Hospitals and Jails

We recently found out an interesting fact about jails here, which is that the jailors do not feed the jailees. Families of inmates are responsible for bringing the prisoners their food. One of our TZ friends recently landed there as a witness for a theft, and as she has no family, we and other friends brought food to the jail. Yes, they locked her up as a witness who might have been involved. I cooked, and Dusty took the meal to the jail and returned saying "let me tell you, you do NOT want to be in jail here!" Let's just say the cell had nothing in it other than people (and critters) - no beds, toilet, etc.

The same feeding concept goes for patients in hospitals, here at the local level. When I was in the hospital in Nairobi having Jack, they did indeed feed me well, but such would not be true for the Musoma hospital. Plus, if you do not pay your bill before leaving, they will NOT let you go, so you just keep on racking up the cost until you really are in debt and CAN'T leave. We heard of one woman in a Nairobi hospital who has been there for a year - reminded me of Tom Hank's character in Terminal. So, yeah - another way hospitals and jails are similar!