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THE GOING GETS TOUGH<br />
God had been merciful and helped me to bring a life into this<br />
world. I was happy to have become a mother and looking at my<br />
little one breathes in my arms filled me with some of the<br />
happiest memories of my life. However, the happy moments<br />
were always short-lived because the reality of our financial lack<br />
came back to bite, and to bite real hard. First of all, I had no job<br />
and neither did Patrick. When our baby arrived, we were<br />
absolutely not ready for her in terms of meeting her physical<br />
needs. Can you imagine a situation where a baby comes and<br />
there are no nappies (we used nappies in the 1990s), or<br />
bedsheets and blankets to keep her warm? It was such a<br />
stressful time. The few clothes I had carried had been bought by<br />
my sister Helena.<br />
When we were discharged, we could not raise money to clear<br />
the hospital bill which amounted to 8,500 Rwandan Francs at<br />
that time. The hospital management could not discharge us until<br />
we had cleared the bill, as per the rules of procedure. However,<br />
we did not have a coin to our name. My family carried food all<br />
the way from home until Helena came to my rescue again. She<br />
paid the hospital bill and I was discharged. We returned to the<br />
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