Nearly three weeks have now passed since I left Kalongo and returned to my usual life in Italy.

But it is for sure that I miss every day a lot of things that I found there: the people and their warmness, starting with Francesco, my best friend there, going then to lovely Sister Carmel, to Nighty, everyone from the hospital administration (Moi, Anthony, Joseph, etc.); I miss the 24/7 smiles I used to be surrounded with, the nice words, in every moment...in a word, I miss Kalongo!!

So, to conclude this blog, no pictures this time, but a video, taken by Francesco while waiting along the air strip for my little Cesna to arrive...it's me and Sister Carmel dancing!!!

Hope you will enjoy it!

And now, I close my eyes, I try to imagine again that magic sky of stars of Kalongo at night and dream of my next visit there!!

Afoio!

Alessia

This week has been rich of important events for the Hospital.

Last Thursday a new CEO for the Hospital arrived, he is an Italian doctor named Stefano. He was introduced to the community of the Hospital and of Kalongo by the Arcibishop of Gulu, so we had the honour of the presence of His Grace too.

Below the cut of the cake with the main authorities: the Arcibishop, Dott. Santini, Father Ezio, Monsignor Odong done on December 8th in occasion of the celebrations of Marie Immaculate.

The following morning the Arcibishop introduced Dr. Santini to the entire staff of Dr. Ambrosoli Memorial Hospital. His arrival is an important step for the entire hospital, to provide continuous support to the betterment of the Hospital for the short and long term. So, welcome Stefano!!!

During the week the hospital was also blessed with the arrival of an Italian infectivologist, Dr. Cesare Bolla and a newly graduated Midwife, Giovanna. They are spending a tour of different hospitals in Northern Uganda to collect information and provide useful material for future collaborations. Giovanna will also stay for nearly two months in Uganda to teach to the local midwifes about delivery practices in Italy and allow some comparison. 

With Giovanna we tried to eat sugar from sugar cane...another important experience if you are in Africa...

Being so many Italians here this week we also decided to celebrate with some beers, here we are at a local bar, the four of us, Dr. Patient and Anthony from Hospital staff:

Sunday morning Cesare and Giovanna were supposed to travel to Matany and visit the local hospital. Matany is located in Karamojia, an area on the eastern side of Uganda, where people lives still as tribes, and even the nature is completely different from Kalongo, very dry and hot.
Here some pictures of the landscape on the road...
Children running after us at the sight of the car:

Children, dressed with local clothes, following the precious cows:

And some pictures from Matany, a cute little girl:

the center of Matany

and the Italians

There are actually a lot of Italians giving their support to the Hospital in Matany and it was very touching to find in these far lands in Uganda other Italians that decided to dedicate part of their life to help the people in needs, your efforts and energies are really appreciated!

My post in regards to this past week will mainly comprise A LOT of pictures, since I think they better explain all the events that happened.

Starting with Tuesday when I visited the city of Kitgum, located approximately 70km from Kalongo.

After having being in Kalongo, in the middle of a rural area for nearly a month, to see some shops, banks, etc.that we found in Kitgum was like spending a day in the most modern place ever.

Below some pictures of "city life" in Kitgum!

During the week our dear Francesco had a small accident and was forces to walk with crunches. He is now recovering, very fast actually, we see him here with his "twin" just outside the surgical ward.

Francesco, we want you back in shape as soon as possible!! Even though....there is apparently someone that does not want to let you go away from him!!

Thursday right after work I passed to the Saint Theresa school, to say goodbye to all the girls that I became friend with, since they left this past Friday for the holidays.

As soon as I reach them, they asked me to join them in some games...definitely you could see that they are in better shape than I am...those twenty years more of age are actually showing!!

I then took some pictures of all of them together and will try to get some prints out for the time that they will arrive back to school in February.

After I left them, I join the students of the midwifery school for some...jogging...that's the way we do it!

And finally...Friday evening was the big day: week end trip to Kidepo park, located in the Karamogia region of Uganda, approximately 40km from southern Sudan.

We were a total of eleven people, including Francesco and some other tutors from the midwifery school.

At departure:

I have to say, this has been one of the most memorable days I have ever had in my entire life, full of unique emotions and feelings!

We left early in the morning from Kalongo and reached in the early afternoon the place where we were supposed to spend the night to then reach the park the following morning.

The highway in Uganda...

...some obstacles along the way...

...but also some cheerful friends...

Getting ready for lunch...

...and the hard preparation of dinner, with the precious support of our "tasters"!!

The following morning we left really early in order to be at the park right after the rising of the sun.

So...Good morning Africa!! This was one of the most beautiful landscape I have even seen...

Group picture at the entrance...

...and we our dearest Francesco!

