When we woke up this morning, we knew we had a big day ahead of us: a meeting with the Director of Communications and Partnerships at the Uganda Red Cross Headquarters in Kampala.

Haleigh and Amber decided that they needed to do a better job with Western business attire. Scroll down for the end result…

After a quick and healthy breakfast (“If anyone wants Pringles for breakfast let me know, I have a pack opened” -Amber), we braced ourselves for the car ride to Kampala. Unfortunately, our colleagues had underestimated the amount of traffic there would be, so we were a little late. It took us two and a half hours to get there. Haleigh began to wonder how far Kampala actually is from Mukono because they look close together on a map: turns out it’s under 15 miles away. The traffic is just that bad!

We waited for a little in the lobby before catching the Director for a brief meeting before she had another engagement. We walked up the five flights of stairs to her office, only for her to say we had to meet in a bigger room. This room happened to be five flights back down the stairs. After being gently scolded for our tardiness, she was happy to engage with our program and supported our endeavor. Unfortunately, there was no prior communication from the Mukono Red Cross, so there was no prepared formal partnership agreement ready. This means that we couldn’t train the Red Cross instructors this afternoon to be trainers like we had hoped, but we expect the Red Cross to be an invaluable asset once we formalize our partnership and can involve them.

We had lunch at the Red Cross headquarters before heading back on our two and a half hour journey. Luckily, we all took solid naps though we were awakened by the pouring rain. Almost simultaneously, the three of us all wondered why we the car was stopped. Patiently, we waited 30 minutes for the rain to stop so that Edward, the manager of the Mukono Red Cross branch, wouldn’t have to walk 20 feet in the rain. Truthfully, we waited and waited and Edward ended up walking through the rain anyways - laissez faire much huh?

Our naps felt short though after waiting at Airtell (Uganda’s largest cell service providers) for 2 hours trying to activate our cells lines. May one of our readers please explain to us why one needs to present their passport, visa, and get fingerprinted to purchase cell service? Luckily, Haleigh remembered we needed them this time. While Kyrillos waited for Dan to finish setting up the lines, Amber and Haleigh graciously ran to the atm to get us some cash money. Thankfully, we have one line successfully setup.

Haleigh and Amber are pros at not only recognizing but also singing along to all the Ugandan songs now, one of which repeats the word “neteze” a lot. After repeatedly singing it, our colleagues told us it translates to a flirtatious mood, which made us laugh.

After a day of singing neteze and having dinner once again at the Mukono Resort Hotel, we arrived back home. Shortly after, Kyrillos blessed Haleigh and Amber with a pleasant karaoke performance singly along to Hakuna Matatta.

We forgot to include this yesterday, but Hannington told us about a young patient he had come in after a boda boda accident. They were unconscious and had a deformity on their leg. Hannington mentioned they had to resuscitate the patient, which we all thought meant he did CPR. However, he explained in Uganda, resuscitation means giving someone fluids to help them regain consciousness. We asked if they do CPR in Uganda and discovered they call it advanced resuscitation. They also only perform compressions in certain situations and only if it’s witnessed, otherwise they just declare death, which we found fascinating and quite different from US prehospital care. They have no AEDs or airway management for resuscitation here, but this knowledge will help us adjust the advanced curriculum for our training in two weeks.

As you may recall, Haleigh has gotten a few bug bites on this trip. This inspired Amber to do some research on the efficacy of Deet vs Picaridin. While they’re both pretty effective, the most important thing Amber learned was that during one experiment, they used Victoria’s Secret Bombshell perfume as a positive control. In spite of its floral scent, it actually ended up working as a pretty good mosquito repellent (https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/06/30/623865454/a-guide-to-mosquito-repellents-from-deet-to-gin-and-tonic). She’s very excited to put this knowledge to good use back in the states…

Anyways, after living together for a couple days, here are our “domestic” red flags:

Kyrillos: Hates making tea

Amber: Hates folding laundry

Haleigh: Hates taking out trash