All is Well That Ends With a Well
Despite having felt like I had been in Kyangwali for weeks, we had come up on Friday, the last day of the mission. Arriving at Health Centre IV, Alex and…
My Journey Through the World of Humanitarian Medicine
An unexpected email on a weekday afternoon plucked me from the comforts of Pennsylvania onto a plane headed for Ivory Coast. The mission: a one-week humanitarian project at the Kyangwali refugee settlement in western Uganda.
Kyangwali, of the province of Kikuube, is home to 130 000 asylum seekers. Our objective for the mission was not just to give money and provide services, but to transfer expertise and build capacity for further growth. Working alongside an eclectic group of impressive professionals, I glimpsed a window into a completely new world that left me with much to reflect on. The lessons learned and mentors made inexorably altered how I saw humanitarian work and laid the foundation for the next phase of my career.
Despite having felt like I had been in Kyangwali for weeks, we had come up on Friday, the last day of the mission. Arriving at Health Centre IV, Alex and…
Roosters and rain signaled another day. Sleepy heads flowed into the dining area for breakfast, and before long I found myself again in the surgical tent with an ultrasound probe…
By this time we had established our workflow, so in the morning after breakfast Alex and I, The Butterfly Boys, joined the surgical team for pre-op evaluations. In the meantime,…
Throughout the morning of scanning pre-op patients, I had scurried off to the obstetrics tent more than once, checking in to start our ultrasound teaching. At 845 they told me…
I was slow to wake on the morning of our second day. This was partially by design, as I was starting to think our departure times of 730 were wishful…
Waking up on our first day, I made haste to prep my things after breakfast. Told to expect pickup at 7, I was ready to go without a minute to…
The drive to Kyangwali was relatively uneventful, although there was a palpable buzz as we packed our bags onto our two green vans. Flooding necessitated a detour that took longer…
Well here we are. It’s been around a year since my last humanitarian project. Thinking back to who I was then, and who I am now, it’s hard to say…