Days 7 & 8: Weraba, Kampala!

WARNING: Some photos may be graphic. Those with a weak stomach should scroll through them quickly. Day 7:
Our last day at Mulago Hospital and Makerere Dental School came too soon. The second group, Marc, Leilah, Stephanie, and Astin, had their turn in Oral Surgery Theatre where they got to see a neurofibroma, hematoma, and ameloblastoma with part of the mandible removed.

The second group in oral surgery theatre

Starting a new trend with scrubs

An ameloblastoma and part of the mandible removed

Leilah examining an x-ray

We really enjoyed oral surgery
In the dental clinic, Jenn and Bianca explained the purpose and use of a rubber dam to seven dental students and demonstrated with a typodont and patients. They went around and helped all the students during treatment. A lot of the students were doing root canals, so Jenn and Bianca helped guide them to the proper use of single tooth isolation while assisting them in the procedure. Dr. Butler also assisted in root canals and demonstrated some of the local anesthesia techniques that she discussed in her lecture the day before (see Day 6).

Bianca demonstrating how to use a rubber dam

Jenn working on a patient in the dental clinic

After lunch, we had our second Lugandan language course and focused specifically on dental terms that we would be using in Kakooge at the clinics. After the course, we said our final goodbyes to all of the wonderful Makerere faculty and staff who have been so generous and kind while we were in Kampala.

This week we have gotten close with some of the dental students and oral surgery residents and instructors, so we set a goodbye dinner date at a popular Chinese restaurant. They had stayed at the hospital in oral surgery theatre all day up to the point where they went straight from the hospital to dinner at 7:30pm. Over a few spills thanks to the lazy Susan and great conversation, the oral surgery team took us out for a night on the town! It was a night to remember and our hugs goodbye didn’t last long enough. We all wish that we weren’t separated from our Ugandan friends by an entire ocean.

Team Uganda!! ♥

Day 8:
Our pal, Sam, met us in the morning to show us around the craft fair aka “bargaining galore”. We can’t wait to show our family and friends the surprises we got, thanks to our bargaining training in Uganda. We came home to our house host, Maragaret, wearing an extravagant ensemble because she had just returned from a wedding.

The craft fair

Margaret and her family coming home from a family wedding

We packed up our excessive amount of bags and hit the road to Kakooge with a quick pit stop at Matuuga friary. We were greeted by the kind friars with fresh spread for lunch that included Matooka, a traditional Ugandan food, fruit, rice, beans and casava. We had an early wake up call at 10:30pm to the sound of the friary’s ginger kitten in pain. Their German Shepherd guard dog reminded us of the crazy dog from The Sandlot. They call him Meeska, when they should really call him Cujo. We thought the friars were joking around when they said they had to go buy kittens every Saturday. We lost a kitten tonight and knew exactly how it went down with Astin as a witness, who might be scarred for life.

Our Ugandan meal at the friary

Too many supplies? Never!

Days 5 and 6: The Whole Team United!

Day 5:
Today we woke up early because some of us were headed to Oral Surgery Theatre! Half of the group went to the theatre in the hospital and the other group went to dental clincs. The theatre is basically an operation groom at the hospital where an oral and maxilla facial surgeon assisted by two dental interns extracted an ameloblastoma on the posterior right mandible of a woman in her thirties. Ashton, Bianca, Jennifer and Astin watched the surgery after they had to remove everything head to toe and suit up in hospital boots, scrubs, and hairnets. The other group, Marc, Stephanie, and Leilah headed to the general dental clinics and watched perio residents, including some pedo patients. The diagnosis and treatment planning are actually very similar to what we do at UNC, minus a few exceptions.Lunchtime came, and boy were we hungry. We were thrilled to discover among a seemingly modest gas station, there was the jewel of Kampala, Cafe Javas. Marc indulged himself in a brownie sundae, Leilah, Astin and Jennifer enjoyed a chocolate milkshake and the food was great. To top it all off, FREE WIFI!!

Astin, Jenn, and Bianca suited up for Oral Surgery

Everyone excited to get some Wifi

Day 6:
Today was another eventful day at the Mulago Hospital! Some of our team got to do their oral surgery rotation. Was a hands on experience? Yes. Can we share details? YES. Leilah got to drain an abscess and Stephanie was able to anesthetize, biopsy a piece of tissue from a tumor, and suture (fully supervised of course). The other half went to the dental clinic and got to do some root canal treatments. Bianca did an intrapulpal injection and Jenn removed pulpal tissue. At lunch we randomly ran into a graduate from Chapel Hill! She is doing research in anthropology at Makerere and ended up coming to dinner with us. Right after lunch, Ashton taught her lecture on alternative injections and pregnancy considerations when treating patients. She did a fantastic job!! Five o’clock came and Dr. Farmer finally arrived. Now we have both our dentists with us and the entire team is finally together! We spent the night out to dinner with everyone and made our way back to the house to rest for a long, but last, day in Kampala.

A little fun with the kids in our rounds in the ward

On rounds in the ward

The beginning stages of Stephanie's biopsy

Ashton's lecture to a crowded room full of Uganda students and faculty. She did a great job!

We finally have both of our dentists!

Bianca, Astin, Stephanie, and Jenn at dinner

Day 4: Ndi Musawo W'amannyo

In English, "I am a dentist"...It was clinic and oral surgery rotation day at Mulago Hospital and Makerere dental school. After a warm welcome of coffee and peanuts, we divided into two groups and set off across campus to either the dental clinic or the oral surgery clinic. The oral surgery group had the opportunity to cover an entire textbook worth of rare cases in a few short hours.

Freshley cracked peanuts as a delicious snack

The dental clinic group was able to discover that the process for making dentures in Uganda is actually identical to that in the United States. After a group rendez-vous for lunch, Marc surprisingly ran into the dental student host from last year’s trip to Uganda. After a quick photo-op and lots of smiles, we made our way to our Luganda language crash course. We learned everything from “How are you?” to “Touch where it hurts” and shared a few (or more) laughs trying to grasp the pronunciation. We also picked up some cultural tips. FYI: do NOT hug someone in Uganda. We adventured back out after a long walk home and a lengthy rest to make our way to Casablanca, an outdoor restaurant. As embarrassed as we were, we ordered American pizza, which was a welcome reminder of home.

One of the groups in the dental clinic

Marc and Ben reunited!

"Oli otya?=How are you?"

A taste of America

Day 3: "I Feel Like...Chicken Tonight"

Outside our new home for the week, Nufu House

Our team with the Luis, Chairman of the Makerere Dental Department, and our Ugandan advisor, Annet

We awoke for our first day at the Health Science campus of Makerere University. Little did we know we’d end up walking 8 miles by the end of the day thanks to all the “shortcuts”. There we met the Dean of the Health Science Program, President of the Uganda Dental Association (UDA), the Chairman of the Dental Department, as well as numerous other faculty and staff. We discussed the issues facing dental care in Uganda and our efforts in upcoming collaboration with the UDA and Makerere in Kakooge. We then went to the Ministry of Health to meet various staff and made our way with growling tummies to one of the campus eateries, “The Good Samaritan”. YUM! Another delicious traditional Ugandan meal. Our hostess from the Ugandan dental school took us around the dental clinics and Mulago Hospital where we found out that the dental students have to pay for ALL of their own supplies (x-rays included)! Mulago Hospital is one of the largest public hospitals in Uganda and people travel from all over the country to receive treatment. So as you can imagine, the hospital stays very busy.

Makerere University Dental Clinic

On our way to the grocery store to grab some more water and snackies, Bianca took a tumble. And by tumble I mean, sliding down a red, dirt hill feet first, then rolled over onto what she thought was trash. Guess what!?! It was actually two children covered by a blanket. Bianca screamed, “Oh my gosh, it’s a child!” She got up remorseful, but the screams and howls from the child expressed through the salty water droplets rolling down his cheeks drowned out her many apologies. Leilah quickly grabbed her and ran towards the rest of the group. The kiddo was okay, but I think just a little shocked or emotionally scarred. For dinner we all felt like eating chicken, so we went to “I Feel Like…Chicken Tonight”, basically the Ugandan Bojangles. Fanta, fried chicken and chips filled us up and the ketchup tasted like sweet n’ sour sauce from McDonald’s. It was another dinner full of laughs and good times with our wonderful Ugandan host, Sam. We ended the night once again in our mosquito netted/princess canopy beds.

The Ugandan Bojangles

Days 1 and 2: "Welcome Completely"

The journey begins...

DAY 1: The stopclock ended at 27 hours of travel time, but we finally made it to our Nufu House on the Makerere Univeristy campus in Kampala, Uganda!(minus the unfortunate event that a jar of peanut butter was taken by TSA) Just so everyone knows, we made it through without a hiccup, safe and sound with all bags accounted for. We started our journey bright and early out of RDU at 6am, waiting for our plane as we watched Marc chow down on a burger at 5:30am, then we landed at the Dulles aiport, made our last phone calls for 3 weeks, and headed out to Ethiopia on a 13 hour flight across the Atlantic. Dozing in and out of naps and killing time watching movies, we landed in Ethiopia with a round of applause from the passengers and made the last leg of the trip to Uganda. Our wonderful drivers, James and Wilson, picked us up and took us to our temporary home-away-from-home at Makerere University. Crossing the street here reminds us of the game of Frogger, except real life...and you don't get 3 lives. We spent our first team dinner out together as a celebration of getting through our crazy journey in and out of airports and celebrating all the great things to come. Driving through the streets of Uganda today, finally made it feel like reality and made us realize even more that we wouldn't be here without the help of others.

DAY 2: After a very healthy, well-deserved sleep in (2:00pm) we left for our tour of the campus and the city, very well-rested. We were greeted by our host for the week, Sam, a 2nd year pharmacy student from Makerere.

Snack break in the City Centre

Sam gave us a tour of the campus and took us around the city center before we headed to Ndere Centre to watch the cultural dance group, Ndere troupe. They took tribal dances from different regions all over Uganda to give us the ultimate cultural Ugandan experience. Our meal was definitely something we've never had before, goat. Don't knock it til you try it, friends. At the end of the performance, the audience themselves got to show off their dance moves on the stage and have some fun with the troupe. Jenn bonged it out on a Ugandan drum and Steph shimmied with one of the African dancers. It was a night to remember and a great way to kick of our Ugandan journey. We are very excited to start our work tomorrow at the dental school, so stay tuned!

the Ndere dance troupe

Enjoying some traditional Ugandan food with our new friend, Sam

Uganda Packing!

The 2013 Uganda team is excited to head out on their journey FRIDAY MORNING!  After a long, exciting year of fundraising - it's finally time.  The supplies have been packed, personal belongings have been tucked in the extra space, and the group is ready!

We wish the team safe travels and hope their bags make it WITH THEM this year!  Follow the blog to watch the team get acquainted with the beautiful people and places in the pearl of Africa.

Uganda RAFFLE!!

The Uganda Project is excited to announce that this year's group will consist of SIX students (one returning from last year) and TWO dentists!  We are gearing up for this summers trip and in the middle of doing lots of fundraising! 

Please help support the Uganda Project by using the links to the right to purchase a raffle ticket or two for some awesome items!  A handmade quilt, and some great signed UNC sport's stuff! 

Stay tuned to the blog for more pictures and updates on this year's Uganda Project.