A Turn for the Worse

Well folks, things have taken a really dreadful turn.

Patrick began teaching early in December, in a village school in the eastern part of the country. He sent photos of his class and seemed to have finally arrived. Around the 13th he messaged to tell me he’d had to visit the clinic for some unspecified ailment, but that was the last I heard about it until after the new year.

To put it in its barest terms, Patrick has cancer. Prostate cancer, as far as I’ve been able to gather, although that’s exceedingly rare among people his age. It’s also a very bad diagnosis for people his age. I don’t know 100% that that’s the exact diagnosis—the sheet Patrick sent me explaining his illness is just a giant glob of medical terminology—but I’ve sent it to a couple people with expertise in this area and prostate cancer is the consensus.

About a week ago, he went to the hospital for surgery, and I haven’t heard from him since. He told me that he was told he would be two months in recovering, and that the bill for the operation, payable within three months, would be around 300,000 delasi. For context, Patrick is earning about 4,400 delasi a month. It translates about $4,500. Might as well be a million.

None the less, the surgery is done. I have communicated a bit with Fatou, Patrick’s sister. Her English is just barely serviceable, but I gather that she’ll be visiting him tomorrow, so I’ll have an update on his condition soon. I don’t know what happens if he fails to pay his bill, but we might find out. I have no idea how I can possibly come up with this sum—Go Fund Me maybe. We’ll see.

Anyway, yes, this is all terribly unfair. And severely demoralizing. Above all I’m angry at the Gambia for making this all so difficult. To ask a cancer patient to pay out of pocket for something like this, and to stop his salary while he’s incapacitated. It’s cruel, and typically Gambian.

Stay tuned.

Patrick (center, with glasses) and his young charges.