Tuesday, June 10, 2008

The Sounds Of Bundibugyo

So this is one way that I have decided to describe the area around my
house. There are many sounds that are not familiar to my ears in
Uganda. First of all, the local language here, Lubwisi sounds
completely different from any other language that I have heard. It is
a very strange dialect of some language. Who Knows? There is a
workshop next to our house so I get the sounds from there creeping
into my window especially in the early morning. Some animals here make
noises that are very bizarre but I have yet to hear that many.
Occasionally there is a car, motorcycle, or truck that passes by our
compound. The road (using this term lightly) is very bumping so you
can also hear shouts of the people trying to hold onto there stuff.
Drums and singing can be heard if there is some kind of ceremony going
on. We heard them last Saturday. In fact, it continued all through the
night. We believed it had something to do with a funeral. A child had
died shortly after it was born a few days before. However, there are
some noises that are familiar to me. Farm animals all speak the same
language. Cows, Chickens, Goats etc. Unfortunately, there is often a
child crying in a nearby home. You can people laughing and children
screaming for joy when they are playing games with us. These sounds
are very familiar to me.
Today was the first day in the clinic. It was interesting and I felt
more of reason of why we were here. It was sad to see so many kids who
were on the boarder of starvation. Also because of sickle-cell anemia,
many people don't have a high enough hemoglobin count. According to
the RN on the team, in the US, if the person has a hemoglobin count of
8 then they are put in the ICU and have a blood transfusion. Here in
Bundibugyo the rules are different. The person usually doesn't have a
hemoglobin count of above an eight. When the person has a count of 8
the clinic will send them home. Scary to think huh? I feel like health
here is an uphill battle and I am only beginning to learn that. Well I
hope everything is going well!

Peace
-J

1 comment:

Unknown said...

jesse i am so proud of you!
i love you and STAY SAFE!

love you butterfly!

-lauren