By Patty Huston-Holm
(Last of four May 2022 stories related to theology and medicine studies)
When I met Alvin Ahabwe and before I could get my first question out, he gently touched the wrist of my mildly shaking left hand and asked, “What’s going on here?”
“Essential tremors,” I responded, adding, “It’s a neurological condition I’ve had for 25 years.” I later sent him a Web link.
The compassionate inquiry from this second-year student at Uganda Christian University (UCU) School of Medicine (SoM) belied his years. Before sharing his story on this warm, overcast day in Kampala, he got a small piece of mine and enabled me to mentally fast-forward five years, visualizing Alvin as a competent, caring doctor.
On this day in March 2022, Alvin Ahabwe from Mbarara, in western Uganda, spoke of why he wanted to be a physician, the difficulty of his first year of medical school because of Covid-forced, on-line learning and about the role Christianity plays in his chosen profession.
Alvin, one of five children to a mom who teaches secondary school and father who is an NGO social worker, knew early that he wanted a service-to-others career. Medicine was a natural choice.
“I saw people dying from chronic conditions like HIV because they didn’t realize medicine could help them live longer,” he said. “I see how lifestyle causes hypertension and even cancer.”
The SoM year-two study in pathology reinforced Alvin’s early observations about how food and exercise – and accurate health information – impact the quality of life and lifespan. The young man, fresh from high school, persevered in those 2020-2021 lockdown-enforced semesters of virtual learning fraught with data costs and voice interference worsened by rain.
“UCU’s IT people helped us with the on-line platform, and we received good communications through WhatsApp groups,” he said. “But the blended learning we have now is definitely better.”
Receiving medical training from medical professionals during the pandemic was an added lesson in the value of vaccinations to guard against the coronavirus and a real-world example of combatting fact over fiction. Belief in science, however, does not mean shaken faith in Jesus Christ.
“I put God first,” said, Alvin, an Anglican.
At that, he early recognizes how Christianity and health care can clash.
“Take abortion,” he began, and continued, “If a person may die because of (full-term) pregnancy, there’s an ethical dilemma.”
The just under two years of learning has been a time of altered beliefs, adaptation and reinforcement of Alvin’s educational decision, he said.
“I looked at surgeons on TV – shows like Grey’s Anatomy and the Good Doctor – and saw how systematic medicine can be,” he said. “At first, our exposure to corpses was frightening, but now we can drink tea in the same room.”
Alvin is concerned about the quality of health care in his country. He is concerned, too, that money contributed doesn’t get down to the level of critical need and that many Ugandans study medicine and practice in other countries.
With an easy smile, he asserted, “I’ll stay here when I’m finished.”
