Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

(Ok, so there weren't any tigers or bears but I did see a Lion!)

This past week has found us continually busy. Ann has been perfecting her role as study coordinator while Grant has been doing some grunt work - the always exciting data entry. Honestly, I am just happy to be useful. Tomorrow I will start sitting in with a group that does neuro-cognitive exams so that I might learn how to perform them on the patients enrolled in our study. Once I figure them out I'll be tasked with figuring out the specifics including time, place and interpretation. Nice to finally get things moving though.

Wednesday night we attended another basketball game at the YMCA. It is now the playoffs and the top 4 teams have advanced into two best of 5 series. Our team is the Falcons as a friend of ours at the IDI plays for them. It was an exciting game involving two free throws to put the Falcons up by one with about 10 seconds left. The other team got the ball down the court pretty quickly and one of their players nailed a somewhat ill-advised pull up three to win the game. We believe there was time left on the clock, but fans rushed the court and the refs just kind of said "game over". The clock is only visible to the half of the court that we weren't sitting on, so I guess we'll never know the truth. That has left the Falcons down 0-2 in the series, although they picked up a victory on Saturday night. I love going to basketball games here, although it's too bad they don't have a nice gym (like nearly all high schools in our country) to play in. The outdoor court leaves something to be desired. Anyone ever witnessed a rain delay during a basketball game before? Hopefully we won't have to. Next game is Wednesday night, so hopefully they can pull out another W.

Thursday night Ann and I had a relaxing evening with our friend Miriam, a medical student from Tufts (in Boston) who is here on a Fogerty fellowship. We went over to Miriam's (really nice) apartment and made breakfast for dinner, which included french toast, fresh fruit and omelettes (avocado, tomato and onion). Following that we watched Sunshine Cleaning, which was a pretty good movie. It was nice to have a simple evening where we could just enjoy each others company. Miriam's washing machine was nice too...

Friday I traveled to Murchison Falls National Park while Ann stayed back in Kampala as she had been there previously. The Nile River flows through the park emptying into Lake Albert, which forms a border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), before continuing on through Uganda to Sudan and Egypt. Friday mainly consisted of traveling North from Kampala with a stop in Masindi for lunch. Once we reached the gates to the park we had to travel quite a ways, which allowed for some enjoyable baboon watching. Their butts are hilarious. Once we reached the camp site we had the rest of the evening to ourselves. So we hung out and had some drinks at the bar/dining area overlooking the river. The next day we had to get up quite early, so it was pretty early to bed.

Saturday morning involved safari through the Nile delta region of the part. We saw all kinds of beautiful scenery and animals. Some of the highlights were giraffes, elephants, baboons, various monkeys, hartebeest, african buffalo, kob, bushbuck, duiker, dik dik, many birds and a lioness. I couldn't believe how many giraffes there were! It is also somewhat difficult to spot big cats, so it was pretty exciting to see the lioness. Unfortunately the leopards were too shy to say hello. After about 4 hours of driving around we headed back to camp and had lunch. The afternoon involved approximately 4 hours of safari via boat as we traveled up the Nile to the actual falls for which the park is named. Basically the entire length of the Nile (at this point) is full of hippos, so we got lots of time with them. Also saw some of the other animals grazing and drinking from the river. The crocodiles were harder to spot as they like to hide in the water, however near the falls we were treated to some very close up crocs lounging under the tree. A couple got into the water right near the boat, which elicited a few gasps from the boat.


Giraffes. I got nothing.


Awwwww, look at the little baby elephants.


Mama says crocodiles are ornery cause they got all them teeth and no toothbrush.



Hungry Hungry Hippos

Sunday involved a hike up to the top of the falls for some amazing views. After a bit we took off back to Masindi for lunch and eventually arrived in Kampala around 4:30pm. It was a long weekend. If the mosquitos (malaria) or tse tse flies (sleeping sickness) don't get you, the african sun will. I am now a certified tse tse fly killer as we had quite the experience riding through the park. If we slowed down the flies caught up so we were constantly opening and closing windows in order to balance the chances of sleeping sickness vs. heat exhaustion. So this was more of an art than a science and some people were very shitty artists. Lucky I was there to terminate the flies.


Murchison Falls from the Nile River.

Ann thought we should include a few pictures of our place...

