Updates

Hey Everyone!

What a crazy time it’s been here in Uganda. You seriously NEVER know what you are going to be hit with day by day. So here is a summary of what we have been doing these past couple of weeks.

Last week we spent Tuesday- Saturday in and outside of Kampala for a Peace Corps training since PMI now has their own Peace Corps Volunteer, Emily!! We are soooo happy to have her and we know she is going to do an amazing job working with us. She is going to be focusing mainly on community outreach and health initiatives. She is extremely outgoing and fun loving and I think she is going to do a fantastic job. She will be with us for 2 years, so we will basically be living in Masindi with her the whole time we are here. It’s nice to have another American around. She has actually been staying with us ever since we picked her up last week because they are finishing up a few things on her house. She will most likely move in to her house this weekend.

Upon our arrival back in Masindi, we were greeted with the terrible news that there has been an Ebola outbreak a couple of hours south west of us in a town called Kibaale. Uganda has had a few Ebola outbreaks over the years, and the worst one being in 2000 where over 200 people died. Since that was not so long ago, people have vivid memories of that and are still traumatized. Our own clinic officer, Alex, was actually quarantined during an outbreak in 2007, but thankfully was not infected. So, as you can imagine, this news was quite unnerving to Alex and everyone who remembers that outbreak.  So far there have been 16 deaths, 18 who are isolated and being watched carefully, and over 100 more that have been quarantined due to potential interaction with others who were infected. Luckily, there have been no cases in Masindi so far. The CDC and WHO are all over this as you can imagine, so every effort is being taken to isolate the virus. We feel safe here in Masindi and our clinic is taking extra precautions while continuing to operate and provide care. We are unable to isolate anyone properly with Ebola, so anyone complaining of any symptoms similar to those of Ebola is being referred out to the proper facilities which have been set up by the CDC. We are not taking any chances and want to keep our staff and current patients safe, although it is so hard to turn anyone away. PMI has made the difficult yet wise decision to cancel the August mission trip here which was supposed to arrive next weekend. Newman’s brother Will Henry was supposed to arrive this weekend and stay for the week with the team as well. Obviously we were very sad that he and the rest of the team could not come, as we had been looking forward to seeing some familiar faces, but we completely agree with the decisions that our leadership has made. With the nature of these trips being medical outreaches where we ask people to travel and congregate in large groups to be seen by our medical team, anyone who was already infected by the virus could easily spread it amongst the group. We did not want to put any Ugandan’s lives in danger by asking them to congregate after the President of Uganda has already warned against large gatherings. We do not have the proper facilities to isolate patients who we are suspicious may have Ebola, so we all thought it best to cancel this trip. We hope that these team members will be able to go on a future trip coming up soon, and we feel certain that Will Henry will be able to come over another time as well. I have been asked to not do any patient care for a short time, so I am trying to help Newman out in any way I can, and am staying just as busy as ever.

This weekend, instead of heading to Entebbe to pick up Will Henry, we will be having a quiet weekend at home during which I hope Newman and I can catch up on some sleep. Despite knowing that we are safe and taken care of in our own home, I can’t say that we haven’t lost some sleep over this the past few days.  

Thanks so much for all of your prayers and understanding for those of you who were supposed to join us next week. We love you all and are glad to have the peace of mind that everyone is staying safe. Please pray especially for those families who have been directly affected by this terrible virus. The saddest part of this is that most of the people who have died, were a part of just one family. I can’t imagine how devastated I would be if my family was wiped out in a matter of weeks. We love you all and will keep you posted. My reading this morning from Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest was so reassuring with a quote from Psalms 91 which reads: “…No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling…” We feel well prayed for and looked after, and we thank you for all of your support!

Love

Trish