Not tonight…….obviously Louis Armstrong was not in Mozambique when he sang that. After these last 36 hours somehow tonight I feel a little battered by it all. Tonight I know of 2 kids who are in the hospital fighting for their lives.
Firstly Latifou. He was doing ok, eating, smiling and a joy to hold and show love to. On Saturday he started to get a little sick and got worse on Saturday evening. Yesterday morning we knew there was no time to wait to take him to the hospital because of the V and D he has been having. So he is now in hospital on the malnutrition ward. He is on a drip and we thought would probably be in hospital 3 weeks minimum. As of tonight the news is not good. The diarrhoea has not stopped and he was weighing 4.5 kgs yesterday. Seeing him deteriorate quickly has been quite hard. What we not know is that he has end stage AIDS.I just pray that he doesn’t have to suffer long with this, he is too light at the minute to get ARV’s and maybe it’s too late for him to start.
Then today - today was Bocaria.
We went down with the team who are here just now. At the moment the number of kids we get is very sporadic, and today was one of those days where we only had 8 kids. Rather than do children’s church today I felt it was right to go and walk through the community to try and connect with the kids there, see what time would suit better to have church for them and also to pray for any sick children we met. As we were leaving the church to start walking a father came up to us and said, “Please will you come and pray for my sick child?”
We set off to the house and it wasn’t long before we got there. Stepping through the gate it was all too familiar for me. This was the house I had been to before to pray with this same family when their daughter went missing. How could they be facing something traumatic again?
Walking into the house and seeing the kid lying on the floor was something I had not prepared myself for. He was hardly breathing, his eyes were rolled back in his head and the whites of his eyes were yellow. His breathing had a death rattle like I have not heard in a long time. This family had already lost a baby 2 years ago - to be standing here with the same prospect facing them was really more than I knew how to process. This bit of it really is NOT a wonderful world.
It was really guidance today not to do our usual program, this child needed treatment and to go to hospital immediately. Thankfully with the help of the medical team here and Tracey who has a connection with the family we were able to get the ambulance down to the dump and take him and the parents to the hospital. Tonight, he has been admitted and is on oxygen, but the Doctors don’t really know what they are treating.
The hospital here is mad, there are no GP’s here so the hospital is the place to bring sick kids. There are normally 2 to a bed and no food is provided for them. The care giver must provide it all.
So after today, I know that there are days where this is a wonderful world, but not this evening. Tonight I just have a lot of thoughts about the two very fragile little lives in the hospital, and am praying they are stronger in the morning or taken tonight so they don’t have to suffer.
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After losing Zoe, I can only take my hat off to people who in circumstances where they are faced, on a daily basis, with the death of children. I just don't know how they manage to find the strength to face each day, knowing that one of the little ones they love will not be there in a short time. While Christ no doubt gives us strength, and while it is no doubt a comfort to know that they return to him, on a human level, I don't know how they cope with that frequent heart-break. Much strength to you, Chris, as you grapple with the realities of life in a 3rd world country.
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