The Waning Days

I have hit a wall with cold showers. Maybe it is because we are nearing our departure or the fact that it is cool and very rainy this morning. Maybe it is because I found out everyone else has gotten warm ones. But then I remember that most of the village people have never felt a long hot shower and I shut up my internal dialogue and am thankful for running water at all. Fortunately, I was smart enough to get some extra buckets for my hut so the rain is dripping nicely and melodically into these buckets instead of on the floor this morning.

We are in our last couple of days here. I spent the morning down at KIDA. As I arrive I greet Christopher, the plumber who is trimming the bushes around the hospital. Everyone seems to have multiple jobs. The landscaping around the hospital is meticulously cared for and staff are always cleaning and trimming and sweeping. Although everyone is enormously polite, at times I feel that I am in the way- keeping them from their work and not being able to pitch in and help in any significant way. Still, they all stop their work and greet me as I walk by. I deliver baby clothes and talk with the nurses for a minute. They talk about malaria being more prevalent among children as the govt no longer provides nets. They think that they had come from America but the program was stopped with a change in our policy and funding. I use precious and expensive internet data to look this up and find an article from 2014 stating that we had contributed to the nets through the CDC. This is an example of how foreign policy can look one way on paper but in reality, has a direct effect on the health of the world and a very direct effect on the children in rural Uganda – these children that are laying on beds near me with IV drips in their hands. This makes me sad and a bit angry and I vow to figure out a way to figure out how to get nets here. Unfortunately, just a handful of nets doesn’t solve the problem. Selfishly I think maybe it is an opportunity to meet Steph Curry and connect with his Nets for Nets non-profit. In reality it may look like advocacy.

I find the management team all in their weekly staff meeting in Ezra’s office so I sit in on the remainder of their time together. It is not unlike many non-profit management meetings I have led and attended. Eight managers crammed into the 3 couches in the office. They are currently discussing the problem of housing and how to prioritize who gets which rooms on the campus housing as the rooms are all filled up. Emergency staff will need first priority: driver, anesthesiologist, critical care nurses. A new critical care officer is arriving on Monday and the only room available is a single since Moses the driver is bringing his family to live with him next week and will move out of his single to a double. No one knows if this new man is coming alone or has a family. They discuss how to also prioritize which family members can be in the housing. Many staff come from far and leave their families so it is advantageous and helps with staff retention if they can bring family along. The staff joke that sometimes it starts including extended family, children, grandchildren and more. They discuss the feasibility of housing the van up the hill so that nurses and other staff can have a safe ride down to the hospital for middle of the night emergencies. There is concern that the myriad of kids up at the housing will mess with the van but they think if they park it after dark and move it before sunrise it should be ok. One jokes that the van will always have “wash me” on it and I realize some jokes are universal. Moses the driver lives up there so this part will work. They decide they will need some fencing so the van can be in a secure area. There are some other problems, but the team decides to have the housing community vote for a leader to address these. Ezra assigns Winnie to make sure this happens. She is extremely bright and Ezra appears to use here similar to a COO. It seems that each time one challenge is solved another arrives. Money is tight, similar to my experience with other non-profit jobs but they all seem to know that things will get worked out. Everyone gets a chance to speak and although there may be disagreements, they are all respectful of one another.

With some tremendous and encouraging news arriving earlier in the morning that the Waipuna Chapel in Hawaii has raised $6000 for the Children’s Ward there will be a small team meeting on Weds to prioritize what the money should be spent on. One of the needs will be a 3rd oxygen concentrator. There is one in the theatre and one in the main hospital, but they will need an additional one for the Children’s ward. I have asked Ezra to let me know what the staff team decides but this amount of money will be enough to have the Ward fully functional. Ezra asks me to share a few words at the end of the meeting and I tear up. It is so hard to express my admiration for this staff team. I share that I know they can get paid much more to work elsewhere but they are here because of their hearts. I share my thankfulness for their good stewardship of our dollars and for their immense appreciation of our money and love. For them it isn’t just about the money but the love we share with them as well.

