Wednesday, June 16th

We went back to the Namungalwe Health center this morning as the last time we were there the MO was too busy to receive us (poor planning). So this time we scheduled an appointment with him only to find he was still in Iganga when we arrived around 10am. However, Nurse Nalwoga was there (she had talked at UVP intern orientation) and she was able to give us an informative tour of the grounds and answer some of our questions. I also scheduled a time to come back on Friday and speak to her about nutrition and the feasibility of training and educational program in the village. The hospital is a Level 3, and contains a laboratory, maternity ward, HIV clinic and dental room. I’m not sure how many actual doctors and nursers work there…it does seem to be short staffed. The laboratory looked like a lab you would see in a high school back home with some specialized equipment…but not much. The maternity ward was simply rows of beds with a wool blanket (patients must provide their own sheets and there is no surgery theatre to accommodate cesarean sections…so in that case mothers must be rushed to the hospital in Iganga.
We also heard about a research project that was being carried out in Namungalwe sub-county on malaria. We asked a few questions and the researcher wasn’t too revealing. We were able to find out that they had been working on the project over the past year and had trained community distributers to pass out rapid tests and coartem to village members when they were sick…at least that was the experimental group….I wasn’t able to figure out what the control group was because he wouldn’t tell us the research question…it was all a bit shady and unrevealing, but I liked the idea of the trained community distributer who
Our last stop on the door-to-door surveys was inspiring. An older woman, probably around 50 greeted us and welcomed us into her humble home. She was absolutely beautiful. Her face was so distinct and she had a warm twinkle in her eye. There was just something different about her. Everything about her was warm and generous, from her smile to offering us seats on her most comfortable furniture. She answered all of our questions and talked about how she was born again…how she trusted in God to take care of her and her 4 children. She had such a strong faith. (update…the next day she sent yams to us as a gift…so so sweet!)