Ran over a chicken today
Now that I have your attention, you can find out how precarious home visits with TASO can be.
The day started off with nothing out of the ordinary. Went to a clinic out in Awach where we did 18 month CD4 count check-ups and refilled ARTs. The pathologist in the lab out there found out I was from McMaster, got excited and showed off all the rapid tests they do out in rural Uganda. If the WHO and USAID are to be applauded, it’s providing all the rapid HIV, Malaria and pregnancy kits out in rural east Africa.
After what I thought was the end of a short work day, Sarah and I were informed that we were gonna do two home visits. Now, don’t ask me where exactly we went because we were taken in our Land Cruiser and taken down muddy roads that I suppose are the Ugandan equivalent of suburbia. Except replace identical housing plans for identical grass roofed huts. We got stuck in the mud once which took some rally car-esque finesse from our driver. He was shifting gears like (insert a race car driver here).
Meeting the (really really really) rural residents that TASO served was definitely the highlight of the day. The smiles, handshakes and jubilant body language really showed how thankful they were that TASO counsellors and medical staff would drive hours out of their way to deliver their ARTs, take blood for analysis back at TASO HQ and provide some counselling support when they need it.
On the way out of our final home visit a six year old decided to chase our car out of his hut neighbourhood. He finally gave up after a kilometre of mud running. After this incident, Sarah decided that she’ll bring her camera to every outing from now on. She’s finally gotten over her self-consciousness of taking pictures of the locals.
Oh right. The chicken. About 30 km from Gulu, we were in an area where the road was no more than five feet wide with goats, chickens and cows everywhere (rampant livestock is commonplace here). A hen with the worst luck in the world ran to the right for a slight moment at the first sight of our SUV but then veered left at the last moment right into the path of one of our back tires. Sarah said she saw a puff of feathers but couldn’t exactly see a body. :(
Rest in Peace Chicken #12919289
Casey