Emu Omwezi - Mutunda

One month - October
What an experience we have had in our first month together in Uganda. It is funny to think about our hectic, multi-tasking, prioritized days back in Minneapolis and how our lives were changed with a flight across the pond. It is a simpler life here, and tasks take longer, but there is also this laid back attitude that rubs off on us. It is nice to relax and take it all in - the sights, sounds, and smells (some better than others), the people, the culture, the experience. We have learned to conserve, to wait, and to do without. But one thing that I seem acutely aware of this time around, is the necessity to be aggressive. That midwestern passivity does NOT work here. There is no such thing as waiting your turn, if you have an opportunity to get ahead of someone, you take it. This concept is also seen on the road and being a pedestrian is dangerous. Grant was sure I was going to kill him crossing the street when we first arrived, but he has now become an expert at dodging matatus and land cruisers, all the while looking both ways for bodas down a one-way street.
Grant and I have begun Luganda lessons twice a week and have been practicing our greetings and numbers lately, which comes in handy with bodas and taxis. It makes such a difference in the way people perceive this mzungu when a local greeting comes out of my mouth. Although it is frustrating once you get past the words we know and end up smiling and nodding.
Mondays and Wednesday evenings are devoted to our Luganda class, and our other days have been gobbled up by social events. Last week on Tuesday I went out with the girls to a "jazz" event at a club, and it was actually R&B and spoken word. There is a famous (?) Ugandan musician, Maurice Kirya, who puts together these monthly shows and recruits local artists to perform. It was standing room only by the time we got there, but were able to enjoy the acts from the bar. We hosted Quiz Night at Bubbles on Thursday, and it was fun to organize and entertaining to watch teams strategize and concentrate, all the while drinking and trash-talking each other. Friday we went with a large group to the Protea Hotel, to partake in their buffet that our friend Martin has been selling to us with his chef-speak since we met. Needless to say, we were not disappointed.
Even though I brought Halloween costumes from the US, we still ended up walking around all day Saturday looking for final touches. Miriam, Sabine and I then got ready and headed to a great costume party hosted by Sabine's good friends Sybille and Charlie. I had a fabulous time admiring everyone's creations in Kololo while Grant was busy playing poker at Pyramids Casino. He ended up getting 4th and winning $800! I knew I brought him along for something :)
Ouch, Sunday was spent recovering. Grant paid me to go pick up Pavement takeout (even though I felt like death) and we stayed in sleeping and watching movies. Later on, our friend Pete had a gathering at his house in Ntinda where he served his famous chocolate beef and had a surprise birthday celebration for Veronica. He also had a Ugandan Women's Organization there selling bags and beads and I was happy perusing the goodies. Next weekend we are heading to Fort Portal with our roomie Sheida and friend Elena, to do some trekking around the crater lakes and see the chimps.

PICTURES!!!

Nichola, Rosie, Miriam, Sybille, and I


Myself, Tom (aka Billy, aka Jack Sparrow), and Sabine


After the Protea buffet, sipping on Gareth's favorite KLC drink...
Miriam, Grant, me, Sheida, Gareth


Pete, me, Grant at Sunday's soiree


And we do actually work, I swear...
Here we are working on database stuff at the IDI

Hell Hath No Fury Like the Sun Scorned

Grant at last weekend's poker tournament. Easy way to earn a few hundred bucks.

Things have been going well since Ann posted last week. We've continued to work on the Cryptococcal Meningitis Immune Reconstitution Inflammatory Syndrome (CM IRIS) database at the IDI. The work is quite monotonous and mind numbing. It's especially a struggle after lunch, which always contains an abundance of carbohydrates, and I often find myself struggling to avoid dreamland. We are nearly done updating the database, so in a few days I will start tagging along with a Ugandan neurologist's team in the clinic to learn how they administer their neuro-cognitive testing. Once I figure out what this consists of, I will venture off into the world of the IDI and attempt doing them on my own. It'll be interesting at first, but I should improve with time. The plan is to be running on all cylinders come December/January when the new antiretroviral therapy timing trial (hopefully) begins.

Ann went to Tororo on Friday for an East African Scholars meeting put on by U. of California San Francisco. 4 hour drive there, 6 hour meeting and 4 hours back all in one day. Sounds brutal, but apparently the road is one of the better you'll find in the country. I spent the day at home doing laundry. Gotta love hand washing your dirty clothes. I literally skinned one of my fingers by scrubbing. I will say my socks get much cleaner by hand than with a machine, but the process is just so time consuming.

We went to the Kabira country club on Saturday morning to take part in a spin (intense exercise biking) class. I'm still feeling it today. Beautiful place and I'll need to spend the day there sometime hanging out at the pool. I've never been a huge pool guy, but when you can't escape the heat they're very enticing. Too bad my malaria prophylaxis (doxycycline) makes me burn quite easily. Every time I spend time in the sun I end up with a bit (or more) of a burn. Saturday night we actually stayed in for once. There are always things going on and sometimes I miss being able to just relax at home. Luckily we bought a (pirated) dvd of True Blood season 2 and had a marathon viewing session Saturday evening. I've gotten Ann hooked on the show while here as I had the first season on my computer. She's not so into the graphic vampire stuff (which is the best part), but she puts up with it. We'll have to find something a little more light hearted for our next series. It's quite annoying watching tv on my 12 inch laptop screen, but I guess it'll do.

