As I write this I
am sitting on another airplane, leaving beautiful Uganda and heading
for the unknown of Ethiopia. It was strange being at the Entebbe
airport and thinking back on that day so many weeks ago when I first
arrived. Everything felt so new and strange and I felt SO foreign
then! But now it feels “comfortable” and familiar to me (I can
even speak and understand some of the Luganda language!).
As I sit here and
try to write about this past week words escape me...I don't know if I
can even begin to describe the things I have seen and experienced but
I will try. I tearfully left Rafiki and traveled to Jinja with
Carolyn and 3 Rafiki children. Upon arriving we talked to multiple
people and traveled numerous roads in a torrential downpour trying to
find Canaan Children's Home. Finally we found it and I was left to
talk to Papa Isaac and play with some of the children while I waited
for the VO team to arrive. I played with two little guys who ran
around chanting “that's ok, that's ok” and laughing and laughing
after they heard me say it when they were too scared to go down a
slide (I don't think they understood what it meant because they
didn't speak much English)! When the team arrived one of them clung
tightly to my neck and wouldn't let go as 30 mzungus poured off the
bus. After being essentially by myself for so many weeks it was
wonderful to be with a group of people. It is a great group of people
that I am very blessed to serve with. We spent a couple days at
Canaan ministering to the children there. These children are so
different from the Rafiki children in their clean uniforms and
orderly cottages. They are dirty and live crowded into bunkhouses
with many other children. They bathe outside in the open then put on
dirty clothes that smell of urine but they are so precious. They are
starved for attention, which we gladly gave. At times my arms were
shaking from lugging around children but I wouldn't trade it for
anything. Every single day we were there I had a child curl up in my
lap and fall asleep in my arms. One night I went and tucked a
sleeping child into her bunk and it broke my heart to put her down,
not sure when (if ever) another person would hold her until she went
to sleep and tuck her in. It was hard leaving the children there but
that is when you just have to trust that God was there before we got
there, he cares about these children, has a plan for them and will
continue His work after we leave.
On one of our days
in Jinja some of us spent a couple hours at Sangolo Babies- a home
with 15 babies run by a couple who care for these children and
literally trust God every single day to provide for their day to day
needs. When we stepped off the bus D met us with a baby in her arms
asking, “who wants a baby?!” Everyone's arms went out and we went
inside where she pretty much passed out babies until we each had one.
The baby I had was named Grace. She was 18 months but literally
looked maybe 6 or 7 because of malnutrition before she came to the
home. Another baby had HIV and it was heartbreaking to see him lying
sick in his bed. We held them until they fell asleep then put them
down for their naps and talked to the couple. They are living in a
tiny house with no running water and a leaky roof. When it rains
there is one corner of the house where they all crowd to escape from
the water, but despite their circumstances they have so much joy and
trust in God. We brought them formula and diapers and when we gave it
to them she started to cry because the day before it had rained so
most of their cloth diapers had gotten wet and were still drying.
Then she pointed to a small table where a tiny can of formula sat and
said that was their last can of formula they had left. I realized
there are so many things I take for granted (food, water, a toilet, a
good roof over my head, etc) that other people work hard for and
trust God for every single day. They are trying to move to another
house that is bigger and has running water because the government
doesn't approve of their current house. They also want a place where
the babies can be outside because where they are now isn't fenced and
children being taken for child sacrifices is common. The new house
would cost about $250 a month which seems like nothing to many of us,
but to them is far above what they make.
I am still
thinking on all of these things. I feel as if my body and mind have
been completely overloaded and is in overdrive trying to process
everything and figure out what I can do to help. I am going to post
this while I have internet and try to post about our experiences in
Kampala next.
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