Don't forget to remember

On Wednesday I had to get up early to drive to the office.  It was dark outside, and cold in the bathroom because the heating hadn’t started.  I switched on the lights downstairs and started to make breakfast, I was still cold. I tried to remember the last morning when it was this dark, quiet and cold.  It came flooding back…  Kisiizi hospital!

I’m feeling cold as bright lights appear through the darkness and the car slowly approaches our hotel

It is cold as we pull up at the side of the road and Arnold struggles to climb into the high car

Hats, scarves and coats have appeared but still we shiver as cold air comes in through the open door.

The car has heating, it doesn’t reach beyond the first row of seats. I don’t have a coat, or a hat.

The road is rough, the car bounces along and veers from side to side dodging potholes and oncoming traffic.

I realise we’re avoiding people and animals and bicycles – out on the road, no lights, no protection

Notice Arnold, pain on his face. Each bump jars his sensitive joints and skin.

Hungry, I remember the chapattis the hotel made last night so I could have breakfast.

Two chapatis, 5 people.  We try to eat slowly to make our allotted portion last.

The hospital appears, people milling round the fence, climbing out of cars, lorries, buses, taxis, motorbikes

We join the ragged group going through the gate and see a queue of people already waiting patiently on benches

In the cold.  At 7am.

I can see my breath in the air.  I flap my arms and stamp my feet. I’m so cold

I look at the weary bunch of people struggling with pain and sickness, and the cold.

Not everyone has a blanket or a coat.

More people arrive, shivering, but not complaining, to sit, waiting patiently.

Can’t move or you’ll lose your place.

At last the sun  began to warm up the air. We’ve only been waiting for 2 hours.

Slowly the queue of people are registered, and moved to another queue

Then assessed, and moved to another queue

Now it’s too hot to stand outside the shade.

Sun, blistering down, burning skin and making the metal poles supporting the roof too hot to touch

Overpowering heat. Makes the ill feel worse.

People carrying their sick family stagger under the weight and heat

Relatives bearing stretchers from one ward to another stumble as rivers of sweat pour down their faces and necks

I walk outside for a break.

Humanity has gathered to profit from sickness and those who have to care for the patients: food and clothes stalls, raw meat hung on a tree

The smells and dirt and flies and heat threaten to over-power me.

I stop.

Come back to my journey to work in my comfy hire car.

Don’t want to remember, don’t want to forget.

Eyes on the road ahead, car heater on, lunch in a plastic box alongside the thick coat in the boot

Pass an accident, ambulances, paramedics, fire-engine, police cars, tow truck

Don’t want to remember, don’t want to forget