Fellows Blog: Day 22

Amber: “How do we feel about 2000s pop? I have a song stuck in my head… *plays Spotify and dances around as she gets ready, leaving Kyrillos and Haleigh to watch slightly confused but mostly amused*

Haleigh: “What flavor electrolytes do we want today? Also, do we want pink lemonade or normal crystal light?”

Kyrillos: “Good morning! That’s a big rooster.

Good morning!”

We hope you enjoyed that snapshot into our morning routine from the time we wake up to the time we make our way to summer gardens. Anyways, today we decided to have the TOTs set up the venue, so we (intentionally!) left fifteen minutes late this time. We arrived on scene to find nothing set up and two TOTs on their phones, with no boda bodas in sight either.

One of our TOTs told us it’s Monday, which means that people show up late. So naturally, our 9am training started at 11am— and with less boda bodas than we were hoping would be present today. We also realized that, when our pre and post tests had been translated from English to Luganda, a few words were dropped so that so that the meaning got lost in translation. So, we once again used the English version and had the TOTs translate on the spot, like we’ve been doing the past week. We composed a team of our best TOTs to help translate it for us to check it line by line sometime during this week.

However, the smaller class size ended up being a blessing in disguise. The bodas bodas seemed more focused and engaged than the ones who trained last week. We trusted two of our best TOTs to do half of the presentation by themselves (the parts we went over with everyone yesterday) and then we did the other half. We’re glad to be working towards making our program more sustainable!

For lunch (and by lunch we mean a 4:30 pm meal), we were excited to try a place with samosas that our colleagues recommended. They assured us the food was clean and it was a restaurant, not street food. However, we discovered the samosas had been sitting on a display case since they were made this morning. Sadly, we had to make the decision that not to eat them for safety reasons. We instead went back to the restaurant where we buy lunch for all the boda boda drivers to get our standard shared plates of rice. A nice surprise today was the addition of peas onto our meal! We all agreed they tasted much more like lentils than peas though.

After Kyrillos helped negotiate the bill to actually pay for what we ordered (an everyday occurrence now), he and Timothy went off to buy data for our wifi device while Haleigh and Amber rushed back to our venue for our second day of TOT training. A little thing or two before we talk about our TOT training- Pause here for an extended interlude on our wifi extravaganza:

The last week, we have used 35 gb or data… or so we’ve been told. Given that we have been using virtually nothing besides whatsapp and google sheets, we don’t think we actually used all that data. Kyrillos and Timo took a stroll all the way to the Airtell store and figure out the problem. Little did we know that someone hacked into our wifi device and has been using it. No problem though, we got it all settled. The random Ugandan line is no longer attached to the wifi device and hopefully we’ll have no more wifi thieves.

Back to the TOT training— today we reviewed splinting, triage, victim transport and documentation for almost 3 hours. We ran our triage drill 7 times to ensure they understood and again provided feedback after each slide they presented. We all had fun asking the TOTs some of the common questions we get from boda boda drivers, including if they’d get reimbursed for money to make phone calls to the ambulance, if they should still treat an injured person if they’re in Kampala instead of Mukono, and if you should run to those screaming the loudest or those that are unconscious during triage. At the end of our training, we gave them all the post test again, with hope they’d get almost all (if not all) of the questions right this time.

Amber thinks she did a fantastic job intimidating them a little while explaining the post-test (even Haleigh was scared!) but the TOTs laughed at her afterwards and called her “baby lamb.” Amber then tried explaining Machiavellian philosophy to the TOTs (“it is better to be feared than loved”), only to have one the TOTs reply that it is better to be respected than either of those things, which we are doing successfully (but they also love us apparently so who knows).

For the second night, we went back to the same restaurant as yesterday to have some local beans and chapati. In the middle of the our meal, a villager stopped by, paused at the door, made eye contact with Kyrillos and in  surprise said, “I’ve never seen a Mzungu - meaning foreigner - eating beans and chapati.” Kyrillos, being fluent in Luganda,  understood it as a compliment. Kyrillos responded with a gentle “there’s a first time for everything” and greeted him according to local customs. For the remainder of our time at the local shop, we exchanged some hi’s and bye’s, finished our meals, and went our way. We gazed at the night stars and appreciated the clear skies which was interrupted by the need to cross the street, but we managed alright.

Discussing what injuries to use a boda boda and what injuries to call an ambulance for

Two of our TOTs demonstrating bleeding control, featuring Haleigh’s face when they forgot to mention there’s a surgical blade in the first aid kit

Kyrillos stole Amber’s hat today in retribution for Amber’s crimes yesterday

Also yes Amber and Haleigh are again in matching outfits today

Attempt 4/7 for our triage activity

Amber couldn’t manage to hold any boxes or mattresses on her head but we’re all very proud of her for getting this water bottle!

Particularly so because of her previous difficulties with water bottles here.

By the time we got to the post test in our training it was very dark out!

Post-training selfie! Somehow they were still in a good mood after we made them train for 3 hours and then take a post test. Also Kyrillos is now accepting photography tips from Amber after this blurry and grainy photo. Also, we are also confused what Devir is doing with his face.

Amber thinks our dinner tonight looks more appetizing than yesterday and was insistent we include it