Meet Richard...

Mutaawe Richard is one of our little brown eyed cuties that is up for being sponsored.  After struggling with some on going health issues like jiggers… wounds that won’t heal…rat bites… and ringworm the size of a baseball…  we decided to go on a second home visit.  We went 2 weeks ago in the midst of the jigger plague but soon learned that the original house was not where he was truly living.  He was staying there while his grandmother, who cares for him, was away. 

Richard is a 3 year old little boy in baby class at Integrity Primary School who walks about half a mile to school each day.  (The hill from his house to school… left Allen, Phiona, and myself out of breath on our way back!)  His mom and dad have abandoned him and he is being cared for by an elderly grandmother.  

She is in the process of “building” a house but due to family issues it has not been finished.  It is the beginning structure of a mud house with a thatch roof… from inside you can see through the walls that have yet to be mudded… it is just branches with grass woven in.  Through the roof you can see patches of blue sky… or today grey sky… as when we were visiting it was beginning to rain.  The grandmother wants to build a kitchen outside of their living space to keep the rats and other critters away but hasn’t been able to with the house not being finished.  

On the positive side… they do have beds that are off of the dirt floor with mattresses on top.  One concern expressed by the grandmother is that they need mosquito nets as their house has no doors or windows at this point.

Concerning the health issues… we were really concerned about the open wound on his foot from a bike pedal that just wasn’t healing.  Due to the grandmother not being around it was not being cleaned or wrapped at home except for when we took him from class to the clinic.  Kimberly gave him a pair of spider man slippers after cleaning his feet from jiggers.  (They were his first pair of shoes and he doesn’t  take them off except to sleep!)  So today I had our clinic staff check his foot and it did look clean and not quite as infected.  After talking with the grandmother… she is going to bring him to the clinic everyday to get it cleaned and medicine put on it until it heals.

  This is daily life in the village for many of these children.  Little Richard has captured my heart with his smile and sweet spirit.  I pray that we can get this little one sponsored and some assistance for his grandmother so he can truly be a happy little boy that is well taken care of  and treasured!