I am going to postdate a few blogs that I did not get written in time. This is from mid-July, during the three weeks we spent in a hospital with an American family that became our family.
I guess in my term as a Mission Intern I never know exactly what to expect. When the students graduated from the center our work became a bit up in the air. Final reports were finished and many parties were sorting the next step. The World Cup was finishing and the full range of emotions for transition was starting to sink in.
And then I found myself rushing to the ICU with Jen and Rachel the Tuesday night after the World Cup Final. (We actually make a very good team in these kind of moments and through the use of everyone’s skills got to the ICU right before visitors hours ended.) That is where we met Emily, who woke up to talk to us. Based on how well put together she was in conversation it took me a little while to find out she was 16. She told us a little about being flown down from Uganda and insisting they not amputate her leg there. We already knew about the bombing at the Ethiopian Restaurant during the World Cup Final in Uganda, and at the viewing area as well.
It wasn’t until the next day when her parents arrived and talking about it, that I felt guilty. Jen, Rachel, and I had gone to a Fan Park to watch the World Cup Final in South Africa. People had told us to be careful and were worried about attacks where all these people were. Truthfully at all the public places we watched games I felt very safe and didn’t think about it. But here this mission trip of people from Pennsylvania had felt called to stay in Uganda an extra week and were just at a restaurant watching the game and they experienced the danger others had warned us about. Now the politics and motives of terrorists is a bit different, but in our ordinary lives how do you comprehend that?
Back to that first night, one of the first things Emily said was three of our friends did die. The main pastor (Peter) in Uganda the church in the US had been linked to for years had died. Joanne, the grandmother (we went to visit next) was a very dear friend with him and the two other young people from that congregation who had been traveling with the team. Later, Emily and her Dad, Matt both pointed out the importance that as they mourned the loss of three friends, three came to be there with them. It was a powerful statement for me to hear and the reference to angels, but one I never fully comprehended. The truth is Emily and her family also came to us at a time we needed them.
Joanne, our grandmother is a delight. She had already been on the trip to Uganda and when her granddaughter wanted to go they both became part of the 2010 team to travel to Uganda. Six decided to stay a week later. I haven’t meant all the members of the team but they have all been in my prayers and from Joanne and Emily’s stories I feel like I know them.
On day two as I said we meet Jen and Matt. Matt is Joanne’s son, and Emily is Matt and Jen’s daughter. Matt’s sense of humor made us click immediately and Jen was soon to follow. And soon we were immediate family members (the American accents made this clear to the hospital staff). For Emily I could relate easily, and then remembered the summer I was 16 living in Mexico and at the age would have loved to go to Uganda. Would still jump on the chance to go… But being a little older now I also found it really easy to relate to Matt and Jen, and try to be supportive while they had to make tough decisions and the even tougher position of waiting. And then my love for grandparents and older people developed a great relationship with Gran. The first week when Gran got out of the ICU we spent a lot of time with her so Matt and Jen could focus on Emily.
And at the end of the three weeks for everything to come full circle, my parents got to meet Emily the day they arrived before we left on our long planned vacation and her first day taking a short trip outside of the ICU. And before she got to go home with her parents to receive care at John Hopkins. Where she is doing very well and I just got a call that she is moving into rehab and a photo of her outside in the wheelchair.
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