Week 8 - Blisters and Bungee Jumping: A lesson in spontaneity

Well, I don't consider myself an extremely spontaneous person, but lately I have found that sometimes it pays off to do things without thinking about them too much.

On Wednesday, I was about to eat lunch at the small restaurant across the street from our flats when I received a phone call from the director at the Epilepsy Support Association of Uganda (ESAU). That morning, I had contacted him about the possibility of attending a general assembly meeting. I have become interested in studying epilepsy in Uganda, particularly the psychosocial aspects of the disorder, and I thought that attending this meeting might be a good way to show the organization that I was interested in their cause and would like to work with them further.

Now, I received this phone call around 1:40 p.m. The director explained that the best meeting for me to attend was that afternoon at 2:00 p.m. and that it wasn't that far from the university. Of course, I questioned briefly whether or not it was worth it for me to go to this meeting. I wasn't really sure where it was or how useful it would actually be for me to attend. I could have easily said that I was sorry and that I wouldn't be able to make it, eaten my lunch, and worked on my assignment due that evening. Instead, I ran to my room, changed into a nicer outfit, and googled the location of the meeting. I ran back to the restaurant, left money with the others ordering food, and took off to find the meeting.

I let the director know that I would be late and began walking in what I thought was the direction of the hotel where the meeting was being held. Let's just say that I asked at least fifteen people for directions on the way to this meeting, and I certainly walked twice the distance that I actually needed to. This whole time I could feel the blisters forming on the bottoms of my feet, but I kept walking. Eventually, I got to the meeting (about an hour late) and was introduced to everyone in the room as I tried to quietly take a seat in the back. The meeting was informative, but more importantly, I met many of the people involved in the national operations of the organization face-to-face. They were all very nice to me, and I knew that this would be an organization that would want to work with. Since the meeting, I have gone to the national office and found that the impressions I gained at this general assembly meeting were correct.

Overall, I'm glad that I made the split-second decision to go to the meeting. Even though I got terrible blisters (my feet are still recovering), I made great connections with people at ESAU and showed my enthusiasm for working with the organization.

Lesson two in spontaneity is a little less serious. This past weekend, we went to Jinja for white water rafting. We also had the option to go bungee jumping. Now, I have never really had a desire to go bungee jumping. I do love roller coasters, the giant drop and the like, but jumping from a platform with just a rope tied to my feet was never something I felt particularly inclined to do. But I thought, 'Hey, when am I going to get the chance to bungee jump over the Nile River again in my life?' And that pretty much sealed my fate.

Deciding to jump off of a 44 meter-high platform while standing on the ground is a lot easier than actually making that jump off of that 44 meter-high platform, though. I would say I remained pretty calm as I climbed up to the platform, and I was even pretty calm as they tied my feet together. I started to freak out a little bit when they asked me to hop to the side of the platform. I was even more freaked out when they told me to shuffle so that my toes were hanging off of the edge. I looked down when I was told not to, and then all of the guys yelled, "Three, two, one, bungee!" and I just had to jump.

I'll admit, it was pretty amazing, and I'd certainly do it again. I'm glad that I didn't let my fear prevent me from signing up to jump and that it didn't prevent me from jumping when I was standing at the edge of the platform.

So again, I'm glad that I did something spontaneous, something outside of my comfort zone. I'm already planning my next daredevil stunt. Bungee jumping has certainly made me brave.

Location: Kampala, Jinja

Week 4 - Good things come to those who wait

This week I had what I would call my first real run-in with "Uganda Time." I arranged to accompany a team from Butabika National Mental Referral Hospital on an outreach activity. I knew that I wouldn't be able to make it to Butabika in enough time to leave with the group to the outreach location, so I figured that I would meet them at the site. Centurio was gracious enough to accompany me so that I didn't get lost. We made it all the way to Old Park (a crazy-busy parking lot full of mutatus going all over Kampala) before figuring out that it would be easier for me to get picked up by the team half-way to the site.

So Centurio figured out how to get me to Ntinda, where the group from Butabika would meet me, and left me there to wait for their arrival. At this point, I called my contact from the outreach program, and it sounded like she said they were waiting for a driver. Now Butabika is on the far eastern side of Kampala, so I had a feeling that I would be waiting for awhile. Sure enough I stood in the sun in Ntinda for about an hour and a half before the Butabika truck pulled up and I jumped in the front seat. (They picked me up about two hours after the time that the outreach event was originally planned to begin.)

The outreach experience was definitely worth the wait, though. I went with the outreach director, two psychiatric nurses, and a psychiatric clinical officer to a health center in the northern part of Kampala. The health center was located within a school complex that was associated with an orphanage. When we pulled up, there was a small room full of people waiting to meet with the clinical officer. While the outreach director went to resettle a rehabilitated patient in his home, I sat in as the clinical officer interviewed patients briefly and updated their prescriptions.

Once again, I was alarmed by the amount of access I had to the patients' personal information. The clinical officer conducted the meetings in Luganda, but often he turned to me and explained what was happening in English. Through his comments and those of the health center nurse, I learned that many of the patients who came to the outreach event suffered from epilepsy.

Before coming to Uganda, I knew that epilepsy was often treated as psychiatric illness, even though it is treated more strictly as a neurological disorder in the United States. Thus, it struck me as odd that epilepsy would be categorized as a psychiatric issue. I learned, however, that epilepsy in Uganda affects many children, and psychiatric complications often accompany seizures. Because of these psychiatric complications, epilepsy is treated with other mental illnesses. There was also a mention of the tie between epilepsy and malaria, which is something I would like to investigate a little bit more.

The story of a young girl attending the outreach event for the first time provided the most striking example of psychiatric complications related to epilepsy. The health center nurse and adoptive mother of this child described how this girl would hallucinate during her epileptic episodes. As a result, the child would try to run away, jump from high places, and become violent. The mother thought that her daughter was possessed or cursed. When the girl was not having an episode, she was very calm and well-mannered. Luckily, someone convinced the mother to bring her child to an outreach event, and the young girl received medication for her condition for the very first time during my visit.

Overall, I learned a great deal about different conditions that affect people in Uganda and the way that illnesses are categorized differently depending on the manifestations of symptoms. As a result of my visit, I am thinking about working with the outreach team from Butabika or another group on a presentation that would raise awareness about epilepsy. Without an understanding of epilepsy, patients and their caregivers may be confused and not seek medical support as early as they could. Furthermore, stigma is often attached to anyone who suffers from a mental illness, and this need not be the case with sensitization.

I'm sure that Butabika and the health center do a great deal to educate the public about epilepsy and other conditions. Because we were running late on the day that I accompanied the outreach team, I was not able to view the presentation that the group normally gives in the community before personally meeting with patients. I look forward to learning more about the outreach program and epilepsy in Uganda in the coming weeks. My experience with the outreach team was certainly worth the two-hour wait in the sun.

Location: Kampala, Uganda