How I returned to Uganda, packed into a car with twelve people, showered in the open air and treated more than 1300 people in four days
The last time I left Uganda, I didn't think that I would come back again after such a long time. But finally, after more than a year, I step off the plane and am greeted by the sign "Welcome to the Pearl of Africa". And with it, hundreds of mosquitoes and immediately bites show up, which paradoxically make me feel as if I never left.
Of course, you need to plan such a medical trip several months in advance, but the biggest chaos is always right before departure. That's why the very next morning I set off on boda-boda motorbikes to meet Stephen and Bob, with whom we are trying to figure out how to do it all. In two days, we managed to pick up t-shirts, clothes for doctors and masks with our logo, have hundreds of vaccination cards and forms for patients made, get vaccines, vitamins and, of course, buy laboratory tests, medicines, disinfectants and other necessities from the pharmacy. There we even managed to sign a contract in such a short time and thus guarantee better prices in the future. Finally, we picked up the car from the rental company. We filled it with a bunch of boxes with material, picked up the rest of the team and left Kampala on Tuesday morning.
The road to Nebbi is not exactly the shortest and I think I will have some bruises from the bumpy ride for a long time. After a whole day, we finally arrived at the house where we will spend the next five days. We are without electricity and without water. Instead of a toilet, we have a latrine and we shower outside under the stars. Another quick meeting with the local mayor, to whom we describe how we will take care of the people in his community in the coming days. Then all that remains is to redistribute the medicines and material and we go to bed around midnight.
If it weren't for the storm that caught up with us, we wouldn't even have time to treat everyone
Every morning the alarm clock rings at five o'clock . We get up briskly to prepare everything in time and start treatment as soon as possible. The basis is a place for patient registration, an area for immunization and preventive services, and then each doctor is also assigned their own desk. The laboratory, as the only one, is always located indoors to prevent dust contamination of the tests. The last place where patients meet us is the dispensing of medicines.
Our departure and the whole adventure begins in Pawong. We are based in the local school, however, apart from the doctors and laboratory technicians, the others work outside in the fresh air. Paradoxically, I was a little disappointed at the beginning, because I expected a large rush of patients. But then I find out that there is a market today and most people have gone to get groceries. One of the locals comforts me: "Don't worry, they'll all come later when they're going home." And he was right. If it weren't for the storm that caught up with us afterwards, we probably wouldn't have had time to treat everyone. We are giving out the last medicines after dark . By the time we pack everything up and get back to the hostel, it's eight o'clock in the evening.
“I think I've heard of Europe before.
The next day we move to Jupangire. They have a very simple medical facility here. But for us, these are above-standard conditions, because each doctor is assigned their own examination room, and one even has a couch. In the afternoon it gets so warm inside that we move outside and I am suddenly treating patients under a mango tree with a pleasant cool wind blowing on the back of my neck. We finish around six o'clock. We also take our translators home, and suddenly there are twelve passengers in the car instead of the original seven.
On the third and fourth day, we treat patients at Goli Mixed School. According to the instructions broadcast by the radio, people are divided into groups in advance according to their place of residence and they know what day they should arrive. The nice janitor welcomes us in the morning. While carrying the tables, he asks me where I'm from. I answer that from Slovakia and to be sure I will add Europe . "I think I've heard of Europe before," he says thoughtfully. While we are prescribing medicine and dressing wounds, we are occasionally distracted by the chickens, which merrily walk past us in the school yard. But in the afternoon it starts to rain again and the hens and we run to hide. We practice indoors for the rest of the day.
On the last day, everyone is tired. Even more so when we see a queue of almost thirty waiting patients when we arrive in the morning.
They get up at four in the morning and walk thirty kilometers just to have someone help them
Denis, who helps us with the organization of the locals, immediately explains: "Those people live about thirty kilometers from here. They heard about us on the radio, so they came.” I can't believe that someone would trudge such a distance on foot. Denis then doubles down with the sentence: "They got up at four in the morning to get here first." Thanks to that, we catch a second breath. Because that is exactly why we organize our outreaches. Because some people really have no choice but to walk thirty kilometers to at least have someone help them.
During the four-day outreach, we provided a total of 3,291 procedures. 1396 people were treated by a doctor. As part of the preventive program, we gave 1,033 people deworming tablets. 554 children received vitamin A from us, the lack of which most of them here suffer from. And last but not least, we vaccinated more than 308 people. All this thanks to our supporters and thanks to cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. And that's just the beginning. The next trip awaits us in a month. And we can't wait.
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