Nakavule Hospital

9.15.09

About a week ago I was walking through town along the main highway when I saw a crowd of Ugandans. As I approached to see what all the fuss was about the crowd parted and they all kept saying “mzungu, you see.” My curiosity got the best of me. First I saw a motorcycle laying open the ground. About ten feet away was the body of its driver. It was gruesome. My stomach convulsed and I gulped back my lunch. Was I really seeing this? The new volunteers were just feet away and approaching. I assured them they didn’t want to see it and we left.

Politics in Kampala have been causing quite the stir in the country. The Buganda tribe was rioting throughout Kampala over disrespecting their king and land. Musevini, Uganda’s president had disrespected the king by not allowing a youth rally to take place. The Buganda people view the king as higher than the president. Tribal issues in Uganda are very interesting. Bugandans feel like they own the land that the capitol is on. Obviously Musevini can not just give them Kampala. Somewhere around ten people ended up dying in the riots. Musevini released the army into the city to bring peace. They had live ammunition and a lot of tear gas. The US embassy was saying to avoid Kampala, especially on Saturday. Saturday was when the youth rally was scheduled. The king of Buganda had called for all Bugandans to participate and the king himself was planning to march with his people in the riots. But when Saturday morning rolled around the king had a ton of army men barricading him in his home. The king then released a statement ordering all Bugandas not to riot and to cancel the rally. Whether or not a gun was held to the king’s head and he was forced to say it is a whole other story. Thankfully it seems there is peace in Kampala. I was at the post office and a taxi pulled up. A crowd gathered again and due to my extreme curiosity I went over. A man from Iganga had gotten caught in the the cross fire during one of the riots and had been killed. His body was in the taxi. It was a hard week.

Yesterday I took this little girl named Faith to the hospital. Her eyelid was completely swollen. We sat at the hospital for three hours. Then they drained the puss out of her eyelid by cutting it open. I felt so bad for her. Poor little Faith!