We arrived!!!!

Miracle of all miracles, we made it out of New York’s storm and made it safely to Uganda, bags and all. We were met at the Entebbe airport by Babak, one if the other students who had come a few days earlier, and a car from the hotel. We celebrated with a few beers and hit the hay, it was midnight here and after > 30 hours of travel we were exhausted. We woke up early ready to make the 12-hour trek to Kisoro, in the southern end of the country. Luckily we did it in style in a private van. And had an amazing trip, we stopped at the equator monument (I have now been to two parts of the equator). We saw lake Victoria, Lake Biyurin and all its beautiful glory; we passed magnificent scenery. On the way we stopped in Embarara to visit the main teaching hospital of Uganda. Einstein used to send residents to this hospital, but with the help of the British faculty, we were no longer needed. After all my work in third world countries, I was still shocked at the condition of the hospital. Each ward was one large room packed with beds with no sheets, no curtains, reeking of infection and death. Families were camped out all around the perimeter of the hospital making food and caring for their afflicted family member. We finally arrived to Kisoro at 7pm. We met the head doctor and then went to unpack and make our house home.

The house: The house is much better than Limon standards but still slightly roughing it. It is four bedrooms each with a single bed, so we each have our own room, with a single bed, gracefully draped with a mosquito net. There is a kitchen with a portable gas stove and fridge. There is an indoor toilet and bathroom, just no hot water. So far we have been taking bucket showers with heated water. I guess some habits die hard.


We will be staffing the “internal medicine” service. There is a men and women’s ward each with about 30 beds, with the women’s side usually being overcrowded.