When life seems a little hard to understand

Today Lucia is like a new girl! It’s amazing. She is full of life and trying to walk with her hands and feet on the ground and bum straight in the air, a very cute sight!

Today has been yet another one of those interesting days in Mozambique.
Bible school was great, I do love teaching on Leadership.

I have not been feeling too great for a few days and so as a precaution I went to get a Malaria test (it’s ok Mum its negative). On my way there the baby house kids had just come out of Pre-school and ran up to me to show me the work they had done. They were so proud of the small amount of crayon they had put to the paper, and inside me there was that proud parental moment of seeing their work. I know only lasts the first few seconds and then the work gets tossed into the fire to keep the house heated – no wait maybe that was just me, and all my friends had theirs displayed on the walls for years after. Mum – Dad – we should talk! – Following comment from mum and dad! [a total slander!! We never burned your work, it WAS displayed and there is still some of it in my filing cabinet! We could afford coal in those days!]

The part of my day which I am still trying to process follows. I was waiting for my test results at the clinic here when a mother arrived with her baby in a capalana. I did think it was a little strange to have a community baby at that time of the day. At first I thought it was one of the kids from our centre with a Tia. The child obviously had severe learning and developmental problems, anyway, I sat for a moment, smiling at the mother, exchanging a few pleasantries, got my test results and left. Later tonight I discovered that the mother who I had chatted to was not there to take the child to see a doctor but had in fact abandoned her at the clinic not long after I saw her.

Part of me feels sick, angry, numb at this thought. Could I have seen this coming, could I have done something? Could other people not have stopped her, chased her, done something? What must the mother have been feeling to have to do this. The girl must be about 6 years old, she is blind and severely mentally disabled, but can crawl and if you put food in her hand she will put it to her mouth. We are going to try and search for the mother over the next few days, please pray that we get some light on this and that we find the best care for this child.