“Shortly after we posted the blog last night, I was making chamomile tea for us while Haleigh was getting ready to shower. Suddenly, I heard a scream like no other scream I’ve heard before. I ran towards the noise, knowing something must be seriously wrong for Haleigh— Haleigh, of all people!— to unleash that primal type of sound. And when I see it, I let out a similar yell. The biggest bug I’ve seen yet was scuttling across the hallway floor. I didn’t know what the type of bug it was, but I knew one thing and one thing only: this. was. war.”

- Amber Batra, 6/8/22, 21:57

“I would like to point out that Amber also screamed even louder than I did and tried to spray the bug with bug spray from three feet away, only for it to scurry across the floor towards us. Employing my skills from killing cockroaches in my freshman dorm, I expertly whacked the bug with my shoe, splattering white bug guts everywhere. I swept the remains onto a plate that we will never be touching again and disposed of it while Amber remained armed with her bug spray hiding in the other room. So who’s the real hero of this story, Amber?”

-Haleigh Pine, 6/8/22, 22:03

Yeah, so, remember what we said about attracting less bugs? We must have jinxed ourselves! Additionally, Amber accidentally dropped her toothbrush on top of the wipes we used for bug guts and Haleigh accidentally ran her toothbrush under the tap water (only after brushing her teeth though so it’s fine, we’ll just spend another hour boiling water to clean it). But onwards and upwards….

After the bug fiasco last night, we nearly burned the place down with Haleigh’s attempt at air conditioning, had many heart-to-hearts, and spent over an hour and half trying to boil the water for chamomile tea, which also resulted in us nearly having to evacuate due to trying to figure out how the gas tank connects to the stove. We went to bed around 1am- it’s progress!

This morning we started off the day by visiting the Mukono Church of Uganda hospital and meeting with the medical director to have the staff fill out PETCAT. Similar to US hospitals, there were separate wards for different patients and procedures, such as trauma, obstetrics, pediatrics and radiology. It was interesting to see how parts of the hospital were outside, the broad scope of the hospital (with services ranging from family planning to dentistry to surgery), and that patients are supposed to take off their shoes before entering the Emergency Department. We also saw an ambulance, which prompted us to ask Dr. Hannington how they work. We learned that the ambulances are privately owned by government officials and are not accessible to regular citizens— generally, only healthcare workers have access to the ambulance numbers, each of which have to be individually called and checked for availability since they are privately owned. Haleigh and Amber exchanged one look with each other after finding this out, and we immediately knew our telepathy skills have started working. We both tried to ask the same question at the same time- are we allowed to distribute the ambulance phone numbers to the boda boda drivers we train? The answer was yes! We decided we would make copies of the ambulance numbers and put them in the first aid kits that we plan to distribute to the boda bodas.

We then trekked to the Uganda Red Cross in the Mukono district to explain our project and recruit trainers of trainers (TOTs). The TOT model involves training high performing individuals to continue to disseminate the first aid and trauma curriculum to boda boda drivers after we depart Uganda, in an effort to sustainably train as many drivers as possible. Luckily, the Red Cross just trained a group of locals in basic first aid, so the TOTs will be training already have some knowledge of the material!

After stopping by another clinic to drop off some PETCAT questionnaires, we went on a hunt to find coffee. We settled on a nice café that had delicious African coffee as well as a variety of food and pastries. While Haleigh attempted to finish the entire 30 oz kettle that was the “small” coffee, Amber fielded questions about why she could only have a limited amount of caffeine (there is a valid reason for this one), why she’s not currently married and wants to establish a career before marriage, and US culture in general.

Afterwards, we picked up the PETCAT surveys from the clinics we had went to earlier. One thing Haleigh and Amber thought was really cool was how each place we visited had a visitor book, where we had the opportunity to sign our names and leave a message.

We headed back to the Mukono Access Clinic, and on the way we took a detour through Kiko Market, the biggest marketplace in Mukono. In fact, “kiko” translates to “valley” in Luganda! We saw a lot of colorful stalls with everything ranging from fresh passionfruit to charcoal stoves to textiles to motorcycles. We wish we had more time to explore and check out everything!

We proceeded to have a late lunch at Bell filled with laughter and posho, a local dish made of cornmeal and water cooked together with a side of beans. It was our favorite meal so far and we’ll definitely be going back for more. After lunch, we walked around to more clinics and conducted more PETCAT surveys.

We thankfully got home early today and are planning on having a chill night in to get some much needed rest. One last fun fact for today: our parents finally got the texts we sent from our emergency phone (over 36 hours later)!

Just kidding! Our chill plans went away when we tried to cook dinner as by the time we hungry it was dark outside. We had the fantastic idea to make a grilled cheese sandwich using the panini press in our Airbnb. After sanitizing the panini press and a knife with hand soap and bottled water, Haleigh buttered the bread, cut of a slab of mozzarella cheese and assembled the sandwich to cook. Ever heard of putting a square peg in a round hole? Well, that didn’t help the round panini press plug fit into the square outlet. Luckily, our host graciously gave us an adapter and we were able to continue our cooking endeavors. It was looking good for a while until Haleigh realized she cooked it for too long and put too much cheese on so tried to make it like a “croque monsieur” by scooping the contents on top with a knife. Amber puts full blame on Haleigh for this situation. We’ve compromised to use the bread as a scapegoat. Amber remedied the situation with an extravagant three course meal from the depths of her suitcase snacks (The extra weight from her suitcases did end up being worth it).

As humorous as we try to be, there have definitely been some tough adjustments and challenges we had to navigate that we don’t necessarily mention here. For example, we had a mini (but very cathartic) cry sesh today on the kitchen floor when we couldn’t figure out how to make grilled cheese. Of course this was kind of a combination of all the emotions we have been experiencing throughout the trip so far. However, we are supporting and taking care of each other and are very happy to be here together. Our colleagues even said today that we seem like sisters <3