Humbling Stories of Generosity

     "Osiibyeotya" (Good evening) from Uganda!

     Sorry for the delay in this post...I started working on it 2 days ago, but the past couple of days have been extremely busy and I honestly haven't had a second to work on it again until today!  I've actually been quite surprised at how busy my days are here.  Before I came to Uganda, people kept telling me (both Americans and Africans) how "slow" their pace of life is here, and how it might take me a while to get used to such a slower pace of life/culture compared to American life/culture, (especially since I spent the past 7 years working in the crazy-fast-paced hospital environment).   However, so far I've found this to be quite untrue! I'll admit that the work/business culture here definitely moves at a slower pace and doesn't carry with it quite the same sense of urgency that the US work/business culture carries, but that's partly because the Ugandan culture is extremely relational and people typically value relationships over the timeliness of getting tasks/work done (I'm honestly not so sure this is a bad thing, though).  Life may also be a bit more "simple" here in some ways, mostly due to the fact that there's not a lot of modern infrastructure or technology, but so far I would say the actual pace of life here is anything but "slow!" In fact, on most days this past week I have fallen into my bed at the end of each day completely and utterly exhausted because the day has been SO full and busy!

     Anyway, all of that to say, I've just been quite surprised to find out since I've been here in Uganda that I often still feel like there's not enough time in the day to get everything done!

     Ok... so, now as promised on FaceBook a few days ago, I want to share a couple stories with you about some of the precious children and families I've had the privilege of getting to know over the past week, starting with a sweet story about the beautiful little girl in this picture:

        Her name is Amonging, and I think she's probably somewhere around 3 years old. I first met her on Sunday when she came up to me during our church service with her dress hanging off of one shoulder, looked at me with an infectious smile, grabbed my hand, and wouldn't leave my side for the next several hours.  I pretty much fell in love with her the first second I saw her!  Because the church I'm working alongside has been hosting a week of prayer services every night this week, I've also had a couple other opportunities to hang out with her over the past few days as well. One night before the church service began, she meandered into the office where I was finishing up some work and drug a red plastic chair over to where I was sitting and climbed up next to me.  I had only eaten a small snack for lunch earlier in the day, so by this time in the evening I was quite hungry and had already pulled out 4 or 5 remaining crackers I had with me to hold me over until we went home for dinner after the church service ended. Amonging immediately saw the crackers in my lap and then looked up  at me with eyes that just screamed "can I please have one of those?" For a brief second I contemplated giving her half of the crackers and eating the other half myself (I was that hungry), but when I looked down into her eyes I just felt like she surely needed them much more than I did and decided to give her all of the crackers instead.

     When I gave them to her, the sheer joy on her face absolutely melted my heart and made me so happy that I could offer her something so small by my standards, yet so enormous in her eyes.  So I went about finishing up my work on my computer as she sat beside me and ate a few of the crackers, and when I was done I decided to pull out my camera to take a couple quick pictures of her.  As I raised the camera up to my eye to take her picture, Amonging simultaneously stretched out her arm towards me, which I initially thought was just her wanting to touch my camera (this happens with kids at least 50 times per day whenever I pull my camera out to take pics).  She didn't try to touch the camera, though... instead, she just kept her arm outstretched towards me and continued to look at me intently with her big brown eyes. I couldn't get her to smile, so I just decided to snap a quick picture of her anyway and then put down the camera. When I turned back to her, her arm was still stretched out towards me and it was then that I noticed she was holding the last remaining cracker in her hand.  This sweet little girl, with an absolutely beautiful heart, had been trying to offer me the last cracker the whole time I was trying to take her picture! She doesn't know or understand a single word of English, so the only thing she knew to do was hold out the cracker towards me and wait for me to acknowledge it and take it. In Ugandan culture, if someone offers you something and you refuse to accept it, it is considered an insult.  So I took the cracker from precious Amonging and ate it, gave her a huge hug, and said one of the few Lugandan words I already know- "Weebale" (thank-you)- like a million times. I was beyond humbled and amazed by this little girl's incredible generosity in spite of the fact that she had so little herself (and Ugandan children are ALWAYS hungry...I have yet to meet a child here who declines food because he/she is full...so I know she wasn't just giving the cracker back to me because she was stuffed after eating the other 4 crackers I gave her!).  

     Later that night, when I was uploading all of the pictures I had taken during the day, my heart stopped when I saw the picture I had quickly snapped of little Amonging earlier in the office.  While I was busy worrying that she might try to touch the lens of my camera and preoccupied with trying to get her to smile for me, she was trying to offer me her last cracker...and unbeknownst to me, the picture ended up capturing the whole thing! 

     It is my fervent prayer that I may become as generous and selfless with all of my resources as this beautiful Ugandan child was with hers! 

Precious Amonging offering me her last cracker

     The next story I wanted to share with you guys is about an amazing Ugandan family I was actually just introduced to last night.  They live right next door to the church I've been working from everyday, in a very small 2-room house (which the father built by himself) with their 6 young children who are between the ages of one-and-a-half and 12 years old.  The father is a "farmer," but he basically just sells the small batch of crops they're able to cultivate around their house in order to provide food and other basic needs for his wife and all of their children. The mother stays home everyday to take care of the youngest children, cook, wash the few clothes they own, etc.  

