Animal Kingdom!

DEBBIE:

The beginning of our trip involved a few slight setbacks in the form of purse-theft in Kampala followed by tricky bank troubles in Fort Portal. However, after a couple of stressful days we put these inconveniences behind us and started to enjoy our newfound relaxed and stress-free lifestyle!

Fort Portal, in Western Uganda at the foot of the Rwenzori Mountains, offered us the chance to stay at the interestingly named ‘Exotic Lodge’ which cost us a grand total of £1 each for accommodation per night! Although far from exotic the rooms were clean and the staff were kind, which made our stay really enjoyable. The weather here was a far cry from the super hot Gulu that we were used to but with our raincoats packed we decided to take a trip out of the town to explore the countryside on mountain bikes. The views from the hills were quite spectacular and as we were cycling we constantly heard the choruses of the local children shouting ‘how are you, how are you, how are you!!!’ Mzungus (white people) on bicycles seemed to cause the locals a lot of amusement as they stared and giggled at us. We were unfortunate to get stuck in an almighty rain shower on the way back to Fort Portal but we warmed up with some good local style food back at the lodge.

KAREN:

Our onward travel took us to the Mweya Peninsula in Queen Elizabeth National Park – 1978 sq km of animal heaven! Staying deep within the park perimeters, the night air was filled with the sound of roaring lions, laughing hyenas, grunting hippos (‘ho ho ho’) and trumpeting elephants. Hearing activity outside our bedroom we were astounded by the sight of two elephants passing by our window! Watching the rangers trying to move them on was like a game of cat-and-mouse as more elephants continued to arrive and tear down trees! During our time in the park we saw hundreds of elephants, often way too close for comfort as they came within metres of our vehicle. An evening game drive proved to be the most exciting but perhaps the most hair-raising and exhilarating of our experiences. Driving back to our accommodation, a sizeable herd of elephants reluctantly took their time to clear from the road. A few minutes later a baby elephant stood alone in the road distressed at being parted from the main herd. Almost immediately a hippo ran across our path followed by 2 savage hyenas. We sadly learned that the elephant calf later became dinner for the hyenas. I can only describe Queen Elizabeth National Park as one of the most magical places on earth!

DEBBIE:

From the north of Queen Elizabeth National Park we travelled south to Ishasha, hoping to see the native tree climbing lions. After 7 hours of game driving in Mweya without spotting any lions, we were hoping to catch some down in Ishasha. As we drove from the park gate I heard a gasp from Karen sitting in the front seat of the car and we stopped to see 2 lionesses sitting by the side of the road!! We were also lucky enough on our game drive the next day to see a male and a female lion on the roadside. We were ecstatic to finally see these amazing creatures.

Our accommodation resembled a local style hut with great views over the savannah. The ranger who guarded the site was not too reassuring when he told us that, the previous night, the campsite had been stalked by 4 lions! The evening was full of animal noises (which was slightly scary) and we had a visit from a bat in the middle of the night which caused us some amusement as we tried to coax it out of our room!

KAREN:

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park became our next stop. With an altitude span of 1160-2607 metres, the steep rolling rain forest mountain scenery and countless tea plantations felt very unlike Africa! The purpose of our visit...to trek the endangered mountain gorillas. The Ugandan jungle-forest is home to half of the 700 surviving gorillas worldwide. The remaining populations live over the borders in Rwanda and The Democratic Republic of the Congo. Conservation efforts only allow the Uganda Wildlife Authority to release 24 permits a day to trek 3 different gorilla families within the park and so it is a privilege to view these magnificent animals. Our trek followed the path of the Rushegura gorilla family. Lead by a humungous silver back male we were fortunate to view 16 of the 19 family members, including two babies. Such breath-taking animals! Visitors are restricted to 1 hour viewing and a 7 metre distance rule to prevent the gorillas becoming overly familiar with human contact and to reduce the risk of disease transmission. As we watched on, the unruly group ran down the hill onto community land and wreaked havoc in a banana plantation, causing much damage to the crop, and indeed the livelihood of a local farmer. Pulling down trees and crushing the crops, the animals had a right old feast, swallowing bananas whole before the rangers eventually chased them away. We were relieved to hear from the land owner that gorilla-trespass is only a bi-annual event.

To have viewed so many animals in the wild has felt like a dream come true and the most magnificent reward for all our efforts and hard work over the last 6 months. May the good times continue to roll in our remaining 3 weeks in Uganda!

(Disclaimer: Photos to follow when decent internet connection available, in the mean time we encourage you to use your imagination! Thank you very much for your patience!)

Good Bye Gulu!

KAREN:

The time has come to say goodbye to Gulu! Our mission is now complete! What an incredible 6 months we have had here in Uganda! Whilst volunteering at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital has been the challenge of a life time, we will forever cherish the memories and friends created by this experience. Goodbyes have been far from easy...

