Started as a simple walk around...

Started as a simple walk around…

August 24, 2012

This afternoon I took a walk with the kids around the parish.  First we stopped at the playground, and after the kids had their fill of swings and Zakari climbing a tree, we walked over to the community of Nouvo Bidaw.  I thought that perhaps Bidaw residents had moved because of the threat of Isaac and as I predicted, several families had moved in, even if only temporarily.  The kids and I walked around the perimeter of the settlement, greeting everyone sitting on their porches.  At Ethela’s house, her neighbor, Magali, beaconed me to come onto her porch, and then to go inside her one-room house.  There lying on the bed was a tiny, tiny infant girl.  Her mother and father sat close by.  I commented about how tiny the baby is, to which they responded that she is three months old.  They said she is sick and cries all the time.  I asked if Mommy had breast milk and yes, she has milk and feeds the baby.  This baby, to me, looks severely malnourished.  They want to get medical care but have no money for a doctor or medicine.  Later, a neighbor told me that they had taken the baby to a child health care center but never bought the prescribed medicine because they didn’t have the money.  Ethela then told me that the mother has no money and the father has no money.  I took the risk of being crass and said they should have thought about that when they were “making their baby”!  Of course, they didn’t, as many young people don’t think about the consequences of their actions.  This baby will suffer because the parents were not educated about planning a family.  I talked at length with the parents, told them that I had given money to other people for hospital visits, only to find out that they never took the child to the hospital.  I was reluctant to get burned again.  Ethela’s friend, Magali, said that she would be responsible, would accompany the couple and baby to the hospital and report back to me.  So, I agreed to help, telling them that Jesus said to help the poor.