Haleigh, Amber, and Kyrillos woke up extremely groggy. We got home around 10:15pm, had a conference call with Hannington and Jacob, and had to enter data from the knowledge assessments we give at the trainings, so we went to bed at 2am last night for our 6:30am wake up today.

Of course we weren’t picked up until 8:40 am, (after finding out the boda bodas were going to arrive at 9 am) but we didn’t end up starting until 10:30 am so all was well. Today’s training was much less chaotic which was great for us, but may make for a slightly boring blog (Don’t worry though! We have a couple other surprises from today so keep reading…)

We began to find our rhythm of how present the training, found a way to do some data entry during the training to alleviate the time burden on ourselves, and even managed to throw in more jokes today. The TOTs rarely translate our jokes into Luganda for the participants, but we still appreciate our own humor. When demonstrating why you need to include a sling with your splint to limit mobility, Amber hit Haleigh with her splint repeatedly (but gently!), which everyone enjoyed. In an incident unrelated to the training, Amber also hit Haleigh in the eye today (accidentally), but she has been forgiven.

We did a fun triage activity with the group today, where we assigned four participants different injuries and then everyone else was told to scream and make noise and run around. One eager participant volunteered to identify which patients should be treated first, which patients can wait a little bit, and which patients should be tagged as dead and moved on from. It was a bit chaotic, as most mass casualty incidents are, but everyone seemed to have fun with it. We also showed them how to lift patients and had them use their own boda bodas to practice transport!

Although some people wanted to leave halfway through and one guy just left and never came back, we were able to keep them more engaged than yesterday and didn’t have to rush through any of the content, which we’re counting as a win.

Another win today was the return of Amber’s negotiating skills. When trying to buy water for all our participants from the venue for 1000 shillings per bottle, Amber was told she had to pay the standard 2000 shillings per bottle. After saying no, walking away, and waiting it out for an hour and a half, they agreed to the 1000 shillings, and everyone was happy and hydrated :)

After the training, we made the 40 minute trek of a walk on a mission to get pizza. Funnily enough, they brought us to Eunie’s kitchen, the same place we went with Sammy last weekend and have ordered from multiple times. We all split two pizzas - one with sausage and one with chicken - which although yummy, Kyrillos and Haleigh agreed it was not as good as New York pizza. For some reason, Amber likes deep dish pizza, but we just ignored her opinion. #sorrynotsorry

On the walk home we saw an open field and decided this was the perfect time to test Devir’s claim that Haleigh can’t run. Haleigh has been challenging Devir to a race for the past week, but he’s been chickening out. With the peer pressure of five different people, Devir was finally pushed into a race with Haleigh. After interrupting a soccer game and drawing a starting line, Kyrillos officiated the race while Amber took video evidence. It started off great until Haleigh’s hiking shoes got the best of her and she tripped just inches away from the finish line (see the visual evidence here). She’s completely fine though, just some scratches! Everyone claims she was winning though, even Devir, which is yet another win for today. Kyrillos then also took the opportunity to race Devir, which ended better than Haleigh’s even though he lost (See it here).

Some other noteworthy additions from today:

-Kyrillos tried to convince Haleigh and Amber he had become fluent in Luganda because he knew what number we were on in the pre-test that was being delivered in Luganda… over only for us to discover we were not actually

on that number until 20 minutes later.

-Amber said she’d venmo Kyrillos $20 if he tried a peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwich (an item offered on the Mukono Resort restaurant menu). To Haleigh and Amber’s surprise, he said he’d do it for free! When that happens, we will be sure to post a whole video of the endeavor so get excited!

“Do you think I’m funny?” -Amber to the TOTs

“Not really” and “a little bit” -TOTs

“No I don’t think you’re funny” -Devir

“I would like to add that by the end of the training one of the TOTs actually said I was very funny” -Amber

-Devir’s favorite color is red because he “has red blood cells”

-We met this adorable little girl at the access clinic today that fist bumped all of us. Haleigh made a secret handshake with her and Amber taught her the clapping games “pattycake” and “Miss Mary Mack.”

At home, we did more data entering, ate veggie straws and goldfish, and tried mango and ginger tea. Overall a pretty successful day as we anticipate our 6:30 wake up time again tomorrow!

“This is an aesthetic, like calming vibes” -Amber labeling participant certificates

Haleigh demonstrating how to put gloves on!

Can anyone tell us why Amber is smiling while being tourniquetted? (Yes that’s totally a verb)

Again, Amber smiling in a mass casualty incident while simultaneously screaming for help….

A scene from our triage activity! The contest continues- private message us what color tags you would give each patient for a chance to win a dinner cooked by Amber and Haleigh! (Not Kyrillos because he apparently actually cooks)