TIA (This is Africa)

I’ve heard this phrase over and over again but felt that last Tuesday, it was very applicable. I had discovered that because of the diet here one of my medications needed to be increased, but I didn’t have enough. So Sara, the founder/director of the ministry I am at agreed to take me to the pharmacy to try to get some more. We were waiting for the road to clear to make a right turn (driving on the opposite side of the road… it’s like a left turn) the cars started honking behind us because this is Africa driving. The road had cleared and as we began to turn a boda boda (a motorcycle with a paying passenger) passed us on the right which is illegal. Because he did, we hit the back and they went sliding across the pavement. The driver got up, but the woman on the back didn’t move. I jumped out to check on her while Sara tried to pull out of traffic. What I saw terrified me and I didn’t know what to do except pray. The woman didn’t look good and I was sure there was brain damage (no one wears helmets here). Next door to the pharmacy is a clinic so I ran into the clinic and asked for a doctor. They moved fast which surprised me because if you’ve ever been to Africa, nothing is fast except the driving. Sara, a nurse, went in the clinic with the woman while I waited in the car with the other American volunteering here right now, Kailey. Sara eventually came back telling us that the woman had a complex fracture and they don’t have the ability to set it at this clinic but she’ll have to be transferred but there was no evidence of brain damage she was talking and in pain but cognitive and fine. So there’s two possibilities it was shock and that’s why she looked so bad when I saw her, or God healed her. I’m ok with either one. The police were getting the driver and sara’s stories about what happened but the boda driver was saying it wasn’t his fault but his account of what happened was the same as Sara’s .  Joseph, Sara’s husband, a Ugandan, showed up, putting us all a little more at ease. The Woman’s husband showed up and at this point Sara said even though it’s not her fault she wants to help with the woman’s medical bills, knowing the boda driver wouldn’t/couldn’t. After a couple hours at the scene, one of the staff members from the ministry showed up to pick us up. Sara and Joseph went to the police station to make their statement about what happened. As far as we knew it was clear the police knew it was the boda driver’s fault and things should resolve easily

The next morning Kailey had gotten a text from Sara that she had been arrested but was later released. We knew nothing more. We were very confused. That night we got more of the story. Things got complicated after the police station, Sara wanted to check on the woman, the police said she should not go, it would make her look guilty, but they went anyway. The husband was very angry because there was a police officer who was telling lies to everyone and he told the husband that it was Sara’s fault. There was a big upset and the husband hit Sara’s husband, Joseph. There was a police officer there who was a friend of the woman’s family and he decided to arrest Sara. He took sara back to the same police station they just came from. The officer working looked up the case number she gave him, he looked at it and told the police man who arrested her, he could not arrest her. So she was released. Her car remained in evidence for several days. Later there was a meeting with Sara and the Husband again and he apologized for hitting Joseph and he agreed to not press charges against Sara he understood the collision was not her fault.

The moral of the story…. Life is different in Africa. Things are more complicated sometimes especially if the color of your skin is a little different.