Which Doctor

A friend mentioned that his mother, a refugee in one of the camps, is ill and asked for prayers.  She went to the doctor and was told it is malaria and typhoid.  The medication did not resolve the situation.  Others told him he should stop wasting his money on doctors and take her to the witch doctor.  He said no and prayed about it.  Other family members, still in Yei, South Sudan, said things are improving in South Sudan and there is a good doctor there.  Send her to them.

He did.  She was diagnosed by that doctor as suffering from parasites that come from eating uncooked or under cooked meat.  My friend was right. Those telling him he was wasting his money were the ones trying to waste his money.  Trusting in prayer to lead him and the family to the doctor God wanted to use to cure her was the right way.

Pio

Pio (pee-oh) is Kakwa for water.  Now that the water tank has been washed (previous post) the water in it is clean.  I just had to wait two days.  Last night we had our second heavy rain of the year.  The tank is about ¼ full, and the water is coming out clear.  Having water in the tank is going to make today’s house cleaning much easier.  Yesterday’s laundry was a challenge because we had to carry water by the Gerry can from a local shallow well.

I do not use the pio in the tank, or the water from a local shallow well, for drinking.  This is for bathing and for cleaning.  I get pio in separate (marked) Gerry cans from a hand pump deep well for filtering to make safe drinking water.

Sickness

A friend of mine has been sick periodically for several months.  Yesterday she finally received an explanation from the staff at the hospital.  The common ailments are what are normally tested for and treated for.  It is possible she had malaria and / or typhoid too.  Some medical centers (some of the free ones, not the one I use) give that answer most of the time. 

This time they said the reason those treatments were not curing her is because the illness comes from eating under cooked meat.  They now have her on a different treatment plan, two weeks of daily visits to the hospital for injections, then pills for a month.  Cannot eat meat for three months.  No milk.  Today she is going to ask if it is just cow and goat meat, or if white and dark meat (chicken and duck) are included.  I am glad she went to the hospital this time and received a broad-spectrum test that found something that explains why the “generic answer” was not an answer.

Malaria

On Friday I was feeling weak.  I have never felt like I needed to lay down in the middle of cooking breakfast before.  Cannot leave pancakes in the pan that long, still, it helped.

I had been sneezing for several days and thought it was my hay fever.  Amanda, a registered nurse, fellow missionary, and good friend pointed out the mango trees are putting out a lot of pollen.  On Thursday I started noticing other symptoms and changed my thinking to flu which is also making the rounds here.  On Friday Amanda stopped by on her way to her medical ministry at the hospital.  She wanted to test me for malaria.  It was questionable, probably positive, home test result.

I started the three-day pill regimen for malaria and things (including my sneezing and blowing) have been improving quickly.

Uganda Hospitals

My friend, Meta, typically visits daily.  He was away for four days because his mother was in the hospital.  She had surgery on the 31^st of December.  He was staying with her because there is no food service at the hospital.  Each patient is expected to bring an attendant who will take care of things like their laundry and providing them food.  Meta was also staying because his mother does not understand the language the nurses were using (presumably English, and presumably she did not go to school so she would only know the tribal language.)  He tells me she is home now and doing okay.

Spraying

As reported previously, the campaign to spray the houses to kill mosquitoes was supposed to start in October for Koboko district.  It did start in December.  When the first delay was announced, I anticipated there would be more delays and that it would not start until it was dry season, and the mosquitoes were dying off.  I was close, it started as the weather was changing.  I noticed a huge drop in the mosquito population a few days before the team spraying houses arrived, and they started in my area this time.

Some of my neighbors told them, ‘No thank you.’  I was eager for the spray, even if it was too late to make a significant difference.  Now I am regretting that decision.  It has been a lot of clean-up.  The floors are clean, and now the doors and window screens have had their first cleaning.  Likewise, the windows, but that needs more work.  My furniture has been cleaned despite being covered during the spraying.  I am working on it as time allows.  I do not know if I will get to the walls.

Ironing

Ironing in rural Uganda usually means a charcoal iron.  Those who do have power usually get it from solar power and most of us did not build a big enough solar power system to supply the wattage an electric iron requires.  Ironing is a big deal.  Not just for appearance.  (Wearing clothes that have not been ironed is acceptable for all but public officials.)  Ironing also kills the bugs that get into the clothes when they are on the laundry line drying.  Bugs that otherwise wait in the folds until they are nice and warm (when you are wearing the clothes) and then come out and bite.  They can look like mosquito bites in areas that should have too much protection for a mosquito to reach.  To eliminate (or substantially reduce) this problem, I now iron more types of clothes (T-shirts for example) than I normally would.

Spraying

For several months now there have been announcements of a Uganda wide campaign to distribute mosquito nets.  Recently we heard radio news reports that some of the districts did not receive enough nets.  Now we are hearing that Koboko district will not receive any nets.  Instead, they are planning to spray everyone’s house for mosquitoes. 

The spraying was due to begin on Monday the 29^th, but now it has been delayed three weeks because the spray has not arrived yet.  By the time they get started the wet season will be over and the mosquito population will be reducing due to the change in weather.  We need the spray now, when everyone is being bitten and the threat of Malaria is high.

The campaign started three months ago, but the infrastructure for implementing it is not what it needs to be.  As a result, districts far from the capital suffer, not receiving the benefits until the threat is nearly past.  As for me, I take care of my old mosquito net, so it is still doing the job.  Many of my neighbors cannot say that.  The pieces that remain of their mosquito nets have become low fencing around their gardens to keep the chickens out.  Broken, not serving the original intent – reuse it for something else.  The Ugandans are good at reuse.

Vet

The other missionary in Koboko and I called the vet to schedule his annual visit to give rabies shots to my cat, his cat, and his dog.  The vet was on the other side of Uganda but planned to travel back on Thursday.  We scheduled for Friday. 

The vet was late returning from Kampala.  On Friday, an hour after we his anticipated arrival, he called us back to reschedule for Saturday.  We agreed, saying that it needed to be early (9 AM) due to other commitments.  At 10 AM he called to say he was just beginning to come from Arua (an hour away).  So much for being on time for our 10 AM service.  However, many things start late in rural Uganda, so I went after the vet’s five-minute visit to give my cat her shot. 

Prayers

I joined Mokili for a visit to the hospital.  The Church Teacher (Mokili) and a church leader had been called because someone was in the hospital and wanted to let the church know they desired visitors and prayers.  During the visit, he asked me to read from James 5:13-18 because I had my bible with me.  (I came immediately after bible study.)  He then asked me to re-read each verse one at a time while he translated the verse to Kakwa and then preached about it.  It is the passage telling us to do exactly what she (the patient) had done, to call the church and ask them to come and pray.  We also prayed for the other patients and family members in the room.