A few mini-adventures in Gulu
I hear its really hot in Toronto today … it is SO hot like that every day here . Except no air conditioning also. Then when it rains, it comes so fast and so hard. Hope everyone’s surviving back home though!
Sal is pretty sick today. He thinks he ate bad chicken. So we just did some data entry. We did learn a bit about the healthcare system though. Before my mom left she made us promise to call her friend if we felt sick, so we called him and he told us to go to his clinic so Sal could get some prescription medication. Uganda has a free public health care system (known as the village health centers and town referral hospitals) as well as a parallel private health care system. The problem with the public health care system is that it is no where near the quality as the private system and many procedures and drugs do not end up being free. Anyways, we figured we’d see how much the private system cost. Sal went in for 2 minutes to talk to a doctor - no examination, just talking. He was then prescribed two drugs. The drug cost 1500 USH for about 20 pills whereas the 2 minute consultation cost 4000 USH. The fact is these prices are nothing (2500 USH is equal to 1 dollar) so it seems like generic drugs are pretty accessible to the public.
A few days ago, we called a women we’d met at a conference and went to do a focus group at a nearby primary school with her and the other teachers. It was pretty crazy. There were 19 teachers and 1000 students enrolled in the school. That averages out to 53 students per teacher. But we learned that it got worst. It seems that because there weren’t enough classrooms, between 100 to 200 students sit in every class. And the conditions are not only bad for the students, but also the teachers who work in public schools. Like the students, they said they often just eat one meal a day. When they are paid (and their pay is often delayed), they earn only 40,000 USH per month (equivalent to about 16$ a month or 8 meals in Uganda). This is an incredibly low salary (lower than even the guys who drive motorcycle-taxis), and it makes teaching even more difficult. We had a good discussion with them about the effects of the war on their education system, and they then had many more questions for us about our education system in Canada. They’d really like to link up with a primary school in Canada and build a sort of partnership, so for all those to-be teachers, schools abroad really like these types of projects.
A few random stories.
There is a baby at our hotel who is the CUTEST. I wish I could upload pictures of him. But like many other babies, he is scared of muzungus. But I have slowly trained him. After a week of trying to approach him today I played with him and held him for half an hour and he was happy and never cried! Probably my biggest accomplishment of the day :)
In other news, while I stood on the street corner, a taxi driver proposed to me. It seems in Uganda that this is completely normal. When you meet a girl you think you could like, our friend explained to us, you just marry them. No use getting to know each other it seems! And whenever I explain, I’m too young too marry, I’m still in school!, people seem to be so confused because 20 could be pretty old to get married even. Clearly some very different norms here.
Hoping to meet our NGO contact who has a camera plug so I can upload some more pictures! We have some pretty funny ones!
:)
Sal is pretty sick today. He thinks he ate bad chicken. So we just did some data entry. We did learn a bit about the healthcare system though. Before my mom left she made us promise to call her friend if we felt sick, so we called him and he told us to go to his clinic so Sal could get some prescription medication. Uganda has a free public health care system (known as the village health centers and town referral hospitals) as well as a parallel private health care system. The problem with the public health care system is that it is no where near the quality as the private system and many procedures and drugs do not end up being free. Anyways, we figured we’d see how much the private system cost. Sal went in for 2 minutes to talk to a doctor - no examination, just talking. He was then prescribed two drugs. The drug cost 1500 USH for about 20 pills whereas the 2 minute consultation cost 4000 USH. The fact is these prices are nothing (2500 USH is equal to 1 dollar) so it seems like generic drugs are pretty accessible to the public.
A few days ago, we called a women we’d met at a conference and went to do a focus group at a nearby primary school with her and the other teachers. It was pretty crazy. There were 19 teachers and 1000 students enrolled in the school. That averages out to 53 students per teacher. But we learned that it got worst. It seems that because there weren’t enough classrooms, between 100 to 200 students sit in every class. And the conditions are not only bad for the students, but also the teachers who work in public schools. Like the students, they said they often just eat one meal a day. When they are paid (and their pay is often delayed), they earn only 40,000 USH per month (equivalent to about 16$ a month or 8 meals in Uganda). This is an incredibly low salary (lower than even the guys who drive motorcycle-taxis), and it makes teaching even more difficult. We had a good discussion with them about the effects of the war on their education system, and they then had many more questions for us about our education system in Canada. They’d really like to link up with a primary school in Canada and build a sort of partnership, so for all those to-be teachers, schools abroad really like these types of projects.
A few random stories.
There is a baby at our hotel who is the CUTEST. I wish I could upload pictures of him. But like many other babies, he is scared of muzungus. But I have slowly trained him. After a week of trying to approach him today I played with him and held him for half an hour and he was happy and never cried! Probably my biggest accomplishment of the day :)
In other news, while I stood on the street corner, a taxi driver proposed to me. It seems in Uganda that this is completely normal. When you meet a girl you think you could like, our friend explained to us, you just marry them. No use getting to know each other it seems! And whenever I explain, I’m too young too marry, I’m still in school!, people seem to be so confused because 20 could be pretty old to get married even. Clearly some very different norms here.
Hoping to meet our NGO contact who has a camera plug so I can upload some more pictures! We have some pretty funny ones!
:)
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