Padar

Saturday

Woke up at 3 am to two cats either fighting or loving – not sure what but it was quite a racket. We have an armed guard at our hotel all night – I fantasized about him shooting those kitties. One more thing before I talk about yesterday, I want you all to remember to never sleep with chickens under your bed. Enough said.

Yesterday we travelled 6+ hours total on the muddiest, bumpiest, pot hole strewn (the word “pot hole” doesn’t begin to describe the gigantic holes) one-way, red dirt road. We went to visit an IDP Camp north of Padar, in far northern Uganda. The area around Padar was the home of the LRA and the people there suffered tremendously at the ruthless hands of this brutal gorilla group.

As you travel to Padar, you see IDP camps all over the place. Some of them are empty – the people have been relocated to their own land. Problem with that is that their villages/homes were destroyed as well as the entire infrastructure. So, they leave the camp, but they come home to absolutely nothing – water, sanitation, etc. Other camps are empty during the day while people work the fields, and then they return to the camps at night because they feel safer there. And then, there are many, many camps that are still fully occupied. We passed one that is next door to military housing (actually they’re really huts). In this particular IDP camp, 80% of the residents are infected with AIDS/HIV as the women have either been raped, or the husbands come home after serving in the military and then transfer HIV/AIDS to them. A very sad place.

MTI staff and volunteers worked in many of these camps - 14 to be exact. In the four year time period that we've worked here, we have changed the death rates in the camp from 15-20 people a day to 2 a month. Our Ugandan staff and the medical volunteers who devote a month of their time here have done incredible work in not only helping people through this man-made disaster, but also creating healthier communities.

The camp we travelled to is just north of Padar (which isn’t really much of a village – it’s an old IDP camp where families live in huts and pretty much the only buildings are occupied by NGOs). Padar honestly feels like the end of the Earth - a forgotten, awful place. I saw UNICEF, the UN's World Food Program, Medecins Sans Frontieres, and of course Medical Teams International. Met MTI’s 20 Padar staff there, and then travelled up to the camp itself.

I’m not sure where to begin with the Padar camp. These residents are truly the poorest of the world’s poor. They live in these tiny small huts with thatched roofs. In one hut that I went in, the lady said through our translator that 9 people sleep there at night. They cook in these huts with a fire with little ventilation, so smoke just fills up the hut, while children are sleeping on the floor. I was in one for probably only 2 minutes and I couldn't wait to get outside for fresh air. They don’t cook outside because of the rain. It was very tragic to see.

The people are, for the most part, illiterate. The children were all over us as usual, especially when they realized we had candy for them. It actually was a bit too crazy as they slap you to get your attention. They are so desperate! It was muddy there, mud all over my legs and shoes. But, I couldn’t complain because I had shoes unlike the residents. One 8 month old baby let me hold him. He was so sweet and was loving my hair (as most people there keep their heads shaved). I’m sure he was also intrigued by my skin and eyes. Can you imagine Ms. Blondie Elizabeth and me there? We make quiet an entrance – two strange looking ghosts in their midst.

However, we were not the only white people there, we also had two Medical Teams volunteers working and set up under MTI tents. Dr. Mike is a P.A. and Dr. Cosimo is an internist. They are there for over a month, treating people as they patiently wait for their turn to get much needed medical care. Most people can be treated with the drugs MTI brings, however a few need to be admitted to a hospital which is about 30 miles away. Ugandans must pay for the hospital before they’re admitted and of course, they don’t have that kind of money. So, MTI pays for hospital care. Yet another thing about MTI that makes me proud!

One girl was receiving an IV in one of our tents. She had suddenly become unconscious from malaria. However, her parents thought she was possessed and were going to take her to a witch doctor. Fortunately, our volunteers learned of this girl and convinced the parents to let them do a quick test for Malaria and they consented. Now, a couple days later, she is in much better shape – no need for a witch doctor.

These people are illiterate, malnourished, barely clothed, eating millet only, dirty and hopeless, yet, they are so grateful for the help and hope that Medical Teams brings to them. Dr. Cosimo told me that now and then, he gets a case that he thinks is just post traumatic stress disorder from the atrocities committed during the war. These people have haunted eyes, but they are as gracious as they can be, and will reward you with a beautiful smile if you bestow the simplest kindness toward them. I can’t imagine being in a more destitute, impoverished place on the planet. And, I realize that it may even be worse right now in Darfur where we have volunteers (Joe calls Darfur “Hell on Earth”), or Congo, where Joe will be travelling at the end of our trip with Felix Omodi and David Alulu (?sp), to assess the situation and make plans for MTI to help the over 1 million people there who have been displaced.

This has been a difficult day to write about. I’ll try to post some pictures later (if I can ever hook-up to the Internet again) so that maybe, you can get a small idea of what it’s like. We are the most fortunate people in the world – in fact – on his last trip to the U.S., Felix said that Heaven won’t be a big deal for us because we already live in Heaven. He said that when Africans go to Heaven, it will look just like America. I now see what he means.