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Sydney nurse, Susan Thomas, is an experienced volunteer who is spending Christmas in Soroti, Northern Uganda. Her letter this week brings home the reality we so infrequently hear about in other parts of the world at this time of year. This is Susan’s third mission with Médecins Sans Frontières. Christmas in Uganda, and perhaps most of Africa, is a funny sort of time for outsiders such as myself. Soroti town is bustling with people shopping and going to the bank, and getting on with business. There are not many decorations hanging around the place or Christmas Carols or Santas or snow…but people are preparing in the traditional way. That means having some new clothes made by one of the hundred or so tailors set up along the main street and down the side streets. Their sewing machines would be worth a fortune in antique stores in Australia. They are works of art, old Singer treadles, beautifully adorned with characteristic designs. The churning sound of the needle and the peddle and whatever else makes it hum is all around. Of course the bright and colourful fabrics are hanging in various states of construction as well. The vast majority of people will go back to their villages for Christmas and Soroti town will be deafeningly silent. The village is still the place where people go to really go home. The other thing that is very important at this time of year is to somehow get some meat. For these things one does need money and money is hard to come by here in Northern Uganda. Unfortunately this pressure leads many people to robbery and crime. It is not in the Christmas spirit but then, we do have the luxury at home of not ever finding ourselves in such a position. Several incidents have occurred which have caused us Concern. One of our watchmen for example was beaten in an attempted mugging. That was pretty serious, for these people to come to MSF property to rob and beat a staff from an NGO! Luckily our watchman was OK but I had to go to that town the next day with one of our doctors to examine him and then I had to go to the authorities to report the situation. The three men responsible are in custody and we are not getting involved any more than to make it known that we cannot work in that atmosphere and that we are here to serve the community. And so this is Christmas…I think it will be a quiet affair for us here in Médecins Sans Frontières. Otherwise, we will continue to work up until Friday afternoon and then again on Monday. The patients keep coming and that is what we are here for. Today I visited the local Government hospital to donate a few drugs for the
treatment of some patients. It is very crowded and one does see some shocking
things on those wards. Children have a lot of accidents involving falling into
the fire or being scalded and their burns are often left undressed. There is no
skin grafting here. You wonder how they can ever recover but somehow they do.
We have been helping a young girl with HIV who was in very serious condition but
who now looks brighter and was sitting up eating some rice We are opening another project in the next few weeks. The new volunteers have started to arrive in Kampala and will probably come here for some orientation first. There is a large camp of about 40-60,000 internally displaced persons (IDP) in this new area who have no clean water, no sanitation, one health centre and no chance yet to return to their homes. The mortality rate is higher than the agreed upon emergency rates defined by the World Health Organisation and UN. People can even die of scabies which become infected and then septic. Médecins Sans Frontières will open a hospital and Out Patients unit. We in Soroti will probably have a large role in supporting them and organising medical and logistical supplies and a communication link with authorities. Personally, I am happy to be staying here in Soroti for the remaining months. I finally have a good understanding of the context in this region, what needs to be done and where and I am able to fill in for several expatriate positions in pharmacy and the nutritional centres as well as with the Community Health Workers. This conflict has gone on for 18 years and 1.5 million people have been displaced. Thousands of children have been abducted and forced into becoming soldiers, wives, and slaves of all sorts. And many have been tortured and killed. It is hard to comprehend the suffering these people have endured and they are desperate for an end to it. They even welcome back the rebels into the community and want a sort of ‘Truth and Reconciliation’ process. But things look gloomy at the moment. So, another cheery letter from Susan…I do want to wish everyone a happy Christmas and/or Other Holiday, and more importantly a peaceful and tolerant New Year for us all. Susan Thomas
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FROM
UGANDA :: Christmas in Africa