No Lights, Gas or Internet - Oh my!

Oh - it feels like a long time since I've been able to sit down and write about my adventures. Our house has had spurts of electricity since Monday but only during the day when we are all in the field - which makes it difficult to charge our phones, cameras and laptops for the next day. At night my housemates and I have been hanging out together in the living room reading, playing cards or talking by the light of candles, headlamps and glow sticks. It was kinda cool the first night but now it's just annoying.

We then ran out of gas for our countertop stove which put a damper on eating anything. And since the electricity had been out for some time nothing that had been placed in the fridge was safe to eat. Luckily many of the larger bars and restaurants have generators so we've been going out to eat a lot.

Lastly, the UN office's internet has been down all week so trying to send correspondences was moot. But today the three of us UW students and our HCDE professor are camping out in the lobby of her hotel using their wifi and enjoying their bright lights and hot water. I'm sure the front desk was somewhat suspicious when our prof asked for three extra towels for her single room so we could each take a shower.

On a much happier note I made it to my tenth day in Uganda before getting sick! I was out for two days and felt very sorry for myself but with the help of cipro and some a.m.a.z.i.n.g. homemade chicken noodle soup my housemate Diana made for me I returned to the field yesterday.

The UN/MVP office has been buzzing with activity getting ready for Jeffrey Sachs to arrive late next week. He's the Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and his trip here has caused a mad dash to get some of the major MVP projects completed. For instance, this is a picture of piping that has been sitting behind the Ruhiira clinic for (supposedly) 2 years waiting for trenches to be dug so workers can install these pipes and start the process of getting water pumped from the lower valleys of Isingiro up to the higher villages like Ruhiira.

When we drove out to the field yesterday they had also begun working on leveling out the roads with a pile driver. Thank you for your timing J. Sachs! At least until the next heavy rainfall my two hours in and my two hours out of the field will be much more comfortable.

This past Monday was my first time in the field solo without the extremely knowledgable and kind David. The day was a success. I met with the community health worker, Annah, who acted as my translator while interviewing female patients. Once done with the patients I interviewed Annah about her work and range of responsibilities. She is assigned to a minimum of 150 households that she visits on a regular basis by foot - to check on villagers. She prioritizes certain homes based on whether women are pregnant, if there are children under 5 or when someone is showing signs of malaria. It seems like an intense and most likey very underpaid position. However, it is one of the most critical jobs since she helps bridge the gap between the very rural areas and the clinics.

My ride home from the field that day was scheduled to pick me up at 4p but by 5p I became a bit worried. My calls to the driver weren't going thru and so I called one of my housemates and asked how much time should pass before I should really be concerned. His response was that no one had been left at a site yet this summer. It was very reassuring... At 5:30p I finally got word that the UN driver was on his way and that I should wait outside the clinic gate.

Shortly after I took this picture about 20 school children passed by from the other side and decided to stand about 6 feet from me and just stare. So I set my bags down and took out the bubbles I had brought from the States. Everyone quickly surrounded me to have a try at it - the best was when the boys would try and show off and blew really hard and nothing happened and then the girls gently blew and several bubbles were blown upwards. One by one everyone got a chance to blow bubbles and when my ride arrived and the bubbles were put away they all said thank you and waved. It was pretty cute. Next time when I hand the bubbles over to the kids I will remember to have my camera ready! 

And to bring everything up to the present, here are a couple of  pictures I've taken around town. This is one of the four UN vehicles used for field research. I've quickly learned which drivers go really really fast and which ones just go fast. It can be a bit scary going around blind corners, especially once the dust gets kicked up by other vans and trucks. Vision = Zero. Plus goats, cows and chickens tend to roam free and wander across the roads. Luckily they have all managed to dodge the vehicles I have been in...thus far.

The main UNDP office is where the vehicles are based from. So every morning I check-in with the vehicle supervisor to be assigned to an individual driver.

This is a picture of the most common, and as it turns out the most dangerous mode of transportation in Uganda: the boda boda. They zipzag through traffic at alarming speeds and since helmets are not mandatory no one wears them. Interestingly, Peace Corps volunteers must sign a contract stating that they will not ride on boda bodas during their two year commitment. Since I saw one boda boda driver skid on its side this morning with the rider falling off the back I can understand why.

Here's the kitchen I share with my seven housemates. To the left is our front door which has a hole towards the center. Through this you reach in from the outside to lock up the house and then padlock it when you leave for the day. At night when we're all accounted for, we lock the hole shut from the inside so no one can reach through and let themselves in.   

The toilet and shower are in seperate rooms. I am excited to report that we've replaced the shower curtain and although I miss the upside-down penguins from the old, I appreciate the lack of mold from the new.

I haven't had much time to explore all of the shops along High Street in Mbarara but this is the grocery store I buy my bottled water, peanut butter and other dry goods from.

Tomorrrow we (the UW crew) are going to check out the open-air market and do some exploring around town. Then our prof heads back to Kampala (the capital) and we get ready to begin our usability testing on the portable ultrasound systems with the midwives on Monday. It's going to be a full week.