What Uganda Means to Me

Dr. Sara Sigalat - Haifa, Israel

It is difficult to summarize the experience I had in Uganda in a few sentences. But I can say definitely that Uganda has made a great change in my life.

The simplicity and the joyfulness of the people, especially in the villages made me think a lot about our life. In our country we are always busy, running from one thing to another and have no time for ourselves. People always have a lot of complains, especially in medicine. They demand unnecessary tests and it's difficult to satisfy them.

In Uganda you won't hear any complaints. People accept what they get happily. They are truly ill and need a lot of help. Therefore, it was quite an experience for me to work with such people and I learned from them that we don't need much in order to be satisfied.

Working in Uganda made me feel I did something for those people and I know that without us, the doctors, they could have died. This gave me a lot of satisfaction in what I did even if it was only for a short time.

In one case: A woman, 43 years old came to me and said her belly becomes bigger and bigger from one day to another for the last three years. I checked her on a bench and I was astonished to find out that she had a huge tumor in the abdomen, and I was the first person, who checked her. I thought it was myoma- a benign tumor in the uterus. It took me and my other doctors' colleges a lot to persuade her to go to the hospital and make the operation. But at last she was convinced and did it successfully. Without us, the tumor would have grown more and more and could have pressed on another significant organs and the end would have been tragic.

Since I was there two years ago, I am trying to do anything to help those people in Uganda and Africa. I am giving lectures in order to advertise the country and make the people aware of how little the poor of Uganda need to improve their lives.

I have returned twice to Africa and each time gave me more satisfaction than the other. I feel I know more about tropical disease and I grew more efficient on each visit so people can get more from me.

I am waiting for the next time that I work and help there.

I think that every doctor should do it once in his life, because this is true medicine.