It’s been an interesting past week – certainly the most tense I’ve experienced here yet. One of the nursing assistants was found to be drunk while on duty, and was subsequently released. This man was the last professional K’jong employee working at the clinic (the rest have been fired for theft/drunkenness or have gone on to do further schooling or better paying positions, so the staff is composed primarily of Ugandans from other regions), and the community was incensed at his termination. They insisted that either the man be reinstated or that we remove our clinic administrator as well, as they inaccurately blamed her for the decision. When their demands were not met, they responded by blocking the gates with thorn bushes to prevent anyone from entering or leaving the clinic. The clinic had already been closed for the week as it was short-staffed and one of the water pipes broke, but the act was nevertheless alarming. A community meeting including the local villages, mission staff, and the Local Counselors (LCs, elected officials with varying degrees of responsibility for a small area) was held on Thursday in hopes of clarifying and correcting false accusations and understandings. The five-hour meeting became a mob forum, in which mission members were accused of being “Satan”, etc, and one individual suggested that all the non-K’jong – mizungus and Ugandans alike – be ‘chased’ from Karamoja. The meeting ended with the LC3 suggesting that the clinic administrator be allowed to stay in Karamoja, but that she be given other work. Immediately afterwards, the K’jong smiled and shook hands with mission members, saying that everything was fine now; they had vented and said their piece, and now it was over.

The mission cannot run the clinic while being subjected to mob rule, and said as much to the LC the following day. At this point, he completely switched positions and said that the mission was absolutely free to do what they thought was right and appropriate, and that it was no problem for the administrator to remain in her position. Some Africans seem to have a knack of communicating whatever they think you want to hear, both to us and to each other, so it’s impossible to know his actual thoughts, but he’s willing to put this in writing. Mission members have spent the past several days meeting with village elders and some of the more outspoken critics. These smaller discussions have given a very different perspective on what happened. The elders are actually very supportive of the mission and the clinic; they have no desire to see anyone leave. One had tried to speak at the meeting several times, but was repeatedly shouted down or pushed aside. We learned that the most belligerent individuals were not even from the local area, and that the dismissed employee had actually paid villages to attend the meeting. The situation has calmed tremendously, and the clinic will hopefully open again next week.