Mountains Beyond Mountains

The walk up the hill to the KIHEFO compound

The past few days have been beautiful. Kabale is located in the mountains of southwestern Uganda, about a mile above sea level. The town is very hilly, with larger houses and hotels located higher on the hills overlooking the town center. The KIHEFO compound is about halfway up Makanga Hill, one of the nicest parts of the city. Right above the compound is a golf course and a very nice hotel called the White Horse Inn—the oldest hotel in Kabale—which were both brought into existence when Uganda was a British colony.  I love looking into all the hills here; earlier this evening a lot of us went up to the Inn and got a drink and looked out at the hills. I already love it here in Kabale, and have seen and learned so many new things in the past few days. 

Another picture of the walk up the hill

African Time

We got tentative schedules on the first day, but we’ve slowly been learning that everything here works on a much slower pace than it does back home. For example, breakfast at 8:15 really means breakfast at 8:45. While at first this was hard to get used to, I’m starting to appreciate how nice it actually is. Everyone here is so relaxed, and no one seems to be in any hurry to get anything done. While this was frustrating when things weren’t working when we first got here, I’ve started to realize that there is rarely anything that needs to be done right away, and have started to enjoy just being here and taking everything in. (Side note: the internet here also seems to run on what the KIHEFO staff call “African time”, so my blog posts may be a bit sporadic).

Now that we have finally completed our orientation, we officially begin working at the clinics tomorrow, starting with grand rounds at 7:30AM (before breakfast). Then in the morning I will be working in the general clinic and the HIV/AIDS clinic, and in the afternoon will be going to the nutrition wing of a missionary hospital with one of KIHEFO’s social workers to see how the hospital is different from the KIHEFO clinic. However, every day has gone differently than planned so far, so we’ll see what happens!