We have arrived in Eastern Uganda as of Sunday afternoon. We are stationed in Mbale and travel daily to our sites which have been about an hour and a half to two hours of driving. If we were on US roads we would be traveling for probably about half an hour to 45 minutes to get to these destinations. The roads in this area are absolutely TERRIBLE. It is beyond me. You will not ever be able to imagine these roads unless you experience them for yourself. The drivers have to drive off of the pavement onto the gravel "shoulders" because the pavement is so full of potholes. Potholes are dodged only to find a smaller and less damaging one to drive over. We consistently are driving on the opposite side of the road for smoother pavement while dodging large trucks. Here though, dodging isnt so terrible, the bigger vehicle ALWAYS has the right of way and they dont attempt to play chicken, ever. Our drivers are very skilled and safe drivers, dont worry :)
Today was one of the best days of learning I have had so far here just because it has pertained most to my area of interests. We visited a place called Kumi Hospital. This hospital is in DESPERATE need of help. The most interesting part is that the people openly admit that they need the help, at home we are usually much too proud to admit something like this, but these people say it with the utmost dignity. I truly honor their humility.
In its glory days there was a farm that had 2000 heads cattle that brought in 60% of its revenue. The hospital sits on a little over 1000 hectors. But during the 1980s the farm during the war the farm was looted and lost most of its cattle in a matter of days. Today they are left with only 73 heads of cattle. This cannot support this hospital. Some of the problems they are facing are improper fencing, poor management, and not having the proper funds or education to support a farm of the necessary magnitude.
Another issue was that they have a very well set up malnutrition unit, but they do not have the supplies in stock to help their people. They do not have the funding to do so because the government says "the east doesnt have malnutrition issues". It is very clear that this is not the case at all, especially considering they have an entire unit at the hospital devoted to the issue. During the seasons where there is food available they do not usually have issues with malnutrition, but during the dry seasons when all a family can give to their child is potatoes there is a great amount of malnutrition.
Yet one more issue is diagnostics. The lab they have at the hospital is very nicely set up and acomodating, but there are still large issues at hand. For example, in order to test for TB they use a microscope. Using a microscope gets results to a patient within 48 hours, so that is good, except, the technician can only determine if TB is present, not the strain. Knowing the strain makes it possible to treat the patient with the correct medicine. It is important that the correct medicine is given to the patient as supplies are limited in this area. The next best way to test is using culture, but that takes a minimum of 4 weeks, a time when the patient can be at home with family and friends living their normal life and spreading their infection. The absolute BEST response to this is testing using DNA, when results can be diagnosed in 2-3 hours time. Usually PCR (polymerase chain reaction) is used to do this, but unfortunately this is very expensive equipment to have and to run. It is even expensive in the United States as I believe it costs ~$600 for 150 reactions. There is only one of these pieces of equipment in all of Uganda and it is currently being used in the research setting.
After we visited these places we went to a place where there is some cultural history. While here there were about 35 school children just hanging out. We climbed up these rocks, since the place we went had paintings (similar to those we hear about from the indians in Mexico and some parts of the US), and all of the kids followed. I couldnt help but to notice their feet. These children do not have shoes. And if they do they are very broken and falling apart. Walking in the dirt all I noticed were bare footprints. This is not safe as they can pick up ringworm, infections, snake bites (luckily the people ahead of me saw the snake...), and any other infection you can think of. Their feet are all very swollen and sore looking. After our trek through the rocks, we loaded up into our vans to head back to Mbale. Some of the people in the group gave the children their water bottles. I cannot describe to you how incredibly ECSTATIC these children were, over a WATER BOTTLE. We would call this trash. One of the bottles had a bit of water left in it, and I saw a girl sharing it with her friends putting some into their empty bottles. This is the life in the small villages we have been visiting.
At home we take water so much for granted. One day we were driving by a river of some sort and I just took a picture quickly not really looking outside closely and little did I know it was filled with people and cattle. Water is the source of life here. If there is ANY body of water, dirty and disgusting or not, people gather there, especially in the evenings.
God is challenging me so much. My heart yearns to help every single person but that is literally not possible for me to do. I just want to hold them all and tell them its ok and to educate them on nutrition, health, sanitization, and water wells. But guess what, I am only ONE person, but the body of Christ is so great and God is so powerful that if God places it on our heart to help the least of these He will provide the means and the people to do it. There are many educated people here but their hands are tied to a certain extent. They need others to partner with them and bring their skills to the table as well...will YOU be one of those people? This process begins with us, most of us are educated, even in the simplest of ways. Will YOU be the one to help the least of these? I pray to be.
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