Many of you may have heard of the shooting that went on at the Bugema Seventh-day Adventist Senior Secondary School in Luweero about three weeks ago. I first read about this on Spectrum’s web site, about a week before arriving here in Uganda.
Tonight we visited with Miriam who was a victim of the shooting. Walking into the room we were greeted buy Miriam, her mother, and a friend. She was sitting up on the edge of the bed and just finishing up a bath. We talked about the hospital food for a while, and I made my typical stupid faces at her to see if she would laugh. She did. I asked if she would share her story.
Being a quiet girl I didn’t think she would say that much. Boy was I wrong.
Softly-spoken she told me how the students had been upset about the food on campus, and to add to the problem they had canceled their Friday night music program. The students started to strike, or as we would call it riot’s, after a while the riots where controlled and every one sent back to their dorm. That Sunday the believed leaders of the riot where called into a room where there were about 15 police, the school headmaster came into the room and told them they were to be shot for breaking Uganda law. The students began to panic and gun fire started, Most of the shooting took place at the ceiling but some of the police where firing at the kids.
Miriam was lying on the floor when a bullet hit her, pelvic region breaking 3 vertebrae and barley missed her spine. At least two other students were also hit but no one has died. She was first taken to a college and then taken to the hospital. The injuries paralyzed her in the left leg. The leg has been healing and started to work again but it is still paralyzed from the ankle down.
As we chatted I kept watching her feet. Her friend had put her flip flop back on her food after the bath, Miriam was tapping her right foot as we talk but the left one just hung lifeless. As we were about to leave she used her right foot to take the left flip flop off. It does not sound like a big event but it was for me to realize that she can’t move her foot at all because of a stupid incident that could have been prevented.
Police have arrested leading police officers for allowing the incident to happen. Miriam has been moved to a VIP room in the hospital and her medical bill is being picked up by the police. For me it put it all into perspective, that the news you see on TV or read about on the web, is more than just images and words. It is real.