Mwagalanega: Love One Another

It's Mal again!!!

Today I experienced one of the hardest moments of my life. Instead of going to Kibuye to teach, Deepa and I went to Nsambya Hospital to go on home visits with one of the nurses there. The home visits are primarily for medication and and support to be giving for HIV+ patients who are unable to get to the clinic, either because they are too sick or because they can’t afford the matatu fare to get there (maybe as little as 25 cents or as much as $1…keeping in mind that 70% of Uganda lives on less than $1 a day).

The first two home visits were ‘typical.’ The first was a woman in the Nsambya slums who was 70 years old. She complained of gastrointestinal pain and general weakness. Her daughter in law was caring for her, and therefore was up to date on her ARV (anti-retroviral) treatment. She was given some vitamin A and magnesium to help with her ailments. Her house was maybe 8’x8’ big.

The second woman was in worse shape. She was only 29 years old and has been living with HIV for 5 years. She has a daughter in 5^th grade and was moved to HAART (highly active anti-retroviral therapy) shortly after her diagnosis which means a cocktail of three drugs. She was feeling pretty bad so Sister Joy (the nurse) decided to put her on a glucose and saline drip. She got the IV bags out of the car and I watched her carefully string the IV bag through a gate covering a window so that it hung at an appropriate height using a piece of cloth. It was truly surreal the need for proper medical equipment here.

The 3^rd visit was sooo intense. We arrived to find that the woman who needed medical care had passed away on Friday from complications from AIDS: only 4 days ago. The grandmother insisted that we see the daughter of the recently passed woman. As a young cousin brought the girl out, she started SHRIEKING. Sister Joy explained that she was scared as she most likely recognized the “ambulance” (the van we were riding in) as the vehicle that took away her mother’s body only 3 days ago. She was only three years old and absolutely inconsolable. Then sister Joy informed us that “you are nurses now” and that we are not allowed to cry because it is not allowed to show sorrow in front of the family. The young cousin, a girl of only 12 years old, is now the caretaker of the 3-year old orphaned girl. Her mother died at age 26, while waiting to start the ARV therapy. It is unknown whether or not the 3 year old, Angel, is positive because they are scared to test her for fear that she will be positive as well. Eek.

After that we went to the Good Samaritan Sisters Convent and home for the destitute. I thought things couldn’t get any more intense…then they did. The home is run by Catholic nuns who care for the orphaned, the disabled, and the elderly. Here is a sampling of the people we saw:

-A man with no lower body. He was covered in a sheet, and Sister Joy thinks he was either malnourished in the womb and didn’t develop properly or was in an accident and had to have his legs amputated

-2 children with (I’d guess) Cerebral Palsy and malnutrition who were so badly contorted that they could barely move their heads. They were laying on mats on the floor, covered in flies as they could not move their bodies to shake the flies off of them. I talked to one girl, Dora, and she was cognitively sound. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to see.

-An old African man who spoke to us in french…yeah, I don’t really know about that either.

-Tons and tons of people in worse shape than you could imagine, living in spaces smaller than dorm rooms, with absolutely no family or support.

Overall, the experience was incomprehensible. I was taken aback by the tremendous need but also by the tremendous love and support given by the sisters in the face of such little resources. I literally wanted to fall to the ground and pray and ask for God’s blessing on these people…I’ve never felt such a strong feeling of helplessness in my life.

So, please count your blessings today. Your life is absolutely full of them—head to toe, inside and out, backwards and forwards full of blessings. And pray for these people: for Mary and Zaituni, the two women with HIV, for Angel the 3-year old recently orphaned toddler, and for the women and patients at Good Samaritans Convent.

Thanks, and know I love you all sooo much.