Some Days There Just Aren't Words

Tuesday was one of those days.

We found out that one of our children had been beaten in the head with a hammer by her mother. This is the same child that I brought to the clinic a couple of weeks ago to have her arm x-rayed; we thought it was broken due to a separate incident with mom.

The child is OK. She most definitely had a concussion, but there should not be any long-term physical damage. That in itself is pretty incredible. The emotional damage is there, though. A child can’t go through that and not have emotional effects.

Words cannot express how heart-breaking it is to hold a child who has experienced this trauma or to hold her little sister who witnessed it all (and has herself been victim in previous times). They cried and I wanted to. This was the first time since being in Ugandan that I was thankful I didn’t know the language. I know enough to say, “I’m sorry” and “I love you” and that was really all they needed to hear. Other than that, they really just needed me to hug them, hold them, and be there.

The legal system isn’t the same here. You can have people arrested for things as simple as “this person splashed mud on me with their car on a rainy day,” but when it comes to crimes against children, the process is significantly more difficult. Children are property here, not precious gifts. We tried to have the mother arrested the first time this happened with no success. However, this time, the Ugandan police were wonderful. They went and arrested her yesterday afternoon.

Exactly what an arrest means here is a bit unclear. There will be some sort of hearing or court process, but the maximum punishment is three months in jail. And she will get her children back at the end of it. We have been working with the woman’s brother. He was already taking care of one child because of the severe abuse he was receiving; he has agreed to take in the others, but it will be almost impossible for him to provide for six children. We will help out for now, but I’m a little unsure about what the long-term options are.

I know I would have the same feelings of anger, sadness, and frustration with any case of child abuse, but the feeling of helplessness is greatly magnified by not knowing the legal system or the culture fully.

All I can do is pray, wait to see what happens, and love on these kids in the meantime. This isn’t necessarily bad, but it’s not easy either…