November 12, 2011

Well 7 am came early, but 12:30 and 2:30 am came earlier as my eyes stared at mosquito nets trying to conjure up sleep.  Unfortunately jet-lag got the best of me last night and I was up from 2:30-4:30, reading and trying to make myself tired.  So as you can imagine I wasn't my fully energized self when the rooster started crowing this morning at 6:30.  A luke warm shower and a quick breakfast gave me a burst of energy and we were off to Bugobero hospital.  About 2 rough and I mean rough hours later our now sore bodies unloaded from the back seat of the death trap, um I mean van.

 We were finally there, the hospital, I'd been waiting to see.  Things were very different but seemed to work reasonably well.  IV bags were hung from window seals, using gloves was more of an overlooked suggestion than a routine, but over all I was pretty impressed with the staff's ability to make the hospital run without what I would view as necessary resources such as water or electricity.  Today we didn't really get to pitch in and help much, because it's a Saturday which means they really don't do as much.  We toured the hospital and of course we played with children.  (I taught them many games like racing games, follow the leader, the knot game(not so much a hit), and duck duck goose.)  They laughed and laughed and laughed.  I am completely convinced they were laughing at us more than with us, but hey they smiled.

During our tour we quickly became aware of the harsh reality of health care in Uganda.  One woman we met got to celebrate the birth of healthy twins, but this wasn't so much the norm.   I also met one poor woman who seemed to be in a lot of pain.  They said that her 32 week old baby had already died inside her because of malaria.  She'd still have to deliver him soon.

Malaria is the number one killer of unborn babies in Uganda.  Mom's get the disease which can be treated but after being treated the virus still lives in the placenta which is where the baby get's it's nutrients.  Also the drug used to treat malaria, Quinine, is toxic to the baby.  So here are the options they have, 1. both mom and baby die from malaria, 2. Treat mom with Quinine and make sure to get the baby out with in 2 days of treatment.  (which if the baby was less than 32 weeks of gestation this was incompatible with life as well.)  So something totally not of issue in America, something completely preventable, is claiming the lives of thousands here daily.  That's why were here.  My prayer is that change can result. I think that, first of all, people need to know that this is happening to be willing be a part of seeing it changed. I watched this short video about the malaria epidemic vs the swine flu out break and realized that these numbers can not be ignored!  If you would like to be part of helping to prevent malaria, you can help save a life today by donating a pretreated mosquito net to someone in Uganda.  Just go to this website, though the same organization I traveled with, choose Net:worth and for every $10 you give, a net will be distributed to someone in Uganda who needs it.  Also, once the net is distributed, you will get GPS coordinates of where your net is located and a info about the people it's protecting.  Baby steps,  I'm learning that God uses the willing heart of believers to make changes that impact eternity.  Will you join me in this baby step?