Assiel Ngarambe, a mortician reveals what it’s like working in a morgue

73-year-old Assiel Ngarambe as worked at the CHUK Morgue for the past 15 years. We asked him he has managed to do this for so long, considering how much people are afraid of such places.

We found Ngarambe, a native of Ruhango District in the  Southern Province, standing in front of the Hospital's Morgue here in Kigali waiting for Corpses to be brought in as he has done every day for many years now.

Despite the time he has spent doing this job, with much emotion, he says he has never gotten used to seeing a dead person.

Emotional Ngarambe told RBA; "You can see that I am an elderly person and I am not prone to showing emotion, but sometimes when you a person who as passed away, especially a young man or woman, it affects you. After a while it passes, but when they bring in a young person like this, it almost feels like it is your own child. But you must persevere,"

Married with five children of his own, Ngarambe says it is not always easy not to take the troubles of his job home with him, but it is something he has learnt to do.

"Because of the job you do, you may think or even dream of such things; of them bringing another dead body, but it is not many times that happens. When the job is done and you leave this place, you learn to leave all behind and not think about it," he explained. 

He also says the job has taught him to realize that misfortune and death can come to anyone, anywhere.

Ngarambe added; "You must not be proud or feel that you are better than everyone else because a person's life change in a blink of an eye. We all live according to God's will and at any time, that life can end. However, you must not live your life afraid of the inevitable death that is to come, because the young, the old, even babies die. All that is determined by God, not man,"

Ngarambe's superiors at the Hospital say even though loved ones are grieved by the passing of their relatives, they never fail to mention how the old man at the Morgue was very kind to them and comforted them in their hour of need and so they say he should get some sort of recognition for the good job he has done for the last 15 years.

Clinical Psychologists warn that morticians like Ngarambe should be given opportunities to let out their emotions about the stresses of the job they do, because it can have a Psychological impact overtime.

CHUK's Morgue has 3 employees, who are assisted by Doctors when it is required.