Team Uganda: Sunday Funday

After 27 hours of traveling cross country almost everyone, excluding our 2 Pharmacists that will be joining us tomorrow, has arrived in the beautiful country of Uganda. We recharged at the Central Inn in Entebbe Saturday evening and awoke to set out on a 4 hour van ride to our final destination of Masindi.

On arrival, we were served a delicious hot lunch and then walked to the Masindi-Kitara Medical Center (MKMC) that OneWorld Health founded here in 2009. We spoke with Patrick, Regional Administrator, and his team about the sustainable care they provide the community. The key takeaway was that at MKMC they treat with love and compassion and value human life over profit. We were also given a tour of all the facilities and even experienced an afternoon African rainstorm. One of the most special moments at the hospital was in the maternity ward, where we had the chance to meet a newborn delivered by and named after our very own Caitlan Walsh. She is a PA student here doing a Women’s Health rotation for a month and joining our outreach team this week.

Upon returning to the Masindi Hotel, our home base for the week, we got right to work organizing our bins and inventory to prepare for the first day of clinic tomorrow. It was all hands on deck and everyone did an excellent job prepping for the week. We had a mock clinic to acclimate everyone with what to except tomorrow and then finally had a moment to rest before dinner.

We had a special treat after dinner to celebrate Skylar and Jerry’s birthdays! Wrapping up the night, we had 9 volunteers share a little piece of themselves with our group.

Now for a good night’s rest under our mosquito nets to replenish our energy for what is sure to be a beautiful but busy day in clinic.

+ Marianne Carpenter, Former OneWorld Health (PMI) Director of Volunteers, North Carolina
+ Alex Hall, Business Development Specialist, South Carolina