The Ugandan spirit and fight of our lives

Few things in life are as certain as death and taxes; those two are inescapable really. This week has brought new meaning to the saying.

I will not dwell on adding up the toll or singing the praises of those who are gone. We all know in our hearts what they meant to us and I am not even the most bereaved although I have had moments when I ranted at the sky, thinking that I could not take it.

It turns out that I can and every time I feel like giving up, I remember the people who have fallen to Covid-19 and then I know that I have no right not to try. I will suck up my tears and get on with it.

The overriding thought this week though has been the need for hope. Many people were feeling beaten because they have lost so much or because of the overwhelming uncertainty. If they get the disease, the treatment seemed to be way too expensive and out of the ordinary person’s league.

NSSF savings were put on offer but not everyone has those. And even then, there was a whole debate about whether that is even a good idea to have critically ill people dig into their savings. For others it was the worry of the lockdown and how they would survive with services and jobs cut off by the restrictions.

They say in my language, that sad things can make you laugh and so the day the total lockdown was announced, my colleagues and I were joking about how this time even though we all knew what was coming, there was no urge to panic shop or anything, with what money anyway?

The list of herbs that people are consuming has been growing in direct proportion with the statistics coming out of the hospitals and the rates per night in a sickbed.

The atmosphere was quite different last year at the first outbreak. We felt like a nation battling this dreadful disease together. More than a year a later, with all that people have been through it fills like survival for the fittest, every man for him or herself and God for us all.

This is all very telling about the effects of Covid-19 as carried forward from last year. It is not that the people have been okay until now. No. They have been battling their brokenness privately, figuring out how to get their out-of-school children back into the system in spite of the crazy staggered schedule and the shortage of money.

Others were dealing with job loss as a result of the pandemic. We were walking towards recovery from a lot of effects from last year, with varying levels of success of course, with some people better off than others. But the last week before the lockdown was a real testament to the Ugandan spirit and how far we can go to save ourselves.

In spite of the dry pockets and worry about the future, when the second wave of Covid-19 came through, it hit with the ferocity of a tsunami.

Ugandans are fighting the fight of their lives, without money, knowing they cannot afford the hospitals and for those who barely could, there would probably be no beds or oxygen, but determined to live and protect their loved ones at all costs.

Whatever the future holds, Ugandans are prepared to deal with it with whatever tools they have got, even if that only happens to be the herbs from the nearby bush. May God help us all. This too, shall pass.

Ms Nampewo is a writer, editor and communications consultant     
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