UGANDA

Well we're here in Uganda and I don't know how the internet will be in Kenya where we are going tomorrow. This has been an amazing experience so far. I've been recording (writing) some information on some of the LDS Humanitarian projects in the country and I have been competely inspired, sad, joyful, and just overwhelmed by all I have seen.

The last few days have all been unbelievable. We spend all day every day in places where the conditions are very poor and the need is so great. But in some of these places where the projects have been going for even a few months, there is a change, a feeling of hope growing like the tiny rice seedlings sprouting up in rows on the peoples' farms. When my pictures will download I'll give more of a quick trip log, but I will just give a bit of information on what we experienced just TODAY.

First we witnessed water projects in several villages and one in a very run down school yard. All the kids were there and we got to look in their classrooms. Such dilapidated conditions. Then the little kids who can't afford school started coming out of the bush to watch everything. And the kids who are at school are already SO poor, and then these non-school kids are poorer than that which you don't think is possible sometimes. Saying I feel so bad does not capture my feelings. It is so nice to hear the children laugh and see them smile while we are there. When we drive past them in the huts or the fields or on the street they aren't smiling very often.

We went to what's called a "handover" where the Church basically has completed a project and they hand it over to the care of the community. The community puts on quite a ceremony. It was unreal, they had kids bring these old looking sofas in on their bicycles and they lined them up under these tents and had all of us foreigners(they call us Mzungu) sitting on these sofas with all of the village adults sitting behind us and all of the children sitting out in the hot sun...I mean these kids, even tiny kids and babies, sat in the hot sun for like 2 and 1/2 hours without a peep. They're the same way at Church. It is unbelievable. Anyway, we were treated like royalty, literally, and it was SO hard for us to eat the food and drinks they had prepared for us in front of all of these kids who you know won't get the food. They presented us all with gifts. It was really unreal.

I had a couple of very poignant personal AFRICA moments today. A really fun one was when we arrived at the completed borehole project, all of these ladies had lined up in their best clothes and there were some village drummers there, and they started dancing and chanting, so happy when we got there, they love music and dancing. Dad told me to dance with them and they LOVED that. They put a scarf around my waist and they started trilling (this yelling out thing they do) and it was such a moment of joy and unity for us. I was swirling and bouncing around to the rythm of the drums in the middle of old and young women who were smiling with bright eyes and all their teeth showing. The ladies were hugging me afterwards, I felt a sisterhood with them that surpassed all of the million differences between us. The memory, the colors and sound but even the feeling, I can go back to perfectly in my mind as I sit here typing quietly in the hotel room in Kampala. I hope I will always be able to go back to that dance in my mind.

The other AFRICA moment was hard. There was this cattle project in this little village far from everything, and the beautiful village children had gathered to watch us like they always do. On a sidenote, two babies cried because they saw me today. How would you like to say your face makes babies cry? Some of them are so scared of these ghostly white people!

There was a woman teacher there named Irene. I told her I was a teacher too and she and I had this instant bond. She looked like she had found a kindred person, like it validated her work somehow to meet me. I thought of my own work as a teacher differently too just by meeting her, it felt nobler, somehow, to teach, to impart knowlege. But anyway, there were these beautiful kids that followed us over to look at this cattle project, and you know, the little kids carry each other on their backs. So a little kid Miranda's age is usually carrying a kid Sammy's age or younger. It is so cute and so sad at the same time. There was this little group of 5-6 beautiful, poor, dirty kids. There was a little baby with reddish fuzzy hair sticking up on her head on one of the kid's backs. I was smiling at them and trying to interact and they were being cute and playing a little like all the kids do with us. Then Irene told us that their mom takes care of them plus a bunch of orphans from that village. There are so many kids without parents.

Irene said these kids' (who still had a mom who also takes care of the orphans) dad died last March of AIDS. Then she said that all of these kids have HIV, and the baby is sick. They speak Luganda and not English, so while she was telling us this these dark, sweet staring eyes were looking up at us not understanding any of it. And the baby was starting to fuss a little. I could barely make it to the car, I kept trying to tease with the kids and play peek a boo and not let them see my tears. I had to cry for a while when we drove away in the van, leaving them there to their fate.

I felt so helpless and so heartbroken for these pure, beautiful children whose lives were basically over before they were even born, by absolutely no fault of their own. These kids out here...I can't believe their everyday lives. I am so glad the Church, and anyone who does humanitarian work here, brings a little bit of help to make their lives even a little easier or more prosperous, even though there are still so many problems.

After only three days, even after one moment, I've thought about myself differently, and about life and about God's love for all men. One of the people in their speeches today said that we (the Americans) were there because God loved them. I feel that having this experience has also shown me His love for me, and also the responsibility I bear as one so blessed. I am so happy there is a life after this one where these children can be with a loving Heavenly Father and feel joy and peace, and can play and laugh and not worry and suffer. I will hope to see these children again someday, in those conditions.