Who will save your soul...or your life? Not this hospital's nuns...

Today I got really mad and really upset at the indifference some people have towards life. I still don’t know what to say about it.

Lindsey and I went to school again for the first time since the first week we were here because we didn‘t have any other work we needed to do today. I helped install some reading games that one of the volunteers brought on the computers in the computer lab and helped an adult student with some work he was doing in Excel. By that time, we went back to Hekima Place and prepared to go into town to go to a Jesuit Refugee Shop, where you could buy goods made by and benefiting refugees.

As we were leaving the shop, just as we crossed the street we came across a man who was laying on the ground with foam pouring from his mouth. He was having a seizure. We had to think quickly. I started running across the street because right next to the Jesuit Refugee shop was a sign for a 24-hour hospital. Lindsey and I ran into the compound and asked for a doctor for this man who was having a seizure. We were directed into one of the buildings, where a nun asked us who the man was (“We don’t know, we just found him laying on the sidewalk!”), if he was a drunkard or a druggie (“ We don’t know! But he’s out there, right now, having a seizure! Please come help him!”), if he was alone (“Yes, yes, he was alone but our friends are with him now! Please, can you come?!”), again, is he on drugs? (“What? No, we don’t know, we told you, please come!”). The nun finally told us all the doctors are out to lunch. (“Well is there anyone who can help us?! Who can help him??”) “Well, the nun-in-charge is across the compound in that building over there.” (“Ok, thanks!” and we ran to the other building. A woman was coming out and I asked her, “Is the nun-in-charge in there?”) “No, I haven’t seen her….but there’s another nun in the pharmacy.” (We ran to the pharmacy and told the nun, “Please, there’s a man outside who needs help! He’s having a seizure.”) Again, a slow question and answer session that got us nowhere. We begged her to come or to get someone who could help. She agreed, even though she said that she wouldn‘t be able to do anything, but then remained in the pharmacy. She put some boxes away, looked through a few cupboards…we waited several minutes, refusing to leave til she came with us. She finally came out and we raced ahead of her, only to look back and see her going into another building, coming out a minute later and handing something to someone else. She was clearly in no hurry, taking her time, but she seemed to be done with whatever business she had and was walking our direction again. But then she turned and went into another building. I looked up and saw “Maria Immaculata Hospital: ’We love and respect life.’” “How ironic,” I though to myself. We watched as she stood and talked with about three other nuns, they laughed, and then she finally started coming with us, but still at a very leisurely pace. We finally got across the street and the man was gone. A kind passerby in a car agreed to take him to the hospital. By that point, the man had regained consciousness and told Lisa, as she was calling an ambulance (the operator never even asked her for her name), that the ambulance never comes, but that he went to a hospital just down the road. Lisa accompanied him to the hospital in the passerby‘s car, where he was prescribed medicine that cost about 3000 shillings--which is about 40-45 US dollars. He didn’t seem to have it and Lisa gave him 500 shillings towards it.

I was in shock from this entire incident. How could a hospital--and not just a hospital, a supposedly RELIGIOUS institution, show so little regard for a man’s life?! Even if they suspected he was on drugs, they didn’t know! And who cares? How can they call themselves a life-saving or soul-saving institution?

I’m still having trouble processing this situation. I want to be able to do something the next time I’m in that situation. I don’t know what I could do, though, without being a doctor. I was so upset by the situation, all I could do on the way back was be angry because being angry helped me think. If I wasn’t angry, I would have just started crying. I don’t know what that means or if that’s good or bad or what. I have a lot of growing to do and a lot of learning to do, that’s all I know. All I know is that I know very little.