Thread by @fisayosoyombo

1. When I arrived at the drug ward of the psychiatric hospital Yaba that Monday evening, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. These were people known to the outside world as ‘drug addicts’ — people who were experiencing or had recently experienced psychosis.
#TheHumansOfYabaLeft

2. To the outside world, they were ‘mad men’. Would they be violent at times? Would there be cliques?

Roughly an hour after I got in, it was time for dinner, served every 6pm. I got mine but I didn’t have water.
#TheHumansOfYabaLeft

3. I couldn’t buy, too, because it wasn’t the time and day for buying things. As a rule, patients emptied ALL their belongings, including cash, at the point of entry, save their singlet and boxer briefs. #TheHumansOfYabaLeft

4. Their cash went to a ‘bank’ managed by the nurses, & purchases were only made through that bank by filling a register made available early in the morning only on two or three days of the week.
#TheHumansOfYabaLeft

5. I wasn’t going to drink tap or sachet water, yet I needed not one but two bottles of water. Anyone who knows me can confirm I drink water like a camel. So I had food but no water. I couldn't eat.
#TheHumansOfYabaLeft

6. Spotting my helplessness from afar, the theologian — remember I mentioned him in the story — came over and said: “A bottle of water here for you, bro.”

I didn’t expect such thoughtfulness and kindness. I thanked him but asked for one more bottle. #TheHumansOfYabaLeft

7. He was back with a 2nd bottle in a flash. I promised to return them the following day.

For breakfast on Tuesday, he gave me 2 more bottles; that’s 4. By Tuesday afternoon, I’d bought two packs of table water, so I sought him out to return his 4 bottles.
#TheHumansOfYabaLeft

8. “You don’t have to return them, bro,” he told me. “Come on! It’s just water.”

The theologian’s little act of kindness to a stranger helped me settled in faster than I would have imagined.
#TheHumansOfYabaLeft

9. Moral of the story: Drug patients — at best ‘drug abusers’ but never ‘drug addicts’ — can be kind, too. They aren’t always hostile, vicious, evil.
#TheHumansOfYabaLeft

10. If you have one around you, what they need is love. Recognise that they need rehabilitation, but don’t judge them, don’t discriminate against them, don’t stigmatize them. Just show them kindness.

THE END.

#TheHumansOfYabaLeft