Moving around, wisdom from Derrick, and being a Muzungu

I recently moved out of the Mulago Guest house to another temporary housing facility. The guest was nice and close to the hospital, but the cost was too much. I was paying 60000 Ugs/night, which came out to be about $720/month—more than I would pay in Minneapolis most likely. Every local person that I met said for that price there is no way that I should be sharing a kitchen and living room. I started to walk around the area to find a new place and found a hotel about a 10 minute walk from the hospital in Wandegeya. The Rock Classic Hotel was half the price of Mulago, also included a free breakfast, and offered free Wi-Fi. I was sold.

I moved into the Rock Classic and shortly after I was able to contact someone with an actual room open in a house, also near Mulago in the neighborhood of Kamwyoka.  I checked out the room and house. It was pretty nice; my room is small but it has all I need. Its good that I found a permanent place because the hotel was located on a main road, and I heard cars and horns all night. I now live with a guy from the UK and three Ugandans. It is really nice to have some local friends to hang out and watch out for me!

When I was living in Wandegeya, I noticed after a day or so of moving in that not a lot of Muzungus (or white people) probably visit this hotel or stay in Wandegeya. A very busy, congested, and local place, it doesn’t offer good long term housing that most Westerns would deem appropriate, nor does it offer a nice hotel for short housing.

I really enjoy going to the local hole-in-the-wall places to get food, and there are so many options near the hotel….fish and chips, a burger, chicken, Ugandan food, or a Rolex (eggs rolled in a chapatti…Roll-eggs…Rolex). Many times when me and my buddy John (another white guy) walk into a more local place we get some surprised stares… sort of like saying, “White guys don’t usually come in here, wonder what they want.”

I am really enjoying talking with Derrick during my time at the hospital. I am continually learning what an amazingly driven and down to earth man he is. Getting Derrick’s local perspective on topics and just hearing his life story in general is inspiring. One of Derrick’s biggest life accomplishments has been winning an all expenses paid grant to further his education in Hematology through study at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston for 2 months a few years ago from the American Society of Hematology. His stories from his time in the USA could entertain for hours. From spending 2 hours trying to figure out how to use a washing machine, to his attempt to get painkillers from the pharmacy to help with his toothache, he talked about how different the United States is from Uganda. He also talked about how he really felt black for the first time in his life. He was “a different kind of black. African black. Not African-American black. African black.” He said that people could tell just by looking at him that he was from Africa. He said their eyes sometime gave the “what is this guy doing here” look. He said he loved America, but missed Uganda.

Prior to receiving this grant, Derrick had applied for a United States visa (and failed) over 10 times. He said that the feeling of finally getting approved for a visa was something he will never forget. One of the proudest moments of his life… “I have had my taste of heaven, Paul. Even if it was just a few months. No one can take that away from me. I learned from the best. Now I am back in hell trying to make a difference in the largest government hospital in Uganda. Not many people make it to the US from here, but I did. I will never forget that.” You can read more about Derrick’s trip to the USA here in a feature from ASH. I will devote an entire post to Derrick and his life in the future, as he needs to be recognised as the amazing person he is. I seriously think that there needs to be a book on “Derrick Quotes”.

Derrick also talked to me about what my presence meant at the hospital. As I spend most of my day on the labor ward collected umbilical cord blood, I am seen by many mothers in labor. They all assume that I am a physician and ask for my help. I constantly explain that I am not a physician, and cannot do anything medically to help them. I try to assist the midwives where I can, such as with getting supplies, weighing babies, and cleaning up. Derrick says just by being a white person that’s seen as apart of the “delivery team,” the mothers are very grateful for my help and will tell everyone in their village that a Muzungu helped them deliver. He said its sort of an honor for them. In comparison, he then went on to ask me about what I thought would be the reception from patients if he or another African came to America to do similar work. I didn’t really know what to say, but I told him that I did not think it would be a similar honorable experience.

Apart from doing research with Derrick at the hospital, I recently went out of the city a bit to visit a non-profit called Community Transformation Network (CTN). Through my friend John, I met a Ugandan man that started CTN with the goal of helping small business owners grow their business by providing small grants that help in expansion. It was a very interesting and unique program that seemed to be making a difference in the community. CTN works by selecting members of the community and providing a small business workshop to help expand business education. At the workshop, participants form small groups based on similar interests in business and are awarded a grant as a team. Usually the grant is in the form of animals to raise and then sell for profit, and the profit is invested back in the participants individual businesses. I thought that the teamwork approach was very unique and a great idea. It was great to learn about this organization, and to learn more you can visit the website.

I also was able to go with a few people from the US embassy to visit another Fulbrighter, Nick, who is studying the Chimpanzees out in western Uganda near Fort Portal. What a different Fulbright experience Nick and I are having! He lives in the middle of the forest at a research camp and tracks/takes pictures of chimps all day. It was great to get out of the city and see some of the Ugandan countryside. We had a great time out west!

There are pictures below of Fort Portal and the Chimps, my new house, Derrick and I with Mr. John Mendesh (one of my Evans Scholarship advisors that came into Kampala for a bit), some kids that were at the local market, Mulago Hospital. My internet is pretty bad so I can't add captions to them right now because it is not formatting correctly.

Unrelated to Africa, I also thought it would be important that I should let those reading this know that I have some received some good news from medical schools. I have been accepted to the University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin, and Mayo Medical School. I do not know where I will end up yet, and I have until May to make my decision. I am excited and fortunate to have choices!

I promise that I will try to do a better job updating this! Really sorry its been such a long time in between posts.