More Than Faces on a Page

Uganda used to be so foreign to me but it has now become a second home.  For the first month or so I was taking it all in- the new sights, smells, and sounds.  I was adjusting to being the only white person.  Everything was new and interesting.  I am now at a point where everything here is normal to me. It’s normal for me to see babies on their mother’s backs. It’s normal for me to see women carrying a heavy load of just about anything on their heads.  Power off and on? Used to it.  No AC? Used to it.  Everything that was so foreign has become so normal that when I go back home, everything that was normal will seem foreign.

I used to see pictures of Africans suffering and it made me sad. But I could go to bed that night and sleep just fine. I could throw it out of my mind in a matter of minutes.  It’s not that I was insensitive, I just had no concept of reality with those pictures.  It was almost as if it were not really happening.

But it’s different when you come here. It’s different when you meet those people.  It’s different when you learn their unique personalities, their laughs, and their individual names.  They become more than faces on a page.  They become real people.  They become your friends.

Yesterday a woman came to our school to register 2 of her children.  I thought it was just another mom coming to enroll her kids, but then Sylvia told me what she had been saying.  This woman has AIDS. Her husband died of AIDS.  She knows she doesn’t have much longer and she wants to make sure her children have a place to stay and an education when she’s gone. 

You see, before I came here that would just be a story to me.  But now.  Now I have seen her, talked to her, seen the sad faces of her children.  Can you imagine being one of those children? Coming to a school, trying to figure out what to do, knowing that your mom doesn’t have much longer?

The whole day my heart was broken. Being in this place, knowing these people, and feeling so small…it really can crunch your heart.  It forced me into this state of prayer I’m in- asking for wisdom and vision from the Lord.  Please join me in this prayer as I’m seeking the Lord.