Off to Uganda!

Wow, the last time I posted here was in June of 2006. Good thing Barbara's so much better at posting regularly than I am!

If you haven't noticed, the blog title has changed to Esselinks in Uganda. Yes, just as we went to Nigeria two years ago, we're heading to Uganda this year. This time it'll be for just a month, but we're every bit as excited as we were last time. The path to get to this point, however, has been quite different. When Barbara was looking for residency programs at the end of medical school, one of the first things she would ask about was whether or not there would be an opportunity to practice abroad during her residency. She feels very strongly that doing so is not only of benefit to the communities that she goes to serve, but also of great benefit to her own perspective as a physician here in the States. If you've read any of her past bloggings on our trip to Nigeria, you know that we here in America have a lot that we can learn from other cultures. At any rate, Providence Portland (PPMC) was one of those residency programs that Barbara inteviewed with that partners regularly with a hospital overseas to send residents there. In PPMC's case, that hospital is located in Eldoret, Kenya.

So last fall, Barbara heard from her program director that she'd be able to accompany them on their trip to Kenya this march. We made preparations and also started to investigate whether or not I would be able to come along. Then, Kenya held their election in late December and amidst accusations of vote rigging, the nation erupted in violence. Eldoret was one of the places affected greatly and from what we've heard, is still somewhat unstable even as Kofi Annan works to resolve the political crisis. I decided for sure that I would be going along with Barbara regardless of what affect that had on my current employment. I just felt very strongly that Barbara would not be going alone, and that passing on an opportunity like this was not something we were willing to consider. Despite the unstable situation, we were still eager to go to Kenya. We knew from Nigeria that the western press isn't typically a good indicator of the situation as it really is. Often, the danger is overly dramatized and the implication is that it's more widespread than it is in reality. At other times, you simply don't get any information at all. For example, in Nigeria, we spent most of our time in Jos, nearly a full day's drive from the coastal region where the oil related kidnappings have happened, yet the western impression of Nigeria is that the entire country is rife with it. We felt none of that in Jos and thought that perhaps Kenya would be similar.

As it turns out, that wasn't really the case. The word we got from various people in Kenya was that the violence was indeed less frequent than the press made it sound, but it was taking place in Eldoret and the neighboring areas. While the residency director didn't tell us we weren't going to be allowed to go, it became fairly clear that was what would happen. We were hoping that we'd be able to go back to Jos instead, but PPMC said no to Nigeria. I guess because it's not a country they've gone to before and the oil region has enough problems to scare people about the rest of the country. Fortunately, Barbara connected with a local physician planning to head to Mbarara, Uganda this March, and things have worked out so that we'll be able to go along there instead.

Just like we did for Nigeria, we'll try to post regularly while we're gone about the trip and our experiences there. Internet access will probably be rather limited, so I don't know how much we'll really be able to post, but we'll certainly write about it and post later if we have to. If you're interested in supporting us, please just pray that the trip would go well and that it would be both safe and a great learning experience for everyone involved. We hope to be as respectful as possible of Ugandan culture but we're sure we won't fully understand everything. Our dogs Sophie and Teddy will be staying with our neighbor who has a chocolate lab. The four of them get along tremendously, so no worries there. Finally, do pray for Kenya as what's gone on there over the past two months is just very tragic. I can't begin to understand the depth of emotion that has led to the current situation, but I do hope that things resolve peacefully from here forward.