{"id":115,"date":"2011-10-20T10:48:05","date_gmt":"2011-10-20T15:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/test.pegasuslectures.com\/shop\/blog\/?p=115"},"modified":"2015-08-24T07:16:57","modified_gmt":"2015-08-24T12:16:57","slug":"bringing-ultrasound-to-uganda-with-itw-part-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pegasuslectures.com\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/10\/20\/bringing-ultrasound-to-uganda-with-itw-part-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Bringing Ultrasound to Uganda with ITW (Part 4)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sunday, May 29th<\/sup>:<\/strong>\u00a0 We arrived in Entebbe at 7:45 am (8 hours difference (later) relative to the time in our home of Forney, Texas).\u00a0 Paul was shocked with his first view of the African continent.\u00a0 He was not expecting it to be so green and lush.\u00a0 From the plane window we could see that there was a light rain in some areas.\u00a0 From the rain, the dirt roads seem to bleed as they twist through the green vegetation.\u00a0 The crimson color comes from the very red soil that exists throughout Uganda.\u00a0 When I see the red earth I am always reminded about the myriad stories I have read about the Africa which allude to the red soil, often personifying the land and making allusion to blood shed (Alan Paton\u2019s Cry the beloved Country<\/span><\/strong> and Too Late the Phalarope<\/span><\/strong> come to mind).<\/p>\n

We were picked up in a newly purchased (refurbished) Japanese van by an ITW employee named Picho.\u00a0 The start was not all that auspicious as the vehicle would not start.\u00a0 The battery cables were very loose with the result that the battery did not charge while driving.\u00a0 Picho found a cab driver to \u201cjump start\u201d the vehicle.\u00a0 This is where it got interesting.\u00a0 The \u201cjumper cables\u201d were nothing more than wires with exposed ends.\u00a0 To jump the car, Picho held the exposed wires on one set of terminals while the cab driver held the other end. For those of you who are now worrying about the risk of electrocution (or at least a good shock) \u2013 not to worry Picho \u2013 used a handkerchief over one of the terminals he was holding.\u00a0 Although I am not 100% sure about the sufficient insulating properties of a thin piece of cotton cloth, he did not get shocked so I guess all I can say is it worked.\u00a0 Paul was aghast!\u00a0 I guess for completeness I should mention that the risk of electrocution is very low from a car battery, although the chance of being electrically burned or of a spark igniting escaping battery gases is certainly not zero.<\/p>\n

From Entebbe we drove for about 90 minutes to an area outside the capital city of Kampala.\u00a0 There we put up at a hotel called NOB View Hotel.\u00a0 The view from the hotel is quite nice.\u00a0 There was running water, but no warm water to speak of.\u00a0 I think Paul\u2019s first experience with a cold shower instantly elicited a statement about no longer taking warm water for granted.\u00a0 Overall though, this hotel is quite comfortable, with multiple food choices and even a swimming pool.\u00a0 This is a far cry from the hotel at which I stayed last year near the Kamuli mission hospital.\u00a0 In comparison, this rates five stars!\u00a0 This hotel has running water and even warm water.<\/p>\n

In the afternoon, we went out to buy tools for our work at the clinics.\u00a0 The idea is to build up a tool box so that we can be ready for any needs.\u00a0 This was an eye opener!\u00a0 Tools are incredibly expensive in Uganda.\u00a0 Just a simple low quality screwdriver cost upwards of $15.\u00a0 Drill bits, nails, hammers, wrenches, etc, all cost about three times what I would expect to pay in the States.\u00a0 At one point, the ITW guys (we were now accompanied by Collins, Allan, and Picho) suggested that we could get better prices on screws and nails at the small markets in town.\u00a0 Thus began an interesting adventure in haggling at markets which defy logic.\u00a0 I have absolutely no idea how these markets can sell enough to constitute a living.\u00a0 First there are three million of these shops.\u00a0 Each shop is very small but crammed with \u201cgoods\u201d for sale.\u00a0 Over a half hour period, I did not see one transaction take place.\u00a0 Somehow these people make a living, but I do not know how.<\/p>\n

The city is a bit hectic.\u00a0 There are crowds, noise, myriad smells, and a lot of trash around.\u00a0 Uganda seems to behave something like the way the US behaved in the seventies, when it was necessary to have television ad campaigns about not littering.\u00a0 Here, it is quite common to see people open packaging and just drop the paper and plastic wrappings on the ground.\u00a0 In the market areas where fruits, vegetables, and various foods are sold, there are often food remnants just dumped on the side of the road.\u00a0 As I mentioned, there are myriad smells.\u00a0 I don\u2019t anyone to get the wrong idea.\u00a0 The city is dirty, but I believe almost all cities are very dirty, including the ones in the States.\u00a0 It is just different from the \u201cdirty cities\u201d of the states and so stands out more in my mind.<\/p>\n

One other major difference is that people seem to be much friendlier here than in cities in the States.\u00a0 Perhaps it is due to our being different, but I don\u2019t think so.\u00a0 I have been watching the interaction between people and it seems that in general there is a greater degree of friendliness and less isolation.<\/p>\n

\"\"In the evening, we went out to dinner to a pizza restaurant.\u00a0 There was a very large group of us including our Ugandan team (Picho, Allan, Collins) our photographer Alex (currently a student at Amherst College who received a grant to come on this trip), Ben (soon to graduate from Vanderbilt and start a residency at Stanford in radiology), Debbie (a wonderful person, sonographer, *clans mate, and now third-year med student who took part in last years training in Kamuli), Ron (another great person and sonographer who took part in last year\u2019s program and of course Paul and myself.\u00a0 Proving that insanity has no country borders, we somehow got onto a joking conversation about how a larger head size (see Paul and Ben) could be detrimental when bullets fly.\u00a0 The natural extrapolation is that a narrower head is safer as long as turned in the correct direction.\u00a0 This started a running joke about Allan disappearing whenever he turned straight on to look at us, and that an appropriate helmet could be constructed simply by angling two pieces of metal over his head.\u00a0 As I said, insanity and crazy humor knows no boundaries.\u00a0 We all got many laughs out of protracted joking about Allan and his occasional disappearances.<\/p>\n

*From last year\u2019s work during training with Debbie and Somalee (not pictured) I was made an honorary member of the monkey clan and given the new appellation of Mr. Mugerwa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunday, May 29th:\u00a0 We arrived in Entebbe at 7:45 am (8 hours difference (later) relative to the time in our home of Forney, Texas).\u00a0 Paul was shocked with his first view of the African continent.\u00a0 He was not expecting it … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[11,9,10,2],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pegasuslectures.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pegasuslectures.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pegasuslectures.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pegasuslectures.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pegasuslectures.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.pegasuslectures.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1231,"href":"https:\/\/www.pegasuslectures.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions\/1231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pegasuslectures.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pegasuslectures.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pegasuslectures.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}