After the meeting Ezra shares that the management team meets once a week on Monday mornings. The hospital staff meets monthly and all staff meet every other month. Communication is a very important part of how they work so well together. I see a request for time off for Winnie. Ezra shares that it is mandated that each staff take 30 consecutive days off annually. This is paid time and the organization can be sued if they don’t comply. Staff also get 3 months paid maternity leave. I am saddened that our labor policies in the states are so archaic. I share that I had only 6 weeks for Sam and even that was all I could afford to take having to use disability and vacation to get my full pay. Although these policies are good for staff, they cause challenges both physically and financially as there need to be replacements for them. This includes doctors and nurses.

I sit outside to do some writing. My friend Derrick, a young boy from the vocational school, comes up beside me to watch me type on my laptop. He speaks little English but seems fascinated by this act. Later that afternoon Ezra and I decide to take a walk. Other than the walking down the hill a couple times a day exercise has been sparse. Joseph feeds us three full meals a day and I find myself apologetic that we are not eating all the food he prepares. We end up walking for two hours in a direction I haven’t been. We talk about life. Some of the differences between here and there. We discuss marriage and divorce, raising kids, adoption and politics. I share some personal stories. It is nice to spend some time getting to know him and learning more about the cultural differences between our two countries. This area is off the main road so I get more curious stares. Ezra explains that they see very few Mzungu this direction. It is late afternoon so the road is full of children walking home from school from all directions in a bright array of different uniforms. The ones that are already home are gathering the giant water buckets or collecting twigs for fire wood. The school children follow us and giggle. Internally I call this the Mzungu parade. The others are too busy doing their chores but still stop to wave and smile. Their days start early walking to school and end with daily living tasks. They have very little free time. We come across a huge tea plantation. Ezra shares that one man who recently passed owns all the land. This area is too fertile for tea growing so he cleared all the top soil to grow them but still there are large gaps where the tea is not growing. Acres and acres of this are in my view. The plantation provides a lot of jobs. I learn how tea is picked. There are young children gathering sticks for firewood from the trees. They tell Ezra that the man allows them to pick up anything that has fallen on the ground but they are not allowed to use machetes to cut. I think my youngest would be thrilled to know that kids here get to use machetes. In fact, as I take in all of Uganda, I think Desean channels this part of the world. People using tools to be creative in building things, machetes everywhere for work- carried openly along the paths, welding on the side of the road, and an ability to spend hours outdoors. This is my youngest and maybe someday we will do a DNA test and find out he is part Ugandan.

We stop at the staff housing as we near home so Ezra can show me where the fences will go. I peak in a room and see a mattress on the floor and a phone charger near. There are small kitchens in the double rooms but most cook outside on small homemade stoves. There is a large water container but as it has not rained enough lately so it is empty. The staff must go all the way to the swamp behind the hospital to gather water. There are bathrooms on the outside of the area that you have to walk to. There is electricity and some rooms ironically have tv which was a request from staff early on. We see Phedress who has lived there since they were built and meet her 9-year old son. Her sister is there with her twins, one of which has special needs but is improving because of the care he is getting at the hospital. She is living with Phedress in a 2-room home right now. This housing is critical as many staff do not live near because of the rural nature of the hospital. They know that in reality they could use double the number of rooms but this is a plan for many many years away. My legs are tired from the steep hills but it is good to get out and move before another big dinner. I am sweaty and realize that another cold shower awaits but would not trade these little side trips for anything.

I head back to my room and read about the shootings at the Gilroy Garlic Festival. My heart breaks for these families of those who died and wonder if there is any public space that is safe for our kids. Gilroy seems a bit too close to home and Desean is at a camp that includes several outings to popular public spaces not too far from there. With that on my mind I hear a truck moving down below with someone making announcements from a loud speaker. Because of the mindset I was in I immediately think of the movie Hotel Rwanda where the depiction of men driving through the streets with verbal attacks on the Tutsi’s calling them rats and vermin before killing them comes to mind. I know I am safe here and that the odds of my kids experiencing a public shooting are low but it bothers me that this is even a thought I need to have. Ezra later tells me that these are people who are making promotional announcements for reproductive health and are doing a good thing and for a moment I realize that most of the world is good. And that here and at home I am surrounded by those good people and again, I am thankful.

KIDA management team - some old friends and some new