This last week has gone by so fast I cannot even really remember what we have done.  I think that is due to the fact that Wednesday was a public holiday and therefore we got an extra day off.  We had planned to head downtown to the craft market and spend a day out together, I was pumped! The seven of us had gone the day Jack arrived and we were all looking forward to going back and showing him around this time. When we woke up in the morning however it was raining, and when it rains in Uganda it is generally not just a little rain like at home, it pours so that start thinking it is time to find some high ground where you won’t be caught if it floods.  Well maybe it is not quite that bad, but pretty close. We were not to be dissuaded however and after making two trips in a slightly sketchy hired car we all made it to the mall. From there we headed out with me in the lead. I know it is hard to believe but I was the only one with a head for the directions to the market!  I am sure that for the few Ugandans who were out and about it was quite a sight to see eight internationals running across the road in the rain, shrieking in fear that we would be hit ( it was our first unaccompanied trip down town and  therefore we had no one to help us cross the street).  However none of us died, though Danielle came close, and we made it safely to the market. It was such a slow day thanks to the rain and I loved being there, I found two beautiful (and cheap) paintings and very much look forward to our next trip there. After we met our “mamma and papa” at Javas for cell, and had a lovely time sitting on the patio having some treats that reminded us of home.

The rest of the week was not as positive, Friday night while all the guys in our class were at a mens conference Brian received a call from Rashidah. She was in the hospital having her baby. Needless to say he jumped on a boda boda ( motercycle taxi) and headed to be with her.  From all he has told me, and each time we talk I learn new bits of the story, there was nothing about this birth that went right or easy. Rashidah had not had anything to eat the previous day and was very weak, she should have had a c-section but did not. By the sound of it she was ready to have the baby whens he got to the hospital however as others came in and paid she kept getting bumped back. Brian has told me that there were many women there in the same room giving birth and the doctors ( I believe there were two ) and nurses would just move from one woman to another as quickly as they could.  Both Rashidah and the baby were very weak and when she was born ( it was a girl), she did not even cry. There was something wrong with one of the tubes in her neck that effected her breathing so she was immediately put on oxygen. However our beautiful little girl died shortly after, as the  hospital did not have the proper equiptment to save her. Rashidah was released from the hospital that afternoon, which made me quite upset, and when we went to visit her she was very weak. For her to sit up and talk with us took much of her energy and she admitted to us that she was very dizzy.

                 Needless to say it has been a very hard couple of days. I was told by Esther when she Jack and Thomas came home on Firday night. I can only recall one other time in all my life when I have cried with such bone wrenching sobbs. Though it may not make sense to all at home I felt like I had lost my own child. I know that I only met Rashidah and learned of her baby a two weeks ago but I had spent those weeks praying for them and imagining this little girl. What she would look like as a baby, how she would grow in the months that I am here and even what she would look like in the future.  I loved her with all my heart, I cannot even imagine how Rashidah feels. At home when something this tramatic happens there are counsilors , family and a whole host of other people to help deal with such an event. Here there is just us, and we are not to steady on our feet at the moment either. Brian saw many things at the hospital that no one, least of all an young unmarried man, should have to see and I am worried about how he is coping. I know that given time we will all be ok and the pain will fade but for now it is fresh and has hit us hard. All I can do at this point is listen as the story comes out in bits and pieces and offer support whilst also leaning heavily on my “ family” here at home, and praying. I do not understand why God has allowed this to happen, and to be frank I have had a few moments of yelling at him, but reguradless I do believe that we have all been brought together for a purpose and that God is in controle. Who knows but that we have been brought to this position for such a time as this. I will covet everyones prayers from home, I know the healing process will be long, especially for Rashidah and Brian, and I am ill equipped to help but where two or more are gathered there Christ is also, so I beg for your prayers. They are what will carry us through.

                On a lighter note, today is the last day of the penny and though it may not seem like a big deal to those at home, we Canadians in Uganda know better. Therefore we have done our best to honour our fallen friend who has served us so well for longer than any of us has lived. This morining we had a brief, but meaningful, burrial service for the penny. Emily prepared a beautiful eulogy that she read  as Danielle and I stood by and once our dear friend, the penny, had been placed in it’s shallow grave in our back yard we stood by for the singing of our national anthem. May he rest in peace for all his long years of service to our country Canada.