And we were then all ready to see some animals in the park...mainly buffalos I have to say...really too many I have to add!!

 A leon...

And some others...

We then finished the visit of the park around mid-day on Saturday, so then decided to drive back to Kalongo, which we reached at dawn time...

Aaahhh...back home!!

 Today my last week in Kalongo started since I am due back to Italy soon and most of the time will be dedicated to wrap up with my work here...but I am quite sure some other wonderful things will also happened and I am looking forward to share them!!

As per usual Monday habit, here I am back to you with the happenings of my last week in Kalongo.

For those of you that started reading since the beginning, you may recall a picture of our wonderful cook Cecilia, due to delivery anytime soon...this soon finally arrived and it is this new bundle of softness called...Alessia!!! Yes, this time no short version, this little girl is actually called like me!!

In this first picture Francesco holding Alessia while sleeping... 

...and Alessia with Cecilia, her mum:

On a totally different note, on Thursday we had the visit our the Italian Ambassador in Uganda, Stefano Rejak. He started his service as new Ambassador in Uganda three weeks ago and he then decided to travel around North Uganda to pay a visit to the places where the Italian presence has an impact on the commnity, through non-profit organizations mainly.

You see him here below welcome by the students of the St. Bakita school in Kalongo:

Here having lunch with the Italians in Kalongo:

And here his entry to the Dr. Ambrosoli Memorial Hospital, where the students from the Midwifery School welcome him with songs and music, with the typical kindness that always characterized them:

Signing of the Visitor's Book...

..and the donation of some gifts. The Ambassador and his staff left then in the evening after having paid a thorough visit to the Hospital.

This past Saturday...it was PARTY time!! The medical staff of the Hospital organized a Welcome Party for the new Japanese surgeon that will spend some months here offering his services for the Japanese Red Cross. The medical staff also was so kind to add me in the list of Guest of Honour, and let me sit next to the "important" people!

Songs were played to celebrate us ...

...and then, we opened the dances!!! And of course I did not stop until the music was shut down at night!! 

And I was particularly happy because...I finally found my dancing partner!!!
Oh yes...even this is happening in Kalongo!!!

We all had a lot of fun and, other than dancing myself, for me it was amazing to observe the guests dancing the local acholi music...so charming!!

Tomorrow I will go visit Kitgum, which is a nearby city, getting soon ready for a week end of action: visit to a park...then I will prove you why people say Uganda is the Pearl of Africa!

Afoio!

Here I am back with some new stories from the past week.

The week has been rather quiet. During the day I am now up to full speed with my work, while the week nights are pretty much like everywhere: it's not that there something to do every single night (unless you're in NYC of course!).

Nonetheless, Thursday night Francesco and I have been invited to the house of Florence, one of the staff of te Hospital, to celebrate the 13th birthday of her daughter Paska.

Being present at a birthday party here in Kalongo has been another, additional beautiful experience to learn more about the local culture.

All the guests were sitting in chairs and/or sofas around the main table in the centre, where we were initially served food and then cut the cake, as the tradition wants!

You see in the picture below Paska beautifully dressed in red, with two friends of her, just before the cut of the cake.

After that it was the moment for Paska to receive the presents the guests brought.

A chicken (yes, a chicken still alive...you can imagine my astonished face when I saw this!):

A present from her lovely mum:

And finally a present that Francesco and I brought (or better Francesco since the invitation to the party caught me unprepared so I did not have anything ready, unlike Francesco, who is the master of efficiency and things about everything!):

As initially said, the rest of the week passed by quite smoothly, until the week end arrived!

This week end we were not blessed as the one before with sun and clear sky the entire day; actually, it has been raining cats & dogs for the entire of Saturday, which I spent inside...marking the assignments in mathematics that the girls of the St. Theresa have solved (see previous posts for details on this).

As you can see...a LOT of assignments for me to mark, but I made it and it was actually a really enjoyable work. The students are impressively good in mathematics, and this is thanks to the high teaching standards for which some of the schools here in Kalongo are well known in the all of North Uganda.

Sunday was spent with a nice walk with Francesco and Nighty, one of the students that just graduated from the Midwifery school, around the fields in Kalongo.

But before going into the details of our walk, I would like to introduce you to our...lunch in few days!

This goat has been the present of some students of a nearby school to the Comboni Missionaries in Kalongo, to thank for the end of the academic year. 

The afternoon has been spent for some relaxing walk here and there, observing animals, here below a mum duck with her littles:

White fields of cotton, with the mountain of Kalongo in the back:

And beautiful fields of sunflowers too:

Finally, after about two hours of walking around....we deserved a cold, refreshing soda at the Paradise Hotel!!

This is all for my past week in Kalongo. See you soon!

Ale