Magazine

It is a cultural question and can be seen in the little things like maybe arriving in the morning to see the patient’s entire family sleeping on the floor just so they can stay as close as possible to their loved one.
It is then that you realise that there in front of you, in those rooms, you don’t just have a patient with a bed number who has this problem or that problem which today or maybe tomorrow they’ll be able to put right. What you have is a man with a family nearby with whom he can talk, converse, celebrate if things go well or cry if there is a solution but it is out of his grasp.
Out of his grasp because Benedict Medical Centre doesn’t have the most sophisticated or expensive equipment, everything is based on dialogue, physical contact with the patient: another approach to medicine but also to daily life.
In fact, from day one everyone welcomed us with big smiles, everyone was ready to lend a hand, to offer words of encouragement to make us feel at home right away. At the Benedict we found a large family made up of capable, willing and helpful people who are more than just doctors and nurses.
There were many memorable moments that I took back to Italy with me at the end of my experience in Uganda where I understood that you need to broaden your horizons, ignore clichés and approach your everyday activities from a different angle, whether in your relations with people or at work in the hospital.
But unfortunately the three weeks that seemed so long before I set off weren’t enough in the end: you realise this when you say goodbye to those children with whom you played all day under the sun with a punctured ball, making them happy because you were their muzungu, white man. Although I never would have thought it, I hope to go back one day.