Friday, January 7, 2011

Crazy Day and Abandoned Children

Well, I've said many times that our lives in Uganda are far from dull, and this one has certainly fit that description! It started early for me with things like these:
1. Helping a former prisoner (woman) start a business,
2. Meeting with the woman who is taking care of one of our sponsored children and giving her money for food and care,
3. Dealing with the local councillors about a part of the government that has been stealing from us for 4 years (they are going to lose their "tender" for the business they do for the council, plus if they don't pay us back, we will take them to police),
4. Making sure to put the money in the bank for one of our young men who is in school in Kampala,
5. Getting one of our Sunday School teachers (who is HIV+) in the hospital for severe malaria,
6. Sending one of our staff ladies to the clinic to get treatment for a chronic abscess that she has and then giving her medicine for it,
7. Getting J.B. ready to go to the North tomorrow to do the Introduction/Traditional Marriage of his nephew,
8. Talking to the young man that we have raised since he was in the 7th grade about his graduation from University in two weeks, and about the big party that we as the "parents" must throw for him, :-)
9. Sending out several mandatory emails,
10. Sending money to one of our village pastors whose children are sick and whose wife is in the hospital after having a miscarriage,
11. Making sure the volleyball court has all the weeds dug out of it before the youth conference next week, and also getting a huge hole dug to find the queens of "the termite mound that refuses to die" (beside the volleyball court),
12. And then all the "everyday" things like planning the daily menu with Irege, having Julie go and pay the water bills, getting Davis to repair our only bicycle, feeding the cat, and giving thyroid medicine to the dog.

BUT the MOST interesting part of the day happened between 3:00 and 4:00 p.m. Two children were abandoned at our gate. Their story is this: they have been living here in Jinja with their mother - their father died several years ago in Busia, their home. The girl, Grace, is 16 and was stricken with polio when she was 13. Over time, she has lost the ability to walk, and her hands are also affected. She weighs probably 50 pounds and seems to be very intelligent. Her younger brother Bosco is 7 and is all boy. Our staff describes him as "a bit stubborn." Their mother died in the hospital two weeks ago, and the hospital turned the children over to the police. They have lived at the police station for two weeks, but today the police decided they couldn't do anything with them and so went and "dumped" them at a local ministry for the handicapped. This ministry gets a large amount of funding from the U.S., but it only goes into the pockets and stomach of the Director of the ministry. Anyway, those people paid a boda-boda (person who provides transport on a bicycle), put the children on his bike, and told him to take them to Calvary Chapel and just drop them at the gate - not to bring them inside, but just to drop them. The boda-boda man did just that, so Grace and Bosco came to us for help. They have nowhere to go and do not have any relatives that they know of.
J.B. and I spent some time trying to find an orphanage or charitable organization that would take them in, but we were unable to contact anyone that could help them. The staff woman that was at the clinic came back to give me her results and get medicine, and she had great sympathy for them, so she is taking them home with her for the night and will feed them and give them a place to sleep. I will continue to call around and see if I can find a place for these children to go. I do pray that we can get some help for them. I am just not sure what to do with them at this time, but I know that the Lord will provide what is best for them. (Will you please also pray!)
And it is only 5:30 - with several more hours to go in the day. I wonder what else will happen before the day ends!
I posted on Facebook a couple of days ago that sometimes I am so very tired.... Now I am beginning to suspect the reason why!!
And this is only MY day! Jesse's was equally busy! We always have way too much fun!!
Blessings and love to you!
Bev