more updates
on Random Uganda (Uganda), 16/Mar/2010 09:08, 34 days ago
More Updates on Updates:The week I was walking in the Rwenzoris (‘the place from which the rains come’) was a rainy week for much of Uganda. Mudslides on the slopes of Mount Elgon (to the east of Kampala) loosed some massive boulders and wiped out the village of Bududa, killing and injuring an estimated 500 people and displacing hundreds of thousands more.Mudslides on the western side of the country near Kabale closed the road to Rwanda and brought the number of homeless people to nearly a third of a million. Stacey, a nurse manager and fellow volunteer, contacted the VSO office to see if VSO was planning any actions in relief of the mudslide victims. She was curtly rebuffed and informed that such actions were not considered part of ‘VSO’s mandate.’ (this is the first time I’ve heard that VSO even has a mandate) Sarah, who loves her memoranda of understandings, did mention that maybe VSO should have a MOU with the Uganda Red Cross in the case of natural disasters.We contacted the Uganda Red Cross directly to offer our respective professional services and were told that the best thing we could do is donate old clothes.Cholera has struck the UDPF camp of soldiers cleaning up the mudslide.The rains have been hard on Kampala as well, flooding the slums and washing away the already tenuous road surfaces. Cholera is back in Namuwongo. Two patients from Namuwongo and a patient from neighboring Kibuli were admitted to Mulago in the emergency medicine holding ward with profound diarrhea last week. They were transferred to the‘cholera camp’ (a series of tents out behind the hospital—see previous post about the cholera camp) the next day, but not until after sharing a toilet with 50-60 other patients and caregivers on an open ward…My walk to work has been seriously eroded as well. Which is actually a good thing as MSF has diverted the flow of SUVs in and out of their compound, slightly decreasing my likelihood of being struck dead by a Toyota Landcruiser speeding through a residential neighborhood, late for yet another meeting at the ministry (with the trendy no weapons bumper-sticker--as if that was the big threat). One of the roads that slopes down past the La Foret to the hospital had been shored up with white fiber bags that I had mistaken for sandbags at first glance. But the other day, one of the bags had been struck by a car and torn open to reveal its contents—it was stuffed with used disposable diapers… I don’t know, maybe they have something here. Maybe they’ve found the perfect, environmentally sound use for this otherwise impervious substance.