A little friend for Blessing.

Two days ago I wrote about the little baby that was brought to us, Blessing, a baby from 10 hours old whose mother had passed away. Yesterday another little new born baby came, his name is Steven, (left on this picture). His mother gave birth in a health centre in the village, but the placenta didn't come out. The mother passed away. The auntie and the uncle brought her and told us that the father had died in a car accident, five months ago. Very sad. Later we got a phone call from another relative of baby Steven, asking us if we could please take the baby in. At first we didn't understand that it was about baby Steven, we thought that there was again a new baby. But when Simon asked questions, we discovered that we had the baby already with us. But this person was talking about the father. We then discovered that the father did not die in a car accident, but was alive. We even talked with hem on the phone. I called the auntie, who had brought the baby, she was very sorry for lying, but she thought that when she had a good story, we would help them to take the baby! I ensured her that we help any baby who need help, if we think we can help. 

Yesterday morning the police came to bring two children, a four year old girl was found at the side of the road, carrying a 7 month old baby. She didn't know where her home was and there was no one to be seen, so they brought her to the police, who brought them to Amecet. The police announced it on the local radio and we hoped that the mother would turn up. The four year old girl was playing and happy with the food we gave her. But the baby was another story, he didn't want to drink, we tried a bottle, a cup, a spoon, but nothing worked, he was used to breastfeeding, but we couldn't help him with that!!! The staff carried him around, he cried a lot. We were very happy when the mother showed up. She was so happy to see her children! It is a lame lady, who was just in the house when the girl had picked up the baby and went for a walk! The mother had looked everywhere and then she heard the message on the radio and she rushed to the police!

Greetings from Naome...

"Please Auntie, greet everybody from me" that is what Naome asked me this afternoon, so that is what I do, greetings from Naome!!! Naome is one of the girls who lived with us in Amecet and later in our second house Amun. She requested to go and live with her uncle, that was not so easy for her. But trough several battles she came out very strong and open about her status. We have been in contact all those years, and have been able to help her to go to secondary boarding school. In the holidays she lives with her grandmother in the village. She called me 10 days ago to ask me if we could come to her birthday. I was surprised, according to our papers her birthday was in January. We couldn't make it that day, so we went today. One hour drive, on a very bad road, but it was so nice to see her. She looks smart in her school uniform and she is doing well. Very busy with the end of term exams. We had a good talk with her and we let her go back to her class. But I promised to take her greetings!!!!

Than what do you think of this rock star???? Is she not cool? My youngest daughter, Catherine. She is a real cute and funny girl and makes us laugh a lot.

New life...

This afternoon a small van drove into our compound, when the door opened, I saw a coffin inside the van. And I also saw a lady, holding a small baby. The people came out the van and then we heard the sad story, In the coffin was the body of the mother of the little baby. The baby was born, this morning at home, but after the delivery, the bleeding didn't stop. They arranged transport to the Hospital in Soroti. The mother passed away at arrival in the hospital. They got the coffin and were now on  their way back to the village, to bury the mother. They asked our help for the baby. The father was there, sad and a bit confused. We asked the name of the baby, they had no name yet. So they talked among themselves and came back with the name: Blessing! It touched me that they named this baby Blessing, my prayer is that the little girl will be a blessing to her family! I took her to the clinic next door, and they retied the cord. In the village they tied the cord with banana fibres and the cord was very long. She had her first bottle and she drank 25 ml.

The rain also brought new life into our compound. You can see the difference in the two pictures, the second picture is taken today. You can see the new green grass coming up.

I love this season, everything comes back to life, the compound looked like sand only, but underneath there was still life. It only needed some rain to come up!

In our life it is sometimes also dry and sandy, but when the rain comes, the new life, opportunities, blessings will spring up, like the grass in our compound.

A tragic night...

This morning very early, (1.15 am.) I woke up by someone calling at my window: "auntie Els, please come quickly!" I jumped out of bed and rushed out, on the way running to Amecet, the staff on duty said something like: baby dead. I run inside, there was no electricity and also the solar battery had run out, so there were some kerosene lamps. I asked the staff, who is it, she said Jabeth. I went to his bed, he was laying very quiet, his eyes closed, I checked if he was breathing, no, he was not, I checked his heartbeat, there was none.... I tried to resuscitate him, but all was in vain, Jabeth was gone.

I was shocked, this baby was not sick, we took the baby to the night duty room and I went outside to start the generator. I asked many questions to the night duty staff, Jabeth was fed at 12.30 he was smiling and after the feeding he burped and he was laid back in his bed. After 20 minutes they checked on him, while they were changing another baby and they saw that he was doing strange. They ran to call me, but when I came, Jabeth was already gone, in only some minutes. No fever, no diarrhoea, no vomiting, only his hands and feet were very white. We called some more staff and together we dressed him and tied the hands and legs, according to the custom here in Uganda. The night duty staff was upset, so I stayed a bit longer, to make sure they were all right.

