Psychiatric patients in Africa, by Dad

Monday , July 6th had to be one of the wildest experiences of my life. I hopped in the back of a local police truck,(if you could call it that) with 7 police officers and went searching for psychotic individuals that are roaming the streets of Juba not connected with society and not able to take care of themselves. Driving in the back of the truck was about as close as you get to a real live video game. I am not quite sure I have ever felt that nervous. The further and further we got away from town, I was beginning to wonder if they had already had their first patient – ME.  We finally identified our first individual. He was walking around the marketplace on the outskirts of town completely naked. Not one piece of clothing. He had horrible open sores all over his body with flies covering each of them. I seriously could not believe my eyes. It took the police a little while to convince him to get into the back of the truck. It had to be 100 degrees outside, I know I have the sunburn to show it. The police officers themselves were hesitant to touch him and it took some coaxing/yelling form the senior officers to the junior officers to lift him into the back of the truck. I was searching for something he could sit down on but there was nothing. He would not sit down, which I would not blame him as the metal truck bed had to be burning. They forced him to sit down naked on the back of the bed. He had to burn his rear end.  I road in the back  of the truck with him. We ended up picking up 4 others. None of which had family to take care of them, nowhere to live, no one to love them or miss them. I seriously never believed this existed in the 21st century, but unfortunately it does. It was comforting to see what GEMS and Dr. Atong are doing for them. They give them a bath, a haircut, new clothes or clothes period, a hot meal, and a shot that will last for a month.