     

     While I was waiting for my ride home after an evening church service last night, a few of the children from this family had gone to fetch water from the well at the church, and on their way back up to their house they stopped to talk to me.  I noticed immediately that they were all dressed in clothes that were quite tattered and torn, and all of them were barefoot. I asked them where they lived, and they pointed next door to the church and then grabbed my hand and asked me to come back to their house with them.  I agreed and let them lead me in the pitch dark on a tiny path through a patch of maize (corn) stalks to their small house, where their mother was sitting outside simultaneously breastfeeding their baby brother and cooking posho (a starchy semi-solid food made out of ground maize flour) over a dying fire. The kids were SO excited to introduce me, a "Mzungu," to their mother and to show me their house. The mother immediately got up to shake my hand and welcome me to their house and told me she was "very blessed" by my visit.  I could tell instantly that she is a God-fearing woman with a tender spirit who loves all of her children deeply.  At the time, their father was nowhere to be found and none of the children had mentioned anything about their father yet, so I just assumed their mother must be a single mom (which is sadly extremely common here).  I chatted with the kids and their mother for a few minutes as best I could in short, broken sentences, but then it was time for me to go back to the church so I could leave to go home, so I told the kids I would be back working at the church the next morning and would bring some "sweeties" (candy) with me to give to them at some point in the day. 

      

      This morning I saw the oldest girl, Mary, as I was walking down the path to get to the church.  I asked her why she wasn't in school and where her mom was, and she told me that her mom and all 5 of her siblings were at the hospital because several of the children as well as their mother were sick today.  I told the girl to walk over to the church office when her mother and the siblings returned, and that I'd return to her house to visit everyone and pass out the candy at that time.  A couple hours later she returned to tell me that her father was home and wanted to meet me, so I walked back to their house with her.  Her father was absolutely overjoyed to meet me and just kept saying over and over that he's "always dreamed of having an American inside his house."  He asked me to come inside and gave me a chair to sit in, and then we proceeded to have the most wonderful conversation for the next hour.  He told me all about their family, informed me that his wife was actually the one who was sick with a bad toothache in the hospital today, shared some of the hardships their family has faced in recent years, and had about a million questions for me about how we do things and what we think about particular issues/topics in America. His English was impeccable, and His heart for the Lord was SO evident in absolutely everything we talked about.  He explained how he and his wife are trying their best to raise their 6 children to love the Lord with all of their hearts, despite their hard life circumstances and lack of material possessions.  I was incredibly blessed by our conversation and walked away truly astounded by this man's strength, steadfast spirit, and joy in the Lord regardless of his lot in life.  

      

      Later on in the afternoon, I was working away in the office when 3 of the family's children walked in carrying a small covered metal pot with them.  They held it out to me and took off the lid to reveal several small cobs of fire-roasted maize that their mother had plucked from their patch of crops and cooked for me as soon as she had returned from the hospital.  To say I was touched by this gesture would be a HUGE understatement. Here is a family who has almost NOTHING, with a mother who spent the whole morning in the hospital with 5 of her 6 young children because she had a tooth abscess, and they are thinking about how they can bless ME with something! Those small cobs of maize will always be one of the most precious gifts I think I'll ever have the privilege of receiving! 

    

       I walked back to the house with the children and the pot of corn to thank their sweet mama and check on how she was feeling. She invited me into the house and we talked for the next 30 minutes or so as she told me more about each of her children and what their daily family life is like.  At one point I asked her why the 4 school-aged children hadn't been in school today, and she told me that they had all been sent home from school this morning and were told they are not allowed to return until their school fees have been paid for this term. Because the father doesn't have a reliable or consistent source of employment or income, and because they have 8 mouths to feed daily in their family, the children's parents simply could not afford to pay for their children's school tuition (there are no free schools in Uganda, so those children whose families cannot afford to pay school fees just don't get to go to school). When I asked her how much the school fees were for all 4 children this term, she told me they were a total of 20,000 Ugandan Shillings... roughly the equivalent of about $7. 50 in U.S. Dollars.  I was shocked and saddened to hear that 4 precious children are unable to attend school because their parents can't afford such a small tuition of 7 dollars and 50 cents!! I immediately pulled out some money and gave it to the children's mama so they could pay the school fees first thing Monday morning and have a little leftover to help with food or other needs for the family.  The mother knelt on the ground in front of me, then stood up and gave me a huge hug and must have said thank-you at least a dozen times. It was such a small amount for me to give her, but in her eyes it was absolutely enormous! 

     Before I left to go back to the office, the woman wanted to know all the days and hours that I would be working in the church office next week, because she said she wanted to cook food for me and bring it to me everyday.  Once again I was incredibly humbled by this tremendous act of generosity, from someone who has so very little to offer by anybody's standards! The truly amazing thing is, the two stories I've shared with you today are not out-of-the-ordinary situations at all here in Uganda. In  general, Ugandans have extremely little in terms of finances or material possessions, but I have never met a people in  my whole life who are more giving of their time, service, or the few resources they do have! Every single day here I am challenged to share more of myself and my own resources with these beautiful people, even when I am exhausted or feel like I have nothing I can give them. I pray that these two stories have been a blessing to you today, and I also pray that you will be challenged to give more of yourself and your resources to those around you this week, regardless of what you think you may or may not be able to offer people! 

David (3yrs old) and Daniel showing me the way to their house

The small 2-room house where all 8 family members live...no bathroom, kitchen, plumbing or electricity 

The children's mother...truly a woman of the Lord, with such a sweet and giving spirit!

Paul, the baby (1. 5yrs old)... looks like he's watched his mama peel some sweet potatoes before!

Daniel in front of his family's clothesline...he's definitely the comedian of the family!

I was SO thankful to see that the children have a mosquito net to sleep under together

Me eating the fire-roasted maize that the children's mother cooked for me...it was delicious!