My co-teacher, Edward, asked me to join him for a visit today to St Mary's Lacor Hospital where his sister-in-law had just given birth to a baby boy via C-section. I reluctantly agreed, because, unbeknownst to Edward, this is the place where baby Samuel was taken, the place about which I had heard horrific things.
What I found was a good place, a place where babies and the elderly were treated with kindness and care. We visited his sister-in-law, saw the baby--they called it "Muzunga", said it looked like me. Then he took me on a tour to the malaria and pnuemonia wards crowded with babies; to the cancer wards; HIV. Everywhere we went we met someone else he knew, always taking the time to exchange pleasantries. This is customary with the Acholi. They are a large, extended family. It is hell on timetables but with it comes a sense of peace, of comfort.
I gave the new mother a gift for her baby, "My son" we joked, and left the hospital thinking that the horror stories I had heard from my friends who had delivered Samuel's lifeless body were probably fueled as much by grief and frustration as any misdeeds on the behalf of the hospital.
On another note, today Weasel was arrested. He had gone back to an aunt's house and the police, waiting for him, entered to find him with a 'panga' (machete) at her throat. He is to be tried for attempted murder, burglary, and depending on what the teacher whose helmet was stolen does, possibly robbery. He is just 18.
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