Uganda Wishes - What They Do

Internet has been sketchy again. I’m heading to Bwera tomorrow to help out with Partnership For Opportunity Development Association and return Dec. 8^th so posts may be a little delayed.

Making do. If you don’t know it exists then you don’t need to manifest that you need it. Suppose that’s true.

I’m counting pills in fives. First thirty, then 60. Then 120. Using a tongue depressor. I am thinking there must be a better way.

Everyday at the AIDS Clinic at Mengo Hospital between 100 and 175 patients are seen. Most HIV positive. Most requiring medication. These women that work in the pharmacy have to do this every single day. I’m exhausted after two hours. There must be some modern pill counter I mull over in my head. Like how the banks count money?

But I’m in the groove. I’ve got the fives down. With only some spillage – on the floor.

Kelly adds laughter during pill counting at the pharmacy!

Kelly, who left Mengo yesterday to return home to Victoria jokes with the women in there when I’m there. She manages to talk one of them into playing some music. No CD player. It’s her phone. We get the Ugandan rap and reggae till the battery runs out. Then there’s a scramble for a charger. Oops. No power. We settle for chatter.

I finish up and head down to IT. Data entry.

Esther is a beautiful vibrant young woman. I’d say in her 20’s But when I ask her she won’t admit it. Henry who sits opposite her says African women if they’re over twenty reveal their age less two years. If it’s over 30 it’s five. I give a smirk.

She starts drilling me on Canada. How much does a house cost? What is an average salary?

Esther concludes that if there’s an average salary of say $54,000 (Canadian) and a house is over $500,000 then no problem it wouldn’t take long to save to own one. I laugh. Not a chance.

I start rattling off the costs for medical insurance, phones, taxes, insurance, driving a car, food (way more expensive then here in Uganda), clothing, cable, etc.

Then I sit back. She tells me the average income for a Uganda is not even a third of ours.

No point in voicing my opinion. There’s not much that can be done. It’s what is. We do have so much. Can we live without it?

I tell her she speaks very good English. She tells me she’s trained in Tourism. No jobs though. Took some computer courses. Now she inputs data for the TB patients at the AIDS Clinic. She works from 8 am till 7:30 p.m. five days a week.

I ask her if she could wish anything for Uganda today, what would it be?

“To put education for free. For young children especially. In better schools,” she explains.

Then I ask her about the world. What her wish would be for the world.

“We live in a different pace. They are much better off then us. I wish for them to have Christ. Unity. No racism. To see Africa,” she concludes.

Today I’m walking along the street. Ahead of me are two women carrying some kind of wood. On their heads.

They are in sandals. Heading up a long hill. No wheelbarrow. No bike to put it all on. Only their heads.

They make do with what they have. It’s what they do.

Do we?

Uganda Wishes – Lab Speak

Doesn’t bother me the sight of a needle and getting blood withdrawn. So I was ok to help out in the Lab at the AIDS clinic at Mengo Hospital. Christopher is in charge. I helped him write down patient files and transfer information from one place to another. I was told it was a slow day. He handled it with ease.

I recall getting blood not long before I left Canada. In Canada we have a fancy seat with flat arm rests. One for each arm. At Mengo there is a plastic outdoor garden chair.

Patients are asked to roll up a sleeve. Then for the turn-key a latex plastic glove is wrapped around the arm. The disinfectant comes from a bottle without a spout that he has to tip upside down. There’s a waste box separate to other waste for the needles.

HIV tests are done on the spot. Of the ten that day, seven were positive. One a teenage boy.

I asked Christopher if the numbers are decreasing.
“HIV is quite expensive,” he said. Adding, he didn’t feel things were improving very fast. Because those infected often fail to tell their partners and go out and taint others.

This made me sad. I had hoped differently.

So I asked him what his wish was for Uganda.

“To have a better life without HIV.”

He had to take some sputum samples from TB patients. Many with HIV also become infected with TB.

Then Marisa came for her blood test. Her mother went first. When an HIV person is diagnosed their CD4 levels are monitored. Marisa started screaming even before the needle came out. She’s three and a half years old. I took her baby brother in my arms and tried to take her mind off things with the only doll like object in the room. Not a chance. After a patient five minutes of screams the blood came out. Didn’t make her happy. Up came all the papaya she’d eaten before she’d arrived.

I told her she was a brave girl.

I asked Christopher another question. This one his wish for the world. He responded with really? You want to know?

Yes, yes I said.

“We need a peaceful life. Without fear of terror,” he said. “Wars have caused a lot of problem. What we put up today, is destroyed tomorrow. We keep on regressing.”

So true I thought. So true.

Yet on this day there was hope. The HIV patients that come to the clinic have it. They have the medication.

Here at Mengo, while they wait for their appointments a nurse speaks with a white board. There is education. The spread of knowledge. To pass on.

It’s a good thing there is an AIDS clinic at Mengo Hospital.

It’s a good thing the people come. 169 by 2 p.m. today.
Who knows how many more tomorrow…