Today’s big event was the visit of the Minister of Health, the Honorable Dr. Stephen Mallinga, along with the Commissioner of Community Health Services, Sam Okware.

We were running a training for NHC staff but the RDC and the temporary medical superintendent from MOH stopped Scott on his way back from discharging Dr. Sessanga (cured!!) this morning and told him that they had assigned the training to one of their own doctors, instead he should come greet the minister. He turned back to Bundibugyo, and Scott Will and I went to Nyahuka to meet with about 40 staff, along with a doctor finishing his Masters in Epidemiology at Makerere and a senior nurse who survived the 2000 epidemic in Gulu. The doctor lectured on the basic facts of Ebola, and both he and the nurse provided a lot of confidence, a boost in morale, an appeal to get back to work.

Meanwhile Scott met the Minister, Dr. Mallinga. This was very confidence boosting, an upsurge on the roller coaster. Another lesson of this crisis is that there are some brilliant and dedicated doctors in this country. The Minister is one of them. Scott said he addressed the issues of witchcraft and discrimination that have arisen by saying that we are like full glasses of water, when trouble comes we are shaken and whatever is inside spills over, the trouble of life merely reveals the heart. It sounds a bit like what Jesus said to the Pharisees . . .For some that means the evil just below the surface comes out. For others that means the charity and self-sacrifice are called forth. He appealed for the latter.

The government has now allocated 6 BILLION shillings to the response, which is 6 billion more than they had last week. . . . The crisis has also pointed out the problem of medical staffing. The Minister said Uganda has lost about 200 doctors to South Africa, 3 anesthesiologists to Rwanda, countless nurses to Kenya, more new grads to Sudan where NGO’s are paying huge salaries. Even here in Uganda some of the best minds and hearts we’ve seen responding to the crisis are Ugandan doctors who have left Ministry of Health to work for the WHO. I can already see that some of these hard working and helpful men are going to be gone in the next few weeks, and we’ll be left with the same hobbling health system we had before, minus Jonah.

It is a week today since Jonah died. Though Melen and I had a little cry together this morning, I can see some signs that she is emerging, thinking a little bit into the future beyond the 21 day contact isolation period, she even smiled once this morning at her daughter Sarah’s antics. Thanks for praying for her.