sustainable goosebumps.......big hugs to all

thanks annemarie - it's been very quiet today.

I'm so sorry - so very, very sorry.

You are all in my thoughts and best imaginings.

Look after each other.

Love Gayle.

I don't know how I missed this at home but it creates a stir when I cry at work. I can't even imagine how you feel Christina. Fire and water in 1 liter bottles...I have new nightmare material.

I'm am so saddened to read this. I do know and understand what that mama is going through, losing children. My thoughts and prayers are with her.

Hi Sweetie,

How are you all doing today? How are your boys and all of the other kids coping?

The horror of what you have all lived through has been in my thoughts constantly; is there anything we could do that would lift the spirits - even for a short moment?

ANYTHING - just name it - and we'll do it and/or make it happen.

with lots of love as always,

Gayle xxx

My God, Christina, just now read this, and I am so sorry. Please know we are praying for everyone there. Do take good care.

Love, Shawn

So sorry to read about the tragedy suffered by the children and their family. i am glad you were there to do what you were able.

Perhaps when the immediate shock has subsided there is an opportunity to do some basic fire prevention and safety education in the community...?

May you be blessed for the good heart you showed by taking these people to the hospital. May the Lord reward you extremly big.

My goodness Christina - I don't know what to say, I am so deeply shocked and moved by this terrible tragedy. Such a profound sense of sadness, for the family, for Mama, and the poor children who she has lost.

I hope Mama is recovering from her burns alright.

Oh my gosh...

They, and all of you at LiA, are in our thoughts and prayers. I echo Gayle's sentiment - please let us know if there's anything we can do.

Wow, this is unimaginable and so tragic. My thoughts go out to the mom...and to you and Norbert as well.

Very interesting story.

My God how awful for everyone there. Was this the house where the family peaked through the fence to watch our activities?

My heart goes out to the family and to you and Norbert. I can immagine how frustrating it must have been to try and fill buckets while listening to it all. Hugs to you both for your efforts to help. I love you.

Mom

Sad story.

yes, really sad.

yes it was the house that used to peak through the fence. There were a lot of voices over there every evening before, and now it's just silent. I guess they are all staying elsewhere.

The paternal grandfather of one of the boys who died stopped by about 2 days ago to say thank you. He'd heard the neighbors had helped but was kind of surprised when he saw my white face :) He was very nice, but not well informed - his son was mama's husband so I guess they don't see each other much. I think he was actually hoping him I could tell him more than he knew. He was able to tell me he'd heard that mama was still in the hospital, but someone had moved her from Mulago (Kampala's main general hospital) to a private clinic.

Norbert and I are both fine - it's over. In fact it was over very very quickly. And now the family is not around, but we think of them often. I saw the mats that we loaned them outside so I guess someone must have stopped by and returned those when I wasn't aware. We know that all of their clothes and things have been completely spoiled, but I honestly don't know what they need most right now.

I have been doing my best to emphasize the toxic smoke thing when I tell the story to people here at the center - I hadn't realized the local foam mattresses were so deadly, and it's important for people to know the danger of putting any kind of flame next to them. I think Lars' idea about some community safety training is a good one and will see if I can't put a bug in some ears at tomorrow's weekly meeting.

Thanks so much to all of you just for the "being there" to share this experience with. I think of that night as one of the most helpless, hopeless and harried moments I've ever lived through. i guess it was just their time - the children died before anyone knew the house was on fire, so there was really nothing any of us could do about it. But at the moment it was all happening I assumed we'd be able to save everybody. To have lost 3 is almost just to much for my heart to let in. It's easier to just shut it out and be busy with other things. The silence does get to me though, several times each day.

Oh, Christina, how awful!

Thanks for sharing with us. Thinking of you all, and especially of Mama's loss. Echoing what Meron wrote two weeks ago:

I'm am so saddened to read this. I do know and understand what that mama is going through, losing children. My thoughts and prayers are with her.

This is the time of year - February - associated with my own personal loss 18 years ago when our son Philip was drowned in strong currents off the Gambian coast, so it feels particularly bleak.

Lars' sensible suggestion about community safety training also has resonances for me: we were torn between wanted to publicise far and wide the dangers of going to the beach in Banjul and staying quiet (as we did) for fear of undermining poverty-stricken Gambia's emerging reputation as an excellent holiday destination.

Sorry to have taken so long to find this - I just stumbled on it when searching for "Kireka" - but wishing you all well, especially you and Norbert.

Thanks for all you do!

David - I simply don't know what to write; some soul-wounds just never completely heal and over time, anniversaries like the one you are living through now seem to become more and more private and less widely known of (outside the immediate family).

I had no idea your family had experienced such heart-break; I am very, very sorry you lost your boy, Philip.

with love and hugs, Gayle xoxox

Gayle,

You've done it again. What I PM'd you about.

You're just brilliant at finding the right words.

:)

David

So sorry for your loss, David. I shudder to imagine what it must be like to experience something like that. Thank you for letting us in by sharing it here.

David, I also want to express to you my sadness for your loss, and my gratitude for your sharing of it with us. I don't really know what to say, except sorry. (I'm not great with words...)

I feel more and more each day like this ned community is a special place, and we are all close - like a big family.

Christina, Jon, thank you for your kind thoughts.

I didn't mean to take this thread over. There were threads on Onet where grief like this was shared and it was striking how many people's lives had been struck by sudden unexpected loss. Often, as in my case, it seems to be associated with a determination to make something good come out of the loss.

I mentioned my own reaction to Christina's sad account, almost as if I couldn't help doing otherwise. There was something so deeply sad in the story of Mama and her loss, and yet something almost strangely commonplace in it too. The strange sense of something enormous happening in the lives of just a few individual's lives, while life just goes on as normal for everyone all around. Except, as Christina found, there's a shock in finding yourself suddenly so close to such a loss.

I remember, a dozen years ago I suppose, driving home from work in Peterborough down the A1 highway, once the most important road in the UK, but now a hybrid of genuine motorway and non-motorway dual carriageway where there are still dangerous old-fashioned road junctions. One of these used to be at the site of large research laboratory. I say used to be, because the junction was closed permanently following a motorcycle accident at that spot on that very evening when I was travelling home.

A man on the motorcycle had crossed both carriageways from the intersection alongside the research centre, as was quite legal and indeed necessary if you wanted to join the A1 travelling south at that point. Unfortunately, as he crossed over, he had been struck by a car travelling just ahead of me, so momentarily I was the first one on the scene. I called the emergency services and left it to others, including a doctor who also happened to be passing to administer whatever help they could. By the time the ambulance arrived the motorcyclist was already dead. I can no longer remember quite how his identity was ascertained, but I can still remember his address in St Neots, the town closest to where I live, in a street I knew well and often visited in the course of my work. And it emerged too that he had not long been married and that that evening, as we waited for the ambulance to arrive, his wife would have been expecting him at any minute to arrive home that evening as usual. I remember thinking of her, not yet aware of what all the rest of us by then already knew, a horribly ordinary moment that I knew from my own experience was suddenly about to overwhelm her.

Jon says in his post:

I don't really know what to say...

That just about sums it up for all of us. But other people's sympathy is oh so important! And yes, Ned is a great place to share things.

Thanks again, Christina, for sharing with us.

That was not good sorry for what happend .Thanks for christinas.