August 14, 2011
Jinja, Uganda
We went to church this morning. Whether it was because I had slept badly last night or was just a little uncertain in this new environment, I was not inclined to go, for whatever reason. But we bodaed up and went anyway, and I am so glad we did. There was an energy of real-ness among the people gathered that I sensed that was so refreshing. The worship time and the message were energetic and felt like it was based not on duty, but on desire. I loved it.
We are having a very Ugandan afternoon here. As I wrote before, baby E has been sick for the past few days. The girls had to test her multiple times for malaria, but every time she came back negative. Today, however, the fever and diarrhea she’s been having since yesterday have increased and been joined by vomiting up, within minutes, everything she’s been eating. Courtney has been an unbelievable trooper and a beautiful blessing as she’s been caring for E today; both she and E have been through 4 different changes of clothes in the last six hours. E. is severely dehydrated and can’t keep anything down, formula or water, so after the third projectile vomiting incident today, the girls decided she needed hydration more than anything and decided to IV her. We didn’t have any needles small enough for her tiny, tiny body here in the house, so they called one of the other girls who lives near here who happened to have a neo-nat needle. She came over and began the getting the supplies for the IV ready. At this point, A.R. who had just gotten up from her nap decided to begin projectile vomiting as well. We cleaned that up, hoping that it was just an isolated incident, perhaps a bid for attention. The outcome of that particular situation still remains to be seen…
Renee, the girl who came over with the neo-nat needle, did the actual IV beautifully on the first stick and baby E was such a trooper through it. Her tiny little arms and dark skin make finding a good vein difficult but we were blessed that it went smoothly this time. It was difficult to get the IV dripping at first, but with the girls’ continued efforts it began running. Hopefully she’ll be feeling better soon; the saline in the IV should stop the vicious cycle of dehydration that causes her to continue to lose fluids while simultaneously keeping her from being able to absorb them.
That’s all for now. My heart has been alive today, not for anything I have done, but for what I have seen. I have hardly even been needed (my knowledge does not extend to the medical realm at all; I do what I can behind the scenes), but I have been able to observe. Observe need. Observe giving. Observe knowledge and love in action. Observe tender hearts, willing minds and strong hands. Observe selflessness in the knowledge that one may not be in an ideal situation, but one is simply needed and will rise to the meeting of that need. It’s beautiful.
It’s not necessarily pretty, but it is unbelievably beautiful.
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