One of the New Vision staff tested positive for coronavirus while at office. He narrates his experience in the series that began yesterday. Today, he continues with day two of his stay at the quarantine centre.
It is Saturday, August 29, at 5:40am. I wake up to the sound of doctors moving in the ward.
They are not visiting every patient. When they come close to my bed, I expect them to tell me something, but they simply proceed to my neighbour.
So I inquire why I am not being checked and one of them, Dr Sarah, tells me my condition is okay compared to the others.
Indeed, I am feeling normal. I tell myself to just go back to sleep. But my neighbour on the right refuses to take that for an answer since they also skipped his bed.
He demands to be checked and tested again for COVID-19. An argument ensues and goes on for a few minutes.
Finally, he is checked for pressure, but not COVID-19.
Over the next ward, separated by a low wall, is a team from an NGO. They know each other so they can tolerate their colleague’s loud music blaring off a Bluetooth speaker.
I put on my headphones to muffle his loud music, but it does not do much. I finally gain courage to walk up to him and tell him to lower the volume.
To my surprise, he immediately turns it off. I walk back to my bed feeling like a dormitory prefect. My neighbour congratulates me for my courage, saying he was also getting irritated by the loud music.
Cleaning project
I am unable to sleep. My mind is thinking about the poor sanitation at the facility. No one has come around to mop the floor since I was brought in on Thursday night.
The bathroom, toilets, sinks are not cleaned and yet this looks to be a new facility that deserves to be properly maintained.
The place is also highly infectious, the more reason why it deserves to be cleaned and sanitised regularly.
This is also a problem worth solving. I convince myself that this must be one of the reasons why I am here; to change the sanitation within this place.
But how do I get the necessary tools such as buckets, detergent, gloves, sanitisers, soap to do some cleaning?
I needed friends and well-wishers who can contribute to the cause. So
I call on my Makerere University masters’ group and brief them abou my project. I ask them to make some donations to the noble cause. I call it
‘A Bucket Against COVID-19′. A few of them buy into the idea.
Patients riot
After sharing this idea with my neighbour during break time, I hear some voices coming from the middle of the ward shouting: “We are tired of this rubbish. If they cannot collect it, let us take it to them.”
It is clear some patients are equally tired of the rubbish, which is spilling from the dustbin and is scattered all over our walkway. One of the frustrated patients decides to roll the rubbish bin out of the ward to the corridor where the security guard is.
Others join him and several bins are rolled to the corridor.
Immediately, the security guard notices patients coming with rubbish. He gestures that they should stay inside and, seeing his request being ignored, he takes off to keep a distance.
The nurses who see him take off, follow suit. I overhear one of us saying: “See! See! Can you imagine even health workers are running away from us as if we are going to eat them!
By now, we are all involved. We manage to collect all the rubbish and dump it outside.
This dramatic action gives me confidence that a few individuals are willing to promote good sanitation in the facility despite what the hospital management is thinking.
Warm wave
Meanwhile, the protest gives me an opportunity to step out. And, while on the balcony, I see my brother Peter at the gate with some food items he brought to keep me going.
While speaking on the phone, I tell him to look up to 4th floor. He looks at me and we wave.
That was a great opportunity because he would not have seen me if it was not for the protest since we are not allowed anywhere beyond the door.
Because of this same restriction, I missed the sunshine throughout my time in this facility which made me feel like a prisoner.
My brother’s visitation also reminded me of my boarding school days at St. Kalemba in Nazigo. That was a special day to eat a wonderful meal from home.
As the day comes to an end, I am thinking about how wonderful and purposeful the day has been.
From the protest against the rubbish to my first visitation. I think I am also getting used to the place and the system.
For now, I am stretch within the corridor and shower before retiring to bed.
Tomorrow is another day and I continue thanking God for each day, without a doubt hoping to leave this place soon.
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