We loved him a lot, but God loved him more
The sudden death of my beloved GSoC mentor
It was 5:40 pm on my time last Friday. I received a message from Juliet; one of my colleagues at OpenMRS.
“My bro, pray for Joseph Kawesi, the building has collapsed to him.
I can’t tell his state for am just rushing there to join Kayiwa. God be with you.”
I was frightened. I was curious as to what had transpired, but she had not responded.
After ten minutes, I got a new message,
“he has died”
I met Joseph a year ago while working as a GSoC student at OpenMRS. At the time, I was focusing on improving OpenMRS DHIS2 Integration with the OpenMRS DHIS2 reporting. Kawesi joined the Covid Squad and introduced the DHIS2 connector module, which Jembi had initially developed. We were impressed by his explanation of the module’s features, so we proceeded to that module. That’s where I first met him. Then we collaborated to improve the module.
He helped me a lot in coding and showcasing what I have done in conferences like the OpenMRS conference and the DHIS2 conference. He was always a nice person and a good mentor to me. I was made a rising star at OpenMRS by his effort.
We became even closer because he was the primary of my current GSoC project. We met on our weekly calls as well as on other QA calls. He kept me on the right track throughout the project.
This was the final message he sent to me.
“hi Jayasanka, it’s a while since we last had a catch up. is all moving on smoothly and can we catch up tomorrow?”
But we couldn’t meet again as we discussed. The next day, I was shocked to hear that he died from a building collapse. This is the terrible news posted on a news site.
Joseph was not only praised by the OpenMRS community, but he has also done a ton of work setting up housing and radio stations related to his spiritual community. As I learned, he was arranging for the construction of this building for that ministry. He devoted a large portion of his resources and time to the cause.
It’s depressing to think he won’t be joining calls or responding to messages again. I’m forever thankful for his effort that made me all at the top. God would be there with him to carry him safely to Heaven. 😥
