Joseph, 44, Lukula
Joseph is renting a tiny room from a landlady. We sit next door in her house as there’s space there.
His father is dead and his mother is mentally unwell. “I studied in school until class 2, but then dropped out when my father died.” Joseph was married, but when his wife found out he had leprosy she left him. He has three children. One of them, 16 is here with him. He was in school until class 3, but then left because the family lacked money. The kids all stopped school when Joseph got leprosy.
“I make money with difficulty. Friends sometimes help… this landlady has been good to me.”
Joseph’s hands and feet are quite badly affected by anaethesia, and manual work is difficult and tiring. Before he got leprosy he was a farm labourer.
“I got symptoms about 4 years ago. I was getting blisters on my hands. It wasn’t entirely painless. I went to see a traditional doctor who applied leaves to the various ulcers and wounds I had. I tried that for 3 years. My feet got worse in this time, and my nose collapsed too. I gave so much money to him. Before all of this I was a good farmer. But I’ve not been able to do anything. I’m starting to feel a bit better now.”
Joseph was eventually diagnosed and completed MDT 4 months ago.
“My wife likes money, and when I was earning we had a good relationship. But when I got sick, and got ulcers, I couldn’t work. There was no household conflict. She just left and went away. Apparently, she has remarried.”
His wife lives in Congo Brazzaville. He hasn’t seen her since she left. She has two of his kids with him. “I still speak to them by phone.” Joseph used to live there too, and came here to Lukula because he heard he may be able to get treated here.
“In the day I mainly just sleep at home, waiting for my wounds to heal. With my feet like this, what can I do? My landlady is a good woman. If I have money for rent I give it to her.”
Joseph’s younger brother is training his son to repair motorbikes.
“I feel very bad. It’s a hard life that I’m living. I didn’t go to school, and my children are also not going to school. I don’t have a job.”
Joseph does self-care.
I ask him what he hopes he could do. “I’d like to sell I think. Maybe have a shop. I have no feeling in my hands and feet, and I get cramps. I’m living with difficulty. If I have financial help I want to start a business selling food.”