Short journey through my life
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| me at work |
It is good to write
something from time to time about what I’m doing here in Uganda.
Well, let me tell you
something about myself that may not be known.
I was born just after the
Second World War and I think that influenced my whole life.
I find it very strange
that the conditions here now are similar to what I saw back in the Netherlands
by then.
The scarcity of
everything, the poor health care and the struggle to survive.
I grew up in a strongly
religious working class family, with the scarcities, the fears but also the
happiness that the war was over.
In Uganda religion play
also an important role. For me, it was not easy to accept the image of God. At
most I was wondering about the Farao stories.
The years from the end of
1950 to 1960 distinguished themselves as years of progess with financial
improvement and certainly an improvement in health care.
When I was 18 I decided to
become a nurse. Before that I was employed in an office as an invoice clerk. I
chose to concentrate on the section for the mentally ill/handicapt people. I
completed the course after 3 years and obtained the Z. diploma in nursing.
This first group I took
care of, has always been important to me and has never realy let me go. They
tugged at my heartstrings.
This was still a time of
big institutions and there was a treadmill that the group had to walk around in
order to make them tired. Early, I protested against this and began to spend
time with them, play with them. This was mostly on a Saturday when the
Head sister was not there.
Luckily, I gained approval and so we started to have „playing days“.
After the Z. dipIoma I
followed the education course for general nursing and for a long time I was
employed at the Hofpoort Hospital, mostly in the neurology department.
On my holidays I traveled
with groups of mentally handicapt, I did this with great pleasure and time
after time I learned from this group how simple it was to enjoy
life. I also took them on
wintersport holidays. We taught groups to ski and langlauf.
We did this every year
around the end of January.
One day there came an
opportunity to take unpaid leave due to supply nursing staff and so I went to Calcutta
in India where I worked with Mother Theresa. This was a very special time and a
very special exprience.
I went back to India several
times in my holidays and I started to interfere with child prostitution which
the local gouverment did not like so they kicked me out. For me this was a
lasting concern, mostly because children asked me if I can pay their school
fees because they couldn't afford any
more. I couldn't do this for a whole camp of children.
This taught me that
poverty leads to a lot of misery and serious situations.
When I was 45 years old, I
started to study theology for 5 years and graduated. In that time I did a apprenticeship
in the jail. A very impressive experience! Every time I came out of the doors,
I was happy that I was free – had the possibility to go out. A prison is a
house with closed doors - you have to work with keys.
In 2010 I came to St.
Clare Health Center with a group of Netherland people from the foundation
Amuria.
We painted something in
the health center and I met Alfred for the first time.
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| Alfred having fun |
I was touched by the
situation and came back from time to time.
From 2013 I'm here
permanentely. I started many things by now like a diabetic clinic and an
epilepsy clinic with support from the neurologist with whom I had worked in the
Netherlands years ago.
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| teaching session in Ococia |
The group of mentally
disabled children in Uganda is huge (and mostly a neglected group). I try
together with Alfred to build up a small school to take care for this group. It
looks like this will succeed but it still requires a lot of input and most of
all well educated staff.
We look forward for any
help and suggestions are most welcome.
Truus.
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| me getting new energy for the day |