So I've never blogged before, but given that I am leaving for the other side of the world in 11 days (!!), I figured there's no better time than now to start! It is my understanding that our "home base" will have internet access, though it is spotty at times (and yes, it is dial-up...Mark and Brian I am sure you have no idea what I am talking about). I am going to use this blog as a way to update everybody and keep in contact with everybody back in the states.
This week I have really started getting excited about our trip! It seems like this semester has absolutely FLOWN by. I'm sure a few of you are wondering about the recent international developments and how that will affect our trip, so I'll speak to that a bit. We have received emails from our program directors who have been in contact with trusted individuals in the city we will be staying and they are confident that given the current conditions we are safe to travel. (Though I have to admit that upon hearing of Osama's death, I googled a world map to make sure that Turkey, our layover country, was not near Pakistan!) Unfortunately it seems like anytime you go abroad "these days" there is a certain amount of risk Americans take no matter where they go, but the UW is very diligent when it comes to their students studying abroad. They are giving our group several cell phones for international calls, arrange all the transportation to/from the airport, and will immediately get students out of the country should any threat arise. (Thought I would throw that in for you, Mom and Dad :-D )
Now for the fun stuff! Here is an overview of my trip!
I will be accompanied by 7 other PT students and 2 professors in our program. We are leaving O'Hare at 10:20pm on May 13th, and will arrive in Istanbul 10 hours later. After a short layover we will head down to Entebbe International Airport (the only one in Uganda) on a flight that will take 6 hours. We will then travel by road to Kampala, the nation's capital. We will be staying in a gated/locked (Mom and Dad, ahem, cough cough) community on the grounds of the main university in Kampala. The students who went last year said that there is a sweet lady who makes everyone's beds/changes the sheets and makes breakfast for us in the morning! Can't complain about that!
For the first two weeks we will be spending our days in Mulago hospital, working as "physiotherapists" (what PTs are known as by most of the world). Each of us will follow a PT in that hospital and help them do their daily rounds. As a side note, a student who went last year said that one PT they saw over 100 patients in one day! It will be very different from any PT experience I have had thus far. I am really looking forward to being in such a different setting, but am definitely a bit nervous that I will just be "thrown in" there as a real PT and will be a bit overwhelmed at first by how different a hospital in Uganda is!
After the two weeks in Mulago hospital, we will move to a rural city called Nkokunjaru (not sure if that's spelled right...). Here we will be staying at a convent with local nuns. We will be working in an orphanage here, helping children with things such as cerebral palsy, hydrocephalus, etc. The atmosphere at this location sounds like it will be a little more relaxed in terms of patient care. I am really looking forward to meeting all those little kids!!
Oh yeah, and then there is the non-PT stuff, like rafting down the Nile River, going on a Safari to see lions and giraffes...no big deal... ;-)
OK, well that's a lot of writing for not having left yet! Only 11 days, 3 finals and one presentation standing in the way of me and Uganda!!
Updates to come!
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