26th
October
2007
This is my second attempt at using the internet today. The first was at the “best internet cafe” in town and I sat there for an hour with no connection - but at least I got my photos backed up and the last blog entry typed. This time I am at a cafe near our hotel that has failed me several times before, but actually seems reasonably quick tonight. Just shows how totally unpredictable the net is here in Kampala.
Anyway here’s a few photos from the past few days…
The view from the front of our clinic on Suubi mountain - breathtaking!
Some of the crowd outside our clinic - we saw over 160 patients today.
Two brothers we saw - no parents in sight. Very common for children of a young age to care for their siblings here like this, and very common to see boys wearing dresses - they can’t afford any other clothes.
This is the boy I discussed in my previous post, not long after he was brought in with a seizure on Tuesday.
And this is the same boy with his new shirt, given to him by our physio Mairin - looking much happier!
The view from our hotel the other night when we had a massive storm - you can see the Old Kampala Mosque in the foreground and the Kampala ’skyline’ in the background.
Kampala is a very religious city. You see plenty of posters like this advertising various “crusades” (I hate that term- conjures up images of some of Christianity’s darkest moments) - anyway many of the look shonky and we found this one for “Pastor Augustine” particularly amusing - can’t decide if he’s a pastor or a hip-hop artist 
Some of the many shops we pass on the road outside Kampala, with big piles of green ‘matoke’ bananas out front.
Well that’s all for now - time for me to head to bed. We went for an appreciation dinner with Watoto tonight to Kampala’s best Chinese restaurant- the food there is always tremendous and it’s a beautiful setting. Tomorrow is the last day of the medical clinics and I can’t say I’m sorry to be seeing the end of it. It has been quite exhausting work, although still very worthwhile. I’ll update again on the weekend if I get time.
Categories : Africa, Missions, Travel, Uganda, photos |
26th
October
2007
Another hectic day in the clinic today - much of the same stuff - otherwise treatable chronic diseases compounded by poverty. Many of these would be eminently more manageable back home - diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, epilepsy - but the people here just cannot afford ongoing treatment. And the backbreaking hand to mouth, one day at a time lifestyle contributes to it - men, women, and children all do their share of the physical work required for these rural households to survive. And this is in a beautiful, fertile land where there is plenty of rain and plants and crops and animals can thrive. Imagine what the more desolate, inhospitable areas of northern Uganda and much of the rest of Africa must be like.
But as is well known, the current number one scourge of Africa is HIV/AIDS - a more serious disease, but nevertheless one which is quite treatable with modern medications. My first patient of the day was a lady I had seen late the day before and ordered an HIV test on. I had to break the news to her of the positive result, encourage her to travel to the city to seek treatment in a public hospital clinic, and to arrange for her husband and 5 children to be tested. The husband will hopefully be coming to see us tomorrow. As for the children, they apparently live far distant from here, with another relative, and she could not envisage being able to get them either to us or to the city HIV clinic. In fact it is doubtful whether she can make it there herself. Probably only about 50km away, but a vast distance for someone with no form of transportation and no money.
Another patient was a lady who previously had had a positive test, but had not accessed any treatment. It transpired that the reason for this was that she was newly married and was afraid to tell her husband the result. She was looking for a way to access the treatment without him finding out, an even more tricky proposition. We encouraged her to tell him so he and the children could be tested but didn’t have much hope of her actually doing so. Another person, maybe even a whole family, who may die unnecesarily from this disease.
HIV is not the killer here - it is poverty and ignorance. The treatments themselves are not that expensive - the UNAIDS program supplies large quantities of anti-HIV drugs and Uganda now even has their own factory to manufacture them. It is the lack of infrastructure and the difficulty in getting the drugs out to the people outside of the cities who need them that kills. Like all problems in Africa, it is one to which there is no easy solution….
Categories : Africa, Medicine, Missions, Travel, Uganda |
