Reaching for the fruit on the highest branches

The thing about always pushing yourself to climb higher is that, from time to time, you will actually fall. A couple of weeks ago, Mary, one of our young students in Uganda, suffered serious injuries in an accident during the term break. Mary and a small group of other girls from her region of Uganda stay at school with the nuns during the long breaks because the expense and difficulty of the roads makes it impossible to get home. And it is a credit to the amazing Sister Salome that these girls are carefully looked after and provided for even when the school is supposed to be closed.

The same indomitable spirit that brought Mary and her cohort over arduous roads and across tribal and regional barriers for the chance to get a secondary school degree tempted this young scholar up to the top of a particularly high fruit tree in a moment when no one was looking. Always the forbidden fruit!

We are happy to report that Mary is doing much better. Even a broken arm and healing rib fractures have not kept a (temporarily) slower-moving Mary from  joining her schoolmates for the start of classes. I will let this post be a thank you to Sister Salome and all of the staff at St. Kizito’s for their devoted care for students in whatever circumstances and to our Board members who rushed in to make sure medical costs were covered. And finally, to Mary herself, get well! And never stop reaching higher (but maybe a little more carefully when in trees).

Mary next to the tree in question