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. Arné 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 