19 November, 2013 Airport
The team made up of Dr. Anna Jakkel, Dr. Robert Késmárszky and Dr. George Szabo, doctors and Virág Kiss coordinator, left for the Ugandan capital, Kampala on Tuesday. After a long day trip we landed at the Ugandan airport Entebbe at four o’clock the next morning, where Sandor Balogh, president of the African-Hungarian Union, as well as two other members of the AHU, Judit Szerbin and Balázs Lukács greeted our tired group.
20-21 November, 2013
After the long journey we had a rest in the Kampala HTCC house, and then in the evening we continued our way to the mission’s base, Hoima, 200 km away from Kampala, where we arrived around midnight. The next day we went to the town, exchanged money, bought a local phone card and also bottled mineral water as tap water is forbidden to drink because of the risk of infection. Our local helpers, Grace and Charles (whose older daughter, Vicky studies at the Debrecen Medical University, she is in her first year) introduced us to Dr. Harrington, who is a colleague of a local NGO, the ABEHO, and has organized similar mobile clinic projects in small villages in the area. Because of the lack of resources, he can visit some of the villages only once a month. In the next few days we are going to work with him. We complement each other’s work well, he knows the villages where there is urgent need for medical care and has considerable experience in connection with local diseases. On the other hand we have three very well-trained and highly enthusiastic volunteer doctors, as well as lots of medicine. We purchased the most needed medicine based on Dr. Harrington’s advice and the next day, after a delicious breakfast, we waited excitedly to begin missionary work.
22 November, 2013
Our first location was Biliyango, 20 km from Hoima. When we arrived, dozens of people had been waiting for us on the hill next to the Catholic Church. Quickly we received two more tables so that each doctor could work separately, and consulting hours began. In only a few minutes more than a hundred patients were waiting under the trees, sitting in the grass on benches. Dr. Harrington became the interpreter and assistant of Dr. Gyuri, a local nurse helped Dr. Robi, and Steve, an avid volunteer was Dr. Anna’s help. The sun was heavily shining, so we constantly searched the shadow, finally Dr. Gyuri moved the location of the “surgery” in to the church. Medicine was diminishing fast, the most common diseases were malaria, worminess, scabies, upper respiratory tract infections. They also referred some patients to hospital with suspected gastrointestinal and cervical cancer. Dr. Anna handled neglected skin inflammation, infection; Dr. Robi got a young man with Parkinson’s disease. In the afternoon András Novák, the reporter of Hír3D visited the mission and made an interview with the members of the mission. You can see the film on ATV. The work was fast and well-organized; our interpreters helped us a lot. Although you can understand a lot via meta-communication, work would often be much less effective without them. Nowadays mostly adults, many women (similarly to the previous missions in West and East Africa as well) suffer from back, arm, leg and backbone problems caused by the hardship of physical work. When we woke up, it was already five o’clock. It was an eventful and long first day of the mission. In the evening we celebrated Dr. Gyuri’s birthday with sausages brought from home and a pack of gum and a little palinka which also serves as a disinfectant here in the tropics. After dinner we fell asleep exhausted.