DEBBIE:

We've had a week of saying our goodbyes to the great people of Gulu...and what an emotional week it turned out to be! We were overwhelmed by the reactions of our Gulu friends to our leaving.

Our friend Rosemary who is a tailor in the market spent a whole afternoon trying to find us at the hospital and around town to present us with a bag and two purses each that she had made for us! Such a generous gift from someone who has very little for herself. She found us sheltering from the rain in the local cafe where, minutes earlier, we had reduced our waitress friend Maggie to tears when we had told her that we were leaving the next day. We had explained a week previously that we were leaving Gulu but Maggie said that she had thought we were joking! She then wrote us both lovely cards thanking us for being great friends to her and her niece Rita. A phone call then came through saying that Flavia, one of the nurses from the hospital, had arrived at our house with gifts for us! Flavia left us two wonderful figurines of Acholi people in Ugandan dress on bicycles which will be great reminders of the alternative travel that occurs in Gulu! Karen's had a pregnant lady on the back of the bicycle and mine had a huge pile of Matoke strapped to the back! (savoury green bananas). The kindness shown to us has been amazing.

We were fortunate to be able to share our final week with some very enthusiastic colleagues from UHSM who were busy teaching the medical students of Gulu University. It was a great opportunity to share some of our experiences and have a small piece of Manchester with us as we said goodbye to Gulu. The group were full of great characters and although the week was extremely busy for all involved (courtesy of the Icelandic volcano!) we enjoyed having them to stay and we hope that they enjoyed their visit...despite a gas leak, constant power cuts, water shortage and then, ironically, a flooded house!!!

KAREN:

The hospital arranged a farewell party in our honour. Expecting nothing more than a small gathering of staff, we were quite taken aback when an hour before the party we were presented with a formal agenda of speeches, and a marquee was erected in the hospital grounds! It really brought home to us how much our work has been recognised and valued by the hospital staff. Many kind words of gratitude were spoken compounding the emotions we were already feeling at saying goodbye to people that have not only been our colleagues but also our friends. Sadness soon turned to laughter when the 'Master of Ceremony' declared that at the end of our speech, Debbie and I were to demonstrate our best Acholi dance moves! We hope and pray the video footage is never made public!

DEBBIE:

Our final contribution to the Medical Ward at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital was one of the most satisfying achievements that we could mention. With the remainder of the money from the Easter distribution and some new donations, we hoped to provide every bed on the Medical Ward with a mattress with a waterproof cover. Unfortunately, when we went to the market to do some research with the Senior Principal Nursing Officer from the hospital we found that the best quality mattresses were far more expensive than we had anticipated. We decided to order mattresses for half of the ward, feeling frustrated that we were unable to fund the whole ward. It has been extremely upsetting for us to see so many sick patients lying on bare bed springs and we really wanted to change this for all of the patients.

In a great turn of events, after Marian Surgenor, our Global Health Link Lead, discussed the situation at the hospital, the Medical Superintendent agreed to match what we had been able to buy ensuring that the WHOLE ward could have new mattresses! Karen and I were overjoyed and can't wait for them to be delivered next week! Thank you to all those who donated towards making our patients on the Medical Ward much more comfortable.

KAREN:

Despite all the tears, frustrations and sorrows, our Gulu experience has been nothing short of amazing and thankfully the good times have far outweighed the bad. It would however, be fair to say that coming to terms with the clinical conditions at the hospital was difficult to say the least. Words and photos fail to do justice to the poor conditions and the reality of life in Northern Uganda. Working in a developing country, we expected resources to be limited but when basic necessities like gloves, needles, syringes and cannulas weren't available, with a constant absence of essential drugs, it made for a desperate situation.

I like to hope that Debbie and I have made a difference, even if its just a ripple in an expansive ocean. If nothing else, we made patients and their relatives smile as we amusingly attempted to master the local Acholi language! In a farewell speech, one of the consultants commented that he thinks patient number may have increased during our time at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital as many local people wanted to be cared for by the two 'mzungu' (white) nurses in town...I'm not sure our aim was to actually increase the burden on hospital facilities!

The support shown to us by our families, friends, and UK colleagues has been overwhelming and has meant so much and been extremely encouraging. We were particularly spurred on in our final weeks when we learnt that we had received a 'One Talented Team' award from the University Hospital of South Manchester (UHSM) for our work in Gulu - we are now officially award winning nurses! Now the time has come to hang up or uniforms and spend the next 5 weeks travelling around the South, East and West of this beautiful country that we have been fortunate to call 'home' for the last 6 months. Watch this space for the next chapter of the Karen-and-Debbie Uganda travel adventures!