In the background: my husband Contardo and I; in the foreground, my cousin Dr. Consuelo Corti and her husband, Edoardo Meregalli; and on the far right, my cousin François Boudreau, professor emeritus of sociology at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Canada.
I landed in Uganda during the night and am now traveling to Lacor. This time, I have cousins from two continents! François Boudreau is the son of Aunt Lise, my mother's closest sister. François had promised my mother many years ago that he would spend his first sabbatical in Lacor, but a few months before his arrival, my father told him that he would be welcome, but that he would not be able to leave the hospital because we were surrounded by the army and rebels in conflict. This trip fulfills a long-delayed promise.
Consuelo is the daughter of Uncle Giovanni, my father's brother. My uncle had a real estate business: he was one of Lacor's supporters and a founder of the Italian Corti Foundation. All his children, and now their children too, continue to be our great and invaluable donors.
Consuelo decided to become a doctor after visiting Lacor at the age of 16. An internal medicine specialist, she is now Director of the Day Hospital Functional Unit of the Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation Department at the Milan San Raffaele Research Hospital.
Along the way, you can feel the election atmosphere building. On January 15, we will have presidential elections and many other government positions, and the Italian embassy advises caution when traveling during those days.
The greatest danger is the risk of getting stuck in the frequent traffic jams,
as in the photo on the right. I wonder how the poor cows, whose horns can be seen sticking out of the truck in front of us, might feel if they were stuck in a heated demonstration that turns violent...
One of the most interesting aspects of the trip is observing the people and goods being transported. All kinds of vehicles, often loaded to the brim (with all the risks that entails!).
On the right is the most common form of transport, the motorcycle or “boda boda.” So dangerous that our trauma department has been renamed the “Boda boda ward”!
The photo on the right is from July, but I couldn't resist including it: the bags containing white, upside-down mannequins, made a bizarre impression...
