Yesterday was most definitely the
highlight of my week! We went to pick
Madua Irene’s Mama, little brother Amaza, and little sister Sarah to take them
to the hospital. When we pulled up to
their hut the little kids were yelling “Mzungu a Masse!” but since this is a
regular occurrence, I did not get out of the van. A man started saying Masse’s name, and then
another kid did, and then the Ja-Ja’s(Grandma) were saying it, so I had to get
out of the van and see if my little girl was FINALLY back. The man yelled for her and she came running
in her little red sweatpants and newly braided hair. I picked her up and could not control my
tears, I was completely overjoyed to be holding this little girl that had so
quickly stolen my heart. I’m pretty sure
she was totally confused by my tears, but they didn’t keep her from having a
huge grin on her face. We packed up all
3 kids and the Mama and headed to the hospital, but since things usually run on
“Uganda time” we were an hour late and told to come back the next day. During the second half of our day one group
went up to climb the mountain that is behind our hotel, while the other group
laid by the pool.( I’m sure you can guess which group I was in J).
Today was a long day to say the
least! It started with a 6am wake up in
order to be picked up by 6:30, so that we could make sure that we were at the
hospital by 8 sharp! So around 7:45am we
finally get picked up….talk about timely huh? The door swung open and there was
my little Masse, her brother, sister, and Mama.
It was such a relief that they had already picked them up! We made it to the hospital, amazingly, by
8:01am. After much walking around and
being sent back and forth, we ended at the nutrition ward. It was clear to the staff from the moment we
walked in that Amaza was malnourished.
We explained to them that he is one of 10 children and that the mother
is struggling to feed them all. One of
the nurses lectured the Mama about family planning and that for anyone 10
children was way too many, let alone a 30 year old woman. The Mama was slightly irritated that she
would be required to stay at the hospital with Amaza, and the added bonus of
Sarah since she is still breast feeding.
We left the Mama and the two youngest at the hospital while Masse went
back with us to figure out the rest of the day.
I felt so bad for her, it was clear to me that she was confused about
what was going on. We eventually made it
back to Mama Aidah’s for lunch, where little Masse got to join us. It was so precious to watch her look up at me
for signs of what she should be doing.
We played with stickers and painted nails until we finally walked her
back home.
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| Precious Masse eating lunch with us, and of coarse she had a Fanta |
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