Sipi Falls

I'm in the midst of a bit of a chaotic time at work, but I wanted to at least post photos from a trip this past weekend to Sipi falls.  There are three waterfalls that make up Sipi falls, and they are each quite spectacular.  Once again, we were among the only visitors.  Waterfall #1 is in the first two photos, #2 is in the third, and #3 is in the fifth.

Happenings

Photos from some recent fun things....

CHAI retreat.... we had a really good (and fun) overnight retreat in the Mabira rainforest a few weeks ago

Thanksgiving
I hosted a mini-Thanksgiving for 14 on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  Menu: rustic zucchini and onion stuffing, green beans with goat cheese feta, mashed potatoes, pumpkin puree, cornbread, and apple crisp.  No turkey (and no cranberries as they don't grow them here), but very tasty.

One detail I forgot to mention (probably because it is sadly so normal here) is that the power went out at 6pm.... thankfully I had baked most things before then and we had plenty of gas, so we made do and had a nice candlelit dinner.

Going away Party
With an office full of expats, you get used to people coming and going fairly frequently.  We hosted a going away barbecue for 2 co-workers and a friend the weekend before last in my yard.

One of the girls leaving used to work for a refugee rights organization in which a band of refugees from an assortment of African countries had assembled -- they came and played for the party.

It has been really fun to have enough space to host people - I'm starting to build a repertoire of party foods.  Chief among these might be green bean salad, which is just blanched green beans, butter, white vinegar, and goat cheese feta.  It's very simple, but the goat cheese feta (made by Zach at the market I go to on Saturday mornings) is delicious, so it works really well.
One slightly bizarre, but really nice thing about hosting people here is that if it seems like too much to clean up after the party, we can hire someone to come do all the dishes and clean everything up for $5-10.  

Beautiful Eastern Uganda

I was in Eastern Uganda this week for more Pima trainings and had the pleasant surprise of seeing some amazing scenery (and really adorable twins).  The pictures are horrendous because they were taken from a moving car with an iPhone camera, but hopefully they capture some of it.

 Tororo Rock - I recognized this rock from the Tororo Cement advertisements that are all over the country

 Awful photo of gorgeous Mount Elgon

We visited a town half a kilometer from the Kenyan border called Busia that was possibly the busiest town I have ever been in.  The streets were bustling with people and full of bicyclists wearing pink uniforms, which made for kind of a neat visual.  I asked why there were so many bicycles and was told they were easier to sneak across the border than motorcycles!  The amount of life on display in the town made me think about the American idea of a busy city (I like this article about the role of public spaces in the creation of community in NY) and the relatively huge amount of American life that happens in isolated spaces (homes, cars) as compared to the way life spills into the streets and plazas here.

 And finally, really adorable twins....

Pima Trainings

One of my recent workstreams has been on creating a training package for introducing a new type of machine for CD4 testing into health centers.  CD4 testing allows HIV-positive patients to track the progression of their disease by determining how many of a certain type of white blood cell (CD4 cell) they have.  When patients dip below a certain level (350), they should initiate anti-retroviral therapy because their immune systems are too weak to fight off disease and they are at risk of developing opportunistic infections and are more likely to pass on the disease.

However, it can be really hard for patients to access these tests because of the limited number of testers in the country and long turnaround times for results, meaning patients are not getting the right treatment and are more likely to get lost.  The new type of machine (the Pima) allows patients to be tested in 20 minutes, is very easy to use, and can run on a battery for 8 hours (critical given current power situation).  We've been working on supporting the introduction of these machines and creating a training program for health centers on how to integrate the machine into their facility and make sure they are used to test as many patients as possible.  It's really interesting and I think very valuable given the importance of this test in treating patients.  We have already done the training of trainers, and now we are rolling out the training to facilities to see if it is effective.

As part of this work, I spent Monday and Tuesday this week overseeing a training 3.5 hours from Kampala in Kyegegwa.  The training went very well, and I'll be back there in a couple weeks to do mentorship and preliminary data collection.  As we were leaving, the health workers did a thank you dance for us called a "warm clap" - definitely a highlight.

Here's a NYTimes article explaining the benefits of introducing this machine.

Gorgeous morning drive to the health center

 The health care workers with the machine

 The "Warm Clap"

Fort Portal weekend

This weekend was yet another that made me pinch myself.... I spent it with a group of 8 friends in a beautiful lakeside lodge in Southwest Uganda, hiked to a gorgeous secluded waterfall where we were the only visitors, and went on an awesome hike and bike ride around the lakes.  Our hike was in pouring rain, but it was still gorgeous and a lot of fun, though swimming in the waterfall was probably the highlight of the day.  Also, our lodging bill for the whole weekend came to $25pp!  We saw baboons (they look like dogs when they are running) and loads of monkeys and some amazing birds.  

First (half) Ugandan wedding

I went to my first wedding here on Sunday - quite an experience.  The groom was a Serbian guy working here who I met through one of my co-workers and the bride was a lovely Ugandan woman.  The wedding crowd was about half Ugandan and half a mix of expats and Serbians -- a very entertaining combination of cultures.  There were quite a lot of (sometimes hilarious) speeches, gifts of goats and gourds and milk and whatnot, and good food and wedding fun.

PSAs in the Ugandan health sector

Most of the health-related PSAs I've seen here have made me do a double take.  Some are particularly memorable and really make you wonder what they could possibly accomplish.  Here is a small sample....