I recently spent 4 weeks at Kiwoko Hospital in Uganda for my medical elective, and WOW, what an experience! This was my first time travelling abroad alone, and upon arriving at the hospital late at night in the pitch black I admit I did have one of those “what have I done?!” moments! However, joining with other students and staff in such joyful worship in chapel the next morning got me so excited to see what God was doing in this wonderful place.

Kiwoko Hospital has around 250 beds across its departments, and I spent most of my time in the NICU, theatres and a variety of clinics where I would take histories, examine patients, interpret investigations and propose management plans. Twice a month, the eye clinic team run a community outreach project. They go to a nearby village and hold a free clinic for people to have their vision tested and receive new prescription reading glasses. I joined them on one of these trips, not prepared for what a moving experience it was going to be! The clinics are always hosted at a local church, with the idea that it reinforces the church as being central to the community. It began with someone from the Kiwoko team giving a short gospel talk based on the parable of the weeds in Matthew 13 – it was in Luganda so I’m not sure exactly what was said, however it must have been good because when he finished nine people stood to join in a prayer giving their lives to Jesus! This blew me away - praying to see more of this kind of openness and readiness back home! Throughout the rest of the day Jeus continued to be at the heart of the clinic. Patients read John 3:16 as part of their eye test, and prayer ministry was happening all day. It was such a wonderful experience to be a part of a service that really does care for both the physical and spiritual health of its patients in equal measure.

During my second week there, a group of ENT surgeons from the USA came to run a surgical camp as part of the Head and Neck Outreach initiative. It was such a privilege to be given opportunities to scrub in and assist in some incredibly complex and life-changing surgeries, the kind of which I would almost never see in the UK! The most memorable surgery was the resection of a large ameloblastoma (a tumour in the jawbone). The tumour had grown so large that the patient was struggling to eat or drink anything and they had become incredibly frail and unwell. The surgeons removed almost the entirety of the jawbone and took a free flap from the fibula to create a new one. This was the first time I had seen such a complicated surgery, and I was so inspired by how life-changing it was going to be for the patient. I really love surgery, but have always been afraid to pursue it as a career because I know it can be so competitive, and I often doubt whether I am cut out for that type of work. However, joining this ENT camp reaffirmed just how much I love it, and I hope it will be a springboard to give me more confidence to pursue this path!

A big highlight from my time in Kiwoko was all of the new friends I made! The staff and students at the hospital welcomed me so wonderfully, and it was lovely to join some of them for meals, Bible studies and church services. I really enjoyed all of the singing and dancing in church! There were also 2 other medical students and 1 physiotherapist from Austria staying in the guesthouse, and it was lovely to get to know them and explore the village together. We got up to all sorts – cooking very fresh chicken on a barbeque, playing animal games with the local children and going on a safari to Murchison Falls!

Spending a month immersed in life at Kiwoko taught me so much, both professionally and personally. There were definitely some harder moments – I found it particularly difficult seeing patients with complicated critical illnesses which I wouldn’t see back home, and watching people forgo potentially life-saving treatment because they couldn’t afford it. However, what really amazed me was seeing the incredible work the staff there are able to do with such limited resources compared to what we have back in the UK. I was challenged by the extensive knowledge of the doctors which enabled them to make diagnoses with very limited investigation results, and this has motivated me to keep studying hard in the hope that one day I may be able to apply my knowledge in a similar way! Whilst I picked up a couple of words of Luganda, I loved finding creative ways to communicate with the patients I met – years of practice playing charades served me well! Communication is about so much more than just language, and it was so wonderful building meaningful connections with people even when we couldn’t speak the same language.

Going to Uganda was a huge step of faith. I had never really considered serving overseas before God started giving me subtle nudges about it last year, and the idea completely terrified me! However, God surpassed my expectations in every possible way and has shown me that He is more than worthy of my trust! One thing that particularly moved me was the hospital’s motto, “We treat, Jesus heals”. They have a video on their website with lots of different staff members saying what they each do at the hospital (eg. “I diagnose, Jesus heals”, “I clean, Jesus heals”, “I teach, Jesus heals”). Watching this was such a wonderful reminder for me that our individual contributions, whatever they look like, are all seen and used by Jesus, and together He can use them to achieve beautiful things! It has been the most wonderful experience, and I would love to go back to Kiwoko Hospital one day for a longer period of time. Please be praying for the hospital, that Jesus would continue to be at the heart of all they do! Praise God for the openness of so many people there to hearing the gospel already, and please be praying that many more hearts will turn to Him through the amazing work of the staff at Kiwoko Hospital!