This is the picture from Jabeth on the day he came in Amecet, his mother had died (read the blog from 22/2/12) and there were some problems in the family, who would take care of him in the future, his father was known, but he tried to denied that he was the father. The mother was only a schoolgirl of 18 years old. 

Simon came early and went to order a coffin, which was made in two hours. We called the family to inform them and gave them also time to get ready for the burial. We had a meeting with the older children, they were so sad, but also so honest, one of them said, I am not crying, because Jabeth is now with Jesus, he is happy. Simon prepared together with the children the coffin and they carried the coffin together to the car.
We also talked with the staff, some on them heard the news this morning, when they came to work, they were very shocked nobody had expected this!

We left Amecet with 7 staff and the coffin, we picked an auntie in town and we drove to the village where the mother had lived.

The family was expecting us and they were very sad and crying when they saw the little coffin. We gave them some time to cry and then we told the story what happened with Jabeth. They were very understanding and they thanked us for helping and bringing the body back to them.

This is the clan graveyard. The last (new) grave is from the mother of  Jabeth, only buried 6 weeks ago. Jabeth will get his resting place next to his mother, with a small stone.

We were remembering yesterday what Jesus had done for us, he gave His life for us and died on the cross. And because of that, and the resurrection, Jesus has the Victory over death. We have hope, we have a future for eternity!!! This is also for Jabeth, Jesus loves the little children, yes, I have questions, yes, I did cry, yes, I am sad, but I also know that Jabeth is with Jesus, accepted by His Heavenly Father, (while his earthly father denied him).
I think we do celebrate Easter and the resurrection of Jesus on a different way:

JESUS HAS WON THE VICTORY OVER DEATH!!!

Extra blessing with the rain.....

We have had some more rain, and with the rain also the flying white ants are coming... I don't know why they call them "white" ants, because they are brown, but that is what everybody calls them. We have those big termites heaps, when the rain comes, or when it has rained in the night, they fly out in the morning. They are quite big, but when people see them fly, they forget everything and they go and catch them.. I have been woken up sometimes at night, when they come out in the evening, they fly towards the light. We have two security lights at our gate, so there is where they go! And people come out to collect them. Our security dogs don't like those people outside our gate, so they bark and bark.

This is early in the morning, the school truck is coming to pick the children, but they saw the flying ants. They went to the kitchen for some cups and ran around the compound, trying to catch the flying ants. They forgot the school truck completely! I had to stop them, because otherwise they would miss school!

This is their catch, the ants are still alive, they will loose their wings, they put salt on them and fry them.

And this is what the children ate in the evening, after they came home from school, they love them!!! I did try them, but I don't think they are very tasty, and then knowing that they are flying ants, I rather leave them for the children!!!!!

Teso has now a Orthopedic Centre.

Today we were invited for the commissioning of the Orthopedic Centre in Kumi. It is build by Dr. Ekure, we have been going with several of our children to him. He is one of the 35 Orthopedic surgeons in the whole of Uganda. Kumi is one hour driving from Soroti over a very bad road. We have been already in the new hospital, Ruth has been operated there in January (Blog of Jan.13,2012). It is quite a blessing for the North East of Uganda, most of the specialists stay in Kampala. Before, everybody who had some orthopedic complications was referred to Mulago Hospital in Kampala, but now we have are own Orthopedic centre in our Teso region!
The invited guests were expected to arrive at 9 am, the church service was to start at 9.30 am. Simon and I left a bit late ( it is Africa!) we arrived at 10 am. They had all kind of open tents next to the centre. There was tight security, because the opening was going to be done by President Museveni, the President of Uganda. The church service started at 12 o`clock  and the President arrived at 5 pm. We sat the whole day under the tent, hot and very crowded. We got entertainment, singing, drama play and traditional music groups, it was nice, but very long!
After the opening and some more speeches,  President Museveni left and all the people who were present (at least 2,500 people) were invited for lunch (at 6 pm) in the Kumi hotel. Because we were invited guests, we got a ticket and we were asked to go to a big room inside the hotel, but most of the people were served outside the hotel. Amazing, food for so many people!! But the food was very nice, we were also very hungry. We were back in Soroti at 8 pm. We had an interesting day!

The Orthopedic Centre in Kumi

The speech of  President Yoweri Museveni.

RAIN..........

Yes, today, on April 1st, we got our first real rain shower!!!!! And this is no joke!!!!!
People are crying for rain, everything is so dry and dusty. The people want to plough their land and plant their seeds.....
















The children wanted to dance in the rain, but we didn't allow them. Otherwise the whole house is coughing tomorrow! But we did celebrate the rain on the veranda.

Josha and John sneaked out again, but I saw it, so they stayed on the veranda. 

Our big drums for the rain water were completely empty, but after an hour of rain they were overflowing. Everybody is happy because the rain has come!! The land is so thirsty, we are looking forward seeing the grass coming up again!