Good morning from “the other side” - how our team refers to the United States. In our opinion, though, that’s just a matter of perspective- so hello from the other side :)

We had a meeting with the District Health Official (DHO) at 9 am. After establishing the importance of arriving early during our evening meeting last night, we agreed that Kyrillos, Amber and Haleigh would be picked up at 8 am. That is, we were picked up at precisely 8:47 am, and of course, more important than the meeting, we stopped to fill up gas. Haleigh and Kyrillos were pleased to see there were gas attendants to fill up tanks for the drivers - “just like home in New Jersey!”

Even though we were 15 minutes late, we had the pleasure of meeting the president of Uganda upon our arrival as we awaited the rest of our team and DHO- please see figure 1. We definitely were not still waiting for the DHO at 10:12am. Did you know that anyone can enter into the district health offices? In other words, the local supermarket we visited yesterday had more security than the Ugandan equivalent to the US Senators’ office. When the government officials arrived around a quarter past ten, we had a pleasant and productive meeting. We all introduced ourselves and presented our project proposal to them, which got a lot of support. We’re super excited for our partnership with Mukono government and very appreciative of all their encouragement! We must say though, while all was good and dandy, we could not take a single organized picture despite our many attempts to- it was quite dysfunctional, but the moment was captured in our hearts forever.

We made our way over to the training center at summer gardens, where Haleigh broke out into heat (and possibly stress) induced urticaria. No projector, no tent, no supplies, a surplus of forms that we don’t need printed out and a shortage of printed out certificates that we did need. But no need to worry! After some shenagaling, we were set to start our first training. There were a couple bumps in the road: the power went out three separate times, and Haleigh’s laptop died before our final topic, so we had to present from pictures on our phones. The boda boda drivers also wanted to leave halfway through to get back to work, so we had to try extra hard to keep them engaged and motivated to finish the training. We ended up skipping one of our fun activities to practice triage and were a bit rushed through practicing splinting and transport. However, we know the first one is the hardest, and we hope it only gets easier from here!

Overall, we had the blessed opportunity of training 18 boda Boda’s who are now certified in first aid. Please see the attached photo to share in this happy moment with us. Additionally, please note how Haleigh looks at patient bæ and how patient bæ looks back at Haleigh. We successfully made it to the end to pass out the first aid kits, and the boda boda’s were on their way! On our walk to dinner, we proudly saw two of them serving in their LFR designed vests - go team!

Tonight, we had a pleasant dinner at a restaurant serving local eats and walked home with Devir like super models on a red carpet - that is, with fashion, elegance and delight. Cheers family, friends, comrades, and dear ones!

We had a similar experience at this dinner as last night when we again realized nobody had called any of the boda boda drivers to tell them to come tomorrow. Kyrillos graciously helped Freya call 30 bodas at 9:30 pm at night to ensure they come for our training tomorrow. Another fun fact we learned is that bodas won’t show up to the training if we schedule it before 10 am because they have lots of business with morning traffic. So we will now be going from around 10 am to 4 pm without food (which may be worse for us than for the participants, stay tuned!)

Some other fun news, Devir’s favorite show is Vampire Diaries, which was playing in the restaurant at dinner. We also learned Amber is his favorite fellow, followed by Kyrillos, and last but certainly not least (unless you’re looking through Devir’s eyes apparently) is Haleigh. Haleigh hopes this is just because she was busy during this conversation and plans to at least work her way up to number 2.

Kyrillos also needs to learn how to beat Haleigh and Amber in tic tac toe.

“I didn’t lose” -Kyrillos

Truthfully, though, Amber and Kyrillos tied (only because he went first! -Amber) and Haleigh’s brain is so fried that she forgot whether she was X or O on her second move.

*all pictures posted with consent from involved parties

Figure 1: We met the president of Uganda!

Believe it or not this was the best picture we got. Haleigh and Amber would like to add that yes, they are wearing the exact same clothes as yesterday due to severe underpacking of Western Business Attire as well as a touch of laziness…

Our snazzy brunch at the district health office

Our venue when we arrived (12:17 pm)

Setting up the tent at 1:14 for our 1 pm training

Kyrillos expertly showing how to put on gloves

Amber telling Haleigh she doesn’t need her help and can do first aid on herself (to demonstrate obtaining patient consent. or when she accidentally cut herself with the surgical blade. You can choose the context).