I continue to be amazed at the steady progress that Uganda has made in the last 35 years in spite of incredible adversity - particularly in the HIV/AIDS area. There has been steady progress in disease treatment, expansion of public health and an increasing percentage of students who gradtuate from high school and who subsequently complete technical and professional education. The people are friendly and hospitable and we are welcomed everywhere we go. The taxi drivers are full of information and conversation as are the wait staff. We hope that our endeavors here will pay off with collaborations in the future. We feel we have a lot to learn from each other.
The conference began in earnest today with morning plenary sessions that were very well attended and Kevin Schulman represented us very well. His comments were very well received. There was a parallel Human Resources for Health Research in Africa meeting in the morning and those attending were impressed with the initiation of the new Coordinated Research Group (ISHReCA) being formed across Africa that is chaired by Professor Nelson Sewankambo - the dean of the medical school at Makerere. The group was founded on the idea that it should be African led and based on problems that that are African - whether or not they cross borders. The Wellcome Trust gave a great overview of its philanthropy in Africa (they give 1 billion dollars a year in grants). The lunch and afternoon were spent in breakout sessions and networking interviews. It was a full day.
Many spent the evening at a small Turkish restaurant in town - see photo. We are certainly eating well on this trip. But we need the calories to be able to attend all the meetings - of course.
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