"Letter" home or memories from trip

I was having my work placement in Uganda, Kampala. I study nursing in Centria for a second year. 

Reason I named this as a "memories from trip" is, that I had to come back to Finland earlier. I had an accident that worsen my condition (Discus Prolapsis) and had to come for an operation back to Kokkola.

Uganda was nice. When we first arrived Entebbe, Uganda around 5am in the sunday morning, I could´nt help but wonder how smalll the airport was! After all, Uganda has around 42 million residents. But everything was well organinized by our host university. We had a driver waiting for us and we soon got to get going. 

City was quiet that time of day but we could still see alot people moving by car, walking etc. First thing I noticed was the poor condition of roads. Uganda is one of the poorest countries in the world.

It took around 1.5 hours to get to our hotel and in some point we were in disbelief, does the driver really know where we are going. But we got safely (and tired) to our hotel and that day, we mainly rested. 

Next week we started working by getting to know our host university, Clarke International University. It was located in top floors over an hospital. Staff there was very friendly and we got to taste local cuisine. We spend the week by visiting different work placement places, mainly hospitals and health centers. This was the week when I hurt my back. Roads are awful over there. And the traffic..

I managed to still work by the power of medicine for 4 weeks, first 2 weeks in Rotom health center which was mainly for elders but had younger customers aswell. That time was amazing, we got to see how people live in rural areas. We had a "party" where we praised and sung and had a nice dinner after that. I learned alot about laboratory work. Patients were regurally inspected of malaria, HIV etc. Staff was friendly and guided us. 

Next 2 weeks I spend in Angelina Health Center. It was class 3 health center (scale is 1=best, 4=lowest). It is kind of same nursing than here in Finland, we give medicines, take care of the patients etc same way BUT there is alot more patieets for 1 nurse than here in Finland. Overall rate is that they have 1 nurse for around 1400 clients and here in Finland its around 12 (?)nurses for 1000 people. Example, there was 1 day a week, when there was vaccinations for small children. There might have been like 15 people in a small room, and nurse would just give vaccinations for the child and call next. It took around 2 minutes to give all the vaccinations for a child. That was efficient on its way..

Over all, I miss Uganda. I miss the team, my fellow students. I cherish the memories we had together and would invite anyone to try travelling. You get hooked.

Stay alive

Kyösti