What doesn't kill you makes you stronger!

I’ve been MIA from the blog mostly because not much has happened in the past week to write about. We had to wait for the database coding to be fixed before we could proceed; however, that was completed and now we’re entering data just fine. We actually have a lot of free time and flexibility with our work now – since it’s just entering data and organizational tasks, we can do it whenever is best for us.

It’s easy to feel a little useless being here, especially with such a lax schedule; I could be doing most of this from home and I’m not really performing any hands-on, public health interaction/work with the local population. Then I tell myself that it wasn’t my duty to be doing so in the first place. My main priority is research and just being here and learning about Uganda, its PH delivery and the numerous challenges are all important lessons for me. It really is true what they say about actually experiencing something to really understand it. Books can only do so much.

I got two amazing infections since my last writing – and if that kind of thing grosses you out, skip ahead because I feel like venting about it. The first was on my upper left eyelid, right on the tip (I didn’t know I had a pore there!). The lovely thing decided to get huge before I finally steamed it out. My roomie gave me some antibiotic drops for it so my entire eye wouldn’t get infected. The second was of lesser concern until it blew up; what started out as a little pimple below my right eye turned out to raging, flesh-eating bacteria. OK, I’m exaggerating a bit, but it was seriously the largest, most painful and most difficult to relieve infection I’ve ever had. It refused to leave my body until just yesterday and there’s now a perfectly round hole/crater on my face – but it’s healing just fine. I guess it comes with the territory. Maybe I'll have an enhanced immune system upon returning; either way, I definitely won't miss the bug bites, infections, and other unidentifiable bumps.

Other than warding off bacteria, I’ve been watching a lot of football (you can’t miss the World Cup games when out for dinner), exercising, and reading. I’m actually heading out for a weekend in Kampala in a few hours to get some new scenery for the weekend. We’re going to try to go white-water rafting in Jinja - the source of the Nile! We can choose between class 3 or 5 rapids. I say 5; you get a helmet.

38 days gone from home. 47 more days in Uganda. Thinking of my family and friends and missing them.