Sunday we went to Munyonyo, which is essentially a suburb of Kampala on Lake Victoria. Went with our South African friends to a beautiful resort that had just hosted the presidents of the African Union. Security was pretty tight. Soldiers with AK 47s all over, and this was after the presidents had left! We hung out at the pool and did some boating/tubing on the lake. The South Africans are friends with the executive chef at the resort and he treated us to an amazing meal. He hung out for a good portion of the day as well. One of the funniest people I've met here. On the way back we bar hopped at a few local pubs ending up at Bubbles in Kampala. We usually get our interneting (is this a word? it should be) done here on Sunday nights.


Grant admiring his sweet farmer's tan.


Ann thinking "Lake Victoria ain't got sh*t on Lake Villard".


Awwwwwww.

So today I'm dealing with the pain of a new sunburn and trying to get into the whole database updating again. Kind of slow moving today. I'm excited that Halloween is coming up this weekend, however it's not a holiday they celebrate. There are usually parties going on amongst the ex-patriot community. I plan on playing in a poker tournament at the Pyramids Casino. This is assuming there is still space when I sign up tonight as it's only open to 30 people. First place is about $3000 or so as the casino is putting a bunch of money is the prize pool. If I do well, I'll likely miss the Halloween parties. I'll take the money, though.

BACK IN THE KLA

Back in Kampala and it feels like I never left. It has been great running into old friends and meeting new ones everyday. Back at Mulago and the IDI, things are still the same - for good and for bad. It is nice, though, to show up and know where to go and what to do and not having this awe-struck look on my face all the time. I know how to respond to the mzungu calls, negotiate a boda or taxi ride, and where to get the best Indian food. Grant is doing great, much better than I did on my first appearance in Africa! And he is doing a good job on keeping you all updated. But I thought I would give you my perspective too, whether you like it or not.

Work has consisted of doing some training in what my new job will be as study coordinator of a large clinical trial. I will be in charge of some of the accountability and quality management, so basically making sure the protocol is followed, everything gets documented, and regularly reporting to the organization funding the project (National Institute of Health, Division of AIDS). We are going to apply this process to a current study and hopefully it will be a well-oiled machine by the time this trial starts.

At the IDI, where we work, there are journal clubs, research meetings, and clinical conferences that give us some structure to our day. Our first day we showed up and it was nice to have a welcome from Andrew Kambugu, and entertaining to see all the mzungus start whispering when we walked into Monday morning journal club. They were warned of our coming by various sources (Katie P and Kristina) and we all became fast friends. Soon enough our social calendar was full.

This week we went out for pork, were part of a winning quiz night team, went to watch some intense Uganda basketball, spun at Kabira (me), took 3rd in a poker tourney and won $300 (Grant), and we went to a braai hosted by new South African friends.

I am grateful for all of our friends here, Ugandan and expat, new and old. Looking forward to more adventures to come!

But also missing our friends and family back home. We love you.

Pictures!

Man delivering bags of charcoal in Jinja...not a desirable job.


We stayed at Gately on the Nile. An old colonial mansion refurbished into a hotel in Jinja.


Breakfast at Gately (from L to R Elena, Grant, Ann, Sheida).


Dinner at Haandi (Indian Restaurant in Kampala) for Elena's 30th birthday (L to R Veronica, Kieran, Sheida, Peter, Grant, Ann, Michael).


Elena, Sheida, Ann and Grant towering above the Nile.


Part of the Adrift (rafting company) campsite on the Nile River...it is here that I saw my first wild monkeys. And they were fighting! Hilarious...


Grant at the Adrift campsite overlooking the Nile River.


Some buildings in Jinja. It's probably hard to tell in the small picture, but the sidewalk is in some serious need of repair. Those repairs don't really occur here. Potholes don't get fixed...instead cars swerve all over the road to avoid them.


Street scene in Jinja. Notice the matatus (van-like vehicles). These essentially take the place of city buses...they'll cram up to 20 people in them!


Fisherman on Lake Victoria in Jinja.


Grant and Ann at Lake Victoria.



The view from our kitchen and off our deck/porch in Kampala.

