That just goes to show how different perspectives create different experiences. After lunch, we all played together again and I did really enjoy that because we all were very encouraged of each other and were routing each other on.
Ultimately, the day was very long and draining, but it was still a worthwhile experience because at the end of the day it taught me something about myself. I was able to reflect and adopt a new perspective. The highlight of this day for me was seeing the traditional dance performances. A few of us even got up and joined in on the experience (I was not one of those brave souls, but hats off to them. I truly wish I was that brave and just got up and did stuff sometimes without being so worried about making a fool of myself). Anyway, sorry for the random tangent, but that was my day and we shall see what tomorrow has in store!
Today was Dr. Cathorall’s birthday! June birthdays are the best, no offense to anyone else born the other 11 months of the year haha (just kidding).
Anyway, Mr. Jim and Mason arrived last night just in time to help Dr. Cathorall celebrate today. We went over to their house for dinner and they so kindly brought mac and cheese here for us from home. We were all ecstatic, in fact, Katy was so happy that I’m pretty sure she shed tears of joy. That being said, clearly we miss food from home very much. On top of the mac and cheese, Dr. Brady worked her magic once again and whipped up these lemon and chocolate cookie cake concoctions, and they were a hit of course. As the belated birthday girl, I was also able to blow out my candle and make my birthday dinner wish, plus I was so lucky to be allowed the honor or taking home the leftovers (Cheyenne will definitely be asking me for some before bed I know it). Mr. Jim and Mason also brought me another water bottle from home since mine was taken and it honestly made my day! I hope Dr. Cathorall enjoyed her birthday as much as I enjoyed mine. It was an honor to spend her day with her and the rest of the public health/speech path fam!
Today was my birthday and I got to spend it in Africa….wow I never would’ve thought I’d ever get the chance to say anything like that, but here we are!
Today was a very good day. I woke up to Cheyenne playing 22 by Taylor swift and telling me happy birthday. She even got me a gift which included some yummy snacks and a birthday hat. Today we also traveled to the Kampala campus to attend a public lecture with Ndejje faculty from all academic departments. At the lecture Dr. Cathorall spoke about SIUE’s Public Health program, the curriculum requirements, and she also described how our program and Ndejje’s Social Sciences program are similar, and how they fit together and make the field work experience relevant for us all. ArnĂ© and Haley did a super fun and upbeat demonstration from their senior project Double E (Exercise with the Elderly) to give a visual representation of our pre internship coursework. Dr. Cathorall explained how we work on all the core skills in several classes before being expected to apply them, and also how the senior project allows us to experience real public health work under the supervision and guidance of our professors so that we are very well prepared by the time we are graduates. Dr. Brady also gave a very interesting presentation on Speech and Language Pathology and the work that SIUE does in its speech and language clinic on campus. Dr. Brady is such a captivating speaker and she literally had all the Public Health students debating going back to school for an undergrad degree in Speech and Language Pathology!
After returning back to Ndejje, the SIUE students invited the Ndejje students out. We all went to town to celebrate my birthday! We had such a great time, but we stayed out past dark and Dr. Brady had to come get us (sorry again Dr. Brady!). I am grateful to have spent my birthday with such an awesome group of people. The SIUE and Ugandan students alike are growing to be some great friends of mine and they helped to make this birthday one to remember! Thank you so much to everyone!
P.S. We also got our Canada and U.S. jerseys today for the wood ball tournament this weekend… clearly we were excited!
A Whole New World 