Quarantine in Uganda - An Insider Perspective by Azarias Nelson Kibaya
It was a normal day for us here in Uganda, when all of a sudden news broke that there was a COVID-19 case in our country. For a moment, the news that seemed so far away from us started becoming real.
This happened just a few days after we asked the U.S. Embassy to withhold our visas as we await for the updating of our P3 visa petitions for the Agape Kids Choir. AICM President, Sandi Balli, traveled back to the U.S. safely, aborting the initial plan of taking the choir with her to the states. On this day the U.S. President announced that there would be no more flights to the U.S. but she was able to beat the deadline by just a few hours.
During this time the neighboring countries to Uganda had reported Coronavirus cases that were higher than ours and this called for a countrywide quarantine. The quarantine in Uganda came with the restriction of all movements. Public transport and personal travel via vehicles were prohibited and the entire population was asked to walk to the nearest service centers.
In Uganda, many people have lost their jobs and people whose incomes are dependent on daily work have nothing to feed their mouths. Prices of the most essential things have gone so high that we can hardly afford them anymore and even if we could certain services are far from our locations. A small packet of salt was costing $0.20 USD is now costing over $2.00 USD and everything else has gone up as well.
AICM is situated at Agape Hill in Kagala, Mukono District which is approximately 21 miles East from Kampala city where we get all the necessary services and items. Many of our staff that comes via public transport are unable to travel to the AICM office. As I write this blog I’m seated in my office. It’s 7:35 am on a beautiful Saturday morning. I’m remembering the great times we have always had at our AICM center days when we meet with our sponsored children from 7 am to 2 pm every first Saturday of the month. I’m missing that very much right now.
We do not have access to the post office services or bank services which means that all AICM staff can’t be paid and ACV (Agape Children’s Village) will be in need of vital supplies in the next week. Please be praying for us in this area. We are running out of food and the markets are being closed down since cases of COVID-19 have been on the rise. As of this morning, we have 48 cases with no deaths. We are on day five of the lockdown and it’s not easy as we have to develop new routines to survive for the next 13 days, which was the time limit given by the President.
During this time we still see Jesus proving Himself strong in our lives, He has given us peace amidst the storm. Personally, I have had time to reflect on God’s goodness and taken it to a point of studying scriptures together with some of our male university students in our AIUS program who are staying at my house during this time because they have nowhere else to go. We are playing indoor games and catching up with one another as we do some other house chores. We’re praying that God will be victorious during this time and bring us back to normal in the coming days.