In memory of Gai Anyuon

I just received an email from John Alier, the pharmacist at Malek Clinic , that Gai Anyuon, former UU student and nursing school graduate, passed away from tuberculosis. We had hired him to be the nurse at the clinic, but when he discovered he was suffering from TB he left to Kampala for treatment. We were all hoping he would eventually return in good health. He is second from the right in the above photo, which was taken in a truck lot right before he escorted all our cllnic building materials from Kampala to Sudan last May.

Like most Sudanese, Gai was reserved and quiet. But he had an inner strength in him I will likely never fully understand. We met up with Gai in Kampala after landing in Nairobi, our home base. He helped us with our shopping for building materials and participated in our endless evening meetings to discuss how the clinic would be run. He was painfully thin and frail, and had a hacking cough that in retrospect I should have considered might be TB. I thought he had pneumonia but he vehemently denied being sick. He probably desperately needed the job.

We sent frail Gai with all of our wares in a 20 ton truck on the 10 hour drive from Kampala to Malek. He didn't complain once about his health or comfort. He asked for a reasonable sum of money to eat food on the way. He went without basic needs for 2 days while the rest of us traveled far more comfortably to Sudan. He dealt with treacherous border officials, keeping the goods safe and fending off thieves and bandits. He didn't have an inch of flesh on his bones, but he never complained.

Gai was a knowledgeable nurse. I never saw him in action but through our conversations about how to provide health services to the people of Malek, it was clear that he was an intelligent clinician. He anticipated challenges that we would face and brought them up early, so that we could conquer potential roadblocks. My mom and I were definitely outside our element providing health care in a Sudanese village, so Gai's practicality was important (of course, along with Deng and John Alier, too). But again, even though Gai often brought up needs that we could not address due to the rural setting or financial constraints, he was accepting of the limitations and ready to improvise.

I don't know much about his personal life, but I know he was a husband to an "educated" wife, as he described her. I pray his family is safe and well. His quiet perseverance in the face of significant personal and professional challenges is a humbling example to me that I won't forget.