Making the Jump!: He's Back!

On Wednesday after we got back from the Leprosy place, we are putting the final touches on the John & Laura’s room… only to find out that they missed their flight in London which started a snowball effect. And they have been told that Saturday is the next available flight out of Johannesburg to Pemba!!

So we spend the afternoon at the hospital getting an x-ray for Juma’s chest. Then tomorrow we have to take the x-ray to the private clinic to see if he has Pneumonia or Tuberculosis.

Oh one thing that I don’t think I’ve mentioned is that we decided to bring Juma back to the Center to live. It was becoming fairly clear that he is better off with us. The kids have been out of school for the last two or three weeks but in this time we have been unable to get him into a school closer to home and he is unable to walk to this school from his house. In addition to school with all of his medical issues, while we don’t have them figured out, when he’s here at least we know what he is eating and if he is taking his medication.

I’m also not really sure what the situation is but he is saying that his mother isn’t feeding him the eggs we are sending home for him each week. So on Sunday after church he came rushing into Julie’s house and told her that he needed to come back, that he wanted to be here. When we asked Cifa about the eggs she said he is eating them, so who know what’s really going on but if he is here we know what he is eating and we are able to keep a better eye on him. So he’s back!

Thursday morning I dropped Julie, Julia, Maria, Cifa, Juma and Billette off at the clinic. We are going away for the weekend to celebrate Nunu and my marriage. We are off to buy food and a few other things for 35 people for the weekend. Nunu and I run all over the markets and it’s down right exhausting.

We eventually get a call from Julie saying they are done, so Nunu and I pop into one more store before going back to get them. As I pull up I can tell something is off.

She tells me that Juma has been bleeding very badly from a toe prick. I guess it was supposed to get bandaged but the nurse didn’t think it was bleeding so he didn’t apply the bandage. But as soon as Juma stepped out the door his foot started gushing blood. Cifa rushed to his side and started wiping the blood from his foot with her hand and then wiping the blood on her clothes and his clothes. Not good.

Cifa, Juma and Bilette sit in the back of the truck, which is very common here in Mozambique. They end up going home to clean up before returning to the Center. It’s just so hard and we can only do so much. How does a clinic take blood from someone in a country ravished with AIDS and not apply a bandage? How do you balance the love of a human with the reality of the highly contagious disease that is running through their veins? I do my best to love unconditionally, but it really is a lot of pressure… knowing that how I treat these kids will shape them into the adults they become. Don’t get me wrong I realize that their entire upbringing isn’t on my shoulders but I am responsible for my actions. I wasn't really there when he started bleeding but I wonder with situations like this how would I respond?

Our day is nowhere near over, we still have some shopping to do and John & Laura now arrive tonight. They had to buy new tickets through a different airline, but they are on their way!