Gideon

Last night when I came home, I learned that one of our kids at Outside the Dream had died. It was Gideon, an intelligent soft spoken kid whom everyone got along with. The doctor who is working with us said she thought it was most likely an aneurysm. He had fallen down while playing cards and began bleeding profusely from the nose. Then, he began having seizures. There was nothing to be done.

The children took everything out of the main room, expecting to have a wake at Outside the Dream. But, it was decided that the wake would be held at Gideon's father's home in Kakiri on Friday. Gideon had lived on the street for two years after his mother had died of AIDS before being picked up by OTD. It seemed sort of strange to the kids that the wake would not have been held at OTD. But, the adults all thought it most appropriate to have the wake in Kakiri, and then drive the kids up there.

While I agree that going to Kakiri is the best decision. It was a massive problem today. There are about forty of the seventy plus OTD kids with us in Zzana (outside Kampala) now. And they all wanted to go for the wake and the funeral. But, there was no way to expect Gideon's father to take care of 30 kids at the wake. So, it was decided that ten of his closest friends would go to Kakiri today. Margaret, Steve, and I will bring the others up for the funeral tomorrow.

When I arrived at Margaret's today to see the kids, there were very awkward greetings. The kids are used to greeting me in Luganda, but they think I only will understand I am doing very well in Luganda. And they are mostly right. So, I found myself being asked How are you? To which I would respond, Okay, worried. How are you? They would respond, great, then smile real big. And then say, but I am not good in English.