HELLOOOOO

Dear PEeps!~ Hello from Northern Uganda! I'm sitting outside the guest house at Lacor Hospital! I'm having an INCREDIBLE TIME with my Social Medicine class. Today we drove out to a rural HIV clinic and had a dialogue with ~150 HIV positive people who are living well, some of them for 16 years, with HIV on ARV therapy. We were able to ask them questions, they asked us questions, and we had an incredible exchange about their challenges, hopes, questions, etc, and learned a lot about what works and doesn't when it comes to medical interventions on the social scale.
Also, thanks a MILLION to those of you who donated, or who still may. I am so fortunate to be taking this class, which evaluates the social, economic, political context of disease and healthcare, & provides opportunities to see & examine patients with the diseases we learn about in their social context. This has given me an incredible insight into doing global health that I never dreamed of before. Thanks in part to much of the input of this class, and to dialogue with my dear Ugandan brother Dr. Francis and other healthcare providers, I have decided to donate the drugs you purchased through your donations to Kitgum Hospital, and let them do what they will with them. By strengthening the public sector health care provider network, we help Uganda's people to put resources where they think they are most needed. THe IDP camp of Puda where we were going to do our mobile clinic is on a list of priorities for Dr Alex, Francis's father, and for Dr Francis and Father Leonsyo, all a part of the team that helped bring Dr. Francis & his mobile clinic to Puda, and so far as I understand things, they will receive medical help, directed through Kitgum Regional Hospital, which will conduct outreach to the camps in an official capacity, instead of me and Francis heading out there to do our own mobile clinics. This means the people will be plugged into the health network centered at the regional district hospital. These plans are still not in any way final, but please know that with what I'm learning here in Social Medicine, and what I'm learnging from my Ugandan Colleagues, I will make a decision that all parties involved believe is the most effective and compassionate.
IN other news, I went for a run today, I'm working out every day, and I'm happy as a clam. I was 2nd assist on a c section yesterday that went swimmingly and I saw a bicorneate uterus to top it all off. Love yo guys! PEace, Nathan