Simon's Uganda Blog

Sunday 2^nd October 2016

One of the things which I find most distressing when I am here is how thin the thread between life and death really is. Somehow at home we feel very insulated from this most of the time. For me this was exemplified on Friday when a 15 year old was brought in after taking rat poison. Rat poison is widely available here and is quite often taken by young people as a deliberate overdose. He had had an argument with his mother and locked himself in a room and taken the poison. There are 2 main types of rat poison here. One taken in overdose is relatively harmless but the other made from organophosphorus compounds has serious side effects. Unfortunately for him he took the latter. Although on arrival he didn’t seem too badly affected, he soon deteriorated and, despite the very best efforts of all involved, he died because his heart just went more and more slowly until it stopped all within the space of 2 hours. In an environment where many struggle to survive, it seemed such a tragic waste of a previously fit young man’s life.

Chapel this morning included a performance by the students choir “Echoes of Victory” It was mainly intended as a fund raiser to help replace some of the electrical equipment which the group uses. Part of this involved public pledges where the amount donated is publically announced. I really feel very unhappy about how this makes people feel coerced into giving but it is a relatively common practice here in Uganda along similar lines to the Harambee appeals in Kenya where people are encouraged to publically donate to support an individual or a needy cause.

This afternoon was a return trip to the prison and a few photos were allowed this time. The mosquito mesh on the windows is all in place and the tank for water with its stand is all ready to be used. The kitchen and washroom may be future projects to assist. We were able to hand out a lot of tubes of clotrimazole cream for numerous prisoners with fungal skin infections and also some antibiotics for others with skin infections. Unfortunately the man with suspected chlamydia has already been moved on to another prison so not sure if we will be able to catch up with him. There were a further 10 new inmates with 11 having left some released oin the last week so there is a fairly steady turnover. I think I will probably make that a regular Sunday visit while Im here even though the medical outreach is only once a month normally.