Arrival in Bundibugyo!

Here's a brief preliminary post just to get this blog up and running.

After two long flights, a night in Kampala, and an 8 hour drive, I've arrived in Bundibugyo! (That was actually two days ago).  The drive out was complicated by a truck lying on its side blocking the road a few miles from Bundibugyo, so we detoured on a remarkable bumpy and steep road, but Heidi's driving was great and we got here with no problem. 

I was pleasantly surprised by my house - it's bigger and nicer than I expected. It was built for a family of five, so living in it alone makes it pretty spacious. My toilet is a pit-latrine out back, but it's probably the cleanest one I've ever seen.

Everything has been hectic and getting settled has been tough, but I guess I shouldn't expect anything else. Here are a few highlights:

- On the first day I went with Dr. Scott to Bundibugyo hospital in the morning and "helped" him with ultrasounds for problem pregnancies. I say "helped" because I definitely slowed him down. I was recording data into the hospital log, but I had to ask for help with almost every name that I saw, since I have no idea what names are like here yet. But he showed me how to read and interpret the ultrasounds, which was really interesting. The hospital was not something that would be recognized as such in the States. There's electricity from a generator, but it doesn't run all the time. There are several wards, rather small, concrete buildings. I didn't get a tour of the whole place, but I'm sure I'll be finding my way around soon. We also visited Dr. Jonah's grave, (Ugandan doctor who died during the Ebola outbreak last year), which is there at the hospital. It was a meaningful time, and his loss is clearly still felt very deeply.

-I went to the Saturday market yesterday, which was a great, but wild experience. Fish, meant, vegetables, and hundreds of people crowded together, all in the heat of the equatorial mid-day sun, with no refrigeration. It will be fun to find my way around there.

-I ate my first goat meat, as well as my first matoke  (kind of like mashed plantains) and posho, a starchy white root. So, far, Ugandan food seems pretty good, but we'll see what I think in a couple of months.

-Finally, a great story from one of the children of the family that runs Christ School, the secondary school here. As I was walking with 6-year old Quinn, he looked up at me and said, completely out of the blue, "Actually, I don't find you boring to be with at all! I find you fun, and intelligent." It was one of the funniest things I had ever heard.

There will soon be more interesting things to post about, as I get more exposure to the culture and figure out how exactly I'll be fitting in to the team, but I wanted to start relaying a few of my experiences. 

Nathan