Oh Baby!

John Simuuba is the assistant principal at the secondary school here. He and I have been working on the CD project together. Thursday night at 6:10 I was in the middle of cooking dinner for our weekly meal with Dr. Tate when John dropped off the demo CDs at our house. We chatted a few minutes about which songs should be included on the final work. Then he casually said, "I'm also asking for transport for my wife."

"Oh, where would she like to go?" I asked.

"To the clinic," he replied. I let this sink in a minute and then it hit me.

"She's having the baby?" I asked. He nodded, and I yelled down the hall, "David, go get the truck. Mr. Simuuba's wife is having her baby!" Mr. Simuuba rode home on his bike as David headed out the door to go to their house. The time was 6:15.

Dr. Tate arrived for dinner 6:30 and I explained David's trip to the clinic. He assured me that David Kalimanshila, the clinic officer, was on call. He and I sat down to wait for David to get back so we could have dinner.

Meanwhile, David and the Simuubas had gone first to find Fortune Masiya, the midwife that usually delivers babies at the clinic. Fortune wasn't home, so they stopped at David Kalimanshila's house and asked for him. David, we found out later, was still taking nurses home after a day of bush clinics. Dr. Tate was a long shot, but they tried his house anyway. He, of course, was now at our house. At this point, David pulled out his cell phone and looked for phone numbers to call. He found John Kambulu's number and called him to see if his wife, Tebbia, a nurse at the clinic, could help. John assured him that Tebbia could come, and David, with a sigh of relief, pulled the vehicle up to the front of the clinic.

By this time, Ruth was obviously in hard labor. David remembered those Lemaze classes from many years ago and gave her some coaching on her breathing. When Tebbia didn't arrive right away, David left the truck and started walking around the clinic trying to find somebody who might be available to at least open the doors. He finally found Tebbia, and the two of them went back to the vehicle. There they found that Ruth had moved from the front seat to the back seat, had her back up against the side door and was in position to deliver! David began to panic at this point, but Tebbia assured them that Ruth could walk to the delivery room, and that's what happened.

It was 6:45 when David handed his cell phone over to John Simuuba and headed back to our house. He had just walked in the door at 6:50 and started to tell Dr. Tate and me about his adventure when the phone rang. It was John reporting that Ruth had just delivered a baby girl. We all sighed with relief.

At 8:15 John called again and asked us to come pick them up at the clinic. We did, marveling at the gorgeous new baby in Tebbia's arms.

At church this morning it was announced that the new baby's name is Hope. David thinks that her name is quite appropriate because he was certainly hoping that she would not be born in the back seat of our vehicle!