Jinja

We went to Jinja on Lake Victoria this weekend. This is the source of the Nile River. I went white water rafting with our friend Elena, a medical student from Penn, while Ann explored town with our roommate Sheida, another medical student from Penn. It was my first time rafting, and I have to say it was quite an experience. Drifting 31km down the Nile was pretty amazing. The rapids were quite intense, with the majority of them ranking class 3 to 5. We spent some time swimming in the river when it was calm, so I'm looking forward to taking some medication for the likely schistosomiasis that I now have. We saw a lot of interesting wildlife including a monitor lizard, a baby crocodile, an otter, and all kinds of birds. It's the rainy season and of course it started raining after lunch. At first it was fine, but then it turned into a torrential downpour with strong winds. Honestly felt like a hail storm. We couldn't even see the other rafts in the river for a while. We ended up making our way to some rocks on shore and propping up our raft while we huddled underneath. Our Ugandan guide, Roberto, was quite freezing. I'm used to worse. When the other rafts caught up to us we ventured back out as the wind had died down soon followed by the rain. The ride back to Jinja was pretty bumpy and slow. We had an altercation in the middle of a small village's marketplace where there was only room for one lane and another car wasn't going to move out of our way. It took like the entire village yelling at him (as well as a "bump" from our truck) to get him to move. Quite a scene. I nearly ruptured my bladder, but luckily a few people begged enough for the driver to pull over allowing nearly the entire truck of people (30?) an opportunity to pee in the ditch and/or bushes. Ann spent money in town...she'll have to post to let you know about her experience.

The drive to Jinja was interesting. It is about 1.5 hours from Kampala on a good day going through rural Uganda and a rainforest. Driving here is crazy and It definitely requires your full attention (if you're the driver). People just kind of do whatever they want and people on the road usually accomodate you.
Friday was Ugandan Independence day, so a lot of people are on holiday this weekend. We had Friday off and spent it celebrating Elena's 30th birthday. Ate dinner at a very tasty Indian restuarant with some local Ugandans that we have met. Later drank wine and socialized at Elena's place, which is a beautiful house with a huge veranda (porch?) up on one of the hills in town. She's staying with an expat family that owns a gold mine in Uganda, or something like that. Pretty different than some of the slums near wear Ann and I live. The poverty here is very eye-opening. I'm thankful for how lucky we are in the US.

We're still working on internet and photos. I feel like we're back on dial-up in the early days of the internet. I promise we'll get photos soon. Probably a post with entirely photos from everything so far...

We Have Arrived

Well, Ann and I have finally gotten (somewhat) settled in Kampala. After a brutal day of travel involving canceled flights, hours spent in the Mpls and Amsterdam airports, long waits in the immigration line and one lost bag (Ann's) we finally were on our way from Entebbe airport to Kampala. It was around 10:30pm local time, so it was difficult to see much beside the Friday night life along the road. Those of you who have trouble with Minneapolis or Chicago traffic have no idea. Try driving down a dimly lit "highway" sharing the road with bikes, motorbikes and pedestrians walking along the side. Luckily the speed limit was fairly slow...I can't imagine if the speed limit were the equivalent of 55mph. We were probably about 1-2 feet from killing some guy who thought it a good idea to stroll across the highway at a nice leisurely pace...if our driver hadn't seen him at the last second and swerved out of the way it would have been a much more interesting introduction to Africa (for me...this is second nature for Ann).

Once we got to the city, we had a ways to go to reach our apartment. Ann was able to point out some things to me along the way. It was quite a relief to get to our apartment. We got all of our bags inside and fell asleep immediately. Our apartment is relatively nice. I don't have much to compare it to, but I can't complain considering we're in Africa. I've killed two cockroaches, apparently they enjoy my room the most. We have running water, a small water heater for showers, a portable gas range, and a small fridge. It's a three bedroom apartment, two of which are taken by Ann and I. The third is a medical student from Penn who is here for 2 months. Sleeping under mosquito nets is a new experience for me and I have to say it's pretty annoying. No air conditioning, but at least we have a fan...could be worse.

So far we've done a lot of walking around the city, visiting the supermarket, eating at some restaurants, checking out the ex-pat bar scene and going to the "mall". The scenery is beautiful from afar, but up close can be a different story depending on where you're at. I can say it's unlike anywhere I've ever been. We're in a somewhat poorer part of town, but it's pretty safe. We take the same precautions as we would in Minneapolis. I've yet to see much wildlife, but we do have neighbors with chickens in their yard complete with a rooster that makes sure we're up every morning.

Tomorrow we start work at Mulago Hospital and the Infectious Disease Institute. Probably will involve meeting lots of people, getting computer access, and getting used to everything. Not sure what to expect, but it will be interesting.

We'll try to post as much as possible, at least once a week. I'll get some pictures posted, hopefully in the next few days. Internet access is somewhat limited, but we're working on getting our own at the apartment. I hope everyone is doing well...I'm finally starting to realize how long 8 months is. I already miss Hunter...and I suppose everyone else too.