The Tea Estate

My future site: Mcleod Russel Uganda Limited Tea Estate, Mwenge Health Center III.

First impression of the tea estate is awesome, how lucky am I, I can't believe I can call this place home for the next two years, and wow, I hope I can work effectively enough to earn my place here. And all of that was just the scenic beauty of the countryside.

Miles and miles of tea fields.

As far as the clinic is concerned, my first impression is holy crap, they do amazing work for the villagers, it is clean, calm, organized, well equipped, and the services they provide are far beyond anything I could have imagined. Since they are a Health Center III, most critical cases are sent to the neighboring Health Center IV. That leaves them to focus on supporting health living and preventative medicine. They work closely with the Village Health Team in outreach programs and education. They target expectant mothers and children, advocate a well balanced diet to combat malnutrition, provide family planning, malaria treatment, immunizations, and free testing and medications for HIV and other STDs.

I am a bit apprehensive about how I will fulfill my duty as a health volunteer. I can teach young adults the basics of nutrition, proper hygiene, and the importance of safe sex... well, I could if I could speak the language!

Oh yeah, the icing on the cake, I saw monkeys in the trees on my first night! It was close to sunset, I went for a short walk hoping to see some birds, and I spotted monkeys. They were very close and jumping through the tree tops to get a better vantage place to look at me. There was maybe 15 that I could see. They were black and white (mostly short black fur with two white stripes of longer white fur down their sides), they had a long black tail with a puff of long white fur at the tip, and they were medium size, bigger than a capuchin but smaller than a baboon. They were very cute, hoping around the branches and peering at me through the leaves.