Mulago hospital painting
Welcome to the pediatric ward of the Mulago government hospital. It reeks! Babies’ cries fill the corridors and I walk half slow and half hurried…stopping a second here by one child’s crib, and another moment there to inspect the walls of the ward. Today we begin painting the ward—I see the potential improvements in my mind’s eye, in sharp contrast to the current reality: brown stained walls and overcrowded conditions. An international NGO just granted our request letter for funding for the paint that we needed, and today is the big day when we will finally start work on this project.
It’s going to be awesome! Although it’s been a few years I last painted a wall mural, I know it will make the little children happy. Most of them are in constant pain. You hear it in their wails and sobs. You see it in their parent’s eyes. Mothers and fathers lie on mats on the floor by the children’s cribs. There is hardly enough floor space.
But today will be the start of something better. Nothing grand, nothing fancy, but it is the little we can do. Will it make a difference? I know it will—for the families who have to wait (sometimes a whole day) to be tended to. It’s my hope that the bright and cheery setting will bring peaceful thoughts as they wait. I hope.
As we set up our paints and rollers, Sister Caroline the head nurse looks at me in silence for a few moments. I can only wonder what the thoughts are in her head. When she finally speaks, it is with a lovely smile. ”I am speechless,” she says. “I don’t know what to say. I can’t find the words to say. Thank you!”
“Webale Yesu,” (“Thank Jesus!”) my co-volunteer Robin answers.
For us, the greatest reward comes from moments like those. We aren’t getting any payment for this job, but it’s not about that. Little children come to inspect our work; one little girl offering to help us shuffle the beds for more working space. The parents who stop to admire as they walk down the corridor. We are using art to say, “God loves you. He hasn’t forgotten you. It’s going to be okay.”
At the end of a long days like this I go over all that was accomplished, and I feel blessed. Out here in the heart of Africa, where missionaries I’ve idolized like David Livingstone or other healers like Florence Nightingale, faced disturbing surroundings and terrible conditions, I know that this is the best fulfillment that I could hope in my life.
Over a hundred children now benefit from the pictures painted today. Maybe thousands more in the future. Tonight I ring up some friends to recruit them for the volunteer painting project, which continues tomorrow. They’re eager to be of help, and we’ll work over the weekend, doing our best to transform the sad place into a pleasant place. A place of beauty. With God’s help, I believe that can happen.
