Uganda
Central Region

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    • Day 2

      Ankunft in Kampala und Frühstück

      January 19 in Uganda ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

      Nach 16h Reisezeit landen wir überpünktlich am frühen Morgen am Entebbe International Airport. Keine Probleme bei der Passkontrolle, sogar alle Koffer sind angekommen und werden verladen! Pünktlich zum Sonnenaufgang starten wir unsere Weiterreise mit unserem Fahrer Emmanuel. Nach einem ausgiebigen Frühstück machen wir uns nun bei noch angenehmen 21 Grad auf den Weg nach Bweyale in unsere Unterkunft🤗Read more

    • Day 76

      Behind the Scenes: Uganda

      January 18 in Uganda ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

      🎭 Angekommen in Tansania, blicken wir zurück auf unser Abenteuer in Uganda — ein Land voller Kontraste. Hinter den schönen Bildern steckte oft harte Realität. Hier ein kurzer aber ehrlicher Blick hinter die Kulissen:

      ⚠️ Uganda ist ein 3. Welt Land mit extremer Armut, Zersiedelung, schlechter Infrastruktur und Abfallberge anstelle von guten Gesundheits- & Bildungssystemen. Der Tourismus steckt noch in den Kinderschuhen. Apropos, viele Kinder haben weder Schuhe noch Hosen an..

      🌧️ Wir kämpften mit heftigen Regenschauern sowie überlasteten und gefährlichen Strassen – Autokratzer inklusive. Ein Diebstal kostete uns viel Nerven auf dem Polizeiposten. Unser Dachzelt brach ein und seltsame Motorengeräuschen haben zum Besuch beim Mechaniker geführt. Schmiergeldforderungen und hartnäckige Tsetsefliegen machten uns das Leben zusätzlich schwer.
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    • Day 20–22

      Kampala to Zanzibar - Hakuna Matata!

      February 2 in Uganda ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

      Google Maps reckons that Kampala to Nairobi in Kenya then across to Zanzibar should take about 6 hours. We managed to make this journey last 48 hours and for the first time we had a few travel woes.

      The entry to Kampala was the very last leg of our safari tour and so it was Jasper that navigated his way through the last roadside villages and into the unbelievably busy and crowded outskirts of the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

      We had discussed what the traffic conditions would be like and as it was a Sunday, we expected it to be about a 7 on the Kampala 1 to 10 scale of congestion. What we had not considered, was the start of the new school year the following day meaning that the roads were crammed with children returning to boarding schools that so many of them attend. Bikes, motorbikes, taxis, cars and buses were fully loaded with children wearing backpacks, carrying bedrolls and for some reason, buckets.

      As we hit another delay and with both sides of the road at a standstill, a military vehicle convoy (well 2 cars) with flashing lights cleared a 3rd lane down the centre of the road heading towards Kampala. Jasper seized the opportunity to coat tail the convoy and swung out into the centre of the road behind the sirens and lights. How he avoided a nudge, scrape or a collision was miraculous and when, after about 8kms, he finally lost his bottle and re-joined the crawling inside lane, we spontaneously burst into applause for his daring and time saving manoeuvre.

      Eventually we made it to the bus station, from where we were picking up the luxury coach run by Mash Poa for an overnight journey to Nairobi, Kenya. We had agreed that a scheduled 12 hour overnight coach experience would be all part of our adventure in Africa. Plus, £45 made economic sense.

      We have posted some photos and comments already about how well this plan worked out but writing this a few days later, the irritation of the goddam music and the nuisance of the additional 4 hours on the road don’t matter a jot. What will stay with us will be, the 1am border crossing, the hilarity of thinking that we were on the outskirts of Nairobi when in fact, we were 3 hours short of it and the amazing kindness of a fellow passenger who advised us where to alight the coach and then, realising that we had no mobile data, used her phone to book an Uber for us. It was delightful to be on the receiving end of the kindness of a stranger.

      Our interim destination was a smart downtown hotel that we had been told was bookable for a day pool pass. Within a short space of time, we had swapped our ‘VIP’ coach seats for roof top pool sun loungers, overlooking Nairobi Central National Park and a fab lunch. This was Kenyan Shillings well spent as we were able to catch up on missed sleep and to use the health club gym💪🏻.

