Tyonti went to the eye hospital..

 Last week, on Monday, Simon brought Joshua Tyonti from our school to Amecet. Joshua has been in Amecet for quite a while. He is HIV+ and gets his ARV medicines. He has been resettled back to his relatives. He lives with his uncle and his family in Soroti. He is doing very well with his medicines, takes them every day and comes on the appointment days to the hospital to see the doctor and get new medicines. We support him to go to our Harmony Primary school. So we keep a good eye on him. Joshua has always problems with his eyes. We took him to the doctor in Soroti hospital, we even took him to the eye hospital in Tororo. But when Simon saw him last week in school, he was crying, he hardly could see. We try to comfort him, he was really in panic, he could not see anymore. It was so painful to see him like this. Joshua is always so optimistic, it goes always good with him, he says. But now, he was totally devastated. The sunlight hurt his eyes, so we got him sunglasses. After some eye drops and a cold compress, he could see a bit. So a bit later he tried to use the bicycle again. That is how Joshua is, so positive and optimistic!!!

We agreed with his uncle, that he was staying for now in Amecet and on Thursday, we took him to the eye hospital in Tororo (3 hours drive). The doctor found his left eye almost blind and he has a ulcer in both eyes. She wanted to admit him in the hospital, but we had no ARVs so we got many eye drops and ointments and we had to come back the next week to be admitted.

Janneke made a tied schedule to give  the eye drops and ointments and we saw a bit of improvement. He was more on the bicycle (with sun glasses) more coloring (with his nose on the paper) playing with the little children and leading the singing after our evening supper!  Today we (Simon, Janneke and me) we went back with Joshua to Tororo, his uncle came along, he would stay with Joshua in the hospital.

Joshua was scared and very quiet. we tried to cheer him up, but he was very serious. here Janneke sits with him, we are waiting for our appointment with the doctor.

The doctor checked his eyes again and they also saw a small improvement. But the ulcer in the left eye was now a scar and his eye was almost blind. The right eye was a bit better. As first the doctor wanted still to admit him, but after seeing another eye doctor, we were able to take him back with us. We got other eye drops and we had a good talk with the doctor. We got her telephone number and will go back after a month, but we can always call her if we need advice.

Joshua was very happy, he was talking and smiling again!!

He will stay in Amecet for now, so we can keep an good eye on the condition of his eyes. We have good hope that his right eye will still improve and we pray that the scar in his left eye will get a bit smaller. Joshua has been on his bicycle already, we hope he can go back to school soon. I have learned from him... He is always so positive, you never hear him complain. It is so nice to see him smiling and enjoying the things he can do. He is an example to me!!! I am happy that we, as Amecet, can stand with him in his difficult moments, but these moments are not long, because Joshua is smiling already!!