We really got a dose of reality today - went to see a hospital about 1/2 hour away - it was actually very nice - a private facility funded by the Church of Uganda and the Church of Ireland....they even had a neonatal ICU....didn't see it, but by African standards the rest looked good.
Then we went out with a home care worker and saw AIDS patients in their homes way out in the country - we took a matato and I'm sure the driver thought we were crazy... All the people were on the Antiretrovirals. Two were doing pretty well, but two were not. One was a man whose wife died several years ago and he had three young daughters and can't work his crops. The other was a mom with about 8 children who was very sick from the ARVs - said she can't eat. I thought about how sad it must be to think that you may not see your children grow up....and who would care for them? One man was 60 and his wife died in 2000 so he's been infected a long time. He was very sick, but is doing well on the ARVs and was now managing his little farm - 2 pigs, a few bananna trees, a few coffee trees and some vanilla vines. He gave each of us some ground nuts when we left!
They have to get to the hospital every month for meds if they can in any way, but it must be very hard. They get so many other illnesses too....they say TB is very common among HIV positive people.
Just wanted you to know that there are some pretty serious moments and that the problems here are very real and personal.
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