Greetings from Uganda!

Hello everyone!

Here is an update for the last couple of days:

-Nadia and Cate have been with the outreach team in the community distributing antiretroviral drugs to people in rural communities with HIV which they found really valuable.  Flo and I are going on Tuesday and we are all hoping to go at some stage.
-We have been to the ART (antiretroviral) clinic at Villa Maria - Cate spent the day with one of the doctors there today.
-Sarah-Jane has been spending lots of time on delivery suite - Gemma and I joined her yesterday and we found the experience rather enlightening.  We had an interesting chat with one of the senior midwives and she couldn't believe it when I explained that women in England have analgesia in labour.  "Labour is meant to be painful", she replied.  Much of the medicine here is shaped by teachings from the Bible as it is a Catholic-run hospital.
-Likewise, Flo and I went to an ante-natal clinic yesterday and sat in on a family planning talk (with a student nurse to translate!).  Here, they only advocate 'natural' contraceptive methods, and not condoms.  I spoke to the HIV team about this, and they state that they give the opposite advice, but are not allowed to distribute condoms as it is a Catholic-run hospital...
-Rachel, Felix, Emma and Gemma have all been spending lots of time on the paediatrics ward.  There are many patients with malaria, and one 4 year old boy with tentanus - antitoxin is not available here...
-Nadia, Flo and I went to the female ward today - generally very different to conditions that present in the UK although we did see one patient with type 2 diabetes.
- Nadia and I went to explore the school on the hospital site today - we are planning to go back next week so Nadia and Rachel can ask their questionnaires to the children.
-The medical records department have been really helpful for all the students and the records are collated by month.
- We have been getting into life in Uganda rather nicely - lots of Ugandan food and we are exploring the Ugandan beer (even me and I'm not a beer drinker!).  We've been having plenty of food which is very carbohydrate heavy - a mixture of rice, spaghetti, potato and misoki (savoury bananas which are mashed and rather gloopy!).
-We have been watching plenty of films in the evenings thanks to Felix's laptop!  It gets dark really early here - around 6pm and there is not much to do after dark!
-Tomorrow we are going to Mburo National Park to see the hippos, crocs, monkeys and other wildlife.  We are leaving at 6am so are planning an early night!

Another update soon,

The Uganda crew xx