Thoughts from a Content Heart: Family dynamics.... following Rosemary

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Family dynamics.... following Rosemary

Since Kimberly has been here I have had a walking buddy to cruise around the village. So we have been walking daily visiting with families in the village. Friday night we walked over to Rosemary's house... the 9 year old that we took to Kampala.
Rosemary lives in a mud hut with her mother, grandmother and two younger sisters... Paulina (4 to 5 years of age) and Teopista (almost 2).

(Ages are really difficult here as birthdates are not recorded and due to malnutrition children are much smaller than their American counterparts. Many time when we ask how old a child is there is much confusion and they ultimately guess.)

The mother has epilepsy and has difficulty taking care of her girls. Just recently she had an episode and fell into the cooking fire burning her hand quite badly. She has been receiving medical treatment at the clinic and the hand is healing but still she is in pain and it looks really bad.

Rosemary (P1) and Paulina (baby class) attend Integrity Primary School which ultimately gives them hope for a brighter future. The goal is to break the cycle of poverty that these children currently live in. The only way of doing this is to provide a good education and the love of Jesus! Because the school is close to where they live, in the case of an episode with their mother they are close enough to run home.

As we walked up to the house the older two girls were out preparing the beans for their supper so I sat down and helped them. The mother and grandmother are very grateful for taking Rosemary to Kampala and continually bow and thank us. While I was helping the girls, the grandmother brought up stools for Hannington and Kimberly to sit on as customary for their culture. Kimberly took pictures of the “new” chicken coop as well as Teopista (the baby).

The mother didn't believe that the camera actually captured the image so we took several pictures of her to show her that they were different. Her expression is priceless.

Today the girls were at church without their mom or grandma... all dressed up in the best clothes they have. Many of these children have 1 “nice” church outfit that gets worn until it is thread bare. Even when the zipper won't go up or buttons won't button... they still wear it unzipped or unbuttoned. Clothes are expensive and hard to come by!

These children are so very precious and not like some of the children that greet us with “give me ____” . They have very humble hearts and quiet spirits. I pray that they will continue to grow to follow Him in all they do and that they will follow wherever He leads!