Again a new born baby.

It is Saturday evening, we just finished our meal. On Saturday and Sunday we always eat out on the veranda, because we are with such a big group. The Amun house, with the bigger children comes also to eat with us on those days. After the meal we always sing together. While we were singing, the gate opened and three men came in. They came to the veranda, where it was a lot of noise from the guitar, the drum, the singing and the dancing.

I asked them if I could help them, they told me that they needed help because a new born baby, whose mother just passed away.

We took some chairs and sat somewhere in the compound, where we could at least hear each other. The mother gave birth in a health centre in the village, the baby was born this morning at 2 am. But then the mother started to bleed, the health centre referred them to the main hospital in Soroti. They came and they tried there to help, but all in vain, the mother passed away. The men that came to talk with me, were brothers of the father. They told me that the father was sitting in the car, which was waiting in front of our gate, with the body and the new born baby. They wanted to go back to the village and it was getting dark and it might even start to rain soon. I got all the information, the uncle gave the baby the name: William and then we walked together to the car. The father had to sign. It was an open car, a pick up and the body of the mother was laying on the back of the car, the father was sitting next to it. He was not capable to sign, so his brother did it for him. I was standing next to the car, I saw the legs of the mother, in a sheet, sticking out, the rest was under a plastic, in case the rain would come. I have been in Africa for a long time, but it really touched me, receiving this baby on the road, seeing those legs of the mother and seeing this broken man sitting next to the body of his wife. Tragic, hard and so real. This is how life is in Africa, this is our third new born baby this week! Two of them lost their mother and one was thrown away by his mother! That are all tragic stories. William is bathed, we tried to feed him, but the drinking is not going so well, he was a bit cold, so now he is laying in his bed, sleeping and hopefully he has sweet dreams. We will pray for that!!

William, just after his bath.