      Our overnight accommodation in Nairobi had been booked to be close to the airport. At a cost of £12.97 and after our taxi driver told us that the shanty towns had recently been cleared from that area, we were dreading what we would find. The ‘studio’ was tiny, the bathroom had some of the dodgiest plumbing and electrics that we have seen but for the purposes of sleeping and being near the airport for our early flight on Tuesday morning, it was ideal.

      What wasn’t ideal was then finding that our flight to Dar Es Salam was cancelled and that we were now booked on a 1250 flight instead of 0740. Grrr! This would make getting to the ferry port and catching a ferry to our final destination, Zanzibar, too close for comfort. A quick Skyscanner check revealed a very cheap flight was available at 1630 from Dar Es Salam to Stonetown. Problem solved.

      But not quite. The next day our 1250 flight became the 1320 flight and eventually was a 1410 departure. With a scheduled 90 minutes in the air, catching the next flight at 1630 was looking too close for comfort. We knew we needed to buy visas on arrival in Dar Es Salam so it was a relief when the airline staff marked our luggage as priority and moved us further forward in the aircraft for a swift exit.

      Thanks to the kindness of strangers again and a faster flight, we arrived in Dar with 56 minutes to secure visas, collect our luggage, and switch terminals. The memory of reaching T2, completely drenched from our forced march switching terminals, while hearing our names announced over the tannoy three times, is one we won’t soon forget - particularly as this damn flight was also delayed by 30 minutes!

      Having departed Murchison Falls in Northen Uganda early on Sunday morning, we finally reached our beach bungalow in Nungwi, Zanzibar at 1930 on Tuesday evening pretty bushed but very pleased with ourselves.

      Delays and issues en route are bound to happen when there are so many stages to our journey and we were both surprisingly unruffled by the disruption we had experienced. We agreed that delays on a 2 week holiday are awful but with 10 months (insert smug emoji) still ahead of us, we could afford to say what the locals in Zanzibar say all the time, “Hakuna Matata!” “No worries!”
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    • Day 23

      Lazy Time und Nachtrag

      February 9 in Uganda ⋅ 🌙 22 °C

      Auch wenn bei Melissa, Petra und mir heute nicht viel los war, außer natürlich Reflektion und Evaluation (natürlich in der Sonne am Pool), haben wir doch noch das ein oder andere zu erzählen.

      Während unserer Zeit im Health Center stand auch das Thema Fort- und Weiterbildung auf dem Plan. Jeden Dienstag finden im Health Center unterschiedliche Fortbildungen zu den verschiedensten Themen statt. Beispielsweise durften wir in Woche 2 an einer Fortbildung über Therapieoptionen bei HIV teilnehmen.

      Melissa hatte für unseren Fortbildungs-Dienstag eine Power Point Präsentation zum Thema Ultraschalluntersuchung in der Schwangerschaft vorbereitet. Nach einer ausgiebigen Fragerunde, war ich dann mit meinem Thema dran.

      Finanziert durch Spenden haben wir eine Babyreanimatiospuppe besorgt und mit nach Uganda genommen. Ich hatte eine Fortbildung zum Thema Neugeborenenversorgung und -Reanimation vorbereitet. Schnell zeigte sich, dass der Algorithmus ziemlich identisch praktiziert wird! Ich bekam für den praktischen Teil Unterstützung durch den ärztlichen Leiter der NICU Richard. Gemeinsam demonstrierten wir anhand der Puppe, wie wir mit einem nicht so fitten Neugeborenen umgehen würden.

      Insgesamt waren die Themen scheinbar für alle Teilnehmenden interessant und wir haben tolles Feedback bekommen.

      Morgen beginnt nun leider auch unser letzter Tag. Es tat gut, nochmal ein paar Tage „Urlaub“ zu machen um diese Zeit als Zwischenstadium zu nutzen. Es gibt doch Einiges worüber wir nachdenken müssen, was wir reflektieren wollen. Bei strahlendem Sonnenschein und am Pool geht das natürlich besonders gut!
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    • Day 2

      Nashörner! Ziwa Rhino Project

      February 7 in Uganda ⋅ ☁️ 33 °C

      Auf unserer Reise von Kampala in Richtung Murchison Falls National Park machten wir einen Zwischenstopp auf der Ziwa Rhino and Wildlife Ranch. Dieses einzigartige Schutzgebiet ist der einzige Ort in Uganda, an dem man die majestätischen weißen Nashörner in freier Wildbahn beobachten kann.

      Unser Ranger Derek wirkt entspannt. "Wir werden Nashörner sehen, keine Sorge", lacht er beim Briefung. Und tatsächlich. Nach einer kurzen Pirschfahrt und einem entspannten Fußmarsch durchs Gelände werden wir langsamer und leiser.

      Pffffffff! Wir stehen direkt vor ihnen. Mehrere Nashörner liegen schläfrig unter einem Baum. Ihr Schnaufen ist beeindruckend laut. Kein Wagen schützt uns vor den Nashörnern. Wir sind zu Fuß unterwegs, aber Derek beruhigt uns: "Keine Sorge, ich kenne jede ihrer Gefühlsregungen. Sie sind entspannt. Wir können uns bis auf sieben Meter nähern."

      Auch bewaffnete Ranger mit Kalaschnikows sind in der Nähe. Sie beschützen aber nicht uns vor den Nashörnern. Sie beschützen die Nashörner vor Wilderern. Die haben alle Nashörner in Uganda bis in die 80er Jahre komplett ausgerottet. Jetzt gibt es wieder 47 Exemplare im Land und die sind alle hier auf der Ranch.

      Unser Besuch bei Ziwa Rhino war nicht nur lehrreich, sondern auch inspirierend. Es ist beeindruckend zu sehen, wie engagierte Menschen wie Ranger Derek daran arbeiten, diese majestätischen Tiere für zukünftige Generationen zu schützen.
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    • Day 24

      Shoebill Tour und Aufbruchstimmung

      February 10 in Uganda ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

      Ein letztes Mal hieß es für Petra, Melissa und mich: früh aufstehen! Wir wollten eine Bootstour in die Mabamba Swamps machen.

      Nach anfänglichen Schwierigkeiten den Hafen zu finden (Google Maps war nicht hilfreich :D), wurden wir dann an den richtigen Anleger gebracht. Wir hatten einen wunderschönen Sonnenaufgang und mit einem kleinen Motorboot ging es Richtung Sumpf. Dort stiegen wir in ein kleineres Boot um.

      Ich hatte die Hoffnung, einen seltenen Schuhschnabel zu sehen, aber ich wollte nicht zu sehr hoffen. Aber wie so oft auf dieser Reise, hatten wir einfach Glück. Nach nicht mal 5 Minuten Fahrt konnten wir den Dinosaurier unter den Vögeln bewundern. Von diesen Vögeln gibt es weltweit nur noch etwa 5000 - 8000 Exemplare. Im Mabamba Swamp leben etwa 15 Exemplare. Sie sind tagaktiv, Einzelgänger und sehr territorial. Ihre Territorien sind groß und weil es nur so wenige gibt, kann es sein, dass man tagelang keinen einzigen Vogel sieht.

      Laut Wikipedia sind Schuhschnäbel äußert träge, bewegen sich manchmal stundenlang nicht, fliegen sehr selten und werden nahezu nie beim Fischen beobachtet. Unser Exemplar bot uns heute alles! Fliegen, Fischen, Laufen durch den Sumpf. Meine Kamera hat mich dabei heute mit ihrem Autofokus einfach nur umgehauen und ich bin wahnsinnig happy.

      Danach gab es für uns noch ne Runde Shopping und leckeres Essen im
      Café Javas. Nun lassen wir den Tag am Pool ausklingen und dann heißt es leider auch für uns Koffer packen.

      Die letzten zwei Tage haben uns und besonders mir extrem gut getan. Ich bin froh, hier mit Emmanuel, Petra und Melissa etwas Free Time genießen zu können. Das war ein toller Abschluss dieser Reise.
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    • Day 25

      Abreise

      February 11 in Uganda ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

      Nun ist auch für uns der Zeitpunkt gekommen, Uganda auf Wiedersehen zu sagen. Der Abschied von Emmanuel ist uns nochmal extrem schwer gefallen. Er ist in den letzten Wochen zu einem Freund geworden, hat uns so viel unterstützt und uns das Leben vor Ort so einfach gemacht, wie er nur konnte. Kein Anruf war ihm zu viel und auch die 100. Frage hat er geduldig beantwortet! Danke dafür, er ist für die nächste Reise auf jeden Fall schon wieder gesetzt.

      Ich möchte auch an Euch ein DANKE richten. Danke für Euer Interesse, Danke für Eure lieben Worte und Eure mentale Unterstützung. Danke aber auch vor allem, an alle, die diese Reise finanziell unterstützt haben. Ohne Menschen wie Euch, die bereitwillig finanzielle Mittel in unsere Medizinbrücke Uganda gesteckt haben, wäre eine solche Reise undenkbar gewesen.

      Aber das Projekt ist hiermit nicht vorbei! Derzeit planen wir den Gegenbesuch der ugandischen Kollegen für den Herbst. In etwa 11 Monaten wollen wir dann erneut zu unseren Freunden in Bweyale und Kiryandongo reisen,

      Wer Lust hat uns dauerhaft zu unterstützen oder auch für ganz konkrete Anliegen zu spenden, ist hierzu herzlich eingeladen!

      Empfänger: Antikriegshaus Sievershausen 

      IBAN: DE68 5206 0410 0300 6005 20
      Betreff: „Medizinbrücke Uganda“
      Für eine Spendenquittung bitte noch die eigene Adresse angeben, den Betreff aber nicht vergessen!

      Bleibt diesem Kanal auf jeden Fall treu und für mehr Informationen schaut gerne auf unserer Homepage www. Medizinbruecke-Uganda.de vorbei.

      Falls Ihr Lust habt uns anderweitig zu unterstützen oder ihr sonst noch Fragen habt, sprecht mich auf der Arbeit an oder meldet euch privat bei mir oder Thomas.

      Für jetzt bleibt uns zu sagen: See you again Uganda, it has been a pleasure ❤️
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    • Day 14

      Watoto

      October 29, 2019 in Uganda ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

      After the traffic of last night we apprehensively left the guest house at 9,15 expecting the worse. However traffic was not too bad (compared with the previous day!). Our first appointment was an orientation session at the Watoto downtown church. Here they also run a project where abandoned women can make a living by sewing. The church was once a cinema but during the time of Idi Amin it was used as a torture chamber, however during the subsequent war the founder of Watoto, Gary Skinner, saw it and saw its potential... Watoto is church based and currently helps abandoned women and orphaned children, although its focus is shifting toward the former as thankfully there are less orphaned children nowadays.

      Once we had finished down town we went to the Bbira Children’s village. The village is beautifully kept and on site is a school, church and accommodation where around 8 children live with a ‘mother’. The village also has a medical centre (where Zach will be spending much of his time for the next 2 weeks) and also provides vocational training such as dress making, hairdressing and trades.

      Once we had finished our time at Bbira we went downtown, where we put our bartering skills into practice at the craft market. On our drive back we appreciated the Kampala traffic before getting back to the guest house to play some garden cricket! Dinner and then bed!
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    • Day 15

      Suubi

      October 30, 2019 in Uganda ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

      This morning we left the apartments at 8am (quite promptly in fact, as Watoto it seems do not operate quite so much on normal African timing, so we are trying to be good!). We headed straight to Suubi village, one of the main Watoto villages, about an hour out of Watoto (though probably only a few miles). Suubi is on a hill in a most stunning location with unbelievable views and surroundings. We had a tour round some of the classrooms, the on site goat farm (providing milk for the babies in Baby Watoto, as it is more nutritious and more easily digested), the church (where all 1400 or so children and young people worship every Sunday, and lead services with their music and dance skills). We met the pastor and spent some time chatting in the beautiful sunshine.

      The highlight for us all, especially the boys, was Baby Watoto, an amazing house, large enough to house 80 babies from pre-terms to around 2-3 years. It is also in a stunning location with amazing garden and facilities, including 2 little swimming pools for the children to play in, which is quite unusual as in Africa, most people are afraid of water and unable to swim, but they have recognised that for these young children, the water brings them great joy and they say they are trying to remove the negative memories the babies have usually arrived with, and replace them with positive experiences.

      Most of the babies come to them via the police or the hospitals, mainly because they have been abandoned at birth or worse. The unit has been able to house babies from as early as 28 weeks and often when doctors have thought there is no chance of survival. They had several sets of twins and have also had triplets and quads before! The stories are very moving. When the children reach 2 or 3 years, some are taken back into their biological families, if this is possible and many are taken to the main Watoto village, where they will become part of a family of 8 children and a Mama. There they will generally stay until they finish school, which can be anything from about 18 to 24, as in the Ugandan education system they repeat years until they can pass the year, so it is not unusual to be a year or 2 behind. Today we met Julie who told us her story and she is 17 but is in a class with some 15 and 16 year olds and others older than her. She would like to become a doctor one day, so she had a good chat with Zach!

      We had lunch with one of the families, a typical Ugandan meal of matoke, rice, chicken, cow peas and a delicious ground nut sauce, which Julie had been given a day off school to help prepare for us! It was here that we met Denis, a boy we started sponsoring just before Nathaniel was born, when a Watoto choir visited the island. He actually lives in another Watoto village in Gulu, several hours North, but they kindly arranged for him to come down for a couple of days. We have been (unsurprisingly) useless at writing to him over the years, but it was great to actually meet him, and introduce him to cricket, which we played with the children from the family we’d eaten with, and were then joined by lots of local children, as they all live in houses nearby. Nathaniel managed to hit the cricket ball inside a couple of the front doors, which was quite impressive as they’re quite well spaced out as well as onto a roof ! They don’t normally play cricket but picked it up incredibly quickly with their natural athletic prowess and were particularly impressive at pace bowling too!

      It was a relatively quick journey back to the apartments for a bit more garden cricket and a sit on the verandah, before going to enjoy David the chef’s delicious dinner.
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    • Day 16

      Back to Suubi

      October 31, 2019 in Uganda ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

      We had another good day at Suubi, starting in the Baby house, where Nathaniel spent more time playing with little Emmanuel and Caleb with Caleb! One of the nannies suggested we should bring Emmanuela home with us as she thought it was a bit unfair that I was the only girl and Emmanuela was so happy with Nathaniel!

      We ate our packed lunch (samosas) sitting on the staff balcony looking out over the most amazing view. We also visited the medical centre, where Zach will be based and met Dr Job, clearly in the middle of a clinic but carrying a baby outside to greet us! They have a dental surgery next door (alas no braces, apparently you have to travel ‘far’ for that!), but they did have some very advanced equipment which they demonstrated on Hugh, such that the patient has a tv screen where they can actually see all that the dentist was doing! The machine was a gift from Hong Kong. The only slight thing was the room was divided into 2 sections, just by a small screen, so a poor lady who was having some teeth extracted had all 6 of us in the same room, chatting about the wonders of the high tech machine, hopefully it provided her with a welcome distraction, if not there was also worship music playing , so she should have known great peace.

      We then went up to see Denis again and took a football and cricket stuff up on to the big football pitch where we played for a while and lots of the children joined in as they finished school.

      In the evening, David cooked us a lovely meal of goat and roasted pumpkin, then Judith the owner surprised us with a huge cake in honour of Zephie’s birthday tomorrow (5 layers of chocolate sponge, covered in cream and actually really light, unlike Ugandan cake would normally be, she had bought it from somewhere that bakes for muzungus). What amused the boys was that it was decorated with Happy Birthday Zach! I didn’t have the heart to say as she’d been so kind, but it’s going to seem a bit strange when Zach stays on next week and the Zach she thought, goes home! She’s a really easy character and will probably just be amused. She had us all laughing for the evening about how she loves fried grasshoppers, which are typical around this time of year. Hopefully we might get to taste some before we leave !
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    Central Region

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