Hi there!
Another week has gone by and i still cannot decide whether time goes by fast or not...
I spent most of this week at the camp, learning about the daily routine and facilities. Going around asking a lot of questions is rather exhausting, especially when the person
opposite of you doesn't seem to be interested in making any changes. Staff there comes and goes when it pleases them, what a good life ;-)! I have to take the role of a police
officer now, telling them what to do and what not to. I'm not too fond of this position! I also have to take care of their working and holiday plans... big disaster!
But it is quite nice to see how everything develops and improves, especially the women's center. The work with the TBA's (Traditional Birth Attendants) is very nice. We meet
once a week and teach them about risks at birth and when to refer a case to the clinic etc. They seem to be grateful and always thank us with a dance and a song.
Living in the camp is much more basic than in Gulu. You can't go anywhere at night, there is no privacy, no electricity (even though that's also a big problem in Gulu), no proper toilet,
no fridge, and the shower consists of 4 walls without roof, a jerry can with rainwater and a plastic cup. But actually it is a nice experience to live like this for a while, I start to
appreciate the for us so ordinary things,a lot more, and I'm always happy to go back to Gulu.
Next week will be an intensive onel. I want to get in contact with the community health workers. They are responsible to do followups in the camp, make sure the people
take their malaria drugs right (which they often don't) and educate them about health risks. They also screen the population and provide us with the collected data. Unfortunately the
data they give us is very unreliable, so I will have to keep an eye on them. Another job for police officer Anne! But it could actually be quite interesting to walk around the
camp with them, to get a closer look on it.
My head is loaded with all the tasks and all the different info that I collected this week. It's getting better than last week though, so there is hope ;-)!
I know my way around Gulu by now and the people staring at me is not bothering me so much anymore. I've even learned to drive around in the big Jeeps we have, but it took
sometime getting used to drive here! The roads are very bad and the people don't pay attention to the traffic!
That is it for now. Life is very slowly getting into its routine.
Take care Anne