Dr. Ruby Dunlap’s Uganda Fulbright Blog
Karen Drake is a tall, strong woman whose primary home is now Minneapolis but who has spent most of her life on foreign missions of one kind or another. She lived with her parents in Japan until she was 17 years old, becoming fluent in all things Japanese.
Monthly Archives: August 2009
Justice
Dr. Ruby Dunlap’s Uganda Fulbright Blog
“Do not,” warned Ben, the security specialist at the U.S. embassy, “go toward a crowd of people. Move away as quickly as you can when a crowd starts to gather.” Uganda is among those countries distinguished by regular occurrences of mob justice within its borders.
A couple of U.S. college students in their study abroad semester at Uganda Christian University, perhaps motivated by curiosity mixed with the natural tendency to behave in ways opposite from what one has been told, went towards a crowd instead of away from it and witnessed the beating to death of a man by a mob.
The day after we arrived, the local paper had a story about a landlord who was first hacked and then burned to death by irate tenants who had heard he was thinking of selling his property. It happens here regularly enough, “mob justice,” a category of justice within this society. Litigation is rare among those Ugandans who have cheaper and more effective ways of retribution at their disposal.
Taking Care of Business
Dr. Ruby Dunlap’s Uganda Fulbright Blog
The circulatory system of Kampala is an atherosclerotic mesh of streets most of which wind through the vast slums which, if reports are correct, characterize the cities of the so-called developing parts of this planet. There are sections of privileged residences and businesses behind fortresses of thickly spiked walls, gates and hired guards.
The U.S. embassy is one of these, a massive structure of multiple barriers and checks. Our embassy driver had never left his vehicle but hired nationals guarding the entrance still lifted the hood and ran a mirror underneath it to check for any discourtesies before allowing it to proceed through yet more checks and barriers when we arrived at the embassy around 9 am Wednesday morning.
We walked through a metal detector. I had to leave my three memory sticks and calculator at a front desk; no electronic devices of any kind are allowed to be carried into the embassy. After that, we had to leave our passports with a young Marine who sat behind thick glass at the final check. We were met by Dorothy, the Ugandan national who works as a cultural affairs attaché and who had facilitated the orientation for the Ugandan Fulbrighters in Washington in June.
Congressman Cooper’s Chief of Staff visits College
Lisa Quigley, Chief of Staff for Congressman Jim Cooper, recently visited the College. Pictured here from left to right are Ms. Quigley; Christopher Coates, President & CEO of American Seniors Foundation; Beth Williams, Simulation Assistant; Jack Williams, Dean of the College; Phil Johnston, Dean of the School of Pharmacy; and Joy Cook, Adjunct Professor of Nursing.
PT Student Develops Equipment Innovations for Amputees
Dr. Chad Hobbs, an August 2009 Physical Therapy graduate, received a Special Recognition award last week for his work in developing equipment innovations for amputees. As part of his clinical education experience, Hobbs worked at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center Amputee Center in Washington, D.C., where he created a glove for an amputee who had lost a portion of his hand and elliptical foot plates for lower extremity amputees.
In his recognition at the School of Physical Therapy Hooding Ceremony, Professor and Associate Dean of Physical Therapy Dr. John Halle introduced Hobbs, noting, “As an inventor and entrepreneur, he exhibits a collaborative and humble spirit that facilitates working with other health care providers and patients. He has developed collaborative devices with two clinical instructors, a faculty member and with patients. He has eight products that are in the final stages for marketing and four more products in development. Additionally, he has taken his products and combined them with existing health care products to develop a company that can meet patients’ needs with ‘one stop shopping’ at a reduced cost.”
Water
Dr. Ruby Dunlap’s Uganda Fulbright Blog
“Monkeys live at the top of the hill,” university staff told us. “They are shy, not like baboons. At the top of the hill is your best chance of seeing them.” Camera in hand, I determined this morning to go photo-hunting for the resident monkeys. I tried several roads which went left and up but always dead-ended in someone’s driveway.
Finally, I came across a young man getting off his motorcycle in one of the driveways. Just beyond the driveway was a high gated area around several huge water tanks. “Good morning,” I said, “I’m Dr. Ruby Dunlap. I’m trying to find the way to the top of the hill.” (I wear the “Dr.” with egalitarian American lightness but Ugandans value titles as much as they value conservative attire and one potentially offends by being too casual with either.)
One Chance Firsts
Dr. Ruby Dunlap’s Uganda Fulbright Blog
The hour of reckoning, the day of doom, must elicit a look on the human face which is among those things transcending place or time. We arrived at Uganda Christian University at the end of the first week of final exams and just before the beginning of the second week when pen to paper or mouse to screen stand in as prototypes for that Apocalyptic opening of books.
Round-abouts
Dr. Ruby Dunlap’s Uganda Fulbright Blog
That Ireland has no snakes is hardly more remarkable than that Germany has few enough flies and mosquitoes to make the leaving open of windows and doors during pleasant weather a practical option. The meeting of wind with curtain, the outdoor garden with indoor polished wood unimpeded by inelegant mesh screens, is one of the pleasures of being in Germany, ranking behind German bread but, for me anyhow, considerably before the autobahn.
Belmont Nursing Grads Attain 100% Pass Rate on National Licensure Exam
One-hundred percent of May 2009 graduates from our School of Nursing have passed the national licensure examination for Registered Nurses, once again demonstrating the high quality of nursing education provided at Belmont.
37 Belmont students were among the 66,531 US educated candidates who have taken the National Council Licensure Exam for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) for the first time to date in 2009. The NCLEX-RN examination assesses the competencies of RN’s upon entry into practice. The 100 percent pass rate for Belmont graduates compares to this year’s national pass rate of 89.5 percent for this group.
The story before the story
Dr. Ruby Dunlap’s Uganda Fulbright Blog
This is the story before the story. The story will begin when a door opens and I take my first breath of African air after a 43 year absence. I imagine I will be too tired to process much at that moment but that will be the real beginning. The beginning of what? We shall see. This blog exists so I can share the “what” with you as it unfolds. This first story is a chance for you to take a look at the program before the curtain opens.
As a child, I could hardly imagine a life outside Africa. Normal for me varied between the hot, scrubby bush of Somalia and the lush, green, high country of Tanzania where I went to school for awhile.
These normals were spiked with yearly visits to Nairobi. The Nairobi of my memory was a city of well-tended gardens, double-decker buses, fragrant open-air markets, and crisply uniformed officers directing traffic with white gloved efficiency. As a bush child, Nairobi was the closest thing to paradise I knew. As that child all grown up, Nairobi’s sad decline has been reported to me by people different enough for me to believe it. I don’t want it to be true. I don’t want any of the tragic stories out